Admin edition: automate tasks

At PandaDoc, we’re all about streamlining workflows and reducing manual labor. In this post, we’ll show you how to rig up your PandaDoc settings, Zapier, and other integrations to automate away tedious tasks.

First, a few PandaDoc basics:

There’s a lot that goes into preparing a proposal or contract, sending it, tracking it, and (hopefully) getting it signed. But closing the deal is just the beginning! Once you’ve got a signed contract, an invoice needs to be sent, internal teams need to be alerted… the list goes on. The good news is, you can automate a lot of that with PandaDoc:

Automatically send completed document emails

Using Roles and Signing order, you can set up Templates to automatically send an email to someone when a document is completed. Use this technique to automatically give folks (like your CEO or billing team) access to documents only after the doc has been completed.

Auto-attach a PDF copy to the completion email

To ensure all recipients have a PDF copy of their completed document, enable the “email attachment” feature in your template or document settings. With this setting turned on, recipients receive an automated email with a PDF copy as soon as the document is completed.

Transferring data from one document to another

When sending multiple documents to the same contact (first a proposal, then a contract, then an invoice, for example), you can automatically transfer data from one document to another with the “transfer data” feature. Easily push contact details, token values, and pricing information from one doc to the next. Use this to quickly:

create a contract from a proposal
create an invoice from a contract
create an onboarding letter or guide from a contract

Extra credit: you can also use this for renewal proposals and contracts to map over the relevant company and opportunity information from the previous contract. Remember to enable reminders so you don’t miss the renewal date!

Our integration with Zapier will make you happier

If you’re not familiar with Zapier yet, you should make yourself acquainted. Their platform, whose tagline is “Zapier makes you happier,” empowers you to connect the apps you use everyday to automate your work and be more productive. In the world of PandaDoc, that means automating things like:

Creating invoices when PandaDocs are completed

Use the QuickBooks zap or FreshBooks Zapier integration to automatically generate invoices once a PandaDoc document has been completed.

Uploading a PDF copy to cloud storage

Automatically upload a PDF copy of a completed document to Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or OneDrive to keep all your docs in one place and allow everyone to have access to them.

Updating stages in your CRM

Keep your CRM stages up-to-date as your document changes status from “draft” to “sent” to “completed” to “paid,” etc. with the Salesforce and Pipedrive Zapier integrations.

Posting to Slack when a deal closes (#sales-wins!)

Create visibility into sales wins to spark excitement and some friendly competition with a #sales-wins channel in Slack. Automatically post to the channel every time a proposal or contract is signed with our Slack zap.

Step by step instructions here: https://support.pandadoc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013039873-Create-your-own-saleswins-channel-in-Slack

Creating a Trello card or board

Kick off a project in Trello as soon as a document is completed by automatically creating a new card or board using the PandaDoc-Trello Zapier integration.

Adding new contacts to PandaDoc in bulk

Okay, this isn’t exactly automated but it’s on the list because… Zapier. If you ever need to add multiple contacts to PandaDoc, this zap will be a lifesaver! Add new contacts in bulk with our Google Sheets zap.

As you can tell, the possibilities are pretty much endless. Check out this page for even more inspiration: https://zapier.com/apps/pandadoc/integrations.

Wait, how does Zapier work?

With Zapier, you have triggers and actions. When you set up a “zap” you determine the trigger and the resulting action. For example: when a document is completed (trigger) >> create an invoice in QuickBooks (action).

For more information on our Zapier integration, check out this article: https://support.pandadoc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008722914-Zapier

Automate collections with Payments

If your business is set up to accept payments from Stripe, Square, PayPal, Authorize.net, or QuickBooks payments, there’s no need to automate invoice generation. You can streamline the collection process even further (and get paid faster!) by embedding the Payment block in your documents so your customers can pay online right after they sign.

For more details on each of these Payment Gateway integrations, check out this page: https://www.stg02.sealdocs.com/integrations/payment/.

Set up 2-way syncing for Salesforce

If you use Salesforce, you can also set up 2-way syncing to eliminate duplicate efforts and ensure data is up-to-date. For more info, check out our dedicated FAQ article dedicated to here.

Here’s a sneak peek at what you can automate with the 2-way sync:

Automate provisioning with SSO

Now you can set up SSO to give employees safe and easy access to PandaDoc through an identity provider (IdPs such as Okta, OneLogin, Microsoft AD FS, etc.). With SSO and Just-in-time (JIT) provisioning, you can also automate employee account creation in PandaDoc. The first time your employees try to log into PandaDoc, they’ll be added to your account as users (no manual invites necessary). More info here.

Wrapping up

From templates to automated file storage and email delivery to auto-generating invoices and automating collections with Payments, you’re well on your way to a streamlined workflow. Go forth and automate some of those tedious, repetitive tasks out of your life!

Note: many of the more “advanced” automation features are intended for Enterprise accounts. If you are interested in a feature that is not available on your current plan, please reach out to either a Customer Success Manager, Sales contact, or our Support team. To get really fancy with automation, you’ll want to dig into our CRM integrations or leverage our API.