Set Your Basic Environment 

Navigate to System >> General Settings. Company Name, Company Website, and Portal URL are required; ExSign uses them in the ExSign email templates and login flow, so they can't be left blank. 

Configure the API Hub Connection 

The Hub Server Access field is the URL your Agents use to reach the Portal, the same API Hub connection covered in How ExSign Works and Firewall Ports You'll Need Open (port 8776). 

Changing this URL disconnects every currently connected server from the Hub. Each entity will need the updated token to reconnect.  

After making a change here, confirm it worked using How to Verify Communication with API Hub before considering the change complete. 

Decide Where Signature Images are Stored 

Navigate to System >> Image Upload Settings. You have two options: 

• Local Storage: Simplest option; images are stored directly on the Portal server.  
• Cloud Storage (Amazon S3): Better if you want images available independently of the Portal server, or if you already use AWS. 

If You Choose Local: 

If You Choose Cloud (Amazon S3): 

Gather this from your AWS account first: 

• Access Key and Secret Key (for authentication)  
• Region your S3 (Simple Storage Service) bucket is hosted in (e.g., us-east-1). AWS S3 bucket regions are geographical areas that AWS designates for data storage, and you must select one when creating a bucket.  
• Bucket Name, where the images will be stored.

Enter these, then click Validate to confirm ExSign can actually connect before saving. 

Activate Your License 

For how ExSign licensing works (per-mailbox pricing, subscription types, how to buy), see Licensing. This section only covers activation mechanics. 

Navigate to System >> Activate License and enter your key. From this screen, you can also view status, deactivate, or upgrade the license.

Two decisions worth making deliberately here: 

• Org. License Capacity: Turn this on if you want each organization to have its own hard mailbox limit (you'll then set a limit per organization on the organization listing page). Leave it off if organizations should freely share their parent entity's pool. 
• Entity Scoped Banner: Turn this on if a banner added to any one organization in an entity should automatically apply to every organization in that entity. Example: an entity has 4 organizations; banners are configured for 2 of them. Enabling this applies those banners across all 4. 

Set Up Usage Alerts

configure email alerts at 70%, 80%, 90%, and/or 95% of your license usage, so you're notified before you run out rather than after. You can opt out entirely if you'd rather monitor manually. See License Threshold Configuration for details. 

Decide on an Approval Workflow 

Navigate to System >> Workflow Settings. This controls whether signature rules can be published immediately or need approval first. Pick based on how your organization is structured: 

Select an option and click Save to apply it. Create your Approval Manager group in Managing Users and Roles, then set up the actual approval levels and approvers in Configuring Approval Workflows. This page only decides whether approval is required, the levels themselves are configured while Creating a Workflow

Observability Metrics

Go to System >> Observability Metrics to monitor resource usage and availability, CPU, Disk, Database, and similar metrics, each with an Applies At (Agent or Portal), a Status, and a Last Activity timestamp. Actions let you view a metric's history or edit its alert threshold, check interval, and status.

Stamping Logs Retention

Go to System >> Stamping Logs Retention to control how long stamping logs are kept, and what happens to them afterward. This is the policy behind the Archived Logs screen (see Using Logs), this section decides when and how logs get archived; Archived Logs is where you view and restore the results.