Documents is where agreements are written, sent, signed and proved. Contracts, offers, quotes, NDAs, anything that needs a signature and a record afterwards.
The difference that matters
Most signing tools are a separate product you upload a finished PDF into. The document arrives knowing nothing about your business, and what comes back is a signed file you then have to file somewhere.
Here the document is built from your records. A contract for a deal pulls the company name, the value, the terms and the contact out of that deal rather than out of somebody's copy and paste. When it is signed, the result is attached to the deal, not sitting in a folder.
That has two consequences worth understanding before anything else.
Wrong data cannot be typed in. The fields resolve from the record, so a contract cannot disagree with the CRM. If the value is wrong on the contract, it is wrong on the deal, and there is one place to fix it.
The trail is one trail. The conversation, the meeting, the deal and the executed agreement are all attached to the same thing, and nothing had to be synchronised for that to be true.
The lifecycle
Every document travels the same route.
A template is authored once: the layout, the wording, and which parts come from where.
A document is generated from that template against one record, so the placeholders become real values.
Signers are named, either as people or as roles bound to the record.
It is sent. Each signer receives a link.
They sign, without an account, in a browser.
It is sealed, and from that point it can be verified rather than merely trusted.
The surfaces
| Where | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Template Gallery | The documents you can send |
| All Documents | Everything sent, in every state |
| Pending Signatures | What is waiting on somebody |
| Envelopes | Several documents travelling together |
| Bulk Sends | One document going to many people |
| Verification Log | Everything signed |
| Boards and Inbox | The usual per-hub surfaces |
| Reports & Analytics | Volume, cycle time, what is stuck |
Seven states
A document is in exactly one: draft, sent, viewed, partially signed, signed, expired, or cancelled.
Two of them are worth calling out now.
Viewed is a real state. You can tell the difference between a document nobody opened and one somebody read and did not sign, and those need different follow-up conversations.
Expired exists because documents have a validity. A link that works forever is a liability, and the piece on sending covers how long yours should last.
Signing needs no account
Recipients do not create an account, do not install anything, and do not log in. They click the link in their email and sign in the browser.
That is deliberate and it is the single biggest determinant of whether a document actually gets signed. Every step between a customer and a signature loses some of them.
What makes it provable
When a document is signed it is sealed, and the seal is checkable afterwards.
The system records who signed, when, from where, and what exactly they saw. It keeps a running chain of the document's history, so any later alteration is detectable rather than being a matter of somebody's word. And it can produce a package of evidence you can hand to a lawyer.
None of that is something you configure. It happens on every document, and the piece on trust explains how to read it.
Who does what
Three distinct jobs, and confusing them is the usual reason a rollout stalls.
Somebody owns the templates. Usually legal, HR, or whoever signs off on wording. This is administrative work, it needs a higher permission, and it happens once and then rarely.
Everybody sends. From a deal, a person, a supplier. No template knowledge required, because the person who published it already made every decision except who signs.
Somebody watches the pipeline. Whoever cares that agreements actually close, checking what is stuck weekly.
The failure to avoid is a gallery anybody can edit. Templates that change without review are templates nobody can rely on, and the first time a wrong clause goes out the whole thing loses its credibility.
What it costs
Nothing per document. Sending, signing, sealing and verifying carry no usage charge, so there is no reason to batch sends or hesitate over a draft.
Documents is licensed as a module rather than metered, so if it is in your sidebar you have it.
Where to start
If you are setting this up: read the pieces on templates, the editor and smart fields, in that order. That is where the work is, and it is one-time work.
If you just need to send something: read sending a document. Everything before it has probably already been done by somebody.
If you are chasing a signature: read tracking documents.
One idea to carry into the rest
Everything else in this section follows from a single choice: the document is a view of a record, not a file.
Templates are views waiting for a record. Smart fields are how the view knows what to show. Sending picks the record. Signing captures assent to what the view showed. Verification proves what that was.
Hold that and the rest reads as one system rather than eight screens.
Common first questions
Does the recipient need NearSync? No. They need an email address and a browser.
Can I use our own contract? Yes, and you should. Upload the PDF your lawyers approved and place fields on it.
What if the deal changes after sending? Cancel and reissue. Never leave two live versions in the world.
Can somebody sign on a phone? Yes, and a large share do.
Where does the signed copy go? Onto the record it came from, automatically. There is nothing to file.
What it is not
It is not a document store. Files your organisation keeps live elsewhere. This is for agreements that need a signature.
It is not a word processor. Templates are authored here, but a long negotiated contract is usually drafted elsewhere and uploaded.
It does not give legal advice. It records what was agreed, robustly. Whether the wording is right for your jurisdiction is a question for your lawyer, and the compliance material in this section is background rather than counsel.
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