A Complete Guide to Document Automation

What is Document Automation?

Document automation, also referred to as document assembly or document generation, is the process of using software to create, manage, and execute documents at scale. The process itself is automatic and is contingent on the set of rules that are defined in the document automation software. By leveraging dynamic templates, predefined workflows, and data integration, legal teams can significantly reduce manual effort and errors.

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How to Automate Document Creation?

Document automation starts with creating templates for the various scenarios that exist within the business. For example, an in-house legal team might create a standard NDA template with a dynamic questionnaire. This would allow them (or even the business) to quickly generate NDAs when entering confidential negotiations with potential partners or in similar situations.

Once the templates are created, they must be filled out with the required data needed to facilitate the creation of digital documents at scale. 

What to Look For In An Automated Document Solution

When starting your documents automation journey, there are certain features to look for in your automated document management software. While there are many solutions currently on the market, having a basic understanding of what features are available is necessary to find a suitable solution. Here are some examples of what to look for:

1. Customizable Templates 

Document automation platforms allow their users to create templates that can be duplicated, reused and edited for a variety of uses. When looking for the right solution for your team, ensuring that there are plenty of templates available that suit specific business needs is essential to the company.

2. Document Workflows 

Top document automation platforms help users define workflows that guide them through the document creation process. This allows legal teams to streamline the contract and agreement drafting process, shortening the time it takes to complete these types of time-consuming tasks. Automated documents platforms should also facilitate the end-to-end document lifecycle or process, rather than just the document generation itself to include things like approvals and review, stakeholder assignment, e-signatures and obligations management.

3. Document & Contract Lifecycle Management

Solutions that are maintainable and easily customizable to accommodate changes from the business are essential in managing documents and contracts with flexibility and ease. Document automation platforms that provide these features are also ideal for maintaining brand standards, policies and compliance across an organization.

4. Extensive Integrations

The true value of a legal document automation solution should include the ability for it to work with other third-party solutions. An important part of integration availability is ensuring that business information is shared between solutions such as your organization's storage system, so that it can be retrieved automatically for future use.

5. Ease of Use

Choosing legal technology that is intuitive and easy to navigate through will be the most successful for adoption and a positive user experience. Complicated technology will cause legal professionals and business users to become frustrated, making the new solution become quickly redundant and replaced. Choosing a solution with a simple, intuitive interface, with quick learning times will be the best option.

How Are Different Departments Using Document Automation?

Departments across organizations use document automation differently in their day-to-day work. From legal to IT, users can leverage document automation to streamline their standard processes. Here are some document automation examples for various departments and industries:

👩‍⚖️ Legal Teams

Automate contract creation and review, enhance matter management, and ensure compliance to expedite legal processes.

• Sales Proposal Generator - Generate sales proposals quickly and accurately using document automation software
• NDA Generator - Automate non-disclosure agreements end-to-end from drafting, negotiation and approvals, e-signatures and obligations
• Lease Agreement Generator - Generate and streamline lease agreements end-to-end - from intake, negotiation & approvals, e-signatures and obligations
• License Agreement Generator - Generate and automate license agreements end-to-end - from generation, approvals, e-signature and obligations
• Supplier Agreement Generator - Generate and automate supplier agreements end-to-end - from the intake of information, negotiation, e-signature and obligations
• Contract Lifecycle Management – Automate and streamline contract end-to-end, from information intake, generation, through to approvals, execution and obligations ‍‍

🤝 HR Department

Streamline employee onboarding and manage HR documents efficiently.

• Employment Agreements – Generate and automate employment agreements end-to-end - from the intake of information, negotiations to e-signature
• ‍Termination Letter Generator - Generate and automate employee termination letters end-to-end - from the intake of information, negotiation, and payments
• ‍Remuneration Letters – Generate and send personalized remuneration and salary increase letters in bulk, including dynamic clauses and calculations
• Job Description Generator - Automate the creation of bespoke yet standardized job description for any role in your company‍

📋 Procurement Team

Simplify the generation of purchase orders and vendor contracts to enhance procurement workflows.

• Vendor Agreement Generator - Fast track procurements by creating standardized self-service, automated agreements that are ready to go‍
• Vendor Risk Assessment & Advice Generation - Decrease time on evaluating vendors and reduce overall internal effort through automating your vendor risk assessments ‍
• NDA Generator - Automate non-disclosure agreements end-to-end from drafting, negotiation and approvals, e-signatures and obligations

📈 Sales & Marketing Team

Quickly produce customized sales proposals and marketing materials to accelerate the sales cycle.

• Sales Agreements & Contracts – Generate and automate sales agreements end-to-end, from the intake of information negotiation, e-signature and obligations
• Sales Proposal Generator –Reduce turnaround and generate sales proposals quickly and accurately using an automated sales proposal generator ‍
• Terms and Conditions Generator - Enable users to self-serve the generation of terms and conditions compliant and tailored in just minutes ‍
• License Agreement Generator - Generate and automate license agreements end-to-end - from generation, approvals, e-signature and obligations

How Are Different Industries Using Document Automation?

🏠 Real Estate

• Lease Agreements – Automation allows real estate professionals to quickly generate a lease agreement, with all the terms of the agreement listed plainly, and amend agreements to tailor to clients.  
• Mortgage Documents – By using automation software, realtors can put together mortgage documents that they can provide to their clients in digital form. This makes it easier to produce standardized, error-free agreements while reducing the hours spent on drafting.  
• Brokerage Agreements – With automation, these agreements can be created on the go, and signatures can be captured automatically, without any errors.  

