Instantly Send Proposals for New Deals in Base CRM

Using a CRM like Base to keep track of your sales process can have a big impact on your business.  From tracking new leads, to closing deals, Base can help you every step of the way.

Add WebMerge to your sales process and you can streamline your document generation to instantly populate quotes, letters, invoices, and more.  You’ll never have to manually create a sales document again!

In this example, we’re going to show you how to automatically populate a proposal when we add a new deal to Base and then email it directly to our customer.

To get started, we’re going to setup the template for our Proposal using a Word document.  Inside Word, we’re going to insert our company information like our logo, services description, etc.  The for the spots that we want to customize with deal/customer information, we’re going to use merge fields that look like {$FirstName}, {$Description}, {$Amount}, etc.

You can name these merge fields anything you’d like, but no spaces or special characters.

Here’s what our proposal template looks like:
 

Once you have your template ready, we need to upload it to WebMerge.  From the Documents page in WebMerge, click the New Document button and then enter a name.  On the next step, select Office Document and pick the file from your computer.
 

After you’ve uploaded your document, you’ll be taken to the Settings page where you can modify various options like the type of file that is generated and the name of the merged document.  For this example, we’re going to generate a PDF and then include the name of our customer in the document name.
 

Next, we’re going to setup the delivery of our document so that it is automatically emailed directly to our customer for their review.  Under the Deliver tab, click the Edit button under the default email delivery.  Then for the “To” address, we’re going to use a merge field.

If you don’t have a merge field in your document for the customer’s email address, choose <<Other>> from the dropdown then enter something like: {$Email}

Feel free to edit any of the other email settings.
 

Once you have updated your email delivery, we are done with the setup process inside WebMerge and we’re ready to integrate with Base.  To help with the integration, we’re going to use our friends over at Zapier.

Inside Zapier, we’re going to create a New Zap.  For the Trigger, we’re going to choose Base as the app, then New Deal as the trigger.
 

Once you authenticate your Base account, Zapier will load a test deal to make sure everything is connected properly.  Follow those steps and continue.

Next, we’re going to setup the Action of our Zap.  For the app, choose WebMerge and then Create Document Merge as the action.
 

Once you authenticate your WebMerge account, Zapier is going to load a list of the documents in your account.  Go ahead and pick the Proposal document that you just setup and Zapier will load a list of the merge fields in your document.

For each merge field, you need to pick the corresponding Base field by clicking the button to the right of each box.  This tells Zapier how to send your data over to WebMerge so that it is populated in the correct spot on your template.
 

After you have matched up all of your merge fields, we’re done with the setup process and we’re ready to test!  Save your Zap and turn it on, then login to Base and add a new deal.  Zapier will detect the new deal and send the information over to WebMerge where your proposal will be populated and emailed.

Here’s what our merged proposal looked like ready for our customer:
 

Congrats, you’re all finished!  You can now automatically populate all kinds of documents with data from Base CRM.  Can you think of any other ways you can use WebMerge to simplify your paperwork process?

Instantly Populate Waivers from Formstack and Sign using HelloSign

Collecting signatures from your customers can be a time consuming process, but with a tool like HelloSign, you can sign documents in minutes.  Add WebMerge to the workflow and you can automatically pre-populate the documents with data before signing.

In this example, we’re going to show you how to instantly populate a waiver with data from a Formstack registration form, then send over to our customer for signing.

To get started, we’re going to setup the template for our waiver using a Word document.  Inside Word, we’re going to add our terms and conditions, then for the spots that we want to insert our customer’s information we’re going go use merge fields like {$FirstName}, {$LastName}, {$Phone}, etc.

Here’s what our waiver template looks like:
 

Once we have our template ready, we need to upload it to WebMerge.  From the Documents page in WebMerge, click the New Document button and enter a name.  On the next step, choose Office Document as the document type and then choose the file from your computer.
 

After you’ve uploaded your template, you’ll be taken to the Settings tab where you can modify various options like the type of file that is generated and the name of the merged document.  For this example, we’re going to output a PDF and include the name of our customer in the file name.
 

Next, we’re going to setup the delivery of our document so that it is automatically sent over to HelloSign for signing.  Under the Deliver tab, click the New Delivery button and select HelloSign from the list.  After you enter your HelloSign API Key, you’ll need to enter the merge fields for the signer’s name and email address.

Feel free to customize any of the other HelloSign settings.
 

Once you’ve saved your HelloSign delivery, we’re done with the setup process inside WebMerge and we’re ready to setup the integration with our registration form inside Formstack.

Inside Formstack under Settings > Integrations for your form, please add the WebMerge integration to your form.  Once you enter your WebMerge API Key and Secret, Formstack will load a list of the documents in your WebMerge account.

