Set expiry, reminders, signing order, passcodes, reassign and scheduled send

Control when a document expires, who gets reminded, the order people sign in, who can open the link, whether signers can forward it, and when it goes out.

For sendersPlans: Free, Growth, Agency, Scale, Trial

Use these settings to control a document's deadline, its reminders, the order of signers, who can open each link, and when it is sent. You set most of them before you send. You can change the deadline, send reminders and manage passcodes after you send.

Plans: Free, Growth, Agency, Scale, TrialRole: Sender

Before you start

You need a draft document with at least one recipient.
Set Expiry, Reminders, Signing order and Countersign before you send. After you send, you cannot change reminders or signing order.
Set access passcodes and the forward option in the Send dialog. Passcodes are never saved with the draft.

Setting	Where you set it	Change after send?
Expiry	Editor Settings section	Yes: Change expiry…
Automatic reminders	Editor Settings section	No
Manual reminders	Document page or Documents list	Yes (only after send)
Signing order	Editor Settings section, or I sign last (countersign) in the Send dialog	No
Access passcode	Send dialog, Signer security	Yes: Access passcodes on the document page
Let signers forward	Send dialog, Signer security	No
Scheduled send	Send dialog, Schedule	Yes, until it is sent: Change time, Send now, Cancel schedule

Set the deadline, reminders and signing order

Open the draft. In the editor sidebar, expand Settings.

In Expiry, choose how many days signers have from the list. A new document uses 30 days. The clock starts when you send, not when you create the draft.

Leave Reminders on to send automatic reminder emails, or turn it off. Reminders are on by default.

In the interval select, choose how often to remind. The default is every 3 days.

Turn on Signing order if people must sign one after another, in the order of the recipients list. Leave it off to let everyone sign at the same time, in any order.

Optional: turn on Countersign to sign last yourself. If you are not on the recipient list, you are added as the final signer. If you are already a signer, you are moved to sign last. Countersign always uses signing order. In the Send dialog you can also tick I sign last (countersign) when you are already a recipient. Countersign is not available on an uploaded PDF. See Signing order and countersign.

Add passcodes and choose who can forward

Click Send for signature (the button name changes when the document has reviewers). In the Send dialog, expand Signer security.

Optional: type an access passcode next to each recipient who must have one. Leave the field empty (No passcode) for no passcode. A passcode must be 4 to 64 characters. Reviewers cannot have a passcode.

Leave Let signers forward to the right person on to let a signer pass their role to someone else. Turn it off to stop this. It is on by default.

Send now or schedule the send

In the Send dialog, choose Send now or Schedule. Schedule is not offered when the send goes to a team approver first.

For Schedule, click a quick pick (Tomorrow morning, Tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning), or enter a Date and Time. Pick the Time zone the time is in: it starts as your own, and the US zones are listed first. The dialog shows the exact moment it sends, for example "Sends Tue, Nov 12, 9:00 AM EST". The time must be at least a minute ahead and within the next year.

Click the send button. The subject, the message and the passcodes go out with the scheduled send.

Change the deadline after you send

Open the sent document. Click the date in the Expires row. Or open More actions and click Change expiry…. In the Documents list, the row menu also has Change expiry….

Click a one-click extension (the + days buttons, or End of month). These count from the current deadline. Or use Or pick a date and click Set date. A picked date keeps the deadline's time of day.

You can also move the deadline earlier. The new deadline must be at least 1 hour from now and no more than 365 days from today. After a change, the confirmation offers Undo while the old deadline is still allowed.

You can change the deadline only while the document is out for signature and the deadline has not passed. For an expired document, use Reopen for signing on the document page.

Send a reminder now

On the sent document's page, click Send reminder to email everyone whose turn it is. Or click Remind on one recipient's row. In the Documents list, the row menu has Send reminder.

Manage passcodes after you send

On the sent document's page, find Access passcodes under the recipients.

Click Add passcode, Change passcode or Set new passcode for a recipient. Type the New passcode and click Save passcode. To delete it, click Remove passcode.

If a recipient shows Locked, click Unlock to keep the same passcode, or set a new passcode. A new passcode also unlocks the link.

The page never shows a passcode back to you. It shows only whether one is set.

What happens next

Expiry

When the deadline passes, the signing links stop working. A recipient sees "This signing link has expired — ask the sender for a new link."
When you change the deadline, signers keep the link they have. They are not emailed about the change.
The audit trail records each change as "Expiry extended" or "Expiry changed", with the old and new dates.
About 48 hours before the deadline, unsigned signers get a "Last chance" email. You get an email that asks "extend it?" with a one-click Extend button. The button opens a confirmation page in Plutosign. Nothing changes until you confirm the extension there. Signers who turned off reminders, or documents with Reminders off, get no "Last chance" email.

