How to Send Documents for Signature with Yousign in GJSDocs

Why European teams choose Yousign

Yousign is headquartered in Paris, ISO 27001 certified, and holds qualified status under eIDAS regulation — the EU legal framework that governs electronic signatures across all 27 member states. Its qualified status is granted by ANSSI, France's national cybersecurity agency, making Yousign one of the few platforms whose signatures carry the same legal weight as a handwritten signature throughout the EU.

Critically for GDPR compliance, all data processed through Yousign — signed documents, signer metadata, timestamps, and audit trails — is stored exclusively in French data centres. For EU companies with data residency requirements, or for any team whose clients ask "where is my data stored?", this is the decisive difference from US-based alternatives like DocuSign or Dropbox Sign, which transfer data to US servers even when the signing parties are entirely European.

GJSDocs integrates with the Yousign v3 API — the latest generation, which introduces an improved anchor-based system for positioning signature fields with precision. Once connected, you can send any GJSDocs document for signature without leaving the editor.

Prerequisites

• A GJSDocs account (any paid plan)
• A Yousign account — the sandbox environment is free to create at yousign.com
• An API key from the Yousign developer dashboard

Step 1 — Get your Yousign API key

In your Yousign account, click your avatar in the top-right corner and go to Settings → Developers → API Keys → Create key. Sandbox and production environments each have their own separate API keys — make sure you use the right one for your context.

One important note about the Yousign sandbox: unlike many API sandboxes that suppress outbound emails, Yousign sandbox sends real invitation emails to the signer addresses you provide. When testing, always use your own email address (or a dedicated test inbox) for signer fields — do not enter real client emails during development.

Step 2 — Connect Yousign in GJSDocs

In GJSDocs, go to Settings → Integrations → Yousign → Configure. Paste your API key into the field, set Sandbox Mode to true for testing, and click Save. GJSDocs immediately validates the key by calling /v3/users/me on the Yousign API. If the key is valid, the Yousign tile will show a green Connected status within seconds.

Step 3 — Add signature anchor tokens to your document

GJSDocs uses a token system to mark where signature fields should appear in the final PDF. Tokens are typed directly into the document body and follow this syntax:

• [[sig:role]] — a full signature field for the named signer
• [[initials:role]] — an initials field for the named signer
• [[date:role]] — a date field that auto-fills with the signing date

The role is a short identifier you choose — buyer, seller, locataire, garant, etc. One role maps to one signer. When you send for signature, GJSDocs reads the document, extracts every distinct role from the tokens, and asks you to assign a name and email to each one. Here is a French service contract example:

When GJSDocs generates the PDF, it converts each token into a Yousign v3 anchor text string ([YSSIG1], [YSINIT1], [YSDATE1]) embedded as invisible spans in the document. The Yousign engine scans the PDF for these anchor strings and positions interactive signature fields exactly where the original tokens appeared — no manual coordinate mapping required.

If you prefer not to type tokens manually, the Sign panel in the editor toolbar lets you insert tokens visually by clicking the signer role and field type you want.

Step 4 — Send for signature

With tokens in place and your Yousign integration connected, sending is straightforward:

• Open a document in the GJSDocs editor
• Click Send for Signature (the pen icon in the toolbar)
• The modal reads the document and lists every detected role
• Fill in each signer's full name and email address
• Optionally add a subject line and message for the invitation email
• Click Send

The following happens automatically after you click Send:

• A PDF is generated using the current variable values in the document
• [[sig:*]] tokens are converted to Yousign v3 anchor text and embedded in the PDF
• Yousign creates a signature procedure and emails each signer an invitation
• Signers receive a branded Yousign email with a direct signing link — no Yousign account required on their end

Step 5 — Track status and download

Once sent, open the Signature History panel in the editor (history icon in the toolbar) to monitor the procedure in real time. The panel shows a status badge for the overall procedure and per-signer status with timestamps:

eIDAS levels and which to use

The eIDAS regulation defines three levels of electronic signature. Understanding which applies to your documents helps you choose the right configuration in Yousign:

For most GJSDocs users — NDAs, proposals, service contracts — SES is appropriate and sufficient. Yousign's qualified status for QES is granted by ANSSI, France's national cybersecurity agency, giving it formal recognition across all EU member states.

Sandbox vs production

Yousign provides a full-featured sandbox environment at no cost. The sandbox runs the complete signature flow — PDF generation, email delivery, signer experience, status tracking, and certified PDF download — with one key restriction: no billing or Yousign credits are consumed.

Run the complete flow in sandbox first: send the document, sign it from your test inbox, and download the certified PDF. Only switch to the production key once you have confirmed everything behaves as expected end-to-end.

Data residency and GDPR compliance

All Yousign data — signed documents, signer metadata, IP addresses, timestamps, and audit trails — is stored in French data centres. Yousign is registered as a data processor under GDPR and provides a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) on request, which you can attach to your own GDPR documentation.

US-based e-signature providers such as DocuSign and Dropbox Sign operate under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which permits data transfers to US servers. For European companies operating under strict data residency policies, or for clients in regulated sectors (healthcare, public sector, legal) who explicitly require data to remain in the EU, Yousign provides a direct answer: all data stays in France, under French jurisdiction, with no third-country transfers.

• ISO 27001 certified — covers information security management across the Yousign platform
• eIDAS qualified status — granted by ANSSI, valid across all 27 EU member states
• Data stored exclusively in France — no transfers to non-EEA countries
• GDPR data processor — DPA available on request for your compliance records