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Creating a pdf from data in table?

Topic Labels: Automations Data
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Limi
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Our finance department wants to start using Airtable to send out invoices to vendors. Is there a way to place a template invoice somewhere, and then have an automation modify the template pdf with chosen data from our vendors listings with their invoice? (i.e- from template to a customized pdf with their information, amount to pay etc).

6 Replies 6

You can start looking at Page Designer to see if it will fit your needs. However, it is very limited and many people choose to use third party services, such as On2Air docs or Documint.

I would start by taking a look at the Page Designer extension.  It has some limitations in formatting and size but if you can use that to create an acceptable invoice it's actually very easy to map the database fields to the template.  You can add a button field to the table and use it to generate the invoice from the record.  You're still in the world they would have to use the print option to print to pdf, but it wouldn't surprise me if one of the more experienced contributors would have used a script to automate that part.  This would at least give you an idea on the capability of the extension and if the formatting would fit your needs.

If you have a more complex document there are options using Make (and probably Zapier) which can work.  I found that process was easier than the administration, but it depends on the organization.

Good luck.

If you want to go beyond Page Designer and like using Google Docs for templates, please checkout my tool DocsAutomator and let me know if you have any questions 🙂  

ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

@Limi 

The other people have given you some great ideas above, such as looking at DocuMint.

You can also look at DocsAutomator.

However, another one of the easiest & quickest ways to automate a PDF from a template like what you’re talking about is to simply create the template in a word processing tool that you’re already using every day — such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word — and then automate the PDF creation process using Make.

If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld 

Sergio
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi!

You can use the Plumsail Documents extension for Airtable for creating a pdf from the data in table. This is an application for creating documents from templates; with it, you can not only customize the template but also deliver the resulting file.

There is a very good video that talks about generating invoices from an Airtable table into a PDF document using the Plumsail Documents extension. You can also read an article Airtable extension for seamless document creation on the Plumsail website.

typeflow
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

If you're looking for a solution, Typeflow can help you quickly generate PDFs from Airtable data using Google Docs templates. It's straightforward and efficient. We also have an Invoice template.

Feel free to give it a try, and I'd love to hear your feedback! I'm also offering a lifetime plan for early users at just $100. Ping me if you're interested or have any questions.