Last Updated on April 15, 2024 by Rakesh Gupta

Big Idea or Enduring Question

Automating Document generation via Salesforce can help you close your biggest business deals at speed and scale while maintaining razor-sharp data accuracy.

The problem? Salesforce does not have robust native document generation capabilities of its own. This means that in order to leverage the power of Salesforce to generate documents for your business you can:

Invest in custom development OR
Purchase a third-party tool on the AppExchange to do the heavy lifting for you.

Objectives

After reading this article you will have a solid understanding of Salesforce Document Generation and how this can propel your business deals to success. You will also understand the limits of native Salesforce doc gen functionality and how best to overcome this. You will discover how to generate a quote containing quote line items using Salesforce.

Business Use Case: Quotes

Sam Jones, a busy financial advisor, wants to provide a valued client with a custom quote on a suite of financial products. He wants to be able to break down the quote into quote line items to demonstrate that several services and products form part of the larger package. He also wants his client to be able to dynamically fill in the document and indicate which products they want to purchase. For example, Sam is not sure whether his client wants both income protection and life cover. Once the details of the quote are confirmed by the client, Sam wants it signed securely. All of Sam’s client data is stored in Salesforce and he needs to generate an accurate quote quickly.

Salesforce Document Generation Explained

First, let’s clarify some key concepts:

Document management refers to the process of organizing and storing your documents effectively. All documentation processes are properly tracked and adhere to relevant security standards.
Document creation is the process of writing, formatting, or designing a document. This can either be performed digitally or using pen and paper – but it is typically a manual process.
Document generation is fully automated and gives you the power to produce documents at scale via drawing on a reliable data source and working with templates.

Effective and efficient document generation automates core business processes such as quotations, contracts, payment receipts, financial statements, customer agreements, and much more. This empowers you to streamline every aspect of your paperwork while maintaining accuracy and taking on customers at scale.

Using Salesforce as your data source for document generation seems like a logical decision. This is because the #1 CRM is the gold standard of data and gives you a 360-degree view of every customer. Integrating document generation with Salesforce gives you unprecedented personalization and data accuracy.

Unfortunately, Salesforce’s native document generation functionalities have a range of limitations:

You can only generate docs for a quote object and document generation cannot be performed for any other standard or custom object.
The Salesforce Doc Gen capability for quotes is itself limited: documents are not fully dynamic. You can pull information from Salesforce into your quote but you can’t send it back.
Salesforce does not have a native signing solution so it is not easy to automate the signing of docs via native software.
Salesforce Doc Gen templates for quotes are only compatible with left-to-right scripts.

On one hand, Salesforce document generation has the power to transform your business but on the other, native functionality is significantly limited. So what are your options? One is to invest in custom development. This will give you robust document generation integrated with Salesforce. The cons of this option include significant expense and ongoing maintenance. It will also slow your time to market while you develop a solution. Alternatively, you can source a trusted third-party solution on the Salesforce AppExchange to bring the power of document generation into your Salesforce. Several stellar solutions don’t require the same degree of development and coding. There is one solution that requires no code at all – Titan Docs – and we will be discussing this product later in the article!

Example of a Quote generated from Salesforce with Titan Docs

How Titan Docs Solves this Business Use Case

Sam had heard that Salesforce can generate documents for quotes so he had hoped his use case was easily solved. Unfortunately, Sam didn’t know that Salesforce native documentation is not fully dynamic. This means that the information his client enters into the document cannot be sent directly to Salesforce. If his client chooses to not accept one of the financial products, this will not reflect in Salesforce in real-time – a whole new quote will have to be drawn up or this data changed manually in Sam’s CRM. Sam is also disappointed to learn that Salesforce does not offer native signing solutions.

Sam does not have the budget or time to hire a development team, so instead he decided to try out Titan Docs, a multi-patented tool with hundreds of 5-star reviews on the AppExchange. Here’s how Titan Docs solves this use case using no code:

Sam uses Titan’s intuitive PDF mapping to create a quote template.
Inside Salesforce, Sam pushes a button to generate this financial quote containing a breakdown of products in the quote line items.
This includes the price of each item and descriptions of policy details.
A quote document is generated containing all of the most up-to-date information on the client and policies. This comes directly from Salesforce.
The document is sent from Salesforce to Sam’s client’s email where they can view a detailed breakdown of financial products and make sure they are happy with the items included.
The client can indicate (via a fillable document) which financial products they want. All changes are synced to Salesforce in real time.
Via native integration with Titan Sign, this quote is signed by the client and sent back to Salesforce (where all information is logged and tracked transparently).

Business Use Case: Results

Sam can generate a personalized financial quote using real-time Salesforce data.
He can work with any financial template he likes using Titan’s PDF mapping, Word Add-In, or Excel Add-In.
Sam can create a fillable and dynamic document for his client using no-code.
Sam is able to speed up deal closure by 50%.
Integrating with a signing solution requires Sam no extra development work or significant expense.
Post-signing the quote is saved in Salesforce and the client record is automatically updated.
Sam can repeat this process at scale several times a day so he can focus on spending dedicated time with valued customers.

Proof of Concept

Check out the video below to learn more about Titan Docs:

Learn More About Titan!

The Titan platform is a suite of zero code products for Salesforce that help you speed up time to market, slash expenses, and create your dream projects in minutes instead of days and weeks. If you liked learning about Titan Docs in this article, check out some of its strongest features:

Make templates and generate docs using point-and-click tools.
Fully dynamic docs: get data from Salesforce and send it back in real time.
Work with any custom or standard Salesforce object.
Include repeatable and dynamic tables and sections in your document.
Trigger document generation from within Flow or Apex.
Bulk document generation.
Work with any format.
Use Titan’s Word Add-In, Excel Add-In, and PDF mapping to create templates easily.
Integrate effortlessly with Titan Sign and CLM for end-to-end document management.
Compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2, and all other leading regulatory frameworks.

Formative Assessment

I hope you liked this article and learned more about document generation for Salesforce!

Ultimately it is up to you to choose the document generation tool right for your business and we hope you enjoyed learning more about Titan Docs! Happy hunting!