Automating document approval and signing with Zoho Writer and Zoho Sign

Automating document approval and signing with Zoho Writer and Zoho Sign

Hey Zoho Writer Community!

Here's another automation tip to make your processes more efficient!

Question: Can I send a document for client approval first, then automatically send it for signing with Zoho Sign if they approve? Since it's the same person approving and signing, can we skip the signature during approval?

Answer: Yes! You can achieve this workflow by configuring the approver and signer settings in the Merge and Sign option in Zoho Writer's merge template.


Steps to configure approver and signer

  1. Create a merge template.
  2. Add two signers (Signer A and Signer B) from the left panel (Fields → Signer Fields → Add Signer).
  3. Assign all signer fields to Signer B and not Signer A.
  4. Make sure Signer A is marked as the Approver and Signer B as the Signer.
    In this scenario, both the signer and approver will have the same email address, as it's the same individual. However, ensure that distinct names are entered for each role.
  5. Enable the Sign in the above order option.



  6.  Execute the merge and sign process. The document will first be submitted for approval and then, upon approval, for signing.
Remember:
  • You need a paid plan in Zoho Sign to use the approver option.
  • Ensure you've configured both the approver and signer roles.
  • Set the signing order by checking the Sign in the order above option.

Give this a try and let us know what you think in the comments. Need assistance? Feel free to write to support@zohowriter.com or support@eu.zohowriter.com.

We'll be back with more updates soon. Stay tuned!

Until then,
Happy automating! 

    • Sticky Posts

    • 8 Neat Tricks in Writer You Should Know About

      Want to get the most out of Writer and speed up your work? You've come to the right place. We've compiled some productive shortcuts in Writer that can help you get work done more quickly: 1. Look up synonyms   No more need for a bulky thesaurus! Use Writer's synonym suggestions to explore different word choices, and find the one that fits your style and tone the best. All you have to do is right-click on a word, and select Synonyms from the dropdown list.  2. Insert images, tables and more   Typing
    • Tip #26: Filter your records before merging a document

      Tom is an HR executive who has to send onboarding emails every month to newly joined employees. He has a master spreadsheet with all the employee details, and new employees are added to them as they join. It's the month of March and Tom has to send onboarding emails to employees who've joined this month. But, how is Tom going to go through a big spreadsheet with multiple new and past information, and send onboarding emails to the set of newly joined employees?     Simple, by filtering and merging
    • Tip: #11 Collaboratively fill documents with your colleagues and clients

      Last week we talked about how Fillable Fields can help you create contracts and proposal templates you can repurpose across your processes. This week, we'll talk in detail about how to collaboratively fill those templates with your clients and team.    Say you've entered into a contract with multiple clients but the final contract amount is still under negotiation. Using fillable fields, partners can quote their contract fee directly in the template document without affecting other areas of the document. You
    • Tip #07: Five best defaults in Writer you can change to complement the way you work

      Find yourself adjusting settings to the way you like every time you create a new document? Try tweaking the default settings instead.  From font styles to auto correct options and more, here are the five best defaults settings you can control.   1. Default font style   Use your favorite typography across all your documents. You can customize a font style by adding a color, adjusting its size and more, and then set it as default.    To do this, go to More Options > Format > Font. Choose a font style
    • Tip #06: Make the best use of Zia in Writer

      About to share your work with your team? Looking to get a second opinion quickly before that? Let Zia do it.    Zia, Zoho's AI-powered intelligent assistant is now part of Writer. She's trained to check and polish your work. She doesn't just read, she understands. So apart from grammar and spelling checks, she'll let you know when you've used a wrong adjective, or have missed out words based on the context of your piece.   Every time you write, Zia makes a scorecard after carefully assessing your
    • Recent Topics

    • API question - adding a thread to an existing ticket

      Hi Is there an API function for the customer to add to an existing ticket thread? example, customer puts in new support ticket. support replies and ask for more details. customer replies with more details -what api function is used for this (will add record append to same ticket number?) Thanks
    • Calendar week view: Today + 6

      Is there anyway to have the calendar change dynamically based on the date? Due to the amount of events, we only display a week at a time, but towards the end of the week, we can no longer see ahead to next week (without changing it manually every time).
    • How to restrict user/portal user change canvas view

      Hi , I would like to restrict user / portal user change their canvas view because I hide some sensitive field for them. I dont want my user switch the canvas view that do not belong to them But seems Zoho do not provide this setting?
    • How to add to Subforms via Zapier with Zoho Writer?

