👤 For all users
🔐 Available on Business, Enterprise and Unlimited plans
🎯 For those who need to issue documents from process data
Every time a contract is approved, someone opens a document, copies the supplier name, the amount, the deadline, formats everything and exports it to PDF. The process approved it. The document is still manual. This step exists in dozens of processes: commercial proposals, meeting minutes, request reports, acceptance terms, purchase orders.
The Pipefy Document Generator eliminates this step. You configure a template once, connect the card fields to the document and define when the PDF should be generated. From then on, the document comes out automatically, attached to the card itself or sent by email, with no manual intervention.
📖 What you'll understand here:
What the Document Generator is and when to use it
The Document Generator is a native Pipefy app, activated at the pipe level. It lets you create document templates with dynamic variables that are filled with card data at the moment of generation.
It makes sense to use it when the process has a recurring documentary output: whenever a card reaches a given phase, a document needs to be issued with that card's data. Recurrence is the criterion. If the document is generated once a month manually for reporting purposes, the configuration cost may not pay off. If it is generated every time a request is approved, the gain is immediate.
Most common use cases:
- Purchase order generated when the order is approved in finance.
- Acceptance term issued when the card enters the completion phase.
- Service report generated when closing an IT ticket.
- Commercial proposal created from the data filled in by the sales team.
Configuring the PDF template
The template is created within Pipefy itself, in the Document Generator editor. You write the document as you would write any text, with the difference that variable fields are referenced using the app's syntax, pointing to the pipe fields.
The logic is the same as any template with variables: what is fixed is written directly in the template. What changes from card to card becomes a variable. Requester name, approved amount, creation date, assignee, custom fields: any pipe field can become a variable in the document.
The template needs to be configured after the pipe's field structure is defined. If you add or rename fields later, the variables already inserted in the template may break and require manual updating. Configure the template when the pipe is stable.
The level of formatting available in the Document Generator editor is simpler than a full text editor. For documents with a very specific layout, such as contracts with legal formatting or visual presentations, assess whether the standard template meets your needs before configuring.
Start with the simplest document your process issues. Configure it, test it with a real card and validate the result before building more complex templates.
Dynamic variables: what can come from the card
Any field configured in the pipe can be referenced as a variable in the template. This includes text fields, numbers, dates, select fields, email, connected fields and assignee fields.
Date fields allow formatting within the template itself: you can display the date in the format the document requires without needing an auxiliary field. Select fields display the label of the chosen option, not the internal value.
Attachment fields are not rendered as images in the generated PDF. If the document needs to include a photo or image from the card, this requires additional configuration and may not be supported on all plans
Required fields in the pipe do not guarantee that the variable will be filled at the moment of generation. If the automation fires before all fields are complete, the PDF comes out with blank variables. Make sure the automation trigger occurs after the fields referenced in the template have been filled.
Automating the generation trigger
The PDF is not generated in real time when the card opens. It is generated when an automation fires the corresponding action. You configure when this happens: when entering a phase, when a field is updated, or when receiving a manual action from a team member.
The two most used patterns are:
Generation by phase
The automation fires when the card enters a specific phase. Ideal for processes where issuing the document marks a turning point in the flow: the approval, the completion, the send to the client. The card reaches the phase and the PDF is generated automatically.
Generation by manual action
A button or select field on the card triggers the automation. The team member decides when to generate the document, but does not need to leave Pipefy to do so. Useful when the same card may need to generate the document more than once, as in revisions or reissues.
If the process requires the document to be generated only once per card, use generation by phase. If reissuing is a real scenario, use manual action and add a history field to record how many versions were generated.
How to access and share the generated PDF
The PDF generated by the Document Generator is attached directly to the card as a file. Any member with access to the card can view it in the attachments tab.
For automatic sending by email, configure a second action in the same automation: after generating the PDF, send an email with the file as an attachment. The recipient can be an email field from the card itself (such as the requester's or supplier's email) or a fixed address defined in the automation.
- PDF generated and sent to the requester: automation with two actions in sequence, generate document and send email with the generated PDF.
- PDF generated and kept on the card for internal reference: only the generation action, without automatic sending.
- PDF generated and notification sent to the assignee: automation with document generation and internal notification to the member assigned to the card.
Generated PDFs are stored as attachments on the card. If the pipe has an automatic archiving or deletion policy for cards, the generated documents are deleted along with them. For documents that need extended retention, consider exporting or integrating with an external storage system.
With PDF generation automated, the process starts delivering the right document at the right moment, without depending on anyone remembering to issue it. The next step is to make sure the process deadlines also run on their own: reminders and follow-ups fired automatically based on dates.
Before proceeding, confirm that you understand:
☐ What the PDF Generator is and at what level it is configured
☐ When it makes sense to use automatic PDF generation
☐ How dynamic variables connect card fields to the template
☐ The difference between generation by stage and generation via manual action
☐ Where the generated PDF is stored and how to share it
