Automate This: How to Automate Document Generation Across Your Entire Workflow

Quick Summary: This guide shows you how to automate document generation by connecting a Salesforce record to a pre-filled form, a document template, and an e-signature workflow so a completed, signed document files itself back to Salesforce with zero manual steps. You’ll learn how to set up document generation with FormAssembly, plus practical ways to optimize document generation and your e-signature workflow for faster turnaround and higher completion rates.

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Here’s a workflow that probably sounds familiar:

• A Salesforce record reaches a certain stage
• Someone on your team opens it
• Data from the record is copied into a Word document or a PDF template
• That doc or PDF is sent to a DocuSign queue where it awaits a signature
• Once signed, the file is downloaded again, then manually attached back to the original Salesforce record

That process has between five and eight manual steps, depending on how you count them. Each of those steps is an opportunity for something to get delayed, lost, or entered incorrectly.

There’s a better way to do this. It starts with the Salesforce record, ends with the signed document filed back in Salesforce, and requires zero manual steps in between.

The end-to-end document generation workflow

The process moves through 4 stages. Every stage is automated — the only human action required is the actual signature.

• Stage 1: FormAssembly pulls data from that Salesforce record into a form. The form is pre-populated — the respondent reviews the information rather than entering it themselves.
• Stage 2: On submission, FormAssembly’s Document Generation feature uses the form data to populate a document template and produces a finished PDF.
• Stage 3: The document is routed for e-signature. The signer receives it, reviews it, and signs it in the same workflow session or via a follow-up email.
• Stage 4: The signed document is filed back to the originating Salesforce record automatically. The record is updated to reflect the completed signature.

The result: a Salesforce record that triggers the whole process, and a signed document attached to that same record when it’s done — without anyone copying data between systems, managing a DocuSign queue, or manually uploading files.

What you need before you build

This workflow requires:

• A FormAssembly account with Salesforce Integration and Document Generation enabled
• A Salesforce org with the relevant object and the workflow trigger point configured
• A document template (a Word document or PDF with merge fields marked for dynamic data)

The following FormAssembly features:

• Salesforce Prefill Connector (to pull record data into the form)
• Salesforce Submit Connector (to update the record and attach the signed document)
• Document Generation (to populate the template with form data)
• Secure e-signature field
• Form Workflow (to sequence form → document → signature steps)

If your Salesforce org already has a workflow set up — even a basic one — you don’t need to rebuild from scratch. Document Generation and e-signature can be added to an existing workflow as new steps.

How to set up document generation: 4 steps

Step 1. Build the prefilled form

Start by deciding what triggers the workflow. Common triggers include:

• A button click on a Salesforce record page that opens the FormAssembly form in a new tab
• A scheduled Salesforce workflow rule or Flow that sends an email with a prefilled form link

Once you’ve identified the trigger, build the FormAssembly form and connect the Salesforce Prefill Connector to it. Map the fields from the Salesforce record — name, dates, terms, contact information, whatever will appear in the final document — to the corresponding form fields. Set those fields as read-only or hidden if the respondent doesn’t need to edit them. The goal of this form is review and confirmation, not data entry.

Pro tip: Use hidden fields to carry the Salesforce record ID through the entire workflow. This ensures the signed document gets attached to the exact record that triggered the process, even if the workflow involves multiple form steps or a delay between the form submission and the signature.

Step 2. Set up Document Generation

FormAssembly’s Document Generation feature uses a template you define — a Word document with merge field placeholders — and populates it with the values collected in your form. When the form is submitted, the template is rendered with real data and produced as a PDF.

To set it up: upload your document template to FormAssembly’s Document Generation settings, map each merge field in the template to the corresponding form field, and configure the output — file name format, PDF settings, whether the document should be attached to the form response or passed to the next workflow step.

If you don’t have an existing template, this step is worth spending time on. The template is what the signer sees. A well-formatted document that reflects your organization’s branding and clearly presents the relevant terms will have higher completion rates than a plain-text output. This is one of the simplest ways to optimize document generation for a better signer experience.

Pro tip: Name your output file dynamically using form field values — for example, “[LastName]-[ContractType]-[Date].pdf”. This makes the file immediately identifiable when it lands in Salesforce without any manual renaming.

