What is checked before a document goes out

When you open Send, the document is checked and anything wrong is listed above the button. Some problems stop the send; others are just worth knowing.

Problems that stop the send

Merge fields with nothing to fill them in with. A merge field is a placeholder like the customer's name, filled in when the document is prepared. If nothing has filled it in, it is printed exactly as written and your customer reads it. This is the one worth being strict about, because they see it before you do.

Clear it with ⟦Fill in from a customer⟧, right there in the message: pick the customer and every field that record can answer is answered. Anything it cannot answer keeps its placeholder rather than quietly becoming blank, so you can see what is still missing. You can also click into a field and type the value over it.

A signer with no email address. There is nowhere to send it. Add the address in the participants panel.

A field assigned to somebody who is not on the document. Nobody will ever be able to fill it in, so the document could never be completed. Either add that person as a signer, or reassign the field.

Nobody to sign, or an empty document. Nothing to do and nothing to read.

Problems that only warn

These are shown but do not stop you, because sometimes you know better:

• A signature line with nobody assigned to sign it.
• Nowhere to sign at all. Some documents are a record rather than an agreement, so this is allowed.
• Your own required fields left empty. You can fill them in after sending in some flows, but usually this means you forgot.
• Two fields with the same name. The person signing cannot tell them apart.

Why it is checked again when you click

The list is checked once more on the server as the document is sent. The panel can be out of date if somebody else changed the document while you had it open, and the check is the last thing standing between a placeholder and a customer.