Whether you’re new to Salesforce or have been using it for years, there’s no shortage of tips and tricks to help you navigate your way around the popular CRM. But despite Salesforce’s ease of use, questions are bound to come up that stump people and cause them to go looking for answers. One of those questions you may have asked and we get asked about all the time - is there an easy way to generate documents within Salesforce?
The short answer is not exactly.
The Limits of Salesforce
When Salesforce was built, their main focus was on creating a high-performing CRM, which they have executed very well. The ability to create documents in Salesforce was not their main priority and the functionality to date is very limited. Users can generate documents such as emails, quotes, and export Excel files but those are very limited. That leaves Salesforce users two places to look: free apps and paid apps.
Free Apps are Great, but Limited
Because Salesforce lacks the functionality to generate robust, customized documents for users, a few companies built solutions to alleviate the burden of easily extracting Salesforce data into a nice looking document. Free apps for creating documents in Salesforce enable users more customization than Salesforce’s out-of-box functionality. With free tools, users can often add images, headers and predetermined clauses, like Terms & Conditions, to their documents. The drawbacks? Free apps lack many of the customization features, dynamic functionalities and integrations users are often searching for when looking for an easy way to create documents from Salesforce.
You Might Also Like: How To Choose The Best Apps On The AppExchange
Why Paid Apps are the Holy Grail
Paid apps are hands down the most reliable and easiest way to generate documents from Salesforce. With an unmatched level of features, plenty of pre-built templates plus 24/7 live support, paid apps are the way to go. When users pay for an app, they unlock sophistication in their document generation process. This might include the ability to incorporate related lists, SOQL queries, conditional logic and other advanced rules. What’s more, paid apps easily integrate with third party software such as Google Drive, which speeds up internal communication and overall team efficiency.
In the end, you don’t need to scour the web looking for an easy document generator for Salesforce. A paid document creation app is worth the investment and allows users to generate sleek looking documents at the click of a button. Looking to narrow down your search even further? Try a native app. S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation solution for Salesforce, which means your data never leaves Salesforce, making your documents more secure and teams more efficient.
