Participants, Roles, Recipients, and workflow types
Participants, Roles, and Recipients
This is a key distinction in Legalesign:
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Participants are defined on a template. They are the slots that describe who takes part — for example, "Party 1", "Party 2", "Party 1 – Witness". Participants belong to the template and are reused every time that template is sent.
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Roles describe what a Participant does. Every Participant has a Role: Signer, Approver, or Witness. The Role determines what the person needs to do when they receive the document.
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Recipients are the actual people a document is sent to. When you send a document, you assign a real person (name, email) to each Participant. The Recipient is who receives the document for signing, approval, or witnessing.
In short: a template has Participants, each Participant has a Role, and when you send the document each Participant becomes a Recipient.
Core Participant roles
Signer
A Signer is a Participant who signs the document. Most workflows are built around one or more Signers.
Approver
An Approver reviews or approves the document but does not need a signature field. Approvers can be the only Participant or part of a larger flow.
Witness
A Witness is linked to a Signer and confirms that signing took place appropriately. Witnesses are used where the workflow or legal context requires them.
Sender
The Sender prepares and dispatches the document. Sender fields allow the Sender to fill values at send time without changing the underlying template.
Workflow types
Single-Recipient workflows
The simplest workflows. One Signer or Approver receives the document and acts on it.
Multi-Recipient workflows
Multiple Signers, Approvers, or Witnesses take part in the same document flow. The template defines who is involved and what each Participant must do.
Sequential workflows
Recipients act one after another. The next Recipient cannot proceed until the prior Recipient has completed their part.
Simultaneous workflows
Recipients can act independently at the same time. This is useful when ordering is not important.
Special workflow controls
Linked Recipients
Linked Recipients are used when Recipient behavior needs to stay coordinated within the same document flow.
Let previous Recipient decide
This option is useful when a Recipient — often a Signer or Witness — is not known at the time of sending. The previous Recipient supplies the missing details during the workflow.
Reassign and reject
Depending on the signing experience settings, Recipients can be allowed to reassign a document to someone else, or reject it instead of completing it.
When role design matters most
Role design has the biggest impact when:
- the document involves Witnesses or Approvers
- ordering matters
- Recipient details are not fully known in advance
- you need different signing experiences for different Recipients