Adobe Acrobat Sign

CSUN eProcess+ is a campus-wide initiative using technology to digitally transform processes for our students, faculty and staff.  The initiative leverages applications such as Adobe Sign, myCSUNbox, OnBase, SOLAR, and others to create user friendly, efficient online processes using workflow and electronic signatures.

The following four guiding principles help prioritize the processes to transition to electronic and/or digital platforms.

• High Impact - Processes that are frequently used by students, faculty and/or staff, time sensitive, and which most impact the constituent’s CSUN experience.
• Risk Management/Safety/Security – Processes that are identified as necessary to minimize or mitigate risk, or which protect CSUN constituents from a safety, security or privacy perspective.
• Compliance – Processes that are mandated by federal, state, local, CSU and CSUN policies, including those of the recognized auxiliaries.
• Productivity  – Enhance processes that are time-consuming, duplicative, and/or require excessive approval

Want to Get Started?

These individuals have been identified as eProcess+ liaisons and serve as points of contact to provide assistance and answer questions regarding the eProcess+ initiative.

Submit a Digital Transformation Request

Electronic and digital signatures provide two ways to sign a PDF document outside of Adobe Acrobat Sign. The following guide provides instructions to use either method of signing.

View The Guide (PDF)

• Using Electronic Signatures in Adobe Acrobat Sign
• Getting Started Guide
• Creating Forms within Acrobat
• Initiating a CSUN Form Using the Adobe Acrobat Sign Workflow

View our three part Adopting Acrobat Adobe Sign (formerly known as: Adobe Sign) training series. Start with the Introduction, Template Creation and finish with Workflow Designer. If you have questions, email adobesign@csun.edu.

• Adopting Adobe Sign: Introduction (60 min)
• Adopting Adobe Sign: Template Creation (90 min)
• Adopting Adobe Sign: Workflow Designer (70 min)

Find several short videos to expand your skills. Topics include routing for signing order, managing and tracking agreements, plus more!

• Sending and Signing (Beginner & Experienced)
• Creating a Reusable Web Form

Creating accessible PDFs is a critical step in making documents ready to use with assistive technology. PDF modifications such as set up, logical reading order, title, bookmarks, color contrast, images, forms, tables, lists and headings are all basic requirements for creating accessible PDFs. For additional support, contact the Universal Design Center.

• Creating Accessible PDFs
• Creating Accessible Document Forms
• PDF Conversion in Microsoft Word Cheatsheet (PDF)
• Adobe Sign Text Tag Guide

Find resources on the Adobe Acrobat Sign Support webpage to help answer your common questions. 

Visit the Support Webpage

Go to https://secure.echosign.com/public/login to sign in to Adobe Sign. View the Adobe Acrobat Sign Log In guide for step by step instructions about logging in. You can also log in to the myNorthridge Portal and select the Sign My Documents link from the Technology pagelet.

Note: If you are a sender who is simultaneously accessing a demo and production Adobe Sign account, you must use a separate browsers to log in. You can also use a private browser for logging in. If you experience issues signing in to Adobe Sign, clear the browser cache and try again.

Adobe Acrobat Sign uses a specific echosign@echosign.com domain for their emails This cannot be changed.

CSUN is going as paper-free as possible, but there is the ability to print the documents in Adobe Acrobat Sign.

All CSUN faculty and staff are signers and senders in Adobe Acrobat Sign. 

An access request form is only needed if you need to be a Group Administrator or need to be added to a specific group. Be sure to provide your name, employee ID, email address, extension, effective date and department name to your business owner. Also indicate that you are requesting to become a Group Administrator (which gives you workflow access) or need to be put in a specific Adobe Acrobat Sign group.

For business owners, view the instructions to initiate the Adobe Access Request form to learn how to initiate the request form.

Adobe Acrobat Sign accounts are used to send forms for signature reflecting what account the form is from. When a department/business process account needs a separate account within their department or for a specific business process, an account can be requested. For example, the main Information Technology department account needs a separate Human Resources related group to process HR related IT forms, agreements, and workflows so an Information Technology - HR* account is created. An example of a business process account is an account created for ongoing process that includes agreements, templates, workflows and a Box repository for the completed agreements, if needed. A generic email account is added to the business process account and access is granted to users.

The form requires user information (the individual requesting the account), the name of the desired account, the user(s) for the account and if necessary, the Box integration URL.

To request a group account, please log in to Adobe Acrobat Sign. Access the workflow titled: Adobe Sign Department or Business Account Request. The workflow will guide you through filling out the request. 

For any questions, please email adobesign@csun.edu. 

A supervisor can use the Adobe Acrobat Sign Removal Request form to request the removal of an employee from their Adobe Sign group. Access the form through the Use a Workflow dropdown menu.

Contact the IT Help Center

Department, college or division forms that are typically printed and signed should go through Adobe Acrobat Sign. Paper-based forms that are typically sent by mail, email or campus mail that require a wet signature should transition to Adobe Acrobat Sign.
*Note: Forms or documents containing Confidential Level 1 data should not be sent through Adobe Acrobat Sign. 

Yes! Adobe Acrobat Sign works from all major mobile devices and tablets.

Yes. Digital signatures are a subset of the larger category called “electronic signatures.” Where typical electronic signatures can use a variety of methods for authenticating signers, digital signatures uses certificates. Adobe Acrobat Sign is an electronic signature tool. that uses CSUN authentication to verify identity.

A web form is a reusable form that you can share or embed on your webpage for visitors to initiate the signing of the form.

Users who have the sender role can sign and send a document(s) for one or more signatures.

Workflows can tailor the signing process to fit your specific needs. Administrators can design, manage and share workflows with senders. Using workflows, an admin can set up specific signers that always remain on an agreement and also those signers that may change from time to time. Workflows can be shared from group to group.

Yes, an Adobe Acrobat Sign group account can designate a Box folder where all agreements sent from the group account will be uploaded the the Box folder. 

The steps to set up the Box folder are as follows:

1. Log in to your myCSUNbox account.

2. Create and name a Box folder.

3. Select ..., followed by the Settings option. 

4. In the Uploading section, select the checkbox for Allow uploads to this folder. A unique email address displays for the Box folder.

5. The IT Adobe Sign Administrator needs the Box email address to set up the Box upload. Email  and include your Adobe Sign group name and the Box email address.

When to Use Adobe Acrobat Sign

• Any campus paperwork that can be signed electronically, by any number of recipients. [sustainable]
   
• Any campus to vendor paperwork that can be signed electronically.
   
• Any form that is used over and over (Create an Adobe Acrobat Sign template)
   
• Forms that must be reviewed by someone before determining who is the appropriate recipient based upon what is entered on the form. (Any method of sending, with a Delegator Recipient Role)
• Forms that need to be available to the campus community via a link and just need to be completed and returned to the form owner, with no additional workflow. (Web Forms)
   
• Forms that need to be available to the campus community ad-hoc, and have a standard workflow that depends upon the employee or department initiating the form. (Workflow)
   
• Forms that need to be sent to many recipients and would benefit from having data autofilled from an Excel spreadsheet, but have a simple workflow of to the recipient and back to the form owner. (Mega Sign)

Submit a Digital Transformation Request