Yes, electronic signatures provided by Docusign are legally recognized in the United States. Review the Docusign eSignature Legality in United States page for more information.

The eSignatures Service is funded in part via the  Technology Recharge Fee. There is no additional cost to use this service.

Yes, in the following cases:

• UW Healthcare Components Group members, with special instructions for management of signed documents. Please submit our Get help with eSignatures (Docusign) form and include a description of your use case; we will coordinate with Compliance & Risk Services.
• Collecting consent signature and/or HIPAA authorization signatures. Specific approval to use Docusign must be obtained in advance from the UW Institutional Review Board (IRB). For studies reviewed by an external IRB, approval must be obtained from the external IRB and UW Human Subjects Division.
• Docusign can be used for patient-signed research forms, but cannot be used for patient-signed forms directly related to clinical activities, such as the patient consent for the treatment itself.

Docusign cannot otherwise be used for patient care. Please contact us with any questions about your use case.

Forms cannot contain or request protected health information, other than the exceptions described in the preceding question regarding HIPAA.

Documents that reflect or result in financial transactions or activities must not include any organizational or personal financial data, such as bank or credit card account numbers or other information protected by financial privacy rules and regulations. Please review the Acceptable Use Guidelines and reach out to us if you have further questions.

The notifications you receive as a sender or signer are individual settings that are unique to your account. 

Visit the Manage Docusign email notification preferences page to learn more about how to update your notification preferences. UW is implementing retention policies in Docusign, and you may wish to follow our guidance to Disable Envelope Removal Notification Emails.

Ensure that any envelopes being sent to you are sent to your UW email (@uw.edu). If @uw.edu emails are forwarded to a different address, you may encounter an error when you try to open a Docusign envelope that was intended for your UW email address.

You can access the envelope directly in Docusign using the following steps:

1. Open a new private browsing window.
2. Go to https://apps.docusign.com/send/.
3. Log in using your UW NetID.
4. If the envelope was sent to your @uw.edu email, it should be available to sign from your Docusign homepage.

To send envelopes or manage work in Docusign, you need to switch to your new Sender/Delegated Administrator account and set it as your default profile.

• How to switch an account
• How to set up a default profile

Background and context: If you have viewed or signed a document through Docusign at UW in the past, you have a user profile automatically created for that purpose in the "UW Signers" account. This profile doesn't have any advanced privileges.

eSignatures makes it easy for recipients to securely sign electronically.

• How do I sign a document?
  • How to Sign a Document web walkthrough
• How do I change my signature?
  • Change your signature or adopt a custome signature web walkthrough
• How do I access a document that I previously signed?
  • How do I access a signed Docusign document web walkthrough

eSignatures makes it easy to send and manage documents (or envelopes) for electronic signatures.

• How do I send a document?
  • How do I send a Docusign document web walkthrough
• How do I manage sent documents?
  • Managing Envelopes web walkthrough
• How do I correct the documents I sent?
  • Correct Envelopes web walkthrough
  • FAQ: Correcting Envelopes in Docusign

eSignatures simplifies the process of using and managing templates.

• How do I create an envelope template?
  • How do I create a template web walkthrough
• How do I use a template to create an envelope?
  • Use a Template to Create an Envelope web walkthrough
• How do I share templates with my team?
  • Share Templates web walkthrough

Templates allow users to:

• Create a document with saved settings for the signing roles, fillable fields, and attachments
• Send new envelopes with existing saved settings, and
• Save and reuse the settings of an existing envelope.

Use cases for templates:

• Forms sent frequently, with minimal changes,
• Sharing the responsibility of sending out particular forms, and
• Allowing other team members to send envelopes with particular settings.

PowerForms are generated from an existing template and allow for:

• Creating self-service documents initiated from a unique, secure URL that can be made available to signers to complete and sign. 

Use cases for PowerForms:

• Allowing signers to initiate the form rather than someone from your department needing to reach out for a signature.

PowerForm behavior:

By default, the signer who initiates a PowerForm won't receive a download link for the envelope once all parties have completed it.

• There is an optional "Require email validation" setting (under "Options") that will require the initiator to confirm their email address and will provide a link to the envelope upon completion.

Learn more from Docusign on their PowerForms vs. Templates page.