A Buyer's Guide to the Best Document Automation Software

Sales teams prefer quick document delivery to close transactions, while legal departments prefer thorough reviews for accuracy and compliance. To balance speed and control, automated processes are often needed. However, automation without proper controls can increase errors, leading to lost deals or extra time spent fixing compromised documents.

Automated workflows help organizations comply with regulatory standards. For example, 'Smart Templates' lock the legal language required by legislative agencies and let business users fill in customizable commercial terms, reducing the risk of non-compliance. The best document automation software resolves the conflicting demands of sales teams and legal departments without creating new conflicts between brand and regulatory compliance in business operations.

What is Document Automation Software?

Document Automation Software is a set of tools that enable companies to create, assemble, and manage documents without manual effort. It replaces manual entry and copying client information into templates with automated document workflows that pull data from existing applications and automatically populate their own templates.

Automated document generation ensures that generated documents, such as legal documents, contracts, and reports, are correct, consistent with expectations, and in line with branding requirements. A document automation solution is more than a basic document management system. It offers features like conditional logic, dynamic content assembly, and enterprise-grade security.

These make document automation software ideal for building intelligent templates that adapt to specific business situations and provide users with the most relevant information they need for any document generation cycle. A well-implemented document automation solution provides your business with a scalable, flexible platform that generates documents faster, reduces costs by requiring less manual effort, and improves document quality.

Why Document Automation Is Important for Every Organization

The case for using document automation software is well established; it's easy to measure its benefits on an organization's top and bottom line.

Document automation improves productivity and accuracy while helping your organization comply with increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. It significantly increases your organization's efficiency when creating documents. Most organizations know that manual document creation takes too much time, but automation can reduce this by 60% to 70%.

For legal teams reviewing contracts, document automation can cut review time by half. Sales organizations can create proposals and quotes in minutes instead of hours. By accelerating business processes, document automation lets employees spend more time on higher-value activities rather than on administrative work.

Manual data entry can lead to costly errors in legal documents and financial statements. Automation can automatically populate documents with existing data from your organization's systems, significantly improving accuracy. By enhancing document quality, automation reduces the likelihood of disputes over the information it contains.

Also, regulatory compliance is one of the top reasons that many organizations are adopting document automation software. According to a recent study conducted in the EU, 60% of organizations have adopted document automation to comply with GDPR requirements. Document automation platforms help organizations maintain consistency through pre-built templates and audit trails, ensuring that all business documents comply with internal policies and external regulations.

The financial return on investment from document automation is substantial. Organizations typically save $8 to $12 per document compared to manual workflows. Many organizations have achieved an ROI of 200% to 300% within the first year of adopting document automation to enhance operational efficiency and competitiveness.

A Comparison of the 7 Best Document Automation Solutions

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1. Avokaado

Avokaado is a good fit for Legal and Operations teams in regulated industries like BFSI and Telecom. It also suits growing companies that want simple, end-to-end contract management. It is a data-first intelligence platform that helps legal and operations teams in regulated industries like banking, financial services, telecommunications, and SMEs by providing a complete view of their contracts.

Avokaado is more than a document generator; it is a contract intelligence platform that captures all document data in a structured format from creation onward. Unlike legacy systems that store data mainly in Microsoft Word with extra logic layers, Avokaado uses its proprietary adoc format. This lets you store every document in a centralised data registry, making all contracts searchable, reportable, and integrated into your organisation's business processes.

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Core Features

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Avokaado’s Avo AI with its 5D Engine™ breaks every contract down into five simple parts:

1. Deal Context (who is involved, risk level, jurisdiction),
2. Document Map (template, clause IDs, versions),
3. Data Model (key fields and metadata),
4. Decision Rules (required, fallback, or escalated decisions), and
5. Dialogue Strategy (how people communicate and negotiate).
   
   

By breaking down each contract, the AI agents understand the purpose of a legal agreement and the rules that apply. This setup, coupled with the built-in compliance center, addresses a key problem of automating contract work without losing control or increasing compliance risks. This straightforward approach ensures every action by the AI agents is correct, recorded, and verified, with no uncertainty, using scorecards and provenance records.

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Avokaado's aDoc format lets you build document templates as data objects rather than just Word files. You can add rules at any level, from a single word to a whole clause. Set up templates that include or skip sections based on factors such as transaction type, jurisdiction, or risk. This way, legal teams use the correct language every time and avoid adding unnecessary clauses.

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With Avokaado's visual workflow builder, anyone can set up complex workflows without coding. You can trigger steps based on any document data. For example, send a contract for extra review if it is high-value, has risky clauses, or involves a high-risk party. This keeps your workflows in line with risk and approval rules. 

