Document Automation v. Document Generation — All the Lingo You Need to Know
It is not uncommon for people to use the terms “document automation”, “document assembly”, and “document generation” interchangeably. However, technically, they describe different processes.
When searching for document automation solutions, it’s often hard to parse through the vocabulary to understand the actual functionality of solutions.
We’ve broken down the lingo below.
Document Automation
“Document Automation” — the process of creating templates with rules or logic that will guide the generation of documents.
Document automation is the initial stage of automating the process of document drafting — the process of creating templates.
What’s template creation?
Template creation is the process of adding rules or logic to a document so that it can be automated.
Typically, such rules and logic are set up in the form of a questionnaire. Once created, these are used in the process of document assembly (described below).
While low or no-code document automation software exists, these still require that legal professionals spend the time and resources to create their own templates, which is the common reason why document automation fails to be adopted in organizations.
Document Assembly
“Document Assembly” — the process of generating a document from a document template.
Document assembly is the step that follows document automation and results in the automated document being drafted.
After a template is designed, a document can then be created by a user filling out the questionnaire that has been created in order to automate a document.
Instead of having to manually draft a document, a user could click on the document template (which was created during the document automation process), answer the questionnaire with the relevant client info, and then after collecting all of the user data, a document will be generated.
Document Generation
“Document Generation” — the process of transforming documents into templates and then using templates to automatically generate documents.
Document generation is a term used to describe a software that handles both document automation and document assembly.
For example, a document generation solution will create templates for you and turn them into questionnaires so that you can have documents intelligently drafted without having to do any work on your end.
Fun Fact: HyperDraft is a document generation software. We handle everything so you can just draft the documents you want to when you open the app, no coding or other set-up required.
Conclusion
While the terms document automation, document assembly, and document generation are often used interchangeably, it’s good to understand how they differ so that you can understand the functionality of a potential solution and how much work will be required from your team to extract value from the technology.
If you do not select a legal tech solution that is truly a document generation solution, then you want to make sure that your team or another vendor isn’t required to implement the solution and extract maximum value.
Curious about what other legal tech terms mean? Stay tuned for our legal tech glossary. Follow HyperDraft on LinkedIn or Twitter to stay up-to-date.
Looking for potential use cases for document generation software. Here’s 101+.
