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Configure DocuSign Integration

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To use the DocuSign integration, school districts must directly contract with DocuSign to obtain any standard DocuSign account. This is a contract between the school district and DocuSign. PowerSchool does not participate in any way in the process of obtaining or maintaining DocuSign accounts.

Determine DocuSign Readiness

  1. Sign in as the System Administrator.
  2. Choose Administration and then Configuration.
  3. On the Configuration page, click Integration and then click the DocuSign Account tab.
  4. Review the list of DocuSign-Ready Document Templates. If no documents are listed, your database configuration is not updated to support DocuSign. Contact PowerSchool for more information.
PowerSchool does not support custom DocuSign template integration with PowerSchool forms.

Configure DocuSign Account

Once your database has one or more DocuSign-ready document templates, you need to either create a new or integrate an existing DocuSign account. If your school district already has a DocuSign account, you must use one of the supported account types to integrate with Special Programs.

  1. In DocuSign, create a general plan that specifies API support as a feature.

    Select a general plan with API support rather than an API Plan. At the time of writing, general plans with API support include the standard, business, business premium, and enterprise offerings.

  2. In the DocuSign account, add users by name and email address.
  3. For each user, assign the DS Sender permission set.
  • The DocuSign integration with PowerSchool Special Programs is designed to allow provisioned DocuSign users to send documents for unprovisioned users. Using this approach, there could be as few as one provisioned sender per school or even one provisioned sender for smaller school districts.
  • From the perspective of the signers, the document will appear to come from the provisioned DocuSign user and not the unprovisioned user.

Configure Special Programs

  1. From the Administration menu, choose Configuration.
  2. On the Configuration page, click Integration and then click the DocuSign Account tab.
  3. Click Configure Account and update the following settings.

    FieldDescription
    DocuSign REST API URLFollow the directions on the page to obtain the correct value for this setting.
    Integrator KeyThe field allows an alternate DocuSign Integrator key to be used in certain advanced scenarios. Unless directed otherwise, leave this field blank to use the PowerSchool DocuSign integrator key.
    DocuSign UsageClick Allow DocuSign Access to grant Special Programs access to DocuSign. If you have granted access, you will have the option to Update DocuSign Access. Update the access if you need to sign in with a new DocuSign account.
    Staff Email Address FieldChoose the field that you want to use to populate the Staff Email. This must reference a staff profile email address field that is populated with the email addresses of any users participating with DocuSign either as senders or signers.
    Embedded SigningIf you set this to Yes, signing can be done directly from Special Programs. Use this for scenarios where all signers are present and will sign at the same time. Follow the directions on the page to update settings in DocuSign.
    DocuSign-Ready Document Templates Disable E-Signature for Staff UsersDocument templates that are prepared for use with DocuSign are listed here. If you select Disable E-Signature for Staff Users, DocuSign will only send signature requests for the selected document to non-staff users; for example, parents, guardians, and students.
    Omit ADMIN User from Authorized SenderIf you have configured users without DocuSign credentials to submit their documents to users with DocuSign credentials who then send those to DocuSign, by default, ADMIN user is listed in the drop-down menu presented to users without DocuSign credentials. You can omit the ADMIN user from the drop-down menu by selecting "Yes" for this setting.
    Default Routing Order for SignersUse this setting to establish a default routing order for signature requests.
    • Send to staff first, then to non-staff - The document will route first to all staff signers, and then after all staff signers have signed, it will route to non-staff signers, such as parents.
    • Send to all signers at the same time (e.g., using "Sign Now") - If the "Sign Now" feature has been enabled on the DocuSign Account setup screen, then when sending the document to DocuSign, choosing this option allows you to immediately route the document to all signers at once, which makes the "Sign Now" feature non-blocking on any signer (either staff or non-staff).
    Send Staff Notification Messages When Signing Process CompletedSelect this to send an internal message and email to the sender when the document moves to a completed status.
  4. Click Accept.

Assign Security

Security privileges and rights must now be assigned for the distinct roles referred to here as Senders and Submitters. Special Programs users who are not provisioned as DocuSign users (submitters) submit documents to provisioned users (senders). Senders send documents to the document signers on behalf of the submitter. Senders must have the DS Sender permission set within DocuSign.

  • Senders
    • Set up a DocuSign Senders security group and add all Senders. This will authorize its members to send documents to DocuSign on behalf of submitters.
    • All members of this group must be provisioned users within DocuSign.
    • This group must be fully authorized to view any documents that the group will need to send to DocuSign. Depending on the number of senders, this authorization can be set at an organizational level, for example, location-wide or system-wide.
    • In addition to being able to fully view any documents to be sent, the security group will need the Send Documents via DocuSign security privilege (which lies below Undelete Documents). This privilege can be assigned only to a security group, and not to an individual staff security profile.
  • Submitters
    • Set the Submit to DocuSign security right for the template.
    • To submit final documents of a particular document template (that is DocuSign ready) over to a "sender" for sending to DocuSign, all this is needed is the Submit to DocuSign document template security right. Typically, this right is assigned to existing security groups that need to submit documents to a sender. Note that if a particular user is authorized to both submit and send, then any submitted documents are sent to DocuSign by that user immediately and, in this case, there is no separate "sender" in the process.

Configure Document Templates

System administrators can allow users to submit documents that are in a review status to DocuSign. Otherwise, documents must be in a review or complete status to submit to DocuSign.

  1. Choose Administration and then Configuration.
  2. On the Configuration page, click Settings, and then click the Document Templates tab.
  3. Click the magnifier icon for the document template for which you want to allow users to submit review documents.
  4. Click More and choose Configure DocuSign E-Signature. This option is only available if the document template supports DocuSign.
  5. Click Edit DocuSign Options.
  6. In Edit DocuSign Options, click Override Default? and select On.
  7. Click Accept.

Status Reports

You can use DocuSign E-signature formula functions to develop standard reports that report on all documents that are in a particular DocuSign status.

DocuSign Status

  • Submitted - A user authorized to submit a document for signing via DocuSign has done so. Most pricing plans for DocuSign limit the number of users who can send documents to DocuSign. To overcome this limitation, users who are not provisioned as DocuSign sends can nonetheless be authorized with a Submit to DocuSign document template security right, which authorized them to submit the document to another user who is in fact provisioned as a DocuSign user.
    • DocuSign users are provisioned within the DocuSign administrative dashboard, and must also receive the Send Documents via DocuSign student privilege within PowerSchool Special Programs. Send Documents via DocuSign can be granted at different organizational levels to support, for example, having one sender per school.
    • When a document is submitted to a sender, the sender receives a message with a link to the document, and the sender can then send the document as described next. Note that a user submitting a document is also an authorized sender, the document will be submitted and sent in the next step.
  • Sent and Pending - An authorized user, provisioned as a DocuSign user and with the Send Documents via DocuSign privilege, has sent the document to DocuSign for signing. DocuSign manages the signing process forward. Pending refers to the fact the document has not reached one of the three end states yet.
  • Voided - The sender has voided/canceled the signing of a document. Signers are notified and processing stops. A document is also voided if it times out by exceeding the allowed amount of time for the sending process. Note that a reason for voiding is captured along with this state.
  • Declined - If any signer declines the document, the document as a whole is now declined and processing stops. A reason for declining is captured from the signer.
  • Completed - If all signers sign the document, the process is complete and the document is considered signed.

When a document status changes to voided, declined, or complete, the submitter and sender are automatically notified with a message that contains a link back to the document.

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