      I have the following layout for a Zoho Writer Document. As you can see there is a repeating subform taking in "Items". I am trying to make a Zapier integration with it, and I can see there is 1 field saying: "Items", but it does not specify how I'm supposed
    • Contrôles administratifs granulaires : un atout pour la sécurité des e-mails

      La moindre erreur dans votre système de messagerie peut coûter très cher à votre entreprise, tant en argent qu’en conformité et en image de marque. Pour beaucoup d’organisations, ce risque est bien réel. Les e-mails véhiculent quotidiennement des informations
    • Collections Management: #6 Realign Customers who gets back In-Term

      Arun stared at the subscription list on his dashboard. Another account had just been moved to Cancelled status after completing the whole dunning process. Nothing unusual, just that payment failures happen, retries fail, and cancellation is the expected
    • Zoho Mail IP Blacklist

      I need problems with send mails: Error: junk mail rejected - sender4-op-o10.zoho.com 136.143.188.10, is in RBL. Spamcop. Please remove FQDN for blacklist. Regards.
    • I can receive but not send emails

      Hello, I've been not able to send emails for almost a year now. I been using alternate email to do this. I want to know how to fix this so I can use my zoho account normally again.
    • The challenge of 24/7 connectivity: Being present and meeting customer expectations

      Before television entered our homes, radio was our window to the world. We had to tune carefully to catch voices from distant places. When television arrived, the world began to grow smaller. We can watch rocket launches, see the goal that wins our favorite
    • How to download all attachments from inbox, send, other folders in one go

      Hi All, Appreciate if anyone could help me with steps for below requirement. How to download all attachments from inbox, send, other folders in one go. Even mapping to new folder will help me. Thanks in advance.
    • Cannot connect mail accounts to Thunderbird

      Hi Support - I'm attempting to add my mail accounts to Thunderbird but I'm getting an unable to login to server error. I tried to use the password associated with my account I received the unable to login error. So I went into Zoho Accounts and generate
    • Alias Email Id already exists

      Hi, I just verified my domain sesque (dot) com and now I am trying to create the admin account using admin (at) sesque (dot) com, but I am getting an error saying "Alias Email Id already exists". I used to have another Zoho account with this email address,
    • Unable to connect to smtp server, connection timed out

      Hi Team, I am facing below issue, while sending out emails from thunderbird client. It used to work, facing this issue from morning. Error: Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.zoho.com
    • Kaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks

      Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.
    • DKIM Verification Failed (Namecheap)

      Hi! I have already set up the TXT records in Namecheap but I keep getting the "Verification Failed" pop up. Was wondering if I'm the only one who has this problem and can anyone help me with this? Thanks!
    • Emails stuck in Queue

      Hi there, Since yesterday I have a few out going emails stuck in a queue. It say it will auto retry sending however nothing is happening. It seems to be affecting roughly 50% of my outgoing emails. Please help Thanks
    • Soft Bounce from transational emails from BREVO (Sendinblue)

      I manage the website of a client who uses your EMAIL service for the domain floranativadobrasil.com. And I use the BREVO email service, previously called SendinBlue, to send transactional emails about events specific to the website. All emails sent to
    • Getting an error Address not found Your message wasn't delivered

      Hey, I'm trying to configure zoho mail for my website https://businessentity.org/ The email is meredith.karter@businessentity.org I'm able to successfully send the mails but when someone sends an email to above mail, this error shoots up: Address not
    • Support Uploading YouTube Videos Longer Than 60 Minutes

      Hi Zoho Social Team, How are you? We would like to request support for uploading YouTube videos longer than 60 minutes directly through Zoho Social. Your support team informed us that Zoho Social currently cannot upload videos over 60 minutes due to “API
    • Need Faster Help? Try Live Chat Support

      Hello there, We understand that sometimes, whether you’re facing an issue, exploring a feature, or need quick clarification, sending an email and waiting for a response just doesn’t cut it. You need answers, and you need them now. That’s exactly why we
    • Can't deactivate Spell Check

      Hi Community, right now I'm using the Zoho Mail Desktop-Software. So far, so good.. many possibilities. Overall very nice. What is extremely annoying right now, is that we are not able to deactivate the Spell Check feature. And we are barely able to focus
    • Zoho Toolkit Email Signature Generator

      I'm having real issues with the email signature generator with no matter where I host the photo, Zoho doesn't seem to show the photo on the link provided?
    • Company Policy Upload - Request All EE to review and sign

