How to Send Documents for Signature with Dropbox Sign in GJSDocs

What Dropbox Sign adds to GJSDocs

GJSDocs generates documents; Dropbox Sign collects legally binding signatures. The integration closes the loop: generate a contract, send it for signature, track status per signer, and download the completed certified PDF — all from one interface, without exporting to a separate platform.

Dropbox Sign is trusted by more than one million businesses worldwide. Signatures collected through the platform are legally valid under the ESIGN Act in the United States and eIDAS in the European Union, making them enforceable in the vast majority of commercial contexts where you'd use GJSDocs.

Without the integration, the typical workflow is: generate PDF in GJSDocs → download → re-upload into a signing platform → configure signers → send → download the signed copy → re-attach it somewhere useful. The integration collapses all of that into a single flow that starts and ends in GJSDocs.

Prerequisites

• A GJSDocs account (any paid plan)
• A Dropbox Sign account (sandbox access is free, no credit card needed)
• An API key from the Dropbox Sign developer dashboard

Step 1 — Get your Dropbox Sign API key

Log into your Dropbox Sign account, navigate to Settings → Integrations → API, and copy your API key. Dropbox Sign provides two keys: a sandbox key for development and testing, and a live key for production use. Start with the sandbox key.

Sandbox mode sends test requests to Dropbox Sign's API but does not dispatch real emails to signers and does not consume any envelope credits. Use it for all development work and template testing before moving to production.

Step 2 — Connect Dropbox Sign in GJSDocs

In GJSDocs, go to Settings → Integrations → Dropbox Sign → Configure. Paste your API key into the field, set Sandbox Mode to on, and click Save.

GJSDocs validates the key immediately by making a test API call. If the key is valid, the Dropbox Sign tile updates to show a green Connected badge. If validation fails, check that you've copied the full key without trailing whitespace and that the key matches the mode (sandbox key with Sandbox Mode on; live key with Sandbox Mode off).

Step 3 — Add signature placeholders to your document

GJSDocs uses a token system to mark where signatures, initials, and signing dates should appear in the final PDF. There are three supported token types:

• [[sig:role]] — a full signature field assigned to the named role
• [[initials:role]] — an initials field assigned to the named role
• [[date:role]] — an auto-populated signing date field assigned to the named role

The role is a short identifier you choose — buyer, seller, tenant, witness. Each unique role becomes one signer when you send the document.

When the document is sent for signature, GJSDocs generates the PDF with current variable values and converts every [[sig:*]] token into a Dropbox Sign text tag ([sig|req|1] etc.) embedded as an invisible anchor in the PDF. Dropbox Sign's engine reads those anchors and renders interactive signature fields exactly where the tokens appeared in the document — no manual field placement needed.

You don't have to type the raw token syntax directly. The Sign panel in the editor toolbar lets you insert [[sig:role]], [[initials:role]], and [[date:role]] tokens visually — click where you want the field and select the type and role from a dropdown.

Step 4 — Send for signature

With placeholders in place and Dropbox Sign connected, sending a document for signature takes about 30 seconds:

• Open the document in the GJSDocs editor
• Click Send for Signature (pen icon in the toolbar)
• The modal detects every role present in the document and lists them — confirm the roles are correct
• Fill in the name and email address for each signer
• Optionally add a subject line and a message that will appear in the signing invitation email
• Click Send

After clicking Send, GJSDocs handles the rest automatically:

• A PDF is generated with the current variable values filled in
• [[sig:*]] tokens are converted to Dropbox Sign text tags embedded in the PDF
• Each signer receives a branded invitation email from Dropbox Sign with a direct signing link
• Signers do not need a Dropbox Sign account — they click the link and sign directly in their browser

Step 5 — Track status and download the signed PDF

Open the Signature History panel by clicking the history icon in the editor toolbar. Every signing request for the document is listed here with a status badge that updates in real time.

The panel also shows per-signer status — who has signed (with a timestamp) and who is still pending. From the same panel you can:

• Remind — sends a follow-up reminder email to the first unsigned signer
• Cancel — voids the signing request (available until all parties have signed)
• Download — appears when status is Signed, downloads the Dropbox Sign-certified PDF with the embedded audit trail

Sandbox vs production

In sandbox mode, API calls go through Dropbox Sign's test environment: no real emails are sent to signers, no envelope credits are consumed, and signing events are simulated. This is the right environment for building your templates and running the full sign-and-download flow before any real documents go out.

When you're ready for production, go to Settings → Integrations → Dropbox Sign, toggle Sandbox Mode off, replace the sandbox API key with your live key, and save. From that point, signing requests create real legal documents, dispatch real emails, and consume Dropbox Sign envelope credits.

What the signed PDF contains

Every document completed through Dropbox Sign has a Certificate of Completion appended automatically. This certificate is generated by Dropbox Sign and cannot be altered — it provides a legally defensible audit trail that accompanies the document permanently.

The certificate records:

• Signer names and email addresses
• IP addresses from which each signature was submitted
• Timestamps for each individual signature event
• A unique document fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) that proves the document has not been modified after signing

This makes the downloaded PDF self-contained evidence of the signing event — useful for contracts, NDAs, employment agreements, and any other document where proving when and by whom it was signed may matter later.