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

        • Cropping Photos for Zoho Sites

          Hi, I'm wondering if there is a built in crop tool for zoho sites for my photos so I can crop them and see what the crop looks like on the site?

        • Deluge scripts

          Why is there not a search function to make it easier to find the script of interest when modifications are required.

        • bulk edit records and run internal logic

          hi there is few logics in manner "it this than that" logics work well when i edit entry openning it one by one (via workflow "on add/edit - on success" , for custom field "on update/on user input") but when i try bulk edit records - logic does not work.  how can i turn on logic to work as programmed - for mass editing records via bulk edit?

        • WebDAV / FTP / SFTP protocols for syncing

          I believe the Zoho for Desktop app is built using a proprietary protocol. For the growing number of people using services such as odrive to sync multiple accounts from various providers (Google, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, etc.) it would be really helpful

        • Possible for first Signer of Sign Form to specify the next signer in the sequence

          We have many use cases where multiple signers need sign the same document. We'd love to be able to use sign forms, where the a signer who uses the Sign Form link can specify the name and email address for the next person in the sequence.

        • BUG: Can't copy-paste data outside Sheet

          Currently I can't paste data copied from inside any of my Zoho Sheet files to any other app. Copy-paste works inside the sheet It does NOT work between two different sheets These sheets are built from automation templates Everything works fine if I create

        • Zoho CRM Community Digest - November 2025 | Part 1

          Hello Everyone! Here’s what came through in the first half of November: new updates and a few helpful community discussions with real, notable solutions. Product Updates: Android App Update: Inctroducing Swipe Actions You can now swipe left or right on

        • Upload own Background Image and set Camera to 16:9

          Hi, in all known online meeting tools, I can set up a background image reflecting our corporate design. This doesn't work in Cliq. Additionally, Cliq detects our cameras as 4:3, showing black bars on the right and left sides during the meeting. Where

        • Truesync for Linux

          Is Truesync available on linux ?

        • Question about upgrade and storage space Zoho Notebook

          After upgarding my Zoho Notebook plan, I am running into the following issue. I just upgraded from a free Zoho Notebook subscription to Pro Lite after I got a notification in my Window Zoho Notebook desktop app saying that I had run out of space. However,

        • Hidding/excluding specific picklist options from filter

          Hi. Is it possible to hide/exclude specific picklist options from this filter? I don't want them to be shown when someone tries to filter in the leads module

        • Subforms to Capture Multi-Row Data in Job Sheets

          Subforms transform your job sheets from simple checklists to powerful, data-rich forms. In field service work — whether maintenance, inspection, installation, or repair — a single job can involve multiple repeatable entries: readings, parts used, activities

        • Add "Fetch Composite Item" Action for Inventory

          I want to make a Flow that uses information returned in the GET call for Composite Items, and it's not currently available in Zoho Flow. Please consider adding this functionality.

        • Adress Labels for sending of the oder und barcode

          We want to print with my address labels to stick on the order of the ware can. there are these options?

        • printing individual labels - Dymo LabelWriter

          I am trying to print individual labels to my Dymo LabelWriter - has anyone done this? Latest Update (December 2025): The Canvas Print View is now available! We encourage you all to try it out and share your feedback with us. Learn more here: Zoho CRM

        • Zoho Creator for Agriculture

          Greetings, I am starting to work on  Zoho Creator specifically for the agricultural field, any recommendations, tips or ideas that might be helpful ? Also, if you are interested by any means in working on such project, kindly contact me. The project is

        • Custom Print Layout

          I would like to create a custom print layout of a Lead or Contact. Is there a way to do that? What I mean is that if I'm viewing a specific lead or contact I'd like to be able to print or export that lead/contact and only print and/or export certain information.

        • Print View

          Nothing happens when I'm in a module , ie; Contacts, and I hit the Print View Button. Even when it does come up and say "loading", nothing loads

        • Get Holiday ready with Zoho Mail's Offline mode

          With the holiday season right around the corner, this is the perfect time to get ready to unplug, relax, and enjoy a well-deserved break. In addition to preparing yourself, you can also make sure your organization members are set for their time away from

        • Zoho CRM Kiosk issues

          Firstly this is for a system on the AU servers if that makes a difference. Issues are as follows (For Kiosk): 1. Re-ordering fields in the screen builder is broken. The fields seem to be re-ordering themselves, unless you order everything by moving the

        • Zoho Books emails suddenly going to Spam since 11 Nov 2025 (Gmail + now Outlook) — anyone else?

          Hi everyone, We migrated to Zoho Books in July 2025 and everything worked fine until 11 Nov 2025. Since then, Zoho Books system emails are landing in customers’ Spam (first Gmail, and now we’re seeing Outlook/Office 365 also starting to spam them). Impacted

        • Email Template Edits Not Saving

          I can make an edit, click save, and see the blue bar annimation at the top, but the edits don't actually save. Important, because my email templates are now broken and clients are receiving bad emails. Tried on Chrome, Firefox and IE.

        • Default Ticket View - Table?

