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Overview

I designed and built an automation workflow for the full lifecycle of digital signature documents: preparing customer data, sending the certificate through DocuSign, tracking envelope status, monitoring unsigned documents, and storing completed PDFs in the correct SharePoint customer folder.

The workflow connects n8n, DocuSign, Microsoft Excel, SharePoint, Outlook, Slack, and SMS communication into one document-tracking process.

The goal was not only to send a document for signature, but to create a reliable process around it: validation before sending, tracking after sending, reminders when signatures are missing, and automatic archiving when the signed document is completed.

The challenge

The dispatch process required customers to receive, sign, and return digital signature documents before operational work could be completed safely and consistently.

The challenge was to automate the certificate delivery, tracking, reminder, and storage process while keeping it connected to existing dispatch data, regional records, and Microsoft 365 document storage.

Without a structured tracking layer, it would be difficult to see which certificates were sent, which were still unsigned, which needed follow-up, and where completed PDFs should be stored.

What I did

I designed, built, tested, and maintained the automation layer for the digital signature workflow.

My work included preparing and validating customer data, building the DocuSign sending workflow, creating tracking logic, connecting Microsoft Excel and SharePoint, processing completed DocuSign emails, matching completed envelopes to the correct customer records, and adding Slack notifications for operational visibility.

System flow

Core modules

Technical decisions

Reliability patterns

The outcome

The automation made the digital signature workflow more structured and traceable.

It connected certificate sending, status tracking, reminder monitoring, completed document handling, SharePoint archiving, and Slack visibility into one coordinated workflow.

The main impact was traceable document handling: the team could see which certificates were sent, which remained unsigned, where follow-up was needed, and when completed PDFs were stored successfully.

Tech stack

Proof / Evidence

This case study is based on a DocuSign certificate automation workflow. The architecture is documented openly. Customer data, phone numbers, email addresses, DocuSign envelope IDs, internal SharePoint paths, Excel workbook IDs, credentials, webhook URLs, and workflow exports are not part of the public material.

Live system

Click to enlarge

Public code & documentation

Code excerpt: DocuSign envelope completion handler

When DocuSign reports a completed envelope (via webhook or completed-email detection), this node extracts the envelope details, looks up the matching tracking record by envelope ID, and prepares the SharePoint upload path. The full handler continues with the PDF download and tracking-row update.

// After detecting a completed DocuSign envelope (via webhook
// or completed-email detection), extract the envelope details
// and find the matching tracking record in the regional sheet.

const envelope = $input.first().json;

const envelopeId = envelope.envelopeId;
const recipientName = envelope.recipients?.signers?.[0]?.name || "";
const completedAt =
  envelope.completedDateTime || new Date().toISOString();

if (!envelopeId) {
  throw new Error("Missing envelopeId on completed envelope");
}

// Find the tracking row whose envelope_id column matches.
const trackingRows = $("Read Tracking Sheet").first().json.value || [];
const matchingRow = trackingRows.find(
  (row) => row.values?.[0]?.[ENVELOPE_ID_COL] === envelopeId
);

if (!matchingRow) {
  // Not all completion events are ours. Log and exit cleanly.
  return [{ json: { skip: true, envelopeId } }];
}

// Build the SharePoint upload path from the row's fields.
const customer = matchingRow.values[0][CUSTOMER_NAME_COL];
const region = matchingRow.values[0][REGION_COL];
const uploadPath = buildHaftungPath(region, customer, envelopeId);

// ... continues with PDF download from DocuSign and SharePoint upload.
// See snippets/docusign-envelope-extractor.js for the full handler.

Full handler in snippets/docusign-envelope-extractor.js. The integration flow is documented in docs/docusign-integration.md.