How to Decline a Signature Request

As a signer, you may sometimes find that the document you are required to sign consists of errors or the sender has assigned the task to you by mistake. In this case, you can decline to sign the document directly and leave a message to notify the sender through DottedSign. Please see the below steps to decline a signing request:

1. Enter the task through your email signing invitation or identify the task you would like to decline to sign in the “Waiting for Me” section.
2. Click “More (···)” to expand the settings tab.
3. Click “Decline to Sign”. 
4. Select the reason for declining and provide detailed information in the message area if needed.
5. Click “Confirm”.
   
6. The Sender will receive an email notification of your declining to sign the document.
   

*Note: 

1. You can decline a signing request only when the Sender has turned on the signer's permission to decline. Please see the following section to see how the Sender can set the permission for the signer to decline to sign. 
2. You will have no access to the task through the email invitation link once you have declined the signature request. The task will also be removed from the “Waiting for You” section.

As the Sender: How to Manage the Signer’s Permission to Decline Signing

You can manage the signer’s permission to decline a signing request before sending out the signing invitation. After you have assigned all the signing fields to the signer and click continue, you will be directed to the advanced settings in the “Review & Send” stage. Please see the below steps to set the permission:

1. Create your signing task, and assign your signers and fields (Tutorial: Create a Task to Get Other’s Signature). 
2. Click “Manage Permissions” under the signer section.
3. Select or unselect the “Decline to sign” checkbox to give or remove the decline permission to the signer.
4. Click “Back (←)” to go back to the main page.
5. Click “Send”.
   
   

*Note: 

1. In the case of multiple signers, the task will be canceled when one of the signers has declined to sign. The signing process will be terminated right away. 
2. Only the sender can view the task after the task is declined by the signer. All signers will have no permission to access the task once it is declined by the signer.

As the Sender: How to View the Declined Task

1. Go to the “Canceled” section in the dashboard.
2. You can find all the declined tasks in the section.
3. Click on the declined task that you would like to view.
   

*Note: Once the task is declined, only the sender can still view the task. Signers who were involved have no permission to view the task.

As the Sender: How to Download the Audit Trail of a Declined Task

1. Go to the “Canceled” section.
2. Identify the declined task that you would like to download the audit trail.
3. Enter the task.
4. Click “Audit Trail” to download the PDF file.
   

From the Admin Perspective: How to Create and Manage the Decline Reasons

In order to better understand the reason why tasks were declined by the signer, DottedSign provides a list of default reasons and you can also set your own reasons based on the nature of your business. Please see the below steps to create customized declining reasons.

1. Go to the “Admin Console”.
2. Click “Task Settings” under the “Task”.
3. Select “Create” to add reasons for declining.
4. Key in the reason. 
5. Click “Create”.
6. You will find the reason added to the table.
   

*Note: The maximum number to set reasons for declining in one Admin account is 20.

From the Admin Perspective: How to Manage Declined Tasks of Team Members

You can view and manage all the declined tasks of your team members in the task management dashboard, and you can also download the file and the audit trail in the task page. Please see the below steps to manage team member’s declined tasks:

1. Go to the “Admin Console”.
2. Click “Management” under the “Task”.
3. Select the “Canceled” section.
4. Select the time period if needed.
5. You may find all team members declined tasks in the section.
   
6. To archive or delete the task, click “More (···)” and select it accordingly.
   
7. Alternatively, you can download the file and its audit trail on the task page by clicking the task. 
8. Click “Audit Trail” to download the task audit trail.
9. Or click “More (···)” and select “Download File” to download the original file.
   

From the Admin Perspective: How to Access the Reasons for Declining

As the Admin, for every declined task within the team, you’d need to find out the reasons behind it so that you understand what and how your team can improve upon it. By tracking the signing status of each team member's tasks and knowing what kind of tasks are constantly being declined by signers, you can adjust or redesign the process to maximize your team performance.

To increase team productivity and avoid time waste, optimizing work processes is always the key to it. Therefore, having access to the reasons for declining tasks is important for businesses to understand the cause of a higher decline rate than expected. Please see the following steps to view declining reasons in team reporting:

1. Go to the “Admin Console”.
2. Click “Reporting”. 
3. Click “Reasons for Declining” under the Declined Rate.
4. You may find the number of declined tasks under each reason in the bar chart.