If your organization generates complex or customer-specific documents like contracts, reports, loan agreements, or statements of work routinely, you may know very well how painstaking and time-consuming it is. On the one hand, it requires skillful employees, on the other, it demands compliance. Above all, managing document creation without the right tools hampers employee productivity as well as business growth.
So, what can be done? Well, document generation is an inseparable business process, and none can afford to overlook it. But the use of a right tool like Document Automation Software can definitely streamline the complete document generation cycle.
Thankfully, there are a plethora of document generation software providers on the market. So, deploying one would be easy-breezy. But not all document automation software is created equal. Some will require you to code, whereas there are a few that support no-code environment. Many of them offer an intuitive drag-and-drop interface; on the contrary, others might make the document generation process daunting.
Having taken a tour of ample document generation software, I’m sure every software buyer would relate to this! I tried, tested, and reviewed tons of document automation software until I crossed paths with HotDocs!
Designed to handle documents of any length and complexity, HotDocs enables you to convert frequently used forms and documents into ready-to-use templates. With end-to-end document control, it allows the document authors to populate data fields, apply rules, and control the data entered within the template. Right from preventing your documents from legal issues to ensuring that the documents adhere to your business rules, HotDocs mitigates compliance hassles. Above all, the feature that genuinely enticed me to explore is its ability to integrate with different business applications, be it your CRM, CMS, or other risk management software.
An Overview of HotDocs DocAuto Solution
1. Creating Templates
As you install HotDocs and navigate to a Word document, you’ll see HotDocs in the Word Ribbon. I’m quite familiar with document automation software that offers such an interface as I’ve leveraged one before. Coming back to HotDocs, it required me to click on ‘Create Template’ to access all the controls required to merge different variables and business logic to build an interactive template.
However, I appreciate its simple select-and-quick approach that lets you identify the data in each document that would change with every transaction or document creation and assign it a variable field. Some examples of variable fields include names, dates, pronouns, numbers, calculations, conditional texts, and more. HotDocs enables you to add as many variable fields you want across the document. This is what I loved the most – creating a single template can help produce thousands of documents in just a fraction of time. Though it’s the core function of every document automation software, HotDocs makes it easier and simpler.
2. Conditional Text
There are times when you need to create documents with certain conditions. This demands your document generation software to provide a conditional text facility. This includes, if..end if, else..if, and similar options. In comparison with other DocGen products I reviewed, HotDocs offers quite a basic conditional formatting, which can be a major drawback while creating complex documents.
3. Generating Documents
Once the templates are designed, document generation is a breeze. All you require to do is fill in the answers for the variable fields. This can be done manually, obtained from previously filled answers, or connected to a data source to pull the information from another system or location.
Depending on the template you select and the variable fields it has, you require filling in the answer one after the other. Every time you need to click the variable name and then its answer box. You can fill only one answer at a time. Initially, it seems very convenient, but when you encounter a template with ‘n’ variable fields, this clicking job is a pain, I must say.
Besides, it lets you preview how the document is created across the document generation process.
HotDocs At A Glance
- Data Sources: One benefit of HotDocs that I must appreciate is its ability to fetch data from multiple data sources, be it CRM, Access Database Excel, or any other kind. Although it cannot mix data from multiple sources like a few of its competitors, I can manage even with this!
- Output Formats: It lets you generate a basic Word or PDF document, which is comparatively limited to the options that other document automation software supports.
- Document Output: You can print, email, revise, and put the document in a workflow or a document management system. This appeared as a major drawback for me as it lacked the option to send it for eSignature or approval.
Final Thoughts
With a lot of website review and surfing for information about their product offerings on their YouTube channel, this is all I could learn about HotDocs’ Document Automation software. Moreover, I was completely unable to schedule a demo with their team.
However, to the extent that I could know about HotDocs is that it is quite a basic Document Automation software with little to no support (to delve deeper into the product) from the team. While it enables you to create templates without any technical knowledge and further hassles, it has no scope for customizing a document as per your business needs. With a lack of functionalities like AddIns, Tags, Debuggers, Macros, Queries, and similar functions that most of the document generation software offers, HotDocs doesn’t stand a chance to be on my list.
Though HotDocs is a basic program, it is a good choice for solopreneurs with fewer yet basic document generation needs. It can truly prove to be their time and resource savior. But, if you are an organization producing tons and tons of documents with a multitude of personalization or complexity, HotDocs is definitely not for you.
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