Resources · Make integration

PDFMonkey Make integrationAutomate PDFMonkey with Make.

Turn the data your apps already hold into finished PDFs, without copying a single value by hand. The PDFMonkey Make integration gives you 5 modules: 1 trigger and 4 actions. This guide connects your account, builds a first scenario and explains when to pick each module.

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What you can automate

What does the PDFMonkey Make integration do?

The PDFMonkey Make integration lets Make create, read and remove your PDFMonkey documents for you. You build a scenario, which is the automation itself: a chain of modules, each one a small brick that watches for something or performs one action. Data from your other apps goes in, and a generated document comes out.

Documents built from live data. A signed deal in your CRM or a new row in a spreadsheet can feed Generate a Document, so the PDF is produced from the values that just changed instead of being filled in by someone on the team. If your data lives in a table, the Airtable Make integration is a natural starting point.

A follow-up the moment a PDF is done. Watch Documents picks up every document whose generation finished successfully, so the next step (sending it, filing it, logging it) runs on its own.

Cleanup on your terms. Get a Document reads a document from its ID, and Delete a Document removes one when a record is cancelled on your side.

The listed modules cover documents only. Anything else the PDFMonkey API offers goes through Make an API Call, with the same connection. PDFMonkey often has an n8n node too; if you are weighing both tools, read n8n vs Make. To go further on Make itself, the Make training starts from the basics.

Connect

How do you connect PDFMonkey to Make?

  1. 01

    Copy your API key from PDFMonkey

    You need an active PDFMonkey account and its API Secret Key. In the PDFMonkey dashboard, open the top-left menu, go to My Account and copy the API key shown on that page.

  2. 02

    Add a PDFMonkey module in Make

    In your scenario, add any PDFMonkey module and click Create a connection. A connection is your PDFMonkey account linked to Make once, then reused by every PDFMonkey module you add later.

  3. 03

    Name the connection and paste the key

    The Connection name field is optional, but a clear name helps when you run several accounts. Paste the API key you copied, or follow the instructions on screen, and save.

First scenario

Your first scenario: a PDF from another app's data

GoalWhen a new record lands in another app, Make sends its values to PDFMonkey and generates the matching document.

  1. 01

    Create the scenario

    From the Scenarios page, create a new scenario and click the + to add the first module. It will be the app where your data starts, such as a form tool or a spreadsheet.

  2. 02

    Set up the starting module

    Pick the module of that app that returns the new record, then click Create a connection. Once connected, Make lists what it can read, so you choose instead of typing.

  3. 03

    Add Generate a Document

    Click the + on the right, search PDFMonkey and pick Generate a Document. Connect your account with the API key, then map values from the first module into its fields.

  4. 04

    Test with Run once

    Click Run once. Make runs the scenario a single time and shows the bundles each module received, a bundle being one item passed along, here one record and one document.

  5. 05

    Schedule and switch on

    Open the clock on the first module. A new scenario checks every 15 minutes by default; the Free plan cannot go below that. Then switch the scenario on.

Triggers

What can start a PDFMonkey scenario?

1 module starts a scenario when something happens in PDFMonkey. A scheduled trigger is checked by Make on the scenario's schedule; an instant one is called by PDFMonkey as soon as it happens.

PDFMonkey1Watch Documents

Watch Documents

Scheduled trigger

In Make“Triggers when a document's generation is complete and successful.”

Watch Documents hands your scenario every PDF that PDFMonkey finished generating without error, so whatever comes next starts from a document that is actually ready. Failed generations never reach it.

How it fires
scheduled. Make checks PDFMonkey on the scenario's schedule, every 15 minutes by default, and collects the documents completed since the previous check.
When to use it
documents are generated from several places, including outside Make, and you want one scenario that emails or files each finished PDF.
Watch out
it is not instant, so a document can wait until the next check before the scenario sees it.
Modules

What can Make do in PDFMonkey?

