Co-signer consent requires two signatures on a single consent form before a participant is considered fully consented, the participant's own signature and a co-signer's (such as a parent or legal guardian). Both signatures are captured natively in Rally and combined into a single signed PDF.

Co-signer consent is configured on the consent form itself, not on the study. Any study that uses the form will inherit the co-signer behavior.

Enabling co-signer requirement on a consent form

1. Navigate to Templates > Consent form and select the consent form you want to configure.

2. In the Advanced settings section, turn on the Require co-signer toggle.

3. With the toggle on, three additional settings become available: Co-signer email property, Only require when, and Co-signer agreements.

Co-signer email

By default, participants enter the co-signer's email manually during signing. If you store a parent or guardian email on participant records, you can pre-fill that field automatically.

Under Co-signer email property, select a text property in the dropdown menu. When a participant has a value for the selected property, their consent screen will show the co-signer email pre-filled and locked and they won't be able to change it.

If no property is selected, or if the participant has no value for the selected property, the co-signer email field remains editable.

Only require when

If your study is open to both adults and minors, you can limit the co-signer requirement to specific participants using the Only require when condition.

Under Only require when, select a Text person property and enter the value it must match. At the moment a participant submits their signature, Rally evaluates their property value:

• If the value matches, a co-signer is required.

  • Note that value matching must be exact and is case-sensitive

• If the value does not match, or is empty, the consent is marked complete immediately with no co-signer needed.

If no condition is configured, a co-signer is required for every participant.

Co-signer agreements

Standard agreement statements on a consent form are shown to both the primary signer and the co-signer. You can also add statements that appear only to the co-signer. For example, a statement confirming they have authority to consent on the participant's behalf.

Under Co-signer agreements, click Add co-signer statement to add statements specific to the co-signer. These will appear on the co-signer's signing page under a Co-signer agreements heading, and will be rendered in their own labeled section in the final PDF.

Using co-signer consent forms

Modifying the consent and co-signer request emails

Two emails are sent during a co-signed consent flow:

• Consent request — sent to the participant with their signing link.

• Co-signer request — sent to the co-signer automatically as soon as the participant submits their signature.

Both can be customized per study. Go to the study builder's Messages page to edit the subject and body for either template.

Note: Sent co-signer request emails appear on the participant's Messages page for the study, alongside other participant communications.

Tracking a consent form progress

A participant's consent form progress can be viewed on the Person Profile by clicking their name. Under the Consent section within their profile, you'll see one of three states:

• Awaiting cosigner— The participant has signed but the co-signer hasn't yet.

• Completed — Both signatures have been captured (or no co-signer was required). The signed PDF is available to download.

Sending consent forms manually

If you send a consent form to a participant directly from their person profile via Person Actions > Send > Consent, the co-signer configuration on the selected form applies.

If the form requires a co-signer, the signing link will include the co-signer context, and the co-signer email property (if configured) will pre-fill from the participant's property value.

The rest of the flow (emails, PDF generation, etc.) works the same as in an automated study flow.

Participant and Co-signer experience

What your participants will see

When a participant opens a consent form that requires a co-signer (and any conditional requirement evaluates to true), they'll complete the standard consent flow ( agreements, documents, and signature) and then see a Co-signer Information section with fields for the co-signer's first name, last name, and email.

Once they submit, they'll see a confirmation that their consent has been recorded and that an email has been sent to the co-signer. If they return to the link before the co-signer has signed, they'll see a waiting state and won't be able to re-sign.

What the co-signer will see

Co-signers don't need a Rally account. As soon as the participant submits their signature, Rally automatically sends the co-signer an email with a unique signing link.

The co-signer's page shows the same consent form content the participant saw, including agreements, documents, and any co-signer-only statements, along with a header identifying who they're signing on behalf of.

Their name and email are pre-populated from what the participant entered or the co-signer email property.

After signing, the co-signer sees a confirmation and the link cannot be used again.

Signed PDF

Once both signatures are captured, Rally generates a signed PDF. For co-signed consents, the PDF includes a Co-signer Information block with the co-signer's name, email, signature, and timestamp, as well as any co-signer-only agreement statements in a separate labeled section.

The PDF is attached to the confirmation email sent to the participant and stored on the consent submission for audit purposes.

Frequently asked questions

Does the co-signer need to be a Rally contact?

No. The co-signer is not required to be and is not created as a contact in your workspace. Their information is captured only on the consent submission and in the signed PDF.

Can I use a date or number property for the conditional requirement?

Not currently. Only Text properties are supported for both the conditional requirement and the co-signer email pre-fill. If you store a value like date of birth as a Date property, a common workaround is a Text property such as Is Minor which is set to Yes or No.