Struggling to find the best document automation software for your company? This guide breaks down the top tools for the financial services and legal sectors, covering affordability, ease of use, and enterprise scalability to help you boost productivity company-wide.
Looking to dive deeper? Check out our ultimate guide to document automation.
How to Choose the Right Document Automation Tool
Selecting the right document automation tool involves aligning with your team’s needs, budget, and industry requirements. Here’s how to choose wisely:
1. Evaluate Your Team’s Needs
The right document automation tool for your business will help you boost efficiency, elevate document quality, and increase employee satisfaction.
To find the right tool, it’s key to first understand your team’s challenges and clearly define what you want to achieve with automation. Gather feedback from your teams to identify roadblocks in their workflows and build a list of requirements accordingly.
To help you prioritize, rank them in order of importance so you know where you can and can’t compromise on tool functionality. Evaluate each tool against these pain points so you can feel confident that your new automation tool will answer your core use cases.
Still deciding whether to build or buy? Discover what top investment banks are doing.
2. Decide on Your Must-Have Features
Once you’ve gathered feedback from your teams, you can determine your non-negotiables in terms of functionality. For example, looking for tools than can automate:
- Formatting: Removing manual formatting work helps teams create flawless deliverables faster by looking for tools that can perfectly align elements or apply branding in a single click.
- Data refreshes: Offering a solution that guarantees reliable data, such as linking from Excel to Word or Power BI to PowerPoint, gives teams peace of mind and prevents costly mistakes.
- Proofreading: Choosing a tool that will check for misaligned shapes and empty placeholders can be a real game-changer, helping teams hit “send” with confidence.
- Chart and table creation: Creating advanced charts in Excel, like Gantt charts and Stacked Waterfall, takes a long time to perfect. If your team build these regularly, look for a tool that offers pre-built charting to support Microsoft 365’s basic functionality.
- Content sourcing and management: Enforcing brand and content governance is challenging without a shared library. Giving everyone in the company instant access to pre-approved content can improve collaboration, reduce manual work, and alleviate the pressure on marketing.
3. Create a Shortlist
Once you’ve identified your team’s needs, create a shortlist of potential tools. Read reviews and case studies to gauge the tool’s effectiveness in real-world scenarios. See if the vendor offers a demo to see the functionality in action.
You could also conduct research using Gartner’s Magic Quadrant to help evaluate the tools in your shortlist. This report provides a detailed analysis of each tool’s market position, strengths, and weaknesses, helping you understand how well each option fits your organization’s needs.
4. Evaluate Support, Scalability, and Integrations
As your firm grows, so will your document automation needs. Choose a solution that can scale with your business, supporting:
- Larger document volumes and more complex workflows
- Enterprise security and compliance requirements
- Multi-department usage across finance, legal, marketing, and IT
To maximize your investment, look for providers offering a bespoke implementation package that includes change management experts, on-demand post-deployment support, and strong technical teams.
Top tip
Some tools, such as UpSlide, offer usage statistics so you can ensure the software is actively used and improving workflows.
5. Consider Long-Term ROI
Document automation tools vary greatly in cost. Assess the total costs (including set-up fees and licensing) and the potential ROI your firm could achieve in the long term.
To gauge long-term ROI, consider the potential time saved per user, error prevention, brand protection, and scalability. Some providers have a ROI calculator to help you work this out.
Investing in a tool that delivers a high ROI is key to ensuring long-term success and value.
Learn more about maximizing value on new tech investments.
Did you know?
Nearly 90% of investment banking employees feel they would benefit from a document automation tool to streamline tasks in Microsoft 365.
The Best Document Automation Tools for Your Industry
Here’s our round-up of the best document automation tools for your industry, including financial services and legal.
Financial and Professional Services
Recommended: UpSlide
UpSlide is the all-in-one document automation solution for Excel, PowerPoint, Power BI, Word, and Outlook – designed specifically to meet the needs of financial services firms and all the departments within.