      How can I upload policies into Zoho People and have the employees review them and sign off saying they agree, etc.? Also, if I make a revision to a policy, I would like that changed or updated policy to be distributed or have the employees notified that
    • Zoho Sign Global Settings vs. Template and Document

      Hello, We are running into an issue on a current use case. We already use Zoho Sign. Now that KBA is available, we want to begin using it in our tax delivery process, by allowing clients to sign electronically, but also download a copy of their return
    • Zoho Mail Desktop Crashes on Linux - Ubuntu 24 LTS

      Hi, I have been trying to run the desktop app on Ubuntu for the past few day with no luck. I have tried both the .deb package and the appImage. When I attempt to open the app. It just crashes immediately. The crash error dialog appeared once and I cant
    • Zoho IP blocked by SpamCop

      Hi, Many of my emails are blocked and I receive this:  INVALID_ADDRESS, ERROR_CODE :550, ERROR_CODE :spamcop.mimecast.org Blocked - see https://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?136.143.188.51. - https://community.mimecast.com/docs/DOC-1369#550 [DGwIYPPSOfWI
    • Server error when trying to Data > Sort > Custom Sort

      Been using Data > Sort > Custom Sort for a while, now it has suddenly stopped working. When selecting the same data range and trying to execute, I get "Sorry! There was a problem saving your last edit. Please try again."
    • To Assign a genrated pdf to a file upload field using delug

      content = "<html><body>HTML Content on page One <div style='page-break-after:always'></div> HTML Content on page Two </body></html>"; file = zoho.file.convertToPDF(content); file.setFileName("Name of the file"); <variableName> = <FormLinkName>[ID == input.ID];
    • TArgets To Accounts (Modules)

      How can i set sale target to Customers (Accounts Module)
    • Breaking barriers with multilingual WhatsApp templates in IM

      Ever wondered what it feels like to be greeted in your own language by a brand you love? A “Welcome!” feels nice, but a “¡Bienvenido!” or “स्वागत है!” feels personal. In today’s global world, conversations often need to cross both time zones and cross
    • How to share private Opportunities with whole org at an account level

      Opportunities are currently set to private, so our sales team only sees their own opportunities, along with their manager and upper leadership. The need is the ability for the rest of the Org to see the opportunities at an account level, not within the
    • Problema Verificacion con proveedor NIC.AR

      No puedo realizar la verificación del correo, he seguido los pasos indicados y configurado los MX. Y no puedo verificar el correo. He leido en el foro que otros han tenido el mismo problema. Alguno pudo solucionarlo?
    • How to remove some users in zoho accounts

      How to remove some users in Zoho accounts.
    • Unified Inbox for all, including fetched mails

      I fetch mails from different third-parties mailboxes. But I need to switch mailbox too see fetched mails. It's strange. All mailboxes have one shared disk space for own mail and fetched mail, but why do we need to switch mailbox (on the left bottom) to
    • Whatsapp Limitation Questions

      Good day, I would like to find out about the functionality or possibility of all the below points within the Zoho/WhatsApp integration. Will WhatsApp buttons ever be possible in the future? Will WhatsApp Re-directs to different users be possible based
    • Users Not Automatically Being Added To WorkDrive Team

      I have already created a ticket for this issue, but the support team doesn't seem to understand what's happening. Our organization started with a trial of Zoho Workplace around November 10, 2025. I created 10 users, including myself. I sent out the invites,
    • Synchronization between Gmail and Zoho Mail

      Hello! I am using Zoho Mail within the Zoho One platform. I have completed the basic setup and added all the required DNS records with our domain provider. Our goal is to set up two-way synchronization between our current Gmail inbox and Zoho Mail, but
    • IMAP login problem

      I have my domain hosted with zoho @wilson.ie I have added a new user and have enabled IMAP access to this user account The user can login to zoho mail on the web. When we enter the server settings into Outlook as per below, Outlook cannot login to the
    • Changes to subform in Zoho CRM Portal Timeline History Unavailable

      Hi Support Team, We have noticed a feature limitation in the Zoho CRM portal. We created a portal for our vendors to edit records directly, but when vendors make updates, the Modified Time and Date fields are not being updated. Additionally, these updates
    • This mobile number has been marked spam. Please contact support.

      Hi Support, Can you tell me why number was marked as spam. I have having difficult to add my number as you keep requesting i must use it. My number is +63....163 Or is Zoho company excluding Philippines from their services?
    • Next Page