Discrete Party Behavior

Overview

Discrete Parties identify which recipients should receive a document or document package. The Expere Engine uses discrete party information to support downstream integrations and document delivery scenarios, including SmartSign Plus and DGS processing.

Discrete Party information can originate from two sources:
  • Authored discrete party elements placed in the content.
  • Signature-derived discrete parties automatically generated by the Expere Engine when supported signature processing is used

The resulting Discrete Party collection is returned in the Expere response and may be used by integrations to determine document recipients, packet construction, and signing workflows.

The table below displays specific scenarios where discrete parties are returned and signers are returned as discrete parties.

Configuration Expected Behavior
Authored discrete parties only Authored discrete parties are returned.
Signatures present Signers are automatically returned as discrete parties.
Mixed authored and signer-based parties Authored parties are returned and additional signer-derived parties may also be returned.

How Discrete Parties Are Determined

The Expere Engine evaluates both authored discrete party elements and document signatures when determining which discrete parties to return.

Consider the following:
  • If no discrete party elements are authored, the engine may derive discrete parties from signatures.
  • If discrete party elements are authored, those authored elements are considered during discrete party generation.
  • When a signer is also represented by an authored discrete party, the engine avoids creating duplicate discrete party entries.

Scenario One: No Authored Discrete Party Elements

Configuration
  • No discrete party elements are authored in the content.
  • Signature fields are present.

Expected Result

The Expere Engine automatically derives discrete parties from the signers associated with the document. A discrete party entry is returned for each signer represented in the generated document.

Example

A document contains signatures for:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower

No discrete party elements are authored.

The response contains discrete parties for:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower

Scenario 2. Discrete Party Elements Authored for All Signing Parties

Configuration
  • Manual discrete party elements are authored for every signing party.
  • Signature fields are present.

Expected Result

The response contains discrete parties for all signing parties. When the authored discrete parties correspond to the same parties represented by signatures, the engine consolidates the information and prevents duplicate discrete party entries.

Example

Authored discrete parties:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower
Signatures:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower

Response:

  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower

No duplicate entries are created.

Scenario 3. Discrete Party Elements Authored for Only Some Signing Parties (Current System Behavior)

Configuration
  • Manual discrete party elements are authored for some of the signing parties.
  • Signature fields are present.

Expected Result

The response contains discrete parties for all signing parties. When the authored discrete parties correspond to the same parties represented by signatures, the engine consolidates the information and prevents duplicate discrete party entries.

Example

Authored discrete parties:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower
Signatures:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower
  • Attest Signer

Response:

  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower
  • Attest Signer

The Attest Signer appears because it is present in the signature set and the engine automatically derives discrete parties from signatures.