Go ahead and pick the Waiver document you just setup and Formstack will load all of your merge fields.  For each merge field, you need to pick the corresponding fields from the form field dropdown.  This tells Formstack how to send your data over to WebMerge so that it is populated in the correct spot on your template.
 

Once you have matched up all of your merge fields, go ahead and turn on the integration at the top of the page.  We’re ready for a test!  Open up your form and then submit a new submission.  Formstack will send the data over to WebMerge and we’ll populate the waiver and send it over to HelloSign for signing.

Here’s what our waiver looks like ready to sign in HelloSign:
 

Congrats, you’re all done!  You can now instantly populate and sign documents using WebMerge and HelloSign.  Can you think of any other ways you can utilize WebMerge to simplify your paperwork process?

20 Epic Ways to Automate Documentation with Zapier

As consumer demands become more unique and varied, in order to keep up with big businesses, small businesses must change their back-end operations. With the accessibility and affordability of automated software solutions, this demand is not only possible, but it also saves time and money for small business owners.

Where do you start? That’s easy! Zapier and WebMerge.

Zapier provides businesses with the ability to sync any application they want. Based on the uniqueness of your operations, you could use Zapier to share new Tweets on Slack, send RSS feeds to Buffer, and more. With Zapier and WebMerge’s powers combined, you can automate your documentation process and eventually… rule the world!

Here are 20 ways you can use Zapier and WebMerge to automate your business:

1. Create and Sign Real Estate Contracts with CudaSign
   Real Estate agents are always on the go.  From meeting with new clients, running around town showing homes, to closings, real estate agents are rarely in the office. Here’s how you can create quick contracts and save some energy.
    
2. Create Contracts and Agreements from Nutshell CRM
   Managing your contacts, leads, and opportunities can be a daunting task, but with choosing the right CRM can be a life saver.  Nutshell is a great CRM and in combination with WebMerge you can save your sales team countless hours.  In this example we’re going to show you how you can create a contract from a lead in Nutshell and automatically send it to your customer.
    
3. Generate Contracts from Opportunities in TrackVia
   Managing your workflow can be a daunting task, but with tools like TrackVia, you can keep track of everything from start to finish – all within a single platform.  From managing a projects to collecting data in the field, TrackVia is a great solution.
    
4. Send a Letter of Engagement from Clio
   Document generation in the legal world is a must-have.  By auto-populating letters, contracts, and other types of legal documents, attorneys and paralegals can save countless hours.  Another way lawyers can save time (and their sanity) is by using a practice management system like Clio.
    
5. Populate a PDF Receipt from a Formidable Order Form
   Formidable is a popular Wordpress form plugin for creating contact forms, order forms, registration forms and many more types of web forms.  But what if you want to take that information collected on the form and populate a Word document or PDF?  Your options are very limited.  Unless you have WebMerge, of course!  
    
6. Send an Order Invoice from Smartsheet
   Smartsheet is a pretty cool tool that allows you to easily collect data from customers and team members, plus offering an easy platform to manage that information.  It’s like Excel, but on steroids.  In this example, we’re going to show you how to send an invoice created with WebMerge directly from Smartsheet as a new order is entered into our sheet.
    
7. Create and Send an NDA from Zoho CRM
   Keeping track of all your customer information can be difficult, but getting data out of your CRM can be an even bigger hassle.  Most often you end up re-typing information into other systems, documents, etc.  With Zoho CRM you can easily capture your leads, plus manage your customers, partners, and opportunities.
    
8. Send Customized Invoices for Magento Orders
   Let’s face it – e-commerce is here to stay and is an important part of any business.  Today there are many services out there that can help you build and maintain an online store front without the need of expensive coding or customization.  One of the most popular services is called Magento and they offer a product that can fit your every need.
    
9. Send Welcome Letters to Hubspot Form Leads
   You’ve jumped into the world of HubSpot marketing and sales tools, collecting all of this data on your website visitors, leads, and customers.  But, you don’t have an easy way to populate documents (letters, contracts, offers, etc) from that customer data.  Until now!  With the help of WebMerge (via Zapier) you can take your HubSpot data and populate documents on the fly.
    
10. Create PDFs and Reports from Knack
    If you’re looking for an easy way to build an online database application without the need for programming, you need to check out Knack.  With Knack you can get rid of those clunky spreadsheets and build easy to use web applications such as a custom CRM, proposal tracker, order management, and more.  Knack allows you to build some pretty powerful apps and we’re going to show you how you can easily generate documents directly from Knack using WebMerge.
     
