Do you need help with efficient workflows and manual data entry for routine documents in your organization? To begin automating document creation and management and thereby save time and energy while ensuring 100% accuracy, you should know the most impactful types of documents ideal for automation.
In this blog, we’ll list several types of documents, ranging from legal to marketing to HR, that are prime candidates for automation due to their high impact and routine nature. We’ll also discuss how to get the most from your document automation tools to boost efficiency and precision throughout the document lifecycle.
The Top Benefits of Document Automation
By identifying routine documents and letting computer software do all the work, organizations can reap tangible, long-term benefits, such as:
Minimize Costs
Reduce direct involvement from expensive resources like legal teams and IT developers with automated workflows and no-code SaaS solutions.
Save Time
Reduce time-consuming tasks like document creation, tracking versions, sharing, acquiring signatures, filing, storage, and secure destruction. Automation virtually eliminates the time needed for human intervention throughout the document lifecycle.
Reduce Errors
Where accuracy is a must, document automation eliminates the possibility of human error during data entry tasks. Through secure API integrations, systems can automatically send and receive data in real-time for more efficient document creation.
10 Types of Documents Ideal for Automation
Navigating the various compliance requirements and retention policies for documents can be challenging, so organizations are investing in opportunities to automate the creation, sharing, signing, and retention of records. In this section, we’ll dive into various legal business, HR, financial, and marketing documents that are the most popular for businesses to automate.
Legal Documents
The legal sector is no stranger to paperwork. With recordings for virtually every interaction between businesses during contract proceedings or between attorney and client, the opportunity to automate the creation and retention of these documents can save legal teams extraordinary amounts of time and energy while limiting liability due to human error.
Here are some legal documents that are ideal for automation and why:
Legal Correspondence
Typically including letters, memos, statements, or emails, legal correspondence are documents used to communicate information related to legal matters within law firms or between all parties involved. Legal correspondence most likely contains private information like personal data, legal advice, updates from legal proceedings, and more.
Similar to contracts and agreements, accuracy and clarity are vital to the usefulness of legal correspondence, whereas noncompliance could result in heavy fines and loss of trust. By using a standardized format via templates, automated document software ensures the consistent creation and retention of legal correspondence documents.
Contracts & Settlement Documents
Contracts are legal documents executed to protect the interests of two or more parties coming into an agreement by outlining each side’s legal rights, responsibilities, and expectations. Contracts may also stipulate courses of action, such as an agreement to purchase a product or service. Settlement Agreements are legally binding documents that settle disputes, clarify expectations, and define responsibilities and interactions. Common types of agreements in business settings include employer/employee arrangements, affiliate program agreements, etc.
As precise language in contracts and agreements is essential, many organizations and law firms use document automation software to generate reusable contract templates and automated workflows for selecting the proper contract, given the circumstances. Legal document automation software often provides a library of pre-built templates with automated data entry and built-in retention rules, expediting the safe creation and storage of legal documents.
Business Documents
Businesses need a secure way to generate, share, and retain documents, from annual reports to invoices. Because today’s businesses operate across borders and time zones, efficient management of business documents is crucial not only for ongoing operations but may also be mandated by regulators across the globe. By automating routine business documents, your organization can expedite creation, filing, and sharing, while minimizing effort and human error.
Here are some routine business documents that can be automated on a document generation platform:
Purchase Orders
To record the intention of a buyer to purchase goods or services, Purchase Orders typically contain information on the goods/service being purchased, agreed upon price, delivery fees, and method of payment.
Businesses commonly automate the data entry process during the preparation of a PO. Document generation tools that can configure alerts and approvals when PO thresholds are exceeded can be especially valuable.
Invoices
Created to bill an individual or business for goods or services, invoices generally include all relevant details of a specific transaction, including items/services purchased, price, discounts, time of transaction, etc. Invoices must be kept to facilitate returns, settle disputes, ensure bookkeeping accuracy, and for a variety of other reasons.
Invoice automation tools allow businesses to securely create and share invoices with a few clicks. DocGen tools that can integrate with CRM or sales tools can generate recurring invoices automatically, ensuring accurate billing all year long.
Reports
Reports cover a wide range of topics and purposes, like productivity, performance, financial health, inventory, feedback, and so many more. Maintaining the integrity and reliability of reports is vital for decision-makers and leadership to make strategic decisions.
