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One-click NDA

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Lynne H.
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Available on:  Advanced  Enterprise

Overview

One-click NDA is designed to provide a fast and simple way to gate content with a legally binding agreement. In fact, once an NDA has been uploaded by an admin, anyone on your team will be able to use it with a single click.

Once One-click NDA has been enabled in your link settings, the content will be viewable only after a visitor has signed your NDA and agreed to DocSend’s Terms of Service.

Important: Visitors are legally required to agree to use electronic records and signatures with DocSend’s Terms of Service in addition to your Non-Disclosure Agreement terms before being granted access to your NDA-gated content.

Skipping Ahead

Manage NDAs

All users can access NDAs on the NDAs page. If you're an Owner or Admin, you can set up and manage NDAs from the NDAs page. While Members can preview all available NDAs on the NDAs page, only the Owner and Admins can make changes and create new NDAs. For more information on Owner, Admin, and Member roles, see User Roles. 

Important to note: Only single-party signable documents can be set as an NDA. Multi-party signable documents are not supported. Fore more information, see Types of Signable Documents. 

 

Types of NDAs

Active NDAs are available to gate content in your links settings. All users can preview Active NDAs from the NDAs page, but only the Account Owner or Admins can edit an Active NDA. Members cannot modify an Active NDA document in any way. This includes renaming the document, changing the document thumbnail, updating the document to a new version, or moving the document to a different content folder.
 
Archived NDAs have been archived on the NDAs page by the Owner or an Admin. Once archived, these NDAs will not be available to gate content in your link settings. Once an NDA has been archived, all users can edit and modify the document.  

 

Create an NDA

As an Owner or Admin, you can set up an NDA for company-wide use by directly uploading your NDA document to the NDAs page. Once added, your NDA will be available to gate content by checking the Require NDA to view option in the Link Settings. 

 

To create a new NDA follow the steps outlined below:

  1. From the NDAs page, select Upload.
  2. If this is your first NDA upload, choose the Content library destination folder where your NDA will be housed. All future NDA uploads will default to this destination, unless otherwise specified during the upload process. 
    • To change your NDA destination folder, click the Change… button, located next to your destination folder name at the bottom of the upload window. Then, select your new destination folder.
  3. Choose from the file upload options available (e.g. My device).  
  4. Select your document and click Upload.
  5. Once processing is complete, you’ll be taken to the eSignature editor to configure eSignature fields. For more on adding fields to your document, see Create Signable Documents.

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Alternatively, you can choose an existing single-party signable document to add as an NDA by using the expansion arrow next to the Upload button. Then, select Add from Library and search for the existing single-party signable document. 

If you don’t yet have any NDA set up, you’ll have the option to use DocSend’s free NDA template by selecting Use Template on your NDAs page.

 

Archive an NDA

Owners and Admins can archive an NDA by  following the steps outlined below:

  1. From the NDAs page, expand the More Options [...] menu next to the NDA you’d like to archive. 
  2. Select Archive from the dropdown menu. NDAs that are not currently used to gate any links will be archived immediately.
  3. If your NDA is currently used to gate one or more links, you’ll be prompted to select one of the following options:
    1. Choose a replacement NDA to protect the link(s): If chosen, you’ll need to select a replacement NDA from your existing NDAs. All links previously associated with the original NDA will now be gated by the replacement NDA. When visiting the impacted link(s), visitors will need to sign the replacement NDA before accessing your content. 
    2. Disable access to the link(s): This option will disable all links that were previously gated by the NDA. The impacted links will no longer be accessible to visitors. 
    3. Leave the link(s) without NDA requirement: This option will remove NDA gating from the link and disable the One-Click NDA setting for all links previously gated by the NDA. The attached link will retain the Require NDA to view setting. Although your visitors will no longer be required to sign your NDA before accessing your content.
    4. Confirm your choice to archive the NDA.

To permanently remove an NDA from your Archived NDAs permanently, expand the More Options [...] menu next to the archived NDA and choose Remove from the dropdown menu, then Confirm the action. Once removed from your Archived NDAs, the NDA cannot be unarchived. Archived and removed NDAs will still be listed in your Content library.

 

Unarchive an NDA

As the Account Owner or Admin, you can unarchive an archived NDA by following the steps outlined below: 

  1. From the NDAs page, expand your Archived NDAs by clicking the expansion arrow. 
  2. Expand the More Options [...] menu next to the desired NDA. 
  3. Select Unarchive from the options provided. 

Once an NDA is unarchived it will become an active NDA, and your visitors will be prompted to sign your NDA when accessing any links still associated with the NDA that were previously left ungated when the NDA was archived. 

 

Replace an NDA

To replace an NDA with a new document or update it to a new version:

  1. Locate the NDA you’d like to replace on the NDAs page and expand the More Options [...] menu. 
  2. Select Replace with new upload from the dropdown menu. 
  3. Choose from the file upload options available.  
  4. Select your document and click Upload.
  5. Once processing is complete, you’ll be taken to the eSignature editor to configure customizable fields. 
  6. Once your fields are in the desired location on your document, click on the Save Fields button to complete your NDA replacement. 

Once replaced, all existing links with that configured NDA will be automatically updated to reflect these changes. Signed copies of the previous NDA will be available to download at the visit level. To access any content gated by this NDA, visitors will need to sign the new version of the NDA.

 

Rename an NDA

You can rename your NDA at any point. This new name is an alias to help your team easily identify NDAs. Renaming your NDA from the NDAs page will not rename your file as listed in the Content library. As a best practice, we recommend having unique names for each NDA.

