DocuGenerate Zapier integrationAutomate DocuGenerate with Zapier.
The DocuGenerate Zapier integration gives you 2 triggers, 2 actions and 0 searches. That is enough to turn form answers into a finished PDF built from a Word template, and to react whenever a new document or a new template appears in your account.
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What the DocuGenerate Zapier integration actually does
DocuGenerate fills Word templates with data and turns them into PDFs. Plugged into Zapier, it stops waiting for someone to paste values by hand: another app hands over the data, DocuGenerate produces the document, and Zapier can also tell other tools when a document or a template is new. It works from the free plan, since DocuGenerate is not a premium app.
Three things people usually get out of it. First, a lease draft, a quote or a certificate generated the moment a form is filled, through Generate Document: the form answers become the document's data set and nobody retypes them. Second, a team that hears about each fresh PDF without opening DocuGenerate, because New Document starts a Zap that posts in Slack or sends an email. Third, a template library that grows from files already sitting elsewhere, thanks to Create Template, with New Template watching for each addition.
Now the honest part. Zapier offers no search step for DocuGenerate, so a Zap cannot look up an existing document or template by name. Both triggers are polling ones (no instant trigger here), which means a short wait between the event and the Zap starting. And there is no operation to delete, rename or send a document from DocuGenerate itself: those moves belong to the next app in the Zap.
If you are still choosing a platform, the Make vs Zapier comparison sets the two side by side, and there is a separate DocuGenerate Make integration page for the same app on Make.
Zapier vocabulary in one minute
Seven words come back on every line of this page. Here they are, in plain English.
- Zap
- The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run every single time that trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event in an app that starts your Zap. Once the Zap is switched on, Zapier waits for that event and nothing else.
- Action
- What the Zap does after it starts: the step that writes, sends or moves something for you, such as generating a PDF.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. The monthly figure on your plan is a count of these.
- Polling vs instant
- A polling trigger is checked on a timer, at a fixed interval. An instant trigger is reported by the app itself the moment it happens.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap go on only when the incoming data meets the condition you set, and stops it otherwise.
- Connection
- Your DocuGenerate account, linked to Zapier once, then reused by every step of every Zap that touches DocuGenerate.
- Multi-step Zap
- Anything beyond one trigger and one action. A second action or a filter turns a Zap into one, and it then needs a paid plan.
What a DocuGenerate Zap really costs
The trigger never costs a task, and neither does Zapier checking DocuGenerate for news, however often it looks. Only a completed action is billed.
- Premium appNo, works on the free plan
- Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only
- BilledEach action that succeeds
- Not billedTriggers, checks, failed actions
Each successful Generate Document or Create Template counts once; an action that fails is not counted. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and checks polling triggers every 15 minutes. The catch nobody advertises: free Zaps stop at two steps, one trigger plus one action. Add a filter or a second action and you need a paid plan. Paid plans also check more often, down to every minute on Team and Enterprise.
Connect DocuGenerate to Zapier in three steps
- 01
Open your connections
Go to the Apps page of your Zapier account and click + Add connection. You need a DocuGenerate account before anything else, plus access to any template you did not create yourself.
- 02
Pick DocuGenerate
Type DocuGenerate in the search box of the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. A new tab opens on the DocuGenerate side, where the rest happens.
- 03
Sign in and allow access
Log into DocuGenerate in that tab and grant Zapier access to the account. The connection now shows up on your Apps page, ready for every Zap that uses DocuGenerate.
Your first Zap: tell the leasing agent when a lease is ready
GoalA property manager generates lease drafts in DocuGenerate and wants the leasing agent emailed about the relevant ones, without anyone watching the account.
- 01
Start with the trigger
Create a Zap, pick DocuGenerate as the app and New Document as the event, select your connection, then choose the lease template in the Template field.
- 02
Test on a real document
Run the trigger test. Zapier brings back the three most recent documents built from that template, so pick one and note the value that separates the leases the agent cares about.
- 03
Add the filter
From the plus icon, add Filter, choose that value, a rule and what to compare it with. Pick a text rule for text. This step makes the Zap multi-step, so it needs a paid plan.
- 04
Send the email
Add Gmail with Send Email, put the agent's address in the recipient box, then map the details you saw during the test into the subject and the body of the message.
- 05
Test, then publish
Test the action and check the email that lands in the agent's inbox before going further. When it reads right, click Publish to switch the Zap on.
DocuGenerate triggers
2 events start a Zap when something happens in DocuGenerate. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.
New Document
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a new document is generated from a template.”
Every PDF that DocuGenerate generates from the template you choose can start a Zap. You pick one template when you set it up, and only documents built from that template count, which keeps a busy account from flooding the Zap with unrelated files.
New Template
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a new template is created.”
This one reacts to the template library rather than to the PDFs. Whenever someone adds a template to the DocuGenerate account, the Zap wakes up on the next check and can tell the rest of the team about it.
DocuGenerate actions
DocuGenerate gives you 2 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.
Generate Document
ActionIn Zapier“Generates a document based on a template and a dynamic data set.”
The workhorse of this integration: it takes a template and the data handed over by earlier steps, then produces the finished document. Each run is one task when it succeeds.
Create Template
ActionIn Zapier“Creates a new template from a file.”
Turns a file coming from an earlier step into a ready-to-use DocuGenerate template. It takes Word files, but also .odt, .rtf, .txt, .sql or .html.
When a DocuGenerate Zap breaks
Zapier attaches no help article to DocuGenerate and lists no rate limit for it. What breaks is what breaks on any Zap, and four cases are worth knowing before you publish.
None of these is rare. Each one has a simple way around it, and the Zapier troubleshooting guide goes further when a Zap still misbehaves.
No backfill of old documents
A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Documents and templates created earlier are ignored, so moving that backlog is a separate job.A Zap that feeds itself
New Document followed by Generate Document on the same template creates a document that starts the Zap again, and again. Point the action at another template.A sudden batch gets held back
After a bulk import, the trigger may return a huge batch at once. Zapier's flood protection can hold those items back instead of running them all.The same item never runs twice
Zapier remembers what it has already seen on a polling trigger. Re-saving an old template will not start the Zap a second time.
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