Document automation software can streamline the report generation process with turnkey templates and automated data entry. Some also allow users to schedule and trigger workflows that create, send, and file reports on a pre-defined cadence, freeing your team up for other essential tasks.
HR Documents
HR documents must be created and stored in compliance with applicable laws and regulations in each country of operation. As a constant source of sensitive data and personal information, HR departments should consider automating documents that need to remain private.
Here are some of the most impactful types of HR documents that can be automated:
System & Resource Access Forms
Access request forms for systems and resources are used to ensure that only authorized users can access confidential information, technology resources, computer systems, networks, and data. For example, System Authorization Access Request (SAAR) 2875 forms record the names, signatures, and other identifiers to validate the trustworthiness of individuals requesting access to Department of Defense (DoD) systems and information. Because these forms are highly repetitive, SAAR 2875 is an obvious candidate for automation.
Employee Onboarding Forms
To standardize how your administration gathers information about new hires, consider automating employee onboarding forms to collect personal details like contact information, emergency contacts, and tax documents.
Time Off Request Forms
For employees to formally request time off from work, it’s common practice to submit time-off request forms, which include the requested dates and possibly an explanation for the particular leave. Automated document workflows allow HR managers and supervisors to route requests to the appropriate party and automatically approve them in some instances.
Financial Documents
With automated document generation platforms, finance departments and financial institutions can seamlessly create and retain all the documents they need to complete their duties. Through automation, financial documents can be created quicker and with fewer errors, freeing up your team to handle more critical tasks
Here are some common financial documents that are ideal opportunities for automation:
Tax Forms
Tax forms such as W2s, W4s 1040s, and 1099s provide sensitive information about employee and organizational finances. In the U.S., these forms are required by the IRS and other government institutions, and so they must be prepared with complete accuracy, or risk heavy penalties and fines. Automated document generation tools cut down the time spent populating data from hundreds of sources and individual forms.
Budgets & Financial Statements
Budgets are recurring documents that explain financial goals, expenses, and projections, as well as future expenses, income versus cost, and a snapshot of cash flow. Similarly, financial statements include balance sheets, income statements, P&L statements, and cash flow statements. Budgets are heavily scrutinized and require precise calculations, but are time-consuming and tedious to build. Automated document generation software lets you configure budget and financial reports per month, quarter, annual, or any time frame, pulling real-time data from verified sources for accuracy.
What to Consider When Selecting a Document Automation Tool
There are a number of document automation tools on the market. Some are open source, others commercially available. The best of them combine robust functionality with high-level security, such as authority to operate at DoD Impact Levels 4 and 5. When selecting the right technology for your team, here are some important considerations to guide your research:
Document Generation Capabilities
You need an all-in-one hub for creating, editing, and retaining documents of all formats. While most DocGen solutions can create PDF and HTML documents, some are also compatible with Microsoft Office, so you can easily create MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents as well.
Workflow Automation Tools
Designed to streamline documents from creation to retention, document automation tools should be able to manage the processes of data collection, notifications, e-signatures, filing, routing, and version control.
Security & Encryption Features
Security and user access should be a primary concern for your document automation software. Inkit is the only Zero Trust document generation platform that’s certified for use by the U.S. Air Force, DoD, and other top agencies.
Electronic Signature & Secure Sharing
Automated document software should be able to share documents for electronic signature, with complete metadata tracking for audit trail purposes. Look for systems administered using zero-trust that allow users to share any document with complete restrictions on downloads, screenshotting, and exporting - keeping documents private and secure wherever they go.
Ease of Use
No-code document generation solutions allow all users to create their own document templates, customize workflows, and integrate data with zero coding experience required.
Final Thoughts
To achieve improved productivity, collaboration, and compliance, consider automating these 10 types of documents. From creation to archiving and deletion, your organization has the opportunity to reduce manual effort, errors, and time spent with manual document creation.
Inkit’s highly flexible platform allows you to configure document creation, sharing, workflows, and retention processes that automatically comply with your security and retention policies. Additionally, Inkit helps organizations eliminate the many paper documents, saving time and money on manual filing and storage.
To learn how you can boost productivity in your org, get in touch with Inkit’s docgen experts or email us at sales@inkit.com. Trusted by the U.S. Air Force, DoD, and top institutions where privacy and security matter most.