Avokaado's Clause Library with Version Control stores all your legal language. Legal teams can manage versions for different regions, industries, and risk levels, and the system automatically selects the correct version for each document. Version control and audit trails show which version was used, so documents stay consistent and audits are easier.

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The Avokaado Data Registry and Parties Registry help you keep track of key information. The Data Registry stores details about the parties you work with, their contract terms, and obligations. 

The Parties Registry tracks every entity your company has worked with, including risk profiles, preferred terms, and past performance. When you create documents, Avokaado fills in the correct client information, like names, addresses, negotiated terms, approved clauses, and risk-based language for each counterparty.

The Compliance Centre in Avokaado helps you keep documents in line with industry rules. Set compliance rules for each template, so the right clauses are always included based on transaction type or jurisdiction. If a document does not meet the regulations, the system flags it and sends it back for review. This is useful for law firms and in-house legal teams in BFSI, Healthcare, and Telecom.

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Avokaado includes e-signature, so you do not need a separate app to sign agreements. The collaborative workspace lets legal, sales, and business teams work together on the same document with role-based permissions. It keeps a complete record of comments, suggestions, and approvals from everyone involved.

Avokaado was built to meet Europe's data protection standards from the start, not as an add-on. All data stays in Europe, so client and business data never leaves the EU. This matters to companies that need to demonstrate GDPR compliance and retain control over their data. Avokaado offers enterprise-grade security, with encrypted data at rest and in transit, detailed security controls, and strong audit trails to meet strict compliance standards.

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Pricing

Avokaado offers pricing based on volume and feature level (Standard, Premium, or Custom) to ensure you get the value you need and avoid overpaying for users.

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Verdict

With Avokaado, your team can move from creating dead files to collecting and managing contract-based data. Avokaado gives your legal team complete control over contract documents and lets your operations team maintain maximum speed.

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2. PandaDoc

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Ideal for sales and marketing teams that need to create visually appealing quotes and proposals to enhance customer engagement.

PandaDoc changes how sales teams automate document creation by offering a visual way to make proposals and quotes. Sales professionals can create interactive documents that improve their chances of success rather than using standard black-and-white text. It also combines document creation with e-signatures and configure-price-quote capability.

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Core Features

• PandaDoc has a visual editor with drag-and-drop functionality, letting users quickly add images, videos, and pricing tables to proposals.
• It integrates with many well-known CRM systems, such as HubSpot and Salesforce, automatically populating proposals with deal information from the CRM.
• The content library lets users store pre-approved marketing pieces and case studies for sales reps to use in proposals.
• PandaDoc provides analytics showing when a potential client views a proposal, how long they stay on each page, and which links they click.

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Pricing

Starts at $19 per user per month for Essentials and $49 per user per month for Business. Access to advanced integrations requires the Enterprise Package.

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Verdict

For a sales team in need of fast and visually appealing layouts, PandaDoc is an excellent choice. However, if you are looking for a comprehensive CLM solution for a legal department with strict or complex governance processes, PandaDoc may not be the best fit.

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3. HotDocs

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HotDocs is designed for larger law firms and banks that need to handle complex documents where accuracy matters. It has been a widely used contract automation tool for legal firms for years. It is effective for building custom templates based on complex legal or mathematical rules.

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Core Features

• Offers advanced scripting capabilities for complex calculations and nested logic trees that most other document solutions do not support.
• It fills out static government PDF forms with accurate field placement to help meet regulatory requirements.
• Includes an interview mode where users enter information step by step to build automated legal documents.

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Pricing

HotDocs costs $99 per month for up to 5 users. The first 100 client interviews are free, and subsequent interviews cost $1 each

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Verdict

It is a strong choice for law firms that need to create complex, high-volume legal documents, if you have the technical skills to manage it.

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4. Templafy

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Ideal for anyone in a large company who wants to stay compliant and maintain their brand guidelines across all documents, including presentations, letters, and emails. 

Templafy works within Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It adds a Governance Layer to the document creation process. All documents created with Templafy follow company guidelines and comply with company policies.

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Key Features

• Templafy appears as a sidebar in Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Secure access to approved company images, logos, text snippets, and slide presentations.
• Automatically creates current employee information, disclaimers, and signatures using user profiles.
• Reviews documents against the company-approved style and recommits files that contain outdated or unapproved content.

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Pricing

Templafy does not publish pricing because it customizes it for each company based on their unique needs.

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Verdict

Large organizations need to protect their brand and image. When developing documents with Templafy, it is recommended to partner with a Contract Lifecycle Management application.

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5. Gavel

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Gavel (formerly Documate) offers a similar experience to TurboTax, but instead of submitting a tax return, lawyers use Gavel to build legal products. Like TurboTax, Gavel lets lawyers build client-facing workflows that collect information and automatically generate documents. Legal services will become more adaptable to software-based applications.

