eSignature

Send a document for signature through your own SignNow account, and have the signed PDF come back into CartonCrew by itself. The company signs first, the client signs second, and neither side needs a CartonCrew login to do it.

Who this is for: an admin sets the connection up. After that, anyone who can work on engagements can send a document.

Before you start

You need a SignNow account of your own and its API key. CartonCrew does not resell signatures — it sends through your account, so the audit trail and the billing are yours.

eSignature also rides on Client Manager: the documents you send live on engagements and templates, so that extension needs to be on as well.

Connecting SignNow

Open Settings → eSignature.

1. Paste the key into SignNow API key and press Save key. The panel shows Not configured with “No API key set yet.” until you do.
2. Once saved it shows Connected and “An API key is set.”

The key is encrypted at rest and never shown to you again. If you need to replace it, the field becomes Replace SignNow API key — type a new one over it. Remove key clears it, and asks you to confirm first, because sending stops working until a key is added back.

Show / Hide toggles whether the key is visible while you are typing it.

Only an admin sees this. Anyone else opening the tab is told “Only an admin can set the SignNow API key.” If you try to send a document before a key is saved, the error names the fix: “Add your SignNow API key in Settings → eSignature first.”

Sending a document for signature

Go to Engagements, open an engagement, open a document from the Documents card, and press Send for signature.

The dialog has two halves:

• Company signer (signs first) — Company signer name and Company signer email. Leave both blank to sign as yourself.
• Client (signs second) — Client name and Client email.

Press Send. Both signers get an email from SignNow. Neither needs a SignNow account.

Sending a template directly

A template marked as an eSignature template can go straight out without a document being generated first. Open Templates, pick one, and press ✍ Send for signature. The dialog is the same, with a Client picker that fills the name and email from the client record and leaves both editable.

One thing to know: placeholder tokens in the template are sent as they are. A template sent this way is not filled in first, so use this for documents that do not need merging.

Because SignNow does not email the account owner, after sending you are asked to sign it yourself on the spot — ✍ Sign now. That signing link expires after about 45 minutes; Get a fresh link issues another. The client is emailed automatically once you have signed. Done closes the dialog.

Following a request

The document page shows Signature: and the current status. The statuses are sent, viewed, signed, completed, declined, cancelled and error. Previous requests lists earlier attempts, each with its status, a link to the signed PDF where there is one, and cancel while one is still open.

When a request reaches completed:

• Download signed PDF fetches the executed copy.
• Attach to engagement files it against the engagement, after which the page shows ✓ Attached to engagement.

If something goes wrong

• Send for signature does not appear. The extension is off, or you are not on a document page.
• “Add your SignNow API key in Settings → eSignature first.” No key is saved. An admin needs to add one.
• The client has not been emailed. Check whether the company signer has signed yet — the client is only emailed afterwards, by design.