11. Create Service Contracts from Batchbook
    If you’re looking for a great CRM to help you with organization and productivity, then we suggest you take a close look at Batchbook.  With Batchbook you can track your contacts, manage your deals, maintain your communication with customers, and more.  Let's take it one step further and generate documents from Batchbook using WebMerge.
     
12. Create and Send Contracts from Solve CRM
    In today’s competitive landscape for the CRM space, it’s tough for services to stick out from the rest.  You have to fit the needs of specific verticals or use-cases and do that really well.  In the case of Solve CRM, they have wisely picked a deep integration with Google for Work and all the apps that come along with it.  From Calendar syncing, to Gmail integration, to managing Google Drive files, Solve integrates seamlessly.
     
13. Create and Manage HR Documents from ZOHO Creator
    Managing your HR processes can be a daunting task.  From collecting new employee information, tracking time off, and handling payroll, there is a lot to keep track of and a lot of documentation to go along with it.  No sweat!  There’s a great tool called ZOHO Creator and you can build a customized HR app that allows you to manage all of your HR data across your entire business.  Then, combined with WebMerge you can generate employee contracts, insurance applications, state forms, and more.
     
14. Create Custom Invoices and Letters from Harvest
    Managing projects, finances, timesheets, and deliverables can be a job in itself, but with Harvest you can make life a whole lot easier.  Harvest can track all your expenses throughout a project and make it easy to bill your customers when the project is complete.  Sounds great, right?  Well, we agree, but what if you want to customize the invoices or send letters to your new customers?  Your options are limited.
     
15. Create and Send a Custom Payment Receipt from Freshbooks
    Freshbooks is one of the leading accounting solutions on the market and they do a great job of helping your manage your invoices, time, and expenses.  You can keep track of all of your customers and send invoices in minutes.  But what if you want to create a customized invoice or send a receipt to your customer when you receive payment?  Your options are very limited.
     
16. Send Customized Payment Receipts from PayPal
    PayPal is a great way to get paid for things online without the hassle of gateway fees, setup charges, or merchant accounts.  You can easily integrate PayPal into your shopping cart, website, or registration processes.  However, your options are limited if you want to customize the receipt that a customer receives when they pay your through PayPal.
     
17. Create Customized Invoices from Xero
    Managing your small business has never been easier than with Xero accounting software.  From your billing to payroll to contact management, Xero has got you covered and will save you hours upon hours every month.  Xero has a built in feature to send invoices to your customers and it will show you when they have viewed the invoice, but customization is limited.
     
18. Create Customer Receipts from Stripe Charges
    Let’s face it, Stripe is awesome at making payments easy.  You can integrate with their API in a matter of minutes and collecting money instantly.  The best part is that you don’t have any monthly fees to worry about.  You only pay when you get paid.  The only downside to Stripe is that it is hard to send customized notifications to your customer about their payment.  Unless you’re the developer behind the Stripe integration, your options are limited.
     
19. Email Personalized Receipts for Braintree Payments
    Accepting payments online is a great way to streamline your business and offer your customers an easy way to pay you. With Braintree you can easily integrate your payment process into your website, app, or shopping carts.  With just a few lines of code you can start accepting payments.  Unfortunately, sending customized receipts is not quite that easy.  Your hands are pretty tied if you want to customize the receipt.
     
20. Upload a TypeForm Medical Patient Intake Form to Box
    Have you ever thought filling out forms is a pain in the neck? TypeForm makes the experience of filling out forms fluid and fun. At the doctor’s office, filling out an intake form is often the first experience the patient has upon arriving for his or her appointment. If you have a medical practice, then you might be interested in improving your intake process. With TypeForm, in conjunction with WebMerge, you can merge the form submissions with a template document and automatically file them in your digital document storage system and/or as easily print them out as hard copies.

New Plugin: Send Contracts for Closed Potentials in Zoho CRM

We're excited to announce that we have partnered up with Zoho CRM to provide a direct integration to WebMerge.  With the WebMerge plugin, available in the Zoho Marketplace, you can generate documents (invoices, contracts, quotes, etc) with the click of a button right inside Zoho CRM!  You’ll never have to copy & paste data from Zoho into documents again!

For this example, we’re going to show you how you can generate contracts for a Potential that has been closed/won in Zoho CRM.  We’ll also be sending the contract over to DocuSign for signature.  Zoho CRM has released a new plugin that we’ll be using to send data over to WebMerge – more on that in a bit.

To get started, we’re going to setup the template for our contract using a Word document.  Inside our contract template, we’ll add our boilerplate contract info and then for the spots that we want our customer and potential data to go, we’re going to use merge fields that looks like {$FirstName}, {$Amount}, etc.