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Core Features

1. Client portals let lawyers create client intake workflows that collect data and automatically generate legal documents for clients.
2. No-code builders let nontechnical personnel build complex legal workflows using logic and flowcharts.
3. Create a library of client information that can be reused across multiple channels and forms, such as populating the same information on a court filing and a client letter.
4. Legal products can be branded with the organization's logo and webpage address.

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Pricing

Lite plans begin at $83 per month, while Standard plans with more advanced functionality start at $290 per month.

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Verdict

Gavel will be the preferred method for attorneys seeking to develop innovative, automated ways to deliver legal services to their clients.

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6. Conga Composer

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Conga Composer is ideal if your team relies on Salesforce for Operations and needs to create invoices, quotes, and reports. It is officially recognized as the Document Automation solution for organizations using Salesforce to store documents and manage data. Conga Composer creates pixel-perfect documents from any Salesforce object, including those with complex data relationships, which many other Document Automation products cannot handle.

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Core Features

• Fully integrated with the Salesforce ecosystem, it offers strong protection for your organization’s data and document integrity.
• You can create and send thousands of invoices and letters in a single batch process.
• The ability to pull from more than one related Salesforce object is called cross-object merging.
• Conga Composer offers dynamic templates, including Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, and HTML email.

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Pricing

Pricing becomes expensive with add-ons. Prices start at about $35 per user per month, but high volume may require a custom quote.

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Verdict

Conga Composer is the benchmark for those organizations using Salesforce and is not suited for companies that do not use Salesforce.

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7. Woodpecker

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Best for small firms and solo attorneys who want to automate daily processes without investing in traditional software. Woodpecker is an intuitive plug-in that lets users easily create templates from existing Word documents. It automates repetitive processes while keeping everything within Word.

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Core Features

• Word Integration, Woodpecker, is a sidebar within Microsoft Word. Users do not need to learn a new platform.
• The software lets users insert or reuse the same data point, such as a client name, in multiple areas of the same document.
• With a single action, users can create documents for multiple clients from a single template.
• Users can automate simple logical functions from within Word using Macros.

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Pricing

Ranges from $39 to $59 per user per month, depending on the package.

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Verdict

The Woodpecker plug-in is an excellent choice for solo lawyers who want to speed up drafting without investing in a full-blown document automation tool.

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How to Choose the Right Document Automation Solution

Selecting a suitable document automation tool depends on your needs. Here is a seven-point framework to help you choose.

1. Define your primary use case, such as creating sales contracts or automating legal or HR documents. A tool that automates contract generation for a sales team may not suit a law firm.
   
   
2. Evaluate your integration requirements. List the systems you want to connect with, such as CRM, ERP, or Practice Management, before purchasing document automation software. Ensure the tool you select offers the needed integrations.
   
   
3. Determine how your users will use the automated document software. Is it for business users who need a simple interface or legal users who require advanced capabilities? Select a tool that matches your users' technical abilities.
   
   
4. Assess the complexity of your documents. If your documents are complex and use intricate conditional logic, a tool like HotDocs or Knackly may be needed. If your document creation does not involve complicated structures, a tool such as Docupilot or Woodpecker may work.
   
   
5. Consider security and compliance requirements. Organizations in highly regulated industries, such as Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, Healthcare, or Legal, should select a tool with enterprise-class security and compliance features. Look for audit trail functionality, version control, and data residency options that meet your location's requirements. For example, if you are in the EU, choose a platform that can host documents in the EU to comply with GDPR.
   
   
6. Think about how to implement and manage the change that comes with new document automation software. Even the best tool is useless unless your users adopt it. Look for tools that offer onboarding support, training, and user-friendly interfaces. Also, consider a pilot project with a small team before a full rollout to identify potential adoption challenges early.
   
   
7. Don't forget about scalability and future expansion. Your current requirements may differ from those in two years. Select a platform that will grow with your organization as it automates more users, templates, and complex workflows.

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The Way Forward

As companies worldwide seek to reduce reliance on human effort to create documents and maximize efficiency, rapid changes will occur in how they operate and approach document automation. Document automation solutions let you quickly create professional-looking documents with high accuracy, freeing staff for other tasks, including strategic planning.

One example of a document automation solution is Legal Document Automation. These solutions help your organization comply with industry regulations, save time, and increase revenue through sales automation. Whether you run a large business seeking high security or a small law office aiming to automate repetitive legal document tasks, solutions are available to meet each organization's needs.

When selecting a document automation solution, consider three key factors: the types of documents you will automate, how the solution will integrate with your existing systems, and the number of users who will access it.

By using an automated document preparation model, an organization can leverage a data-centric approach to create higher-quality documents, gain deeper insights into document creation, and build a competitive advantage through greater speed and accuracy.

Sign up for a free demo of Avokaado's best document automation tools and see for yourselves how it can improve document prep and processing.