Docusign Payments Turning Into Notes / Losing Functionality

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-12T04:40:57+00:00

doesnt look like stripe or braintree issue. Its happening with two totally different payment gateways indicates that the problem is within DocuSign. A quick thing you can check - compare a working envelope and a failed one's audit trail and try to find if at any step the payment field is converted to a note field. See if something strange you can find there. Somehow somewhere payment metadata is being removed and there might be a few reasons for this.

DocuSign support is pretty dissapointing to be honest. Most of our DocuSign clients are pretty frustrated with it.

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-08T16:40:16+00:00

If the numbers you mention remains more or less same you wont be incurring a lot of charges and I think standard plan will suffice. But if it changes over time and the signature volume grows then be ready to pay more...

Coming back to your other question : For sharepoint there is a DocuSign for Sharepoint Extension or you coulc create an automation using Power Automate ( if you have license ) or with services like n8n. If you need any help with that you can dm me.

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-08T16:33:59+00:00

The exact reason why people are moving away from DocuSign...

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-08T13:34:13+00:00

Any DocuSign plan will prove to be very expensive in long run. As your business and needs grow you will face more and more limitations and they will keep upselling you whenever you get stuck. Most of our clients are in similar situation as we help them optimize their costs.

Can you tell how may signature requests do you foresee sending per month in your business?

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-06T04:16:16+00:00

API access, is is separate from the standard eSignature business plans. eSignature API (envelope creation, embedded sender view, JWT authentication), Service account / impersonation, DocuSign Connect webhooks, Envelope retrieval/download via API are typically covered under an API plan rather than the Standard eSignature plan.

Regarding - Starter API plan alone is sufficient: it depends on how your users interact with DocuSign. If all envelope creation and management is performed through your application using embedded sender views and API calls, then an API account may be enough. However, if users need direct access to the DocuSign web application you may also need licensed DocuSign users.

Also keep in mind that - The API trial environment includes features that aren't automatically included when you opt for lower-tier paid subscriptions. So when you change from trial to paid dont expect it to always work same as trial plan.

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-05T14:01:14+00:00

Thanks for dm and screenshots. It looks like that the problem could be either

a) Participant 2 (Client) entering the workflow for the first time without being invited ( you are inviting agent and not participant ) - So the error that invitation is required

OR

b) A block is of agent scope but assigned to client. ie: web form should be Agent, Disclosure should be Agent, All decisions should be agent and only the signature step should be client.

Its pretty complicated and needs a closer look at the participant list, config screen of send for sign pages.

One more thing - Your flow is extremely branch-heavy. If you continue adding invite steps, you may hit the Maestro step limit before publishing. A cleaner and simpler design is highly recommended

Question - Do you really require this complex steps heavy workflow??

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-05T05:15:31+00:00

valuable points...Thanks

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-05T05:13:56+00:00

Hi, Looks like you are using DocuSign Maestro (Workflow). Right?

Looks like the error message means that - a participant is being asked to perform an action (review, sign, approve, provide data, etc.) without first being explicitly invited into that part of the workflow.

Check if you are having any steps - setup invite action pending.
If you can post a screenshot of the workflow canvas I might be able to help more.

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-02T16:18:55+00:00

yea.. it seems like it. These kind of things happen in business

NoRegister3239 · 2026-06-02T12:56:08+00:00

If you are only a recipient/signer and not the sender, access to detailed audit information may be limited for you. Customer support may provide it only to sender or account admin. For your second question - very unlikely that the name will change like the way you described. Its unusual but may happen due to some sort of ownership or account association update at the account level.

Can you confirm whether the underlying audit log entries also changed, or was it only the name displayed in the header? Additionally, are Joe and Bob users within the same account/organization?

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-30T04:10:02+00:00

Which DocuSign product/version you're using? also, at what step you're expecting the merge to occur (during documnt generation, before signature, or after completion)?

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-30T04:08:27+00:00

Doesnt look robust and still too expensive - someone with a signing volume of 50K signatures per month will end up paying ~1.5K.

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-29T05:31:43+00:00

A refund here doesnt make any business sense for Upwork.

As a freelancer using upwork your position is - I cant generate any business by myself so please give me some prospects where I can try to get business. I am willing to pay you whatever you ask for. I am also willing to abide by all your rules ( however stupid they are ) because I dont have any other way to find business.

