How Much Work is Needed to Automate Documents?

A common question is: how much work is needed to automate documents? Like most things in life, there is a learning curve, luckily you can split document automation into three steps: Planning, Automating, and Using. Each of these steps is important and leads you to your ultimate goal of saving time and money. Each time you do these steps, it becomes easier and easier and saves you more and more money. And with our training resources you are sure to succeed.

1. Planning This is the step that takes most people by surprise. Often people do not think about the prework that goes into deciding what document to automate. When deciding, you want to make sure that it is a frequently used document, so it gives you the highest return. You will also need to ensure that it is error-free. After this is done, you must then decide what parts will be automated (ie. Pronouns, names, places, contacts, etc.). This planning step can take some time but after it is done it ensures that your documents are error free and will save you money in the long run.
2. Automating You first create personalized variables – these reflect the pieces of information that need to be customized each time you produce this document, like names and addresses. Next, you insert your variables into your Word document, creating a template that all your future documents of that type will be based on. Finally, you upload your template to Knackly, allowing you to generate documents from that template.
3. Using After the document is automated you can then pull the template and fill in the information. This can be done in two ways. You can use the client intake process where a link is sent to clients (or someone in office) and they fill out the information. Or you can import information from client management software such as Clio. After the information is entered, the document is ready for use.

These three steps enable you to start saving time and money by reducing drafting time by 80%. They also help eliminate common mistakes in documents by reducing the opportunities for errors. Watch the video above to learn more about what it takes to automate documents.