Document Assembly Software Usability

People often confuse document assembly software field merge and document automation. However, the software is much more powerful than the others. Each has its own set of unique features that are designed to handle specific tasks. So, If you want to optimize your business’s processes, it is vital to determine which platform suits your particular needs.

The Popularity of Document Automation Options in the Digital Age

The Coronavirus pandemic and today’s demanding market have brought forth the need to do things virtually and efficiently. As the need for effective remote work increased, companies began to see the vast benefits of automated document software.

For instance, many document automation solutions let you develop formal papers such as legal contracts from a standardized template. This feature and more enable businesses to expedite the document assembly process remotely, allowing them to meet modern-day needs. 

Most Used Document Automation Options

Various platforms offer document automation services, making it difficult to choose the right solution to fit your company’s needs. These platforms significantly reduce the time it takes to process a document when you consider how long it takes manually.

However, one might be better for your business’s practices than the other. For example, a document system is far more flexible than its counterpart, letting you create documents based on your company’s unique operations. On the other hand, field merge is a more straightforward solution and is excellent for businesses with small and non-complex document requests. 

Why Document Assembly Software is Often Confused With Automation and Field Merge

People tend to only refer to automation when talking about document generation solutions. However, there are many options when it comes to document automation, including software and field merge platforms. Field merge is an older technology that is typically used to create simple forms such as letters.

On the other hand, it can be used for complex documents like legal contracts. Usually, businesses benefit more from a robust document system because they can finalize their forms with little to no manual adjustments allowing for a smoother process. 

Document Assembly Software vs. Automation

Document automation is essentially a series of systems and workflows that help you to create digital documents. It’s commonly used among businesses to aid in creating legal forms, contract agreements, and formal letters or requests. However, central to document automation is document assembly which is using intelligent templates to help develop essential forms. Powerful document solutions allow you to craft even the most complex forms in a fraction of the time that it would take to draft them manually.

Even though both solutions are relatively similar, there are a few key differences between the two:

What is Document Assembly?

It is a step in the automation process, and it pulls together all the documents required to complete an automation cycle. In other words, it lets businesses group together various forms that are then unified into a single template or group that you can then change to fit any need from one-page documents to thousand-page forms. Therefore, there cannot be full automation without the process of assembly.

What is Document Automation?

Automation solutions perform four main processes that speed up document creation. These processes include creating templates, rendering, assembly, and distribution. Additionally, automation helps create a standardized workflow that makes it easier for users to close deals, regulate compliance, and create professional error-free forms.

How to Use Automation Platforms with Document Assembly

Before you can begin assembling a document, you have to create a template using an automation service. The template is then used to start document generation since it has the essential instructions needed to automate the rest of the form.

Next, your necessary information is pulled based on your template’s criteria. Once the data is pulled and the required documents are generated, document assembly begins. This process takes all of the forms associated with your template’s criteria and groups them together.

Together, these processes will improve your company’s profit margin and improve customer relations as they quickly receive the high-quality forms they requested.

Document Assembly Software vs. Field Merge

Field merge has been around for years. Created by Microsoft, it generates simple documents by combining spreadsheet data with a virtual copy. But, field merge is dated technology and lacks the capabilities of document assembly software. Considering that field merge can only replace document variables with specific data inputs, it is only suitable for basic forms.

Comparatively, it is a much more flexible option as it is designed to program logic into your records with conditional statements, filters, and formatting. 

Conditional Logic

Conditional logic is a feature of document automation software that lets you decide what text is included and excluded based on inputted data values. You can use conditional logic capabilities to control your document’s content with logical structures allowing you to optimize the creation of signature-ready forms. 

Filters

When you’re assembling documents using a database like CRM and ERP, there may be various records for a single data type. This is where the filtering feature of online document assembly comes in handy because it lets you omit specific characteristics of records, making it easier to search for documents.

For example, if you want to add transaction data into a list but only want to include confirmed transactions from your database rather than pending, you can apply a filter against “pending” transactions in your data records. 

Formatting

When you use a powerful document service, you can apply formatting to texts and automatically make format objects, including lists and tables in your document. Additionally, this feature allows you to input various data values within your format objects. The option to create formatted tables and lists is something that cannot be done with a field merge platform and is an excellent way to speed up your process by using loops and repeat commands to autofill repeating data.

Benefits of Powerful Document Assembly Software

Investing in a powerful document platform is one of the best decisions you can make as a successful business owner. When you invest in automation, you improve a central component of your company’s work by making it more efficient. This is because assembly software offers unique automated features that other automation solutions lack, such as logical inputs, standardized templates, filtering, formatting, and more.