Overview
Deskie lets you collect signatures on documents from your members and guests. There are two kinds of signable documents in the system. The first is the membership agreement, which members sign as part of joining your space. The second is custom documents that an admin creates and sends to a specific recipient for signing, such as a one-off waiver, addendum, or policy acknowledgment. Both kinds appear together in the Documents area, and both produce a downloadable signed PDF.
This article covers the documents library, the membership agreement and its signing flow, custom documents and how recipients sign them, and how signed PDFs are generated and downloaded.
The documents library
Open Documents from the main navigation. What you see depends on your role.
Admins and owners see workspace documents in one table, sorted with the most recent activity first. This includes custom documents (basic and rich) and signed membership agreements. When you are viewing a single location rather than all locations, the table is scoped to documents whose recipient belongs to a location you can access. The table shows the document title, its type, the recipient (with avatar), the status, the date it was created, and the date it was signed if applicable.
Members and guests see only their own documents. Their list combines any custom documents that have been sent to them with their own signed membership agreement. Members only see custom documents once they have been sent, so drafts an admin is still preparing do not appear.
Document types in the table
The Type column labels each row:
- Basic: a text document written directly in Deskie's editor.
- Rich: a PDF you uploaded with signature and other fields placed on it.
- Onboarding: a signed membership agreement. These come from the member's onboarding signature rather than from a document an admin created.
Document statuses
Custom documents move through a defined set of statuses, each shown as a colored badge:
- Draft: created but not yet sent. Only the admin can see it. Drafts can still be edited.
- Sent: delivered to the recipient and waiting to be opened.
- Viewed: the recipient has opened the document at least once.
- Signed: the recipient has completed signing.
- Voided: the document was cancelled by an admin and can no longer be signed.
Signed membership agreements always show as Signed.
Membership agreements
Each workspace has a membership agreement that members sign during onboarding. You set the agreement's title and content, along with a welcome email, in your workspace settings. The agreement content is rich text, so you can use headings and paragraphs to lay out your terms.
The agreement can be configured per location. You can keep a single workspace-wide agreement, or set a location-specific version that overrides the default for that location. During member onboarding, Deskie shows the location-specific agreement when one exists and otherwise falls back to the workspace default. If no agreement has been configured at all, Deskie shows placeholder default content so onboarding can still proceed.
How a member signs the agreement
When a member completes onboarding, they review the agreement text and draw their signature. Deskie saves the drawn signature as an image and records the date and time it was signed against the member's profile. From that point on, the member is recorded as having signed the agreement.
A member's signed agreement appears in their Documents list as an Onboarding document, and admins see it in the workspace documents table alongside everything else. Opening it shows the agreement rendered as a PDF, including the member's information and their signature.
Custom documents
Admins and owners can create custom documents to send to a single recipient for signing. Use the New document action to start. Document creation is a desktop and tablet experience; on small screens Deskie asks you to switch to a larger device.
You choose one of two formats when you create a document.
Basic documents
A basic document is written directly in Deskie using the rich text editor. Type or paste the text the recipient needs to read and agree to. A title and content are both required. When the recipient signs, Deskie generates a PDF that contains your workspace name, the document title, the full text, the signer's name and email, the signing date and time, and the signature image.
Rich documents
A rich document starts from a PDF you upload (maximum 20MB). After uploading, you place fields directly on the pages of the PDF. Supported field types are signature, initials, text, and date. Each field is positioned on a specific page, and fields can be marked as required. A rich document must have at least one signature field before it can be sent.
When the recipient signs a rich document, Deskie embeds their entries into a copy of the original PDF: signature and initials fields are placed as images, and text and date fields are drawn as text. The result is a completed PDF that preserves your original layout.
Choosing a recipient and sending
Select a recipient from your workspace's members and guests. Inactive members are not available to choose. You can save the document as a draft to finish later, or send it right away. Sending requires a recipient, and for rich documents it also requires at least one signature field.
When you send a document, its status changes to Sent and Deskie emails the recipient a link to open and sign it. Members receive a link into their Documents area, and guests receive a link into their guest documents area.
Editing and voiding
Documents can only be edited while they are still in Draft status. This includes changing the title, content, recipient, and (for rich documents) the field layout. Once a document has been sent, it can no longer be edited.
From a document's detail view, an admin can void a document that has not yet been signed. Voiding cancels the document so it can no longer be signed.
The signing flow for recipients
When a recipient opens a document that has been sent to them, Deskie marks it as Viewed and records the time. Signing is a desktop and tablet experience; on small screens the recipient is asked to switch to a larger device.
For a basic document, the recipient reads the text, draws their signature, and confirms a checkbox stating that they have read the document and that they understand their electronic signature is legally binding. They cannot submit until both a signature and the agreement checkbox are provided.
For a rich document, the recipient works through the fields placed on the PDF, drawing signatures and initials and filling in text and date fields, then confirms a checkbox agreeing to be bound by the document. Required fields other than the signature itself must be completed before the document can be submitted.
Once submitted, the document's status becomes Signed, the signing time is recorded, and the recipient sees the completed document.
The audit trail
Deskie records key events for each custom document so there is a history of what happened and when. Tracked events include when the document was created, sent, viewed, signed, and voided. Each signature also captures the signer's name and email at the time of signing, along with the IP address and browser used. The document detail view surfaces this as an activity timeline showing creation, sending, viewing, signing, and voiding with timestamps.
Downloading signed PDFs
Every signed document can be downloaded as a PDF.
- Membership agreements are rendered into a PDF on demand. The PDF includes your workspace name, the agreement title and content, the member's information, the signing date, and the member's signature. Admins can download a member's agreement from the row menu in the documents table or from the document detail view; members can download their own agreement.
- Signed basic documents are saved as a generated PDF (containing the text and the signature) at signing time. If that PDF is ever missing, Deskie regenerates it the next time the document is opened.
- Signed rich documents are saved as the completed PDF with all field entries embedded.
For each signed PDF, Deskie also stores a SHA-256 hash so the file's integrity can be verified. To download a signed custom document, open it from the documents table and use the Download action on its detail view.
Document templates
Separate from the documents you send to members, Deskie maintains a library of document templates: ready-made starting points (for example, common coworking agreements and policies) published in the Deskie resources area. Each template has a name, description, category, and content, and the public library tracks how often templates are viewed and copied. The template library is published and maintained by Deskie's platform team rather than edited inside your workspace settings. Use it as reference content when drafting your own agreement or custom documents.