Reminders

Automatic reminders go out in a daily batch, at the interval you chose, until the deadline. The first one goes out one full interval after the invitation, never on the day you send. Each one is recorded in the audit trail as "Automatic reminder sent to" the recipient. They go only to signers, approvers and reviewers whose action is due. CC and viewer recipients never get reminders. With signing order on, a signer is reminded only when it is their turn.
When the deadline is a few days away, the batch also emails you that the document is expiring soon (if your notification settings allow it).
Each reminder email has a Stop reminders link. The recipient confirms on a page, and then gets no more reminder emails for this document, from anyone. Their signing link still works. They can click Undo — turn reminders back on.
A manual reminder is recorded on the document's activity as "Reminder sent". Automatic reminders are not added to the activity.
After a manual reminder, a message tells you how many recipients were reminded. If nobody could be reminded, it says "No reminders sent. Recipients were reminded recently or can't be emailed."

Signing order

With signing order on, only the first signer or approver is emailed at send. Each next person gets an "It's your turn" email when the person before them finishes. If they open their link early, they see "Waiting for your turn".
The send entry in the audit trail records the order.

Passcode

The recipient sees Enter access passcode before any part of the document. They type the Passcode and click Continue.
A wrong passcode shows how many attempts are left. After 5 wrong passcodes in a row, the link locks ("Access locked"). You get an email, and the recipient is told to reply to the email that brought them there.
A correct passcode works for that browser session, for 12 hours at most. A new browser session asks again.
The audit trail records "Access passcode changed" when you add, change, unlock or remove one, and "Access passcode attempt failed" for wrong entries. The send entry records only how many recipients have a passcode, never the passcode.

Forward to the right person

The signer clicks Not me? Forward it. In Forward to the right person they enter Full name, Email address and a Reason (3 to 500 characters), then click Forward. This cannot be undone.
The new person gets a signing link. The old link stops working for signing and shows "You forwarded this document".
You get an email and an in-app notification that says who they chose. The audit trail shows Reassigned to <name> (<reason>).
A passcode stays with the role. The new signer must enter the same passcode, so the original signer must share it with them.
If you turned the option off, signers do not see Not me? Forward it.

Scheduled send

The document goes out within a minute or two of the time you chose. Expiry and automatic reminders count from the actual send time.
The audit trail shows Document sent on schedule (scheduled by <name>), or Sent early by <name> after Send now.
If the send fails, nothing is sent. The person who scheduled it gets an email "Your scheduled send didn't go out" with the reason. The scheduled button shows Schedule failed.

Limits

Expiry before send: one of the choices in the Expiry list.
A changed deadline: at least 1 hour from now, at most 365 days from today.
Manual reminders to one recipient: one per document every 30 minutes, and 5 per workspace per day. Recipients over the limit are skipped, not failed.
Send reminder is rate-limited for each user, per minute and per day.
Reminders skip addresses that bounced or marked an earlier email as spam.
Passcode: 4 to 64 characters. Not for reviewers. Not for documents sent for embedded signing. You can change passcodes only while the document is out for signature and the recipient has not acted.
Forwarding: a few attempts per signing link per hour. A signer cannot forward to themselves, to someone already on the document, after they signed or declined, or after the document expired. A person who received a forwarded document cannot forward it again.
Scheduled send: a time in the future. Not available when the send goes to a team approver first. You must confirm your email first.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Change expiry… is missing.	The document is not out for signature, or the deadline has passed.	For an expired document, click Reopen for signing.
"Choose a date at least one hour from now."	The new deadline is too close.	Pick a later date or time.
"Choose a date within one year from today."	The new deadline is too far out.	Pick an earlier date.
"The signing deadline has passed, so the signing links no longer work." when you remind	The deadline passed before the hourly expiry job marked the document.	Reopen the document for signing to send new links.
"No recipients are waiting to sign"	Everyone whose turn it is has finished, or it is nobody's turn yet.	No action. Check the recipients list.
A recipient gets no reminders.	They clicked Stop reminders, the address bounced, or Reminders was off at send.	Contact them directly, or use Correct email if the address is wrong.
"Too many incorrect passcodes. Access to this document is locked"	The recipient entered a wrong passcode 5 times.	In Access passcodes, click Unlock or set a new passcode. Share it again.
The signer asks for the passcode again.	They opened the link in a new browser session, or the unlock is more than 12 hours old.	Ask them to enter it again.
"The sender has not allowed reassigning this document. Contact them directly."	You turned off Let signers forward to the right person.	Use Correct email on the document page to send the invitation to a different address.
"Pick a time at least a minute from now."	The scheduled time is too soon.	Pick a later time, or use Send now.
You cannot edit a scheduled document.	A scheduled document is locked.	Click the scheduled button, then Cancel schedule.