Unlike generic productivity tools, UpSlide helps investment banks, asset management, and advisory firms streamline their workflows, ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and brand consistency across client-facing documents.
Pricing: Premium pricing, but with flexible custom offers and volume discount
Company size: 5+ people to enterprise
Departments: Analysts, bankers, marketing, financial reporting teams, sales, and IT
Integrations: Full Microsoft 365 suite
Use cases:
- Building better documents faster: Automated proofreading tools and dynamic templates streamline pitchbooks, fund reports, and presentations, ensuring flawless and error-free deliverables.
- Automating financial reporting: One-click updates pull live data from Excel or Power BI to PowerPoint, ensuring accuracy in earnings reports, market updates, fund summaries and more.
- Ensuring brand consistency: The centralized Content Library combined with one-click formatting tools can keep slides, tables, and all client deliverables on-brand, saving teams significant time and effort while maximizing output.
Pros:
- User-friendly interface
- Strong training resources, including webinars and help guides
- Bespoke implementation that increases adoption rates
- Finance expertise – 90% of clients are in financial and professional services
- Enterprise-level security
- AI and automation features
- Scalable for businesses of all sizes
- 98% retention rate
Cons:
- It’s best suited for finance professionals – less broad industry appeal for legal
The time we save with UpSlide can now be spent on adding value and quality in other places – and that is so valuable. It’s like the perfect concierge – working hard to take care of things behind the scenes.
Box
Box is a cloud-based document management and collaboration platform designed to securely store, manage, and share documents. It’s an ideal solution for teams looking to streamline file sharing and boost collaboration across industries.
While Box offers some workflow automation features, its primary focus is on document storage, versioning, and collaboration.
Pricing: Mid-to-premium
Company size: Small businesses to enterprise
Departments: Marketing, legal, operations, sales, IT, HR, and finance
Integrations: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Slack, and more
Use cases:
- Secure document storage and sharing: Offers a scalable cloud platform for easy access to the latest document versions.
- Workflow automation: Automates document approvals, notifications, and task management to boost efficiency.
- Real-time collaboration: Allows teams to edit and collaborate on documents simultaneously, improving productivity across the company.
Pros:
- Scalable software
- Strong integrations with a wide range of applications
- Enterprise-level security and compliance
- Intuitive user interface and easy-to-use collaboration tools
- Detailed audit trail and version control for tracking document history
Cons:
- Primarily focused on document storage and collaboration rather than content creation or advanced document automation
- More basic workflow automation features compared to specialized document automation tools like UpSlide
Legal Sector
PandaDoc
PandaDoc is a document automation and e-signature platform designed to streamline document creation, approval, and signing workflows. It helps businesses automate the document lifecycle, saving time and ensuring accuracy across contracts, proposals, and agreements.
Pricing: Mid-range
Company size: SME to enterprise
Departments: Sales, legal, marketing, HR, and operations
Integrations: Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft 365, Zapier, and more
Use cases:
- Automating document creation: Generating customized proposals, contracts, and quotes quickly with dynamic templates and pre-approved content blocks.
- Streamlining approval and signing: Automating approval workflows and e-signatures, reducing time spent on document review and execution.
- Improving document tracking: Tracking document status in real-time, providing visibility into who has viewed, signed, or commented on each document.
Pros:
- Intuitive interface with drag-and-drop functionality
- Strong e-signature and approval workflows
- Customizable templates for contracts, NDAs, and legal documents
- Advanced analytics and tracking for document performance
Cons:
- Limited integrations with legal practice management software
- Primarily focused on sales and contract-related documents, less suited for broader document automation needs
- It is more expensive for smaller teams or businesses just getting started with document automation
HotDocs
HotDocs is a leading document automation platform designed to streamline the creation of complex legal documents with templates and built-in logic. It focuses on improving compliance, efficiency, and accuracy within legal workflows, making it ideal for law firms, corporate legal teams, and government agencies.