🏢 Private Equity  

• NDA Generator – NDA automation involves using software that generates NDAs from an intuitive digital questionnaire and facilitates the approval and signature process.  ‍
• Term Sheets – Document automation enables bankers at private equity firms to create term sheets automatically and obtain the necessary legal information to structure their documents.  ‍
• Loan Agreements - Private equity firms use document automation to provide access to clients to their credit information in a timely manner.  

💵 Finance  

• ESIC Eligibility Automation– Enable users to self-serve an eligibility assessment for ESIC tax concessions and receive tailored financial advice.
• Accounts Payable Checks – Automate the collection of matter and client management information for the accounting team. ‍
• Legal Aids Means Test Assessment – Assess the eligibility for pro-bono legal services based on the means test and find suitable services for the user.  

⚖️ Law Firms  

• Contracts – Generating contracts automatically streamlines contract management and speeds up the time it takes to review and approve agreements.  
• Patent Drafting Tool – Automation enables users to automate the patent drafting process with document generation, calculations and more.  
• Legal Opinions – Lawyers can automate their legal service to enable users to receive self–serve bespoke advice through knowledge bases or by routing requests to expert decision-makers. This helps law firms qualify quality leads.  ‍
• Share Purchase Agreements – Automation helps streamline the sale and purchase of shares in a company.  

🚚 Logistics & Supply Chain  

• Account Opening Forms – Create applications that allow users to quickly gather new clients' contact details, salaries, and addresses in a digital form.
• Master Service Agreements – Standard MSAs can be used for a one-time project but are more commonly used for ongoing relationships. Automation helps to streamline the process of revising the same agreement over time.  
• Supplier Code of Conduct – Automation ensures that suppliers meet the following minimum recognized labor standards and uphold the human rights of workers.  

💊 Pharmaceutical  

• Quality Assurance Agreements – By automating the quality assurance process, manufacturers can reduce the time and money spent on evaluating and improving their product or service.
• Manufacturing Agreements – Document automation sets the terms under which the manufacturer will produce the product, the quantity to be produced, pricing and the delivery mode without back-and-forth.  
• Patent Assignments – Automation in the patent process optimizes the time spent on facilitating agreements and enables more efficient operations.

💼 Professional Services  

• Engagement Letters - Automated engagement letters provide a quick and cost-effective way to create consistent and professional engagement letters.  
• Due Diligence Forms – Users can deliver forms quickly and more efficiently with automation by asking the appropriate questions to create accurate forms.  

💻 Software  

• Service Level Agreements – SLAs are an essential part of vendor contracts, and with automation, can remove the task of manually monitoring each step in the process.  ‍
• Statements of Work – Automation allows users to compile proposals quickly, cutting down production time, streamlining the time it takes to execute the agreement.

What Are The Benefits of Document Automation?  

Efficient Document Processing

With document automation, processes to populate information, generate and execute documents can be performed   in just a fraction of the time than it would take manually. Documents can be accelerated to save countless hours and be used for value-adding activities such as progressing deals, establishing partnerships and more.

Reduced Errors 

Since document automation requires a template to input information, it is less likely that an error will occur during the data entry process. Automation removes the need for manual input, leaving less room for human error and allows for built-in controls to ensure regulatory compliance and accuracy

Complete More High-Value Work

By reducing the time spent on administrative tasks, users can focus on higher-value and or strategic work for the business. For example, by automating documents such as NDAs, lawyers can transform their operations as a “cost-center” to improve the speed and access of their services and drive business-wide strategic initiatives.   ‍

Improved Client Relationships & Experiences 

Internal clients expect legal work to be completed in a timely manner and correctly. Automation provides an effective way of quickly progressing documents and delivering positive user experiences.  ‍

Increased Security

Automation systems ensure that a company’s private data and information is securely stored and retrieved, which minimizes the risk of having a data breach.  ‍

Standardized Branding

Templates within automation platforms ensure that branding standards are adhered to across an organization. Document automation allows for the same logos, language, and style to remain the same regardless of who accesses the documents. 

What Are The Key Features to Look for in Legal Document Generation Software?

How To Choose a Legal Document Automation Software

Although every business has different needs they need to meet, and as such, each must follow certain steps when evaluating which legal software solution is the best fit.

1. Evaluate the Need For Automation

The first step to choosing the best software is to evaluate what needs to be automated within your legal team. Identifying the documents, processes, and workflows that would benefit from being automated is a significant first step in the process as it will help to determine what type of software is the most necessary.

2. Determine the Best System

There are various document automation systems to choose from. Each system provides different functionalities and capabilities that offer a range of solutions. Here are some examples:

• Database document management systems
• Cloud-based management systems
• Server-based document management systems
• Web-based document management systems
• Workflow capabilities as part of document automation systems

3. Perform In-Depth Research

Before choosing which legal document automation software will be the best fit, it is best to perform research on the different solutions available. When researching, here are some factors to consider:

• User Interface
• Integration Options
• Collaboration Features
• Security
• Prices

Ready to start your legal document automation journey? Request a demo today, and one of our technology consultants will help assist with document process automation for your organization.