Step 3. Add the e-signature workflow step

In the FormAssembly Workflow, add a signature step after the document is generated. The signer receives the completed document for review and signs directly in the FormAssembly interface — no third-party signature platform required.

Configure the e-signature step by selecting the appropriate email address from available fields in your workflows forms. This would likely be the address prefilled from the Salesforce record, but you could have signers identify other addresses during your workflow if desired.

When the workflow is triggered, the signer will receive an email requesting signature.

Optional: Configure multi-signer routing (if needed)

If your document requires signatures from more than one person — a vendor and a client, a student and a parent, two counterparties on a contract — FormAssembly’s Workflow handles sequential multi-signer routing.

After the first signer completes their signature, the workflow automatically routes to the second signer with their own signature step. The document accumulates signatures in order. Each signer receives a timestamped, legally binding e-signature record.

Configure each signer as a separate workflow step with its own email routing rule. Use Workflow Variables to pass the partially signed document forward between steps so each signer sees the full document including prior signatures when they receive it.

Step 4. File the signed document back to Salesforce

The final step uses the Upload File action on the Salesforce connector. Add another Salesforce Connector step after the e-signature step and:

• Select “Upload a File” as the action, choose the record type (e.g. Attachment or content version)
• Select the signed version of the document as the “Send File”
• Map the record’s FormAssembly ID to the Parent ID

You can update additional records and fields during this step as well, for instance logging a completed Activity or Task on the record so the audit trail is visible in Salesforce. Simply add another action and configure to make those updates.

Read more about uploading files to Salesforce here.

This pattern in practice

Celerion: adding document generation to an existing workflow

Celerion, a clinical research services company, already had a FormAssembly workflow connected to Salesforce when they decided to add document generation and e-signature to the process. They needed compliance documents generated and signed as part of an existing approval workflow, but the workflow itself was already working. The goal was to extend it, not replace it.

That’s exactly what FormAssembly’s architecture allows. Celerion added Document Generation and an e-signature step to their existing Salesforce Workflow Connector setup — no rebuild required. Their existing field mappings stayed intact. The new steps slotted in at the right point in the sequence. The result was a complete document generation and signed approval flow layered on top of a workflow that was already running.

For organizations that have already invested in building their FormAssembly-to-Salesforce workflows, this is a meaningful distinction: document generation and e-signature aren’t a replacement workflow. They’re an upgrade to what’s already there.

American Exchange Project: replacing DocuSign entirely

American Exchange Project, a nonprofit that coordinates student exchange programs, used to rely on DocuSign for participant waivers and program agreements. When they moved their application and agreement workflows into FormAssembly, they realized e-signature was already included. The DocuSign subscription became redundant, so they canceled it. The savings: $9,000 per year.

Their waivers and agreements now collect signatures inside the same FormAssembly workflow that handles the rest of the intake process — no separate tool, no separate queue, no separate login for staff to manage.

“FormAssembly has definitely been a big time saver. I do a lot less management now than I used to.”

— Zoe Loza, American Exchange Project

Where this process works

The Salesforce record → form → document → e-signature → Salesforce pattern shows up across virtually every vertical:

• Higher education — offer letters, seat deposit confirmations, enrollment agreements triggered by an admissions status change in Salesforce
• Nonprofit — participant waivers, volunteer agreements, grant award letters generated from a Salesforce grant record
• Healthcare — patient consent forms, treatment agreements, HIPAA authorizations tied to a patient record
• Financial services — client onboarding agreements, account opening documents, disclosure forms generated from a Contact or Opportunity record
• Government — service agreements, program participation forms, contractor NDAs generated from a case or contract record

When document generation and e-signature live inside the same workflow as your data collection and Salesforce integration, standalone signature tools become redundant.

What to build next

Once the core document workflow is running, two extensions are worth exploring:

Conditional document sections: Use form field values to include or exclude sections of the document template dynamically. A contract that applies different terms based on the account tier, or a waiver that includes an additional section for minors, can be handled with conditional logic in the template rather than maintaining separate templates for each variation.

Post-signature webhooks: After the signed document is filed to Salesforce, trigger a webhook to notify a downstream system. Useful for feeding signed agreements into a contract management platform, a compliance archive, or an ERP without a separate integration layer.