How to Install and Configure Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration with PandaDoc

Posted on: March 23, 2017 | By: Jim Bertler | Microsoft Dynamics CRM

    In my last blog, I introduced a quoting and document creation tool that seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales called PandaDoc. This tool allows a user to pull fields from Microsoft Dynamics onto a document template to quickly create quotes, contracts, proposals, invoices, and any other document. By using ‘Tokens’, which are pre-defined fields within Dynamics, a user can easily pre-populate a document and get it out to a client. In this blog, I will demonstrate how to install the PandaDoc solution, configure the tokens, and create a document within Microsoft Dynamics 365.

    First, you will need to download the solution zip file from the PandaDoc website (Found here: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pd-integrations-packages/msdynamics/PandaDoc-MSDynamics-1-1-2.zip). Note – You will need a PandaDoc account created to sign in and create documents out of Dynamics, but if you do not yet have a subscription you can still install the solution and use a free-trial to get started. Now install the solution into Microsoft Dynamics through Settings – Solutions – Import.

 

Click Next, then click Import. The solution will take about a minute to import, then click Close and you are done. Without doing anything else, you will see the PandaDoc sub-grid within your Account, Contact, and Opportunity entity. Now that your PandaDoc sub-grids are installed you will need to configure your tokens. Even though we use the term ‘configure’, it is a quite simple process of just selecting the tokens you will use from your entity list inside the PandaDoc settings. Navigate to Settings – Extensions – PandaDoc Settings.

 

 

Within your PandaDoc settings, you will see the list of available tokens for the Opportunity, Account, and Contact entity. There is also a button for ’+ Add entity’ where you can add additional entities to your list. Here, click on the entity to reveal the list of available tokens and select which tokens you want to have mapped. It does not hurt to have too many tokens selected so choose as many as you would like then hit the button for ‘Save Mapping.’

    In the picture, you can see that fields with a green check inside the box are now available tokens to map onto your document. Also, you can see that if the entity has a lookup field, as is the case here with ‘ParentContactID,’ you can choose fields on other entities like contact to map to. This is a very nice feature because it brings it many elements to your document that you could not have with just one entity. For example, when you create your document from your opportunity, you can pre-populate that document with the Opportunity Topic, the Account Name, the Contact First and Last Name, and the Created By User’s Name. Now, once you save your mapping go back to a record to create a document.

If we go to an opportunity and navigate to the PandaDoc sub-grid, click ‘Create New Document’ and any field that is filled out and mapped will be placed onto our document. Note – In PandaDoc you will need to create a template with the tokens so that there is something to map to within PandaDoc. To do this you will just place the token in the template where you would like the field value from Dynamics to show. Reference the very helpful PandaDoc FAQ (https://www.pandadoc.com/faqs/) guide for more information on creating templates and tokens. You can also click the PandaDoc settings button within the sub-grid (depicted by the gear symbol on the top right) to show which tokens will be merged onto the template.

 

    Once you click create document you will be prompted to select a template. You may have lots of different templates for different documents, so you can choose which one to use. Each template can be equipped with different tokens so spend some time creating a few templates with different tokens for different scenarios. Once you choose your template you can start editing your PandaDoc document right inside of Dynamics and see the status of the document when you close it. In the picture above you can see the template is in Draft status and was modified 5 minutes ago. Lastly, any tokens on the template that do not have any information field out on Dynamics will just need to be reviewed and manually filled in within PandaDoc.

 

If you think that a Microsoft CRM system is your next best step for your business, contact Logan Consulting your Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner of Chicago.

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