Docusign templates: what you need to know

Discover how Docusign templates work and whether they're suitable for your team's needs and use cases in 2024.

What are Docusign templates?

DocuSign templates are pre-configured documents that allow users to save time and reduce errors by reusing common document formats. They have pre-defined terms and empty fields, making it easy to use time and time again with minimal drafting work required. 

Instead of creating a new document from scratch each time, you can select a template and populate it to customize it for individual clients and transactions. 

This is a great way to ensure consistency and speed speed up the document creation process. 

How do Docusign templates work?

DocuSign templates are designed to streamline the process of preparing and sending documents for electronic signatures, particularly for documents that are frequently used. 

Here’s a detailed look at how to create, use and edit them in the platform. 

How to create a template in Docusign

1. Log in: Access your account and navigate to the Templates page.
2. Create New Template: Click on ‘New’ and select ‘Create Template’.
3. Template Details: Enter a name and description for your template. This helps in identifying the purpose of the template.
4. Add Files: Upload the document files you want to use in the template. You can upload files from your computer or cloud storage services.
5. Define Roles: Specify the roles of the recipients (e.g., signer, approver). Instead of specifying individual names, use placeholder roles to make the template reusable.
6. Set Up Fields: Add the necessary signing fields to the document, such as signature, date, and any other required fields.
7. Save Template: Save the template for future use. It will now be available in your Templates library.

How to use a template in Docusign

1. Select Template: Go to the Templates page, find the template you want to use, and click ‘Use’.
2. Add Recipients: Enter the email addresses and names of the recipients. If the template has placeholder roles, you will replace these with actual recipient details.
3. Customize Message: You can modify the default message and subject line that will be sent with the document.
4. Review and Send: Check the recipient fields and document one last time. Once everything is correct, click ‘Send’.

How to edit a template in Docusign

1. Access Templates Page: Navigate to the Templates page in your DocuSign account.
2. Select Template to Edit: Find and click on the template you wish to edit.
3. Edit Details: You can modify any aspect of the template including the name, description, files, recipient roles, and fields.
4. Save Changes: After making the necessary changes, save the template.

Benefits of using Docusign templates

Docusign’s template functionality isn’t unique in its ability to streamline contract workflows and speed up the document creation process. Most contract templates, including the ones in Docusign’s platform, are popular for a few reasons:

1. Greater control and consistency 

In-house legal teams would rest easier knowing that the terms getting sent out to prospects, customers and partners meet internal standards and guidelines. Templates make this happen by allowing legal teams to pre-define the terms of an agreement, ready for other teams to use. 

2. Less time lost to drafting

Since Docusign templates (and other contract templates) encourage the use of existing documents, they naturally reduce the amount of time spent drafting terms from scratch. This means that legal and commercial teams spend less time writing up agreements, and more time trying to close them. 

3. Fewer mistakes

Reducing the scope for manual input from commercial teams also reduces the scope for costly errors and mistakes in terms. This means less contract value leakage, and more revenue captured predictably. 

The limitations of Docusign templates

Since Docusign is focussed on delivering eSigning functionality to its customers, the platform’s template functionality is more limited than that offered by contract management platforms that address the contract creation phase more comprehensively. 

It doesn’t offer a native contract editor

Firstly, Docusign relies on users uploading documents into the platform to make them into templates. Users can then add fields manually for signatures, dates, and other information. 

Meanwhile, Juro users can build their contracts natively in the platform directly from Juro’s browser-based contract editor. They can even access Juro’s legal AI Assistant to automate some of the drafting based on pre-defined guardrails set up by the business. 

You can’t set rules and conditions in a template

The second limitation of Docusign templates is that you can’t set up conditional logic, which is used to automate the addition, removal, or amendment of certain clauses based on the information provided in the contract. 

This is a useful feature offered by contract tools like Juro. It enables legal and business teams to consolidate their contract templates and vary them in seconds, with no manual input required. 

Juro customer, Placemakr, use this functionality to automatically vary the terms within a single contract template based on the geography added. 

This means they no longer need to source the right template and manually vary or redraft the terms. They’ve consolidated 12 templates into just one, making it easier to maintain and update over time. 

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You can’t populate Docusign templates via other platforms

It’s also worth noting that Docusign template users won’t be able to create contracts from or populate contracts using information stored in other business systems, like a CRM. 

Although Docusign’s Salesforce integration does allow users to send, sign, track and save agreements in Salesforce, it doesn’t offer the full range of capabilities that Juro’s integration with Salesforce or HubSpot does. 

For example, Juro users can create contracts directly from within Salesforce or HubSpot, pulling in data automatically from CRM records. This means that fields like client names, addresses, and contract details can be auto-populated, reducing manual data entry and the risk of errors.

In other words, Juro’s integration allows users to manage the entire contract lifecycle without leaving their CRM, from initial creation through negotiation to final approval and storage. Docusign’s integration with HubSpot or Salesforce does not. 

Want powerful and automated contract templates?

As we’ve discussed already, Juro is the best Docusign alternative if you want to automate your contract creation process and win back time. 

With Juro's automated contract templates, teams can initiate contracts in just a few clicks. They can also self-serve confidently on creation, which enables them to progress their deals and partnerships faster.

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Juro unlocks faster routes to revenue and wins back the time you need to focus on higher-value projects that really move the business forward. To see Juro’s automated contract templates for yourself, fill in the form below to book a personalized demo.