Glossary
Document Expiry
TL;DR
Document expiry serves two purposes: security (preventing old signing links from being used months later) and business logic (enforcing deadlines for contract execution).
**Default expiry periods by provider**
• Signbee: 30 days (configurable) • DocuSign: 120 days (configurable per envelope) • HelloSign: 30 days • PandaDoc: No default expiry (configurable)
**When to use short expiry periods**
Short expiry (7-14 days) is appropriate for time-sensitive documents: employment offer letters (candidate may accept elsewhere), real estate contracts (market conditions change), and event-related waivers (must be signed before the event).
**When to use long expiry periods**
Long expiry (60-90 days) suits documents where the signer may need time: multi-party contracts awaiting internal approvals, government forms with processing delays, and academic agreements spanning enrollment periods.
**Handling expired documents**
When a document expires, the signing link returns an error page. Best practice is to set up a webhook listener for the document.expired event, then automatically resend the document or notify the sender. Some platforms support automatic reminders before expiry to reduce the need for resending.
Related terms
Further reading
Related resources
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