With online collaboration tools like Podio, it’s easier than ever to organize projects, deals, customers, and more. Podio allows you to build “apps” in a matter of minutes to start organizing your data and empowering your team to be successful.
In this example, we’re going to show you how to use Podio as a CRM/Sales system and generate a proposal for a deal we have in the pipeline. We’ll also be sending this proposal over to RightSignature so we can collect a signature from our customer.
To get started, we’re going to setup the template for our proposal using a Word document. Inside Word, we’re going to create the template just like any other Word document – adding our logo, company info, and generic proposal information.
For the spots where we want to populate information from Podio, we’re going to use merge fields that looks like {$first_name}, {$company}, etc. These merge fields can be named anything you’d like and are simply typed into the document like any other text.
Here’s what our proposal template looks like:
Since we’ll be using RightSignature to collect a signature from the customer, we need to add the RightSignature “text tags” that will put the signature block in the correct spot on the document. The signature tag looks like this: [ s:a:r ]
Once you have your template ready, we need to upload it to WebMerge. From the Documents page in WebMerge, click the New Document button then enter a name. On the next step, pick Office Document as the document type and then pick the file from your computer.
Next, you’ll be taken to the Settings tab where you can update options like the type of file that is generated and the name of that file. For this example, we’re going to generate a PDF and we’re going to include the name of the deal in the file name.
Also, to help with the Podio integration, we’re going to put the document in Debug Mode (click Test Mode at the bottom of the page and then check the box to save the data) and turn on our Field Map under Advanced Settings.
Once you have the settings saved, it’s time to setup the delivery of our document to RightSignature so we can get the proposal signed. Jump over to the Deliver tab and click the New Delivery button. Select RightSignature then you’ll be asked to login to your RightSignature account.
After you login, you’ll be redirected back to WebMerge and you’ll see the delivery settings. You’ll need to provide the name and email address of your signer which will be merge fields.
Next, we’re going to setup the integrate with our Podio app so that when we click a button in Podio, the data from our deal will be automatically sent over to WebMerge and the proposal will be generated.
To send the data to WebMerge, we need to grab our document’s Merge URL. This URL is a unique endpoint for your document that we’ll use in the integration. Click on the Merge tab and you’ll see the Merge URL on the screen. Copy that for later.
To help with the integration, we’re going to use a webhook script located at https://www.webmerge.me/scripts/podio - go ahead and go to that page and you’ll be asked to login to your Podio account.
Once you login to Podio, you’ll be redirected back to the script where you’ll see options for your Merge URL and then for a filter. This filter allows you to tell the system to only merge this document if this condition is true. In our case, we’re going to have a “status” category field in Podio that has a “Send Proposal” option, so we’ll use that as our filter.
Once you’ve filled out all the information, you’ll see need to take the Webhook URL that is generated and add a New Webhook in Podio under the Developer page for your App. We’re going to trigger the webhook on the item.update event.
Now that we have our webhook setup in Podio, every time we update a deal in our app, it is going to fire off that webhook. If the filter matches (ie the “Send Proposal” category is selected), then it will merge our document.
But first, we need to map the Podio fields to our merge fields we used in the document. In order to do that, we need to run a test merge so that data is sent to WebMerge. Go ahead and trigger the webhook in your Podio app by updating an item.
Next, login to WebMerge and go to the Overview tab for your document. You should see a recent merge listed on the page with a View Data button next to it. Go ahead and click that button and you’re going to see all of the fields that are being sent over from Podio.
If you click on those fields, you’re going to see a merge field code that you need to use for that field. You can either update your document directly, or you can use the Field Map feature to map the Podio fields to the merge fields you used in your document.
Like this:
Once you have all of your fields mapped, you’re ready to run a real test! Go ahead and update another item in Podio and that data will be sent over to WebMerge, your proposal will be generated, then sent over to RightSignature for signing!
Here’s what our proposal looked like ready for signature:
Great work! You can now automatically generate all kinds of documents (reports, contracts, invoices, etc) from Podio. Can you think of any other ways that you could use WebMerge to simplify your paperwork process?