Departments: Legal, compliance, IT, and operations
Company size: Mid-market to enterprise
Use cases:
- Automating legal document assembly: Generating complex legal documents efficiently using advanced document assembly tools and built-in logic.
- Ensuring compliance: Automating document workflows with compliance-driven rules and logic, ensuring legal accuracy and consistency.
- Improving efficiency: Streamlining the creation of complex legal documents, reducing time spent on repetitive tasks and improving overall productivity.
Pros:
- Ideal for creating complex documents
- Built-in rules and logic that can prevent costly mistakes
- Strong reputation in the legal industry
Cons:
- Higher learning curve compared to newer tools
- Requires IT support for customization
- Customer support could be quicker
Other Notable Document Automation Tools
Here are some broader document automation tools that suit a variety of industries.
DocuSign CLM
DocuSign CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) is a contract automation tool that streamlines the creation, negotiation, execution, and storage of agreements. It helps businesses improve compliance, reduce contract turnaround times, and enhance visibility into the contract lifecycle.
Industries: Financial services, legal, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, government, and real estate
Pricing: Premium
Company size: Mid-market to enterprise
Departments: Legal, procurement, sales, and HR
Integrations: Salesforce, Microsoft 365, SAP, Workday, and more
Use cases:
- Automating contract workflows: Standardizing contract creation, approvals, and execution with AI-driven automation and analytics.
- Enhancing compliance and risk management: Ensuring regulatory and internal policy compliance with pre-approved templates and automated tracking.
- Improving contract visibility: Centralizing contract storage and searchability, providing full audit trails and version control.
Pros:
- Simplifies the document signing process
- Strong compliance and security features, such as robust data encryption and multifactor authentication
- Deep integration with many enterprise systems
Cons:
- Higher pricing compared to other contract automation tools
- Complex setup that typically requires dedicated admin support
- Primarily focused on contract-related workflows, with limited broader document automation features
- Limited customization and customer support times could be quicker
Conga Composer
Conga Composer is a document generation solution designed to automate the creation of business documents directly from CRM data. It is particularly popular among Salesforce users, enabling businesses to generate customized contracts, proposals, and reports with minimal manual input.
Industries: Sales and marketing, legal, healthcare, manufacturing, and real estate
Pricing: Mid-range
Company size: SME to enterprise
Departments: Sales, finance, legal, and customer success
Integrations: Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and more
Use cases:
- Automating document creation: Generating personalized quotes, contracts, and invoices using CRM data.
- Enhancing sales efficiency: Reducing manual document processing time with pre-filled templates and automated workflows.
- Improving data accuracy: Ensuring consistency by pulling real-time data from CRM and other integrated systems.
Pros:
- Seamlessly integrates with Salesforce for an easy-to-use experience
- Features customizable templates with dynamic fields
- Reduces manual errors by automating data population
Cons:
- Primarily designed for Salesforce users, limiting broader adoption
- Requires technical setup for advanced configurations
- Lacks built-in e-signature functionality, requiring additional tools like UpSlide or DocuSign
Key Takeaways
Overall, PandaDoc is an excellent solution for legal firms. It provides contract lifecycle management, built-in eSignatures, and a range of legal document templates.
For finance and professional services, UpSlide is the superior tool as it seamlessly integrates into Microsoft 365 and offers powerful automation for pitchbooks, reports, and presentations.
UpSlide ensures efficiency, accuracy, and brand consistency, making it the best choice for financial firms looking to improve productivity and achieve a high ROI on software purchases.
Ready to transform your team’s Microsoft 365 workflows? Book your discovery call to take the next step!
TL;DR
Choosing the right document automation tool depends on your team’s needs. Speaking with key departments will help identify pain points, workflows, and integration requirements before you refine your shortlist.
UpSlide is the recommended choice for finance professionals, offering seamless integration with Microsoft 365 and automation features tailored for investment bankers, asset managers, and financial consultants.
PandaDoc is the top pick for legal teams, providing strong contract automation, e-signature capabilities, and compliance-focused features to streamline legal document workflows.
