Peony includes a built-in e-signature workflow. Upload a document, drop signature, initials, and text fields onto it, add recipients, and send it out for signing. Every completed signature is captured with a timestamp, IP address, and a verification hash, and the signed PDF plus its audit log land in the Signatures view in the left navigation (the signed-agreements list, sometimes called the Agreements tab).

E-signatures power the Advanced NDA gate, but they also stand alone. Use them for standalone NDAs, SAFEs, engagement letters, order forms, consulting agreements — any document that needs a real signature before a deal moves forward. Signatures are designed to meet the US ESIGN Act and EU eIDAS requirements for standard e-signatures.

Sending a Document for Signature

The whole flow starts from the Home screen and works best on desktop.

On the Home screen, click Create new (top left) and choose e-Signatures from the menu.
Upload the document you want signed — a PDF or DOCX.
Add your recipients. Each recipient needs a Name and an Email. For a single-signer document (like an NDA), add one recipient.
Drag the fields you need onto the document and drop them where each recipient should fill them in:
- Signature — a drawn or typed signature.
- Initial — initials Business+
- Text — any free-text value: address, company name, title, or a date typed in.
Assign every field to the recipient who should fill it. A field left unassigned can't be sent.
Click Send (top right). Peony emails each recipient a secure link to sign.

The primary button reads Send while you're building. Clicking it opens the recipients panel so you can confirm who's signing before the invite goes out.

Once a recipient signs, both you (the sender) and the signer receive the completed, signed PDF by email, and a copy is stored in the Signatures view.

Templates

If you send the same document repeatedly — a standard NDA, a mutual NDA, a SAFE — save it as a template so you don't rebuild it each time.

To create a template:

Start a document exactly as above (Create new → e-Signatures, upload, add recipients, drop and assign fields).
Instead of sending, click Create template (top right).
The template is saved under the Templates view in the left navigation.

For a DOCX, add a placeholder email to the recipient roles while building — those placeholder emails are removed automatically once the template is created.

To remove a template: open the Templates view, right-click the template, and choose remove.

Templates for the One-Click NDA

If you plan to use a template as an NDA gate via the One-click NDA → Advanced dropdown, it must be built as a single-signer template:

Exactly one recipient (the only signer).
At least one signature field.
Every field assigned to that one recipient.

The Advanced NDA dropdown only lists templates that meet all three rules. This is why some templates seem to be "missing" from that dropdown — there is no cap on how many templates you can have. A multi-signer template, or a template with a field assigned to a second recipient, is hidden from the NDA picker but still works fine as a regular e-signature send. For a DOCX, confirm every field is the same color and assigned to the same recipient. Peony can't view your account for privacy reasons, so if a template still won't appear, send support screenshots of the field assignments.

Build a Signature Template

This is the editor walkthrough for a template you'll pick under Advanced → Select template on an NDA gate. It follows the single-signer rules above. This works best on desktop:

From the Home screen, click Create new (top left) and upload your NDA for e-signature (PDF or DOCX). If you don't have one, start from Peony's default mutual NDA.
Add one recipient as the only signer.
Drag the signature and date fields onto the signature block, and assign every field to that one recipient.
Click Create template (top right).
The template now appears under Advanced → Select template for any link.

Steps 2 and 3 are where most of the work is. The rest of this section covers them in detail.

Three Ways to Make the Document Fillable

Which one you use depends on what you uploaded. All three produce the same result: a document with named input fields on it.

Drag fields onto a PDF. A PDF is a flat page, so nothing in it can be detected automatically — you place the fields yourself. The Signer panel on the right holds Text, Signature, and Initial blocks. Drag one onto the spot the counterparty has to fill and it lands there as a colored box. Use the picker at the top of that panel to choose who the fields belong to, then repeat down the document.

Type a slash to insert a field inline. Inside a document you don't have to drag anything. Put the cursor where the blank belongs and type /. A menu opens with Text, Date, Signature, Initial, and Table. Pick one and the field is inserted at the cursor, flowing with the paragraph around it. This is the fastest way to add a field you missed.

Upload a DOCX and let Peony find the blanks. Start from the Word file you already use and mark the blanks the way you normally would — bracketed placeholders, highlighted so they're easy to spot. Nothing about the file has to change for Peony: no merge codes, no special syntax, no mapping sheet to maintain alongside it.

Upload the DOCX and Peony reads those placeholders and turns each one into a named input field, ready to configure. You get the whole document mapped in one pass instead of placing fields by hand — then fix up anything it read differently from what you intended.

Configuring Each Field

Click any field and its settings open. Five settings decide how it behaves for whoever has to complete it:

Label — the placeholder the signer reads while the box is still empty. Write it as an instruction: Full legal name, not Field 1.
Assignee — who has to fill this one in. The field then takes on that party's color, so responsibility is visible at a glance.
Type — the input format: Text, Date, or Signature. A signature field draws a signing block rather than a plain text box.
Set value — pre-fills the field with a fixed value. Use it for anything you already know, such as your own entity name or the date.
Is required — whether the agreement can be submitted with this field left blank. Leave it on for anything the signed PDF has to carry.

Set value is worth reaching for early. Pre-fill everything you already know and the counterparty is left with only their own details to complete.

Assigning Fields to a Party

Open the party menu from the avatar in the top right and pick the party you're filling in for. Each party carries its own color, and every field assigned to them is drawn in it — the pink boxes running down this NDA all belong to the recipient.

