How to Collect Payments Alongside Signatures with DocSignerHub

Why Attach a Payment to Your Signature Request?

Picture this: you are a freelance designer who just wrapped a branding project. The client loved the work. Now you need two things from them — a signed copyright transfer agreement, and your final invoice paid. Wouldn't it be cleaner if those happened in one step, not two separate emails dragging across three days?

That is exactly what DocSignerHub's payment collection feature handles. You attach a payment requirement to your signature envelope, and the signer cannot complete the document until the payment clears. No awkward "hey, the invoice is still outstanding" follow-ups. No signed contracts with unpaid fees. The document only finalizes when the money hits your account.

In this walkthrough, I will show you the full flow — from setting up your payment gateway to tracking which envelopes got signed and paid.

Step 1: Connect Your Stripe Account

Before you can collect payments, DocSignerHub needs to know where the money goes. Head to Settings → Integrations and look for the Stripe card.

Click Connect Stripe. You will be redirected to Stripe's standard OAuth flow. Log in to your existing Stripe account, or create one in under two minutes if you do not have one yet. Once authorized, you will land back on your DocSignerHub settings page with a green "Connected" badge.

Gotcha: Make sure your Stripe account is fully verified — meaning you have completed Stripe's identity and bank account setup. Payments will not process to an unverified account. If you are in a country where Stripe operates via invite-only, check their availability dashboard first.

Stripe charges its standard processing fee (2.9% + $0.30 for most cards). DocSignerHub does not add any markup on top. What Stripe deducts is exactly what comes out.

Step 2: Create Your First Payment-Enabled Envelope

From your dashboard, click New Envelope. Upload your document as usual — PDF, DOCX, or any supported format. Give the envelope a name your client will recognize, like "Branding Project — Copyright Transfer & Final Invoice."

Add your recipient: name, email, and set their role to Signer. If there are multiple signers, you can decide who pays — typically the first signer or the last signer in the chain.

Now scroll to the Payment section. Toggle Require Payment Before Signing to on. You will see a few fields appear:

• Amount: The exact dollar (or your currency) amount to charge.
• Currency: USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, and more — whatever your Stripe account supports.
• Description: This appears on the signer's card statement. Make it clear: "Branding Project Final Payment — YourStudioName." Avoid generic labels that trigger chargebacks because the client forgot what they paid for.
• Collect Billing Address: Toggle on if you need tax or receipt purposes. Recommended for B2B work.

Fill these in and continue to the tagging step.

Step 3: Place Signature and Payment Fields on the Document

The document tagger is where you place interactive fields on your PDF. You will see the standard signature, date, and text fields — but also a new Payment field in the left toolbar.

Drag the Payment field onto the document, ideally near the signature block. When the signer opens the envelope, this field will render as a "Pay & Sign" card showing the amount, a card-entry form, and a submit button.

Tip: Place the Payment field above the signature field. The signer sees the payment first, completes it, then signs. This creates a natural flow — pay first, commit to the agreement second. DocSignerHub enforces this order automatically: the signature field stays locked until payment succeeds.

Drop your signature, date, and any initial fields as needed. When you are done, click Continue.

Step 4: Review and Send

The review screen shows a summary: recipient details, document preview, and the payment amount. Double-check the amount — refunds through Stripe are straightforward, but avoiding the mistake in the first place is better.

Add a personal message. This goes in the email the signer receives. Something like:

"Hey Taylor — please review the attached copyright transfer agreement. The final invoice is included and will be processed securely via Stripe before signing. Let me know if anything looks off!"

Short, human, sets expectations. Hit Send.

Step 5: What the Signer Sees

Your client receives an email with a link to the envelope. When they open it, they see your document with the payment card embedded. They fill in their card details (or use Apple Pay / Google Pay if enabled in your Stripe settings), click Pay, and Stripe processes the charge in the background.

Only after the payment succeeds does the signature field unlock. They sign, click Finish, and the envelope is completed.

You receive two confirmations: the standard "envelope completed" email from DocSignerHub, and a payment notification from Stripe. Both parties get the executed document with a payment receipt attached as the last page.

Step 6: Track Payment Status Across Envelopes

Back in your DocSignerHub dashboard, payment-enabled envelopes get a dollar-sign badge in the status column. You can filter by payment status: Pending Payment, Payment Failed, or Paid.

The Pending Payment filter is the one to watch. These are envelopes your clients have opened but not paid yet. A quick nudge often closes them. DocSignerHub's automated reminders (Settings → Reminders) can be configured to ping unpaid envelopes on a schedule you set.

If a payment fails — expired card, insufficient funds — the signer sees an inline error and can retry with a different card. You get a notification so you are never left wondering.

Real-World Patterns That Work Well

Here are a few scenarios where payment-linked signing eliminates friction:

• Freelance contracts: Scope of work + invoice in one envelope. Client signs and pays together. No trailing invoice threads.
• Event registration: Waiver form + registration fee. The attendee signs the waiver and pays the fee before the document is marked complete.
• Consulting engagement letters: Engagement terms plus retainer payment. The retainer clears before the agreement is executed.
• Digital product licensing: License agreement + one-time license fee. Useful for selling templates, fonts, or software licenses directly.

The common thread: you remove the gap between commitment and payment. Money that used to take days of follow-up now clears at the moment of signing.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

• Refunds are handled in Stripe, not DocSignerHub. If you need to refund a payment, log in to your Stripe dashboard and issue it there. The envelope stays completed; only the payment reverses.
• Partial payments are not supported. Each envelope has one payment amount. If you need installments, create separate envelopes per milestone.
• International clients: Stripe handles currency conversion automatically if the signer's card is in a different currency than your payment setting. The exchange rate is Stripe's rate at the time of charge.
• Payment holds: If you are new to Stripe, first payouts can take 7-14 days. This is Stripe's risk review, not DocSignerHub's. Plan your cash flow accordingly for the first few transactions.

Give It a Try

Payment-linked signing turns your documents from static agreements into closed transactions. No chasing. No separate invoicing tools. Just sign and pay, done.

The feature is live on all paid plans, and you can test the full flow with Stripe's test mode before going live with real charges.

Create a free DocSignerHub account — connect Stripe, upload a test document, and run through the flow yourself. You will see exactly what your clients see, and you will wonder why every signing platform does not work this way.