Use Private Contact Notes Without Exposing Them to Signers

Explain Contact Notes as sender-private information, what they are for, and the boundary that keeps them out of Requests, completed PDFs, signer pages, and outgoing messages.

This guide applies to All plans; sender and follows the accepted QC Digital Signature 2.0.7 implementation. Where older walkthrough language differs from the current interface or source behavior, use the current QCDS state as the authority.

Before You Begin

  • Open QCDS from the published frontend Workspace Dashboard menu item and confirm you are signed in as the intended Joomla user.
  • Remember that Contacts and sender settings are workspace-scoped; changing one sender’s workspace should not be treated as a site-global edit.
  • For language-sensitive work, distinguish the Contact Preferred Language from the sender/workspace and administrator fallback languages.

Step-by-Step Workflow

  1. Open the relevant QCDS frontend area from the sender workspace.
  2. Review the existing saved value or Contact before editing it.
  3. Make the intended workspace-scoped change and save it.
  4. Start or open a safe test workflow that uses the updated value.
  5. Confirm the change affects future/use-time behavior without rewriting older sent Requests.

Contact Notes as sender-private information

A QCDS Contact is reusable workspace data for a real participant. It can hold name information, company, title, phone, consolidated address, one or more email addresses, a Preferred Language, and private Notes. The Contact is not the historical Request itself: when a Request is sent, QCDS freezes participant data into the transaction so later Contact edits do not rewrite prior evidence. Signer-correctable profile fields can update the saved Contact after successful signing where the current field behavior allows it.

For Use Private Contact Notes Without Exposing Them to Signers, verify this behavior using the actual object involved rather than a generic assumption. A global administrator setting, a sender-workspace preference, a reusable Template, and a sent Request have different ownership and history rules. QCDS is intentionally designed so changes for future work do not silently rewrite the evidence of an already-sent transaction.

They are for

A QCDS Contact is reusable workspace data for a real participant. It can hold name information, company, title, phone, consolidated address, one or more email addresses, a Preferred Language, and private Notes. The Contact is not the historical Request itself: when a Request is sent, QCDS freezes participant data into the transaction so later Contact edits do not rewrite prior evidence. Signer-correctable profile fields can update the saved Contact after successful signing where the current field behavior allows it.

For Use Private Contact Notes Without Exposing Them to Signers, verify this behavior using the actual object involved rather than a generic assumption. A global administrator setting, a sender-workspace preference, a reusable Template, and a sent Request have different ownership and history rules. QCDS is intentionally designed so changes for future work do not silently rewrite the evidence of an already-sent transaction.

And the boundary that keeps them out of Requests

A QCDS Contact is reusable workspace data for a real participant. It can hold name information, company, title, phone, consolidated address, one or more email addresses, a Preferred Language, and private Notes. The Contact is not the historical Request itself: when a Request is sent, QCDS freezes participant data into the transaction so later Contact edits do not rewrite prior evidence. Signer-correctable profile fields can update the saved Contact after successful signing where the current field behavior allows it.

Completed PDFs

A QCDS Contact is reusable workspace data for a real participant. It can hold name information, company, title, phone, consolidated address, one or more email addresses, a Preferred Language, and private Notes. The Contact is not the historical Request itself: when a Request is sent, QCDS freezes participant data into the transaction so later Contact edits do not rewrite prior evidence. Signer-correctable profile fields can update the saved Contact after successful signing where the current field behavior allows it.

Signer pages

A QCDS Contact is reusable workspace data for a real participant. It can hold name information, company, title, phone, consolidated address, one or more email addresses, a Preferred Language, and private Notes. The Contact is not the historical Request itself: when a Request is sent, QCDS freezes participant data into the transaction so later Contact edits do not rewrite prior evidence. Signer-correctable profile fields can update the saved Contact after successful signing where the current field behavior allows it.

How This Fits into the QCDS Workflow

The sender workspace is deliberately private. Contacts, Templates, Requests, Email Template overrides, and sender defaults belong to that workspace so one Joomla user does not accidentally operate another sender’s transaction history.

The workspace model also explains why one user’s Contacts or Email Template override should not be used as global data for another sender. Site-global policy belongs in Administrator settings; sender defaults belong in the sender workspace.

Verify the Result

  • Request Details shows the expected lifecycle, participant, Timeline, and delivery state after the action.
  • The Completed PDF/Package opens, preserves the signed source and evidence, and the Audit Trail remains readable.
  • A direct follow-up test confirms the change affects future/current workflow behavior without rewriting historical sent Request evidence.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Cancelling/recreating an otherwise valid Request just to repair one failed email address.
  • Leaving transient unsent work and expecting it to appear later as a persistent draft Request.
  • Asking signers to sign again when only final PDF generation or completion delivery failed.
  • Replacing a prior valid artifact before a regeneration attempt has been verified.

Troubleshooting

  • If the PDF preview or completed artifact fails, reproduce with a small known-good PDF and check QCDS Status/Scheduled Task health before changing field data.
  • If the Request is partly successful, preserve it and repair the failed participant/delivery step. Successful links and recorded history should remain usable.

Operational Best Practice

Test meaningful changes with controlled data before relying on them in production. Keep QCDS, Joomla mail, Scheduled Tasks, and entitlement health observable; preserve successful Requests and completed evidence; and make the smallest change that solves the actual problem. For handoff or support, record the QCDS version, relevant Request/Template reference, the exact action taken, and the visible result without including secrets.

Community Discussion

Want to compare workflows, share practical tips, or discuss how you use this QCDS feature? Visit the QC Digital Signature Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific issues, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.