This is the single most common reason a finished template doesn't show up under Advanced → Select template: a field left unassigned, or assigned to a second party. Check the colors before you save.

Editing the Wording

Select any run of text and a toolbar appears above it. Most of it is ordinary formatting — bold, italic, strikethrough, H1/H2, bulleted and numbered lists, links, and alignment. Two buttons do more than formatting:

Input — converts the selected words straight into a fillable field. This is how a clause you just typed becomes something the counterparty completes.
AI Edit — hands the selection to AI and rewrites it in place, for tightening a clause without reopening the source file.

Saving the Template

When every field is placed and assigned, click Continue to NDA settings in the top right. The agreement is saved as a reusable template, so the next room you gate can pick it from Select template instead of being built again.

Renaming a template later updates the name shown on every link that uses it — link settings always display the template's current name, not the name it had when you attached it. File-upload (Standard) NDAs keep the name they were uploaded with.

Where Signed Documents Go

Every completed signature is stored in the Signatures view in the left navigation, and both parties are emailed the signed PDF along with the audit log the moment signing completes. (For an NDA gate, that email + audit log behavior is the Advanced setting; if you only received a plain link with no attachment, the gate was set to Standard.)

In the Signatures view you can:

See the signer's email, timestamp (with timezone), IP address, and status — Draft, In progress (sent but not yet signed), or Signed.
Download each signed PDF individually.

Search, date filtering, CSV export, and bulk "download all" for the Signatures view are on the roadmap — see On the Roadmap below. For now, to find out which data room a signed NDA belongs to, open that room's Analytics tab and cross-reference the signer.

Plans and Limits

Plan	Sent agreements	Initials
Free	Up to 3 per month	Not available (Signature and Text fields are)
Business+	Unlimited	Yes

Data Room, Deal Team, and Enterprise include everything in Business. Prices are on Plans and Pricing.

On the Free plan, you can add up to 50 recipients per agreement. Viewers and signers never count toward admin seats.

If you hit the Free-plan message "Free plan allows up to 3 sent agreements per month. Upgrade to Business for unlimited e-signatures," you've sent your three for the calendar month — the counter resets at the start of the next month, or upgrade to Business for unlimited sends.

Legality

Signatures collected through Peony are standard electronic signatures, compliant with the US ESIGN Act and EU eIDAS. Peony captures the signature image, timestamp, IP address, and a verification hash, to support the signature's validity under both frameworks. For high-stakes documents (a company sale, a major licensing agreement), have counsel review the signing flow before you rely on it.

Common Questions

Where do I go to send an e-signature?

From the Home screen, click Create new (top left) and choose e-Signatures. Upload your PDF or DOCX, add recipients, drop and assign the fields, then click Send. The Free plan allows up to 3 sent agreements per month; Business and above are unlimited.

Can I reuse a document instead of rebuilding it every time?

Yes. Build it once, then click Create template (top right) instead of Send. It's saved under the Templates view and ready to reuse. Right-click a template there to remove it.

There's no cap. The Advanced NDA picker only lists single-signer templates: one recipient, at least one signature field, and every field assigned to that one recipient. Multi-signer templates — or a template with a field assigned to a second recipient — are hidden there but still work for a normal e-signature send. For a DOCX, make sure every field is the same color and the same recipient.

Can I include fields other than a signature — like an address or a date?

Yes. Drag the Text field for free-text values — address, company, title, or a date the signer types in — then assign each to a recipient. (Regional date-format handling isn't differentiated yet.)

Can I collect initials as well as a full signature?

Yes, on a Business plan or above. Add Initial fields in the editor and assign them to the signer. On the Free plan, initials aren't available.

Where are my signed documents, and how do I download them?

They're in the Signatures view in the left navigation, downloadable one at a time. Both you and the signer also get the signed PDF plus the audit log by email when signing completes. To see which data room a signed NDA relates to, open that room's Analytics tab.

Can I search signed agreements by email, filter by date, or export to CSV?

Not yet. The Signatures view shows the list with per-row downloads today; search, filtering, CSV export, and bulk download are on the roadmap. To trace which room a signed NDA belongs to, use that room's Analytics tab.

Does the signature editor work on mobile?

Building a document or template is best done on desktop — the drag-and-drop field placement is desktop-optimized. Signing (the recipient's side) works on mobile.

"Failed to sign NDA. Unexpected error" when I test — what's wrong?

This is a known glitch tied to the document viewer, and it can appear the first time you disable an NDA on a Free-tier room. It is not a paid gate. If you hit it, contact support via the Crisp widget.

On the Roadmap

These are asked about often but aren't in the product yet:

Search, date filtering, and CSV export for the Signatures view.
Bulk "download all" (zip) of signed agreements.
A reusable, perpetually-signable document that stays open and saves a separate copy for each signer (a DocSend-style signable link). The new e-signature experience being built moves toward this. Today, the closest options are a One-click NDA before room entry (swap in any document) or a reusable multi-signer template for known signers.
Auto-filled field types in the field palette. A Date field is available today; see Configuring Each Field.

NDA Gates: Signed Before Access — gate a data room behind a signed NDA using an e-signature template
Dynamic Watermarks — identity attribution on every page
Screenshot Protection — block capture on desktop browsers
Access Control Layers — how Peony's security stack fits together