  1. Go to your NDAs page.
  2. Locate the NDA you wish to rename and select Rename NDA from the More Options [...] dropdown menu. 
  3. Enter the new document name and click Confirm to save your changes.

NDA Status

When you upload or replace an NDA, you’ll run into some NDA status prompts that provide context on whether the NDA was successfully processed. 

  • Pending: The new NDA upload is still processing. These will not display as options in the link modal.
  • Updating: The replacement NDA is processing.
  • Invalid: The new NDA failed to upload. Invalid NDAs are not displayed as options in the link modal.
  • Reverted: When replacing the NDA fails, the update will reflect as reverted, keeping the original NDA.

Configure NDA in Link Settings

Once the NDA is created, you can select Require NDA to view in the link settings. When enabled, the visitor must enter their name, email and sign your NDA before viewing your shared content.

  • By default, the Require email to view link setting is also enabled as this requires the visitor to enter the email as part of the NDA agreement process.
  • If an NDA document is not configured, the NDA link option will not be accessible. An Owner or Admin will need to configure the NDA in the Company NDA Settings.
  • If the active NDA document is removed, all links that require NDA will still have the NDA link option enabled, but visitors will not be prompted to sign an NDA. The visitor will still be asked to enter their name and email in order to view the shared content.

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Visitor Experience

In order to gain access to your shared content, visitors will perform the following steps: 

  1. Enter their Name and Email along with any other configured Link Settings. Note: Name and Email will always be required to sign an NDA. 
  2. If prompted, fill out the configured custom fields and sign the NDA. 
  3. Agree to the following: use of electronic records and signatures, DocSend’s Terms of Service, and your NDA terms.
  4. Complete signing by selecting I agree. Complete signing. 
  5. Once completed, a copy of the signed NDA will be automatically emailed to the visitor and the link owner, and the visitor will be redirected to your shared content when authorized. 

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DocSend Certificate 

Once signed, both you and the visitor will be emailed a zip file containing a signed copy of the document and a certificate detailed with an audit trail of all the events leading to the signature.

The certificate will include the following information:

  • Document name: The name of the NDA document
  • Document ID: A unique id for the signed document and matching certificate
  • Original checksum: A hash of the original document’s location
  • Signed checksum: A hash of the signed document’s location
  • Page count: Number of pages in the document
  • Signatures: Number of completed signature fields on the document
  • Signature: An image of the visitor’s signature

The audit trail will include a UTC timestamp of when the event occurred. The events captured include:

  • Terms agreed: When the visitor checks the checkboxes for agreeing to use electronic records and signatures, DocSend’s Terms of Service, and the NDA terms.
    • Includes: Visitor name, visitor email, IP address, location, user agent
  • Document signed
    • Includes: Visitor name, visitor email, IP address, location, user agent
  • Document completed: DocSend generated the signed PDF.
    • Important: Two additional events are unique to the NDA signature and will always be included in the audit trail of every signed NDA document 

View and Export Signed NDAs

To view all collected signatures associated with your NDA, navigate to the NDAs page and select View Signatures next to the desired NDA. This will redirect you to the Signatures tab on your NDA’s document page, which lists all collected signatures along with the date signed, signing source, and more. This page can also be accessed by selecting your NDA from the Content library and navigating to the Signatures tab on your document page. 

To download a signed copy of your NDA, simply select the Download Signed Document icon next to the desired Contact’s signature information. To download a CSV listing all signatures and signing contact information, select Export Table. For more information, see The eSignature Experience: In-app Experience. 

You can also see who’s signed an NDA in the Recent Activity tab of the document, the Accounts page, and the Contacts page. You can download a copy of the signed NDA from any of these pages. If notifications are enabled, you can also receive notifications when a visitor signs an NDA for a document.

Visitors who have signed any NDA will have a green NDA tag next to their contact information. When clicked, the NDA button on the visitor's Contact profile in DocSend will provide the most recent NDA signed by that viewer.

 

Downgrade from Advanced

Downgrading from Advanced will disable all links utilizing One-Click NDA. You can remove the NDA from your NDAs page before downgrading; however, all links with the NDA option enabled will still be deactivated. 

To reactivate disabled links, you can update the link settings any time and uncheck the NDA option. Alternatively, upgrading back to Advanced or Enterprise will also reactivate the links.

 

Things to Consider

  • One-click NDA supports only one signer at this time.
  • One-click NDA does not support Save to Dropbox at this time. 
  • NDAs are signed at the contact level, not the account/company level. By signing an NDA, an individual is only signing on behalf of themselves and not the company.
  • NDAs can be created and signed on most mobile devices.
  • Currently, DocSend does not sync NDA data to Salesforce.
  • DocSend is compliant with UETA and ESIGN regulations, which are specific to the US only. We recommend you seek additional legal advice to see if One-click NDA will work for your organization.  
  • Trialing users have a 50 signature limit across NDA and signable documents.
  • The document configured as an NDA does not support Watermarking. 
  • The NDA configured at the Space link-level will be the only NDA available for Granular Space permissions. 
  • Custom fields will not be visible when previewing the document.
  • If you want to add a new NDA from the content library, only existing single-party signable documents can be added as an NDA.
  • Active NDAs are marked with an “ACTIVE NDA” tag.
  • When an Admin uploads an NDA, Member users will not be able to update or edit the document in any way.
  • If an Admin cancels NDA creation when customizing fields, the document will still be uploaded, but will not be listed as an NDA.  

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