Here’s what our contract template looks like:
 

Since we’ll be collecting a signature for the contract using DocuSign, we need to add a signature tag to the doc so that DocuSign knows where to place the signature.  This signature tag is just like any other text in our document and looks like:   \s1\
 

Once we have our contract template finished, we need to upload it to WebMerge.  From the Documents page in WebMerge, click the New Document button and enter a name for your document.  On the next step, pick Office Document as the document type and select the file from your computer.
 

After we upload our template, we’ll be taken to the Settings tab where we can change various settings like the type of file that we want to generate and the name of the file.  For this example, we’re going to generate a PDF and include the name of the deal in the file name.
 

Next, we’re going to setup the delivery of our document so that it is automatically sent over to DocuSign for signature.  From the Deliver page, click the New Delivery button and select DocuSign from the list.  After you authenticate your DocuSign account, you’ll need to pick the merge fields for the signer’s name and email address.
 

After you have setup the DocuSign delivery, we are done with the setup in WebMerge and we’re ready to integrate with Zoho CRM.

To integrate with Zoho CRM, we’re going to use the WebMerge plugin that is available from Zoho Marketplace.  You can install this plugin here: https://crm.zoho.com/market/installPlugin.do?portalName=zohoplugin&nameSpace=webmergedocumentgeneration

Inside Zoho CRM, to go the WebMerge Mappings module and create a New Mapping.  Give the mapping a descriptive name and then pick Potential as the module.  We’re going to choose Document as the WebMerge Resource and then choose the document that we just steup in WebMerge.
 

Once you pick your WebMerge document, Zoho will load a list of all the merge fields that are in your document.  For each of the merge fields, you need to pick the corresponding CRM fields.  This tells Zoho how to send your data over to WebMerge so that it gets populated in the correct spot on your template.
 

After you have matched up all of your merge fields, go ahead and save the mapping.  We’re ready to generate the contract!  Open up one of your Potentials and then click the WebMerge button.  This will generate the contact and send it over to DocuSign for signature.

Here’s what our contract looked like ready to sign:
 

Congrats, you’re all finished!  You can now generate all types of documents from your Zoho CRM account.  Can you think of any other ways that you could use WebMerge to simplify your paperwork process?

Instantly Populate Sales Quotes from Zoho CRM

With a tool like Zoho CRM, you can easily manage your entire sales cycle from a single interface, leading to improved efficiencies and closing more deals.  Another way you can improve your sales process is to use WebMerge to automatically populate documents like proposals, contracts, quotes, and more.

In this example, we’re going to show you how to automatically populate sales quotes from data in Zoho CRM then we’ll email the quote directly to our customer for their review.

To get started, we’re going to setup the template for our quote using a Word document.  Inside Word, we’re going to add our repeating information like our logo, contact information, and details of our company.  For the spots that we want to insert our deal/customer info, we’re going to use merge fields that look like {$FirstName}, {$Address}, {$Amount}, etc.

Here’s what our quote template looks like:
 

Once we have our template finished, we need to upload it to WebMerge.  From the Documents page in WebMerge, click the New Document button and enter a name.  On the next step, select Office Document as the document type and then pick the file from your computer.
 

After you upload your quote template, you’ll be taken to the Settings tab where you can modify various options like the type of file that is generated and the name of the file.  For this example, we’re going to use the name of our deal in the file name and we’re going to generate a PDF.
 

Next, we’re going to setup the email delivery for our document so that the quote is automatically emailed directly to our customer.  Under the Deliver tab, we’re going to Edit the default email delivery.  For the To address, we’re going to choose the email merge field for our customer’s email address.  If you don’t have a merge field in your document, you can choose <<Other>> from the dropdown then enter something like {$Email} in the box.

Feel free to edit any of the other email settings.  Here’s what our email delivery looks like:
 

Once we have saved our email delivery, we are done with the setup process in WebMerge and we’re ready to integrate with Zoho CRM.  If you haven’t already, please make sure to install the WebMerge plugin from the Zoho Marketplace.

Inside Zoho, we’re going to go to the WebMerge Mappings module and we’re going to create a New Mapping.  After you give the mapping a name, we’re going to choose the Module we want to use (Potentials), then we’re going to choose the WebMerge Document we want to merge.
 

Next, we’re going to match up the merge fields in our document with the fields from our CRM.  This tells Zoho how to send the data over to WebMerge so that it’s populated in the correct spot on your template.
 

Once you have matched up all of your merge fields, go ahead and save your mapping.  We’re ready for a test!  Open up one of your Potentials and then click the WebMerge button (it might be under the “…” dropdown).  This will generate the quote and email it out!

Here’s what our quote looked like ready for the customer:
 

Congrats, you’re all finished!  You can now instantly generate all kinds of documents from your Zoho CRM data.  Can you think of any other ways you can use WebMerge to simplify your paperwork process?