PDFMonkey gives you 4 modules. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

PDFMonkey1

Delete a Document

Action

In Make“Delete a document based on its ID.”

Removing a PDF you no longer want is the job here: give the module a document ID and that document disappears from PDFMonkey, so stale files stop piling up in the account.

When to use it
an order or a contract is cancelled in your source app and the PDF built for it should go too.
Watch out
a deletion cannot be undone; test with Run once on a throwaway document first.
PDFMonkey2

Generate a Document

Action

In Make“Generate a document based on dynamic data.”

This is where your PDF gets made. You map values from earlier modules, such as a customer name or an amount, and PDFMonkey builds the document from that dynamic data.

When to use it
a quote is accepted or a registration arrives and the matching PDF should exist without anyone opening PDFMonkey.
Watch out
each run uses one operation, the unit Make counts on your plan, so filter out records that do not need a document before this step.
PDFMonkey3

Get a Document

Action

In Make“Retrieves a Document based on its ID.”

You get back the details of one existing document, found by its ID, so later modules can reuse what PDFMonkey holds about it without generating it a second time.

When to use it
your scenario stored a document ID earlier, in a sheet or a CRM, and now needs that PDF again to send or archive it.
Watch out
it reads one document per ID; without an ID from a previous step, there is nothing to fetch.
PDFMonkey4

Make an API Call

Action

In Make“Perform an arbitrary authorized API call.”

Your escape hatch for everything the four other modules leave out. It sends an authorized request to any endpoint of the PDFMonkey API, reusing the connection you already created, so no second key is needed.

When to use it
you need a PDFMonkey feature that no listed module covers.
Watch out
you write the request yourself, so keep the PDFMonkey API documentation open and check the response in Run once before switching the scenario on.
Need help

Need help automating PDFMonkey with Make?

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FAQ

PDFMonkey and Make: frequently asked questions

01Is the PDFMonkey Make integration free?
Yes, on the Make side. PDFMonkey is a standard app, available from the Free plan. That plan allows 2 active scenarios, at least 15 minutes between two scheduled runs, 5 minutes of execution per run, files up to 5 MB and 512 MB of data transfer. Paid plans (Core, Pro, Teams and Enterprise) lower the interval to 1 minute, remove the cap on active scenarios and allow 40 minutes of execution, with usage counted in operations per month. PDFMonkey has its own subscription, described on its pricing page.
02What do you need to connect PDFMonkey to Make?
An active PDFMonkey account and its API Secret Key. In the PDFMonkey dashboard, open the top-left menu, go to your account page and copy the API key displayed there. In Make, add a PDFMonkey module, click Create a connection, optionally give the connection a name, then paste the key. The same connection then serves every PDFMonkey module, including Make an API Call, so you only do this once per account.
03Does the PDFMonkey trigger in Make work in real time?
No. Watch Documents is a scheduled trigger: Make asks PDFMonkey for newly completed documents on the scenario's schedule, which is every 15 minutes by default for a new scenario. On paid plans the interval can go down to 1 minute; on the Free plan, 15 minutes is the minimum. It only returns documents whose generation finished successfully, so a failed document will not start the scenario. If you need a reaction sooner, shorten the schedule on a paid plan.
04What if a PDFMonkey module is missing in Make?
Use Make an API Call. It is part of the PDFMonkey app in Make and can call any endpoint of the PDFMonkey API with the connection you already have, which covers what Generate, Get and Delete a Document do not. You shape the request yourself from the PDFMonkey API documentation, then check the answer with Run once. If the result still does not fit, the data can be handled by another app of the scenario.
05Should you use Make or n8n for PDFMonkey?
It depends on the tool you already run. PDFMonkey is available in Make as a standard app with 5 modules, including a trigger for completed documents and Make an API Call for the rest of the API. The same app often exists as an n8n node too. If your other automations already live in one of the two, keep PDFMonkey there so connections and scenarios stay in one place, then compare the modules each side offers for your exact need.
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