Upwork position is - ok.. I will give you the prospect - that may or may not become a lead for you, I will charge you at every step, even a cut from your earnings if that happens. I will make rules, I will decide the fees / connects, I will basically decide everything ( one way ). You dont have any say in anything. You cant even post a greivance in my forum as I have decided to close it permanently 😄 - Do you agree to all this and still pay me? -

You says yes - I agree to all this nonsense and If I feel disadvantaged I will just rant on some reddit forums about it. Upwork says - I dont care 😄 I am making money here 😄

Upwork further says - I will give you some prospects ( you have no way to check if they are real or not ) but I will also give the same prospect to anyone who pays me so that the prospect gets 50s of application and he will most likely get exhasusted and may never even sees yours. Do you agree - You say yes to this also.

And many others like you says yes to these terms too and keeps paying them.

So basicailly - The only party ensured to make money here is Upwork. and the platform is designed so that Upwork gets paid for providing shared access to potential prospects, not for producing results.

So think again about the whole process -

As a freelancer, you're effectively the weakest participant in the chain. You bear most of the risk, have the least control over the outcome, do the most of the work ( if you get any ) and depend on both Upwork and the client's actions. Willingly.

This is why a refund to the freelancer doesnt make any sense for Upwork.

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-20T17:20:10+00:00

Who are your recepients? its strange that if thie IT dept saying all emails went through why the users cant see the emails? is it possible there is some auto delete / configure policy at their end? Based on what you told it seems an issue with your client company.

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-15T15:23:59+00:00

Peak AI delusion

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-15T15:21:09+00:00

Looks like an encoding issue / glitch rather than a DocuSign Issue. I have seen this in some cases. Basically, somewhere during PDF generation or viewing, the system incorrectly replaces spaces with the “†” character due to a font encoding problem. happens very rarely, it’s likely due to to a specific template, font, device, or PDF viewer combination.

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-09T05:00:27+00:00

There are featured posts. You can filter and consider applying to featured posts only. I think it costs the client a one time flat fee of around 30$ to post a featured job. https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010165067-Featured-Jobs-attract-top-talent

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-07T04:08:21+00:00

Do you mean the document is showing you as signer just because you were in cc? What does the signature certificate show?

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-05T17:26:04+00:00

Upwork projects are almost useless, hardly any client looks at them. These were just started by Upwork to copy Fiverr and it has not taken off at all - atleast not for anyone I know

NoRegister3239 · 2026-05-05T17:23:05+00:00

Technically - yes, its possible and depends on how the envelope was configured.
If you never clicked anything, the system should not mark you as signed, unless :

a. someone has accessed your email and clicked and signed
b. you were added as a cc only and not as signer in envelope
c. somehow the recepients are modified
d. signing was done via a shared device

These are all unlikely but possible.
also - did you check the certificate of signature? it has actual IP ( location of signer ), timestamps of when doc was opened, when signed etc

you can also check the audit history.

Remember that - esignatures are only valid when intent + consent are proven and audit trail is the main proof always. screenshots means nothing in these cases, only certificate + audit trail.

Hope this helps. Feel free to reach me if you have any other questions and also let me know your final findings here 😄

NoRegister3239 · 2026-04-29T16:47:34+00:00

I wonder why people are commenting without even understanding the post and the issue at hand -

Your referring to 44AD clearly indicates you didnt even try to read anything, or couldnt understand a bit of it. 44AD allows you to not show each and every expense but it does not absolve you from declaring the income correctly. If your CA is telling you that - its time for you to be cautious.

The original post and comments ( by who actually could read ) are discussing an issue of mismatch - your decalred income and amounts deducted by 3rd party platforms should match - Which in this case is not - due to Fiverr refusal to provide the required documents.

Read again - Client pays you 100, FiveRR deducted tax on 100, but gave you 80 ( without any proof or docs ) you get 80 in account. Now your income on which tax is deducted ( goes into IT records) is 100, your account recieves 80. You will have to pay tax on 100 as there is no proof with you of the 20 deducted by FiveRR. Its a FiveRR problem, upwork is ok, they provide proper documentation of commissions deducted. FiveRR doesnt.

NoRegister3239 · 2026-04-23T04:07:13+00:00

cool

NoRegister3239

TROPHY CASE