Getting Started
Introduction
HR Manage provides basic functionality for electronically signing documents. While other online systems allow you to quickly and easily set up documents for signing, HR Manage stays consistent with its template-based framework and integration with the rest of the HR system. That means that while sending single custom documents for signing is not ideal in HR Manage, it does work well for signing similar or even generated documents on a regular basis.
There is however some setup and configuration that needs to be done in order for it to work. We’ll outline everything that needs to be set up and configured here with links to articles on how to do that.
Register on the Document Signing Portal
In order for external people to sign documents, especially in cases where a client is hosting on a private server, we’ve developed a separate document signing portal that handles all of the document signing in HR Manage. All the configuration for the portal is however managed from within HR Manage and HR Manage has a direct system-to-system link with the portal.
So firstly, the client’s HR Manage installation needs to be registered on the portal. We’ll usually do that for you or someone from IT and it can be done by creating a new External System in HR Manage.
Loading the Source Documents
In order for a document to be signed, two things are required: The Source Document and a Pdf Form Template. To configure this, all the documents are loaded in the Published Documents library.
The Source document is the actual document that must be signed. This document can however come from one of multiple sources. It can be a document in the Published Documents library, it can be an attachment that was loaded on an employee’s compliance file or it can be a document that was generated in a workflow. Regardless of where the final document will come from, a blank version of it needs to be loaded in the Published Documents library because that is where the Pdf Form Templates are designed and stored. The folder in which the document is stored can be marked as private so that it isn’t visible from the web. The documents must be in MS Word (.docx) or Pdf format.
Designing Pdf Form Templates
The Pdf Form Templates define the fields that must be completed on the document that is being signed. Fields like textboxes, dropdown lists, checkboxes and signature fields. These templates are created from the Document Editor of the source document template, but are stored separate from the document itself and is instead only linked to the source document.
The Pdf Form Templates also specify generic roles and link those roles to fields that must be completed.
Creating the Sign Templates
The Sign Templates are what brings all the above elements together. These designers are embedded in places like the Sign Document Workflow Activity editor and can be used to add documents or links to documents that need to be signed. Adding them, will automatically bring through any roles defined in the Pdf Forms which can then be assigned to people (either specific or relationships).
Once the workflow activity is started or a Sign Request created, then the template will retrieve the documents from the various sources and translate the assigned people to the roles and generate a concrete sign request.