Before you start sending documents, it helps to know the words CornerSpot uses for e-signatures. This guide is a quick tour of the vocabulary you’ll see throughout the feature — envelopes, recipients and their roles, routing, fields, and the statuses an envelope moves through — so the rest of the guides make sense.
Envelopes
An envelope is the core unit of e-signatures in CornerSpot: one or more PDF documents, plus the people who need to act on them. Everything on the E-Signatures page (at /dashboard/esign/envelopes) is an envelope, and a template is simply a reusable blueprint you save from an envelope you send often.
Statuses: the envelope lifecycle
Every envelope moves through a lifecycle, and its current state is shown as a status pill you’ll see on the list and inside the builder:
- Draft — still being prepared and fully editable; nothing has been sent.
- Sent — out for signature; recipients have their signing links.
- Completed — everyone has signed; the document is fully executed.
- Declined — a recipient declined to sign, which ends the envelope.
- Voided — the sender cancelled it after sending; all links are invalidated.
- Expired — the signing window passed before everyone signed.
You can filter the list by any of these statuses to find exactly what you’re looking for.
An envelope = documents + people
You build an envelope from the New envelope panel: give it a subject (what recipients see in their email) and attach the PDF documents people will sign. From there you add the people and tell CornerSpot what they need to do.
Recipients and roles
Recipients are the people on an envelope. Each recipient is given a role that decides what they can do:
- Signer — completes fields and signs the document.
- Approver — approves the envelope without signing.
- Viewer — can open and read the document but takes no action.
- CC (notify only) — receives a copy and updates, but isn’t asked to act.
Linking a recipient to a CRM contact unlocks auto-filled fields, so you don’t retype details you already have.
Routing: parallel vs. sequential
Routing controls the order people are invited:
- Parallel (the default) — everyone gets the envelope at the same time.
- Sequential — one person at a time, in order; each recipient gets their link only after the previous person finishes.
Turn on Send to recipients in order (sequential routing) when the order matters, then drag recipients to set who goes first.
Fields
Fields are the things recipients fill in. You drag them onto the document and assign each to a recipient. The field types are:
- Signature and Initials — where a signer adopts and applies their mark.
- Date — a date the signer enters, or one CornerSpot auto-stamps at signing time.
- Text — free-form text the recipient types.
- Checkbox — a box the recipient ticks.
There are also recipient info (auto-filled) fields — read-only values like name, email, phone, title, and company that CornerSpot pulls from a linked CRM contact and resolves automatically at signing.
It all starts in Draft
Every new envelope opens in the builder with a Draft status. While it’s a draft, everything stays editable — documents, recipients, routing, fields, and settings. When it’s ready, you send it for signature and the status moves to Sent, then on toward Completed as people sign.
Built for compliance
Signing in CornerSpot is backed by a tamper-evident audit trail that records when the envelope was sent, viewed, completed, and signed. The process complies with the U.S. ESIGN Act and state UETA law, so the signatures you collect are legally binding.
The terms at a glance
- Envelope — one or more PDFs plus the people who act on them.
- Template — a reusable envelope blueprint with roles instead of specific people.
- Recipient & role — a person on the envelope and what they can do (Signer, Approver, Viewer, CC).
- Routing — parallel (all at once) or sequential (one at a time, in order).
- Field — what a recipient completes (signature, initials, date, text, checkbox) or an auto-filled value.
- Status — Draft, Sent, Completed, Declined, Voided, or Expired.