          Guys, We mostly use the table view to queue tickets. Maybe I am missing it - but how can I set that view as 'default" for all our agents? Thanks JV

        • Can I have different users see different pick list values for Potential Stage?

          We have some users focusing on new business and others focusing on existing business, and they follow different sales processes/cycles, so we would like them to see different pick list values for Stage (eventually leading up to Closed Won/Lost in both cases).   And just to keep it interesting - some of these users will of course do a combination, so would need to see one pick list for their New business potentials and a different pick list for their Existing business ones.   Salesforce does this

        • Tracking Snippet not working in Zoho Marketing Automation!

          First off, the fact that you have to wait about 12-24 hours for every response is terrible. How are we supposed to conduct business? Second, we have been trying for several days to get the Tracking Code Snippet in marketing automation to work, to no avail.

        • Is there any way to send an Excel received by email to Dataprep?

          Every day I receive an email alert with an Excel file that I want to process through a Dataprep pipeline. To do this, I need to: -Save the file to disk -Open the pipeline -Run the pipeline -Update the source -Several clicks to select and open the saved

        • Read webpage - MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP

          I have the following VBA script, put together from various sources (mainly zoho forum/help/support, so it once worked, I guess): private Sub GetListOfSheets() Dim url As String Dim xmlhttp As Object Dim parameters As String Dim html As String range("B1").value

        • Zoho Creator Form Search

          I'm new to Zoho Creator and so far i do like it but im shocked there seems to be no easy way to add a search function and/or navigation to there forms as this readily available in every platform i have used in the past. Anyway i have a form which i have

        • How to setup DKIM / SPF in Zoho Mail

          Hello there! I'm having a hard time understanding how to setup the TXT records for SPF and DKIM with Zoho Mail. I'm following the instructions here: https://www.zoho.com/campaigns/help/setup-spf-dkim.html Specifically, when it comes to the value for the

        • Mass update cant trigger a workflow?

          Hello there, Is this a normal Creator behaviour? In a report, if I manually edit each data row, it will pass those changes to all other reports. However, if I perform a Mass Update on a few data rows at once, the new data is not pushed to other reports.

        • search and Smart Bar both missing in Mail

          One of the users on my account does not have the search bar at the top right or the Smart Bar at the bottom left of the desktop Mail app. Any ideas how to get those back?

        • "Wrong password or login" Problem to configure Zoho on MAIL App on my Macbook

          Hi, I'm having problems to configure my e-mail on my MAIL App(Macbook pro). My e-mail is hari@trespontoum.net Actually was working perfectly, and still working on my Iphone. My MAIL App prompt me that my login or password is wrong. I tried to change 3

        • Remote Control Functionality During Screen Sharing in Zoho Cliq

          Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We would like to request the addition of remote control functionality during screen sharing sessions in Zoho Cliq. Currently, while screen sharing in Cliq is very useful, it lacks the ability for another participant to take control

        • Let us add Lookup fields in the Blueprint Transitions

          We are unable to add Lookup Fields in the blueprint transitions in Zoho Desk, we wanted to make it a requirement for our workflow but since it's not available in the transition we cannot. The lookup field exists in the Layout: But it cannot be added/selected

        • Zoho Projects API Scope for Issue Attachments

          I try to download issue attachments via the API, unfortunately I always get the following error code when trying to download the file from the supplied URL: {"ERROR_MESSAGE":"INVALID_OAUTHSCOPE","ERROR_CODE":401} indicating an auth scope error. I've tried

        • How to fetch custom fields for time entries in Zoho Project API v3

          In the previous Zoho Projects REST API, we were able to retrieve custom field details for time entries, including picklist options, using the endpoint: GET /restapi/portal/[PORTAL_ID]/timesheetcustomfields In the new Zoho Projects API v3, we tried using

        • Zoho Survey Enhancements

          We love Survey. We use it a ton. It needs some enhancements. Maybe some of these are already on the roadmap? API - this is crucial. We have some complex surveys that take place and need to update records, trigger other functions/automations, etc. I would

        • Images Don't Display on Blog

          Hi, I've just posted a new blog entry, but regardless of format (png or jpeg) Images that display in Preview mode do not display on any browser in the published post.  I've not done anything different with this post than others regarding images, please advice. Thanks! Edit:  I've discovered that moving the image files from a my sub directory folder "Pics for Blog" to the top level of the "Files" folder on my site allows the images to display live.  This, even though my other blog posts are correctly

        • Checkbox Field Mapping Zoho Forms to Zoho Sign

          I have an application that will be filled out via Forms that I am mapping into a PDF Filler on Zoho Sign. I need to have a series of checkboxes mapped to the corresponding fields in Sign and I only see single checkboxes available via the mapping, though

        • Books P&L by Customer

          Lately, we have found that the Customer field filter for the Profit & Loss report in Zoho Books is no longer available. We have several projects with the same customer and look at the P&Ls by project AND by Customer (overall). Can you please add back in this field selection alongside the Project field to the P&L report filter? Thanks! -Gina

        • Next Page