How to Generate Contracts from Airtable Data (Step-by-Step Guide)

36% of businesses have contracts with missing signatures (Adobe/IDC, 2024). 43% copy-paste data manually. 28% of work time is spent on document admin instead of actual work (Adobe/IDC, 2024).

Creating contracts for every new client or collaborator can eat up hours you could spend growing your business.

If you already use Airtable, you are sitting on a system that can generate those contracts for you with almost no manual work.

This guide walks you through setting up automated contract generation from your Airtable base using Google Docs templates. You'll learn how to structure your data, create templates with dynamic fields, connect the tools, and trigger contract creation with a single click or form submission.

What You Need Before Starting

We are going to take your Airtable data and insert it into a pre-designed template, to generate a finished document. Think of it like mail merge, but for contracts instead of letters.

To make it work, you need:

• An Airtable account with a base: This is where you contract data lives
• A Google account: You'll use Google Docs to design your contract template.
• A basic idea of your contract layout: Know which fields from Airtable will appear in your contract and roughly where they belong.
• A TypeFlow account: to automate your contract generation

The whole setup takes about 15 minutes once you have these three pieces in place (based on 2000+ TypeFlow customer implementations, 2024-2025).

How to Set Up Your Airtable Base for Contracts

For our example, we will generate contracts for new collaborators.

Your Airtable base is where all your contract data lives. The way you organize this data determines how smooth everything runs later.

Required fields for contract data

Every contract pulls from specific data points in your base. You'll want to create fields that match the information your contracts actually need.

Most contracts, including employee contracts, use these core fields:

• Collaborator name: The full legal name of the person or company signing the agreement.
• Contract date: When the agreement takes effect.
• Terms and conditions: The specific clauses, duration, and legal text for your agreement. We can use Linked Records to list the different terms and conditions. We only pick the needed one based on the role
• Salary: The salary offered to the new collaborator
• Contract type: Whether it's a Full-Time, Part-Time, Contractor, Intern.
• Role: Future role of the collaborator.

Organizing records for contract workflows

Airtable views let you filter which records are ready for contract generation. I create a view called "Ready to Generate" that only shows records where a status field equals "Approved."

This approach prevents you from generating contracts for incomplete or unapproved deals. You can also add a checkbox field called "Contract Generated" to track which records already have documents. When you check that box, the record disappears from your "Ready to Generate" view.

How to Create Your Contract Template in Google Docs

Your Google Doc acts as the master template where Airtable data gets inserted. The design you create here becomes the final look of every contract you generate.

Adding placeholder variables to your template

Placeholder variables tell the system where to insert data from Airtable. You write these using double curly braces with the field name inside, like this: {{field_name}}.

The text between the braces corresponds to your Airtable field names:

• {{client_name}} pulls the client's name from your base.
• {{contract_date}} inserts the date from the corresponding field.
• {{total_amount}} adds pricing information to the document.

Keep variable names simple and match them to your Airtable field names as close as possible. If your Airtable field is called "Client Email," use {{client_email}} instead of something vague like {{email}}. This makes the mapping step easier later.

Formatting your contract for PDF output

The formatting in your Google Doc carries over to the final PDF. Use standard fonts like Arial or Times New Roman because they render the same way across different systems.

Set your margins to at least 1 inch on all sides. This prevents text from getting cut off when the document converts to PDF. Use page breaks to control where new sections start, which matters for multi-page contracts.

Bold your important headings and use tables for pricing breakdowns or itemized lists. The cleaner your template looks in Google Docs, the more professional your final contracts appear.

Conditional section for your contract

You can add one or multiple conditional sections in your contract. It allows you to generate one master template that will adapt based on placeholder values. You can show/hide sections based on those placeholder values.

For example, you won't show some part of the contract based on the type of contract (Full-Time vs Part-Time vs Intern vs Contractor). Same for the role.

So you don't have to contract one contract for each type of contract and/or role.

How to Connect TypeFlow to Airtable

Step 1: Connect Airtable to TypeFlow

Connecting TypeFlow to your Airtable base takes just a few minutes. The process links your data source to your document template so contracts can be generated with one click. For that, you just need to connect Airtable with TypeFlow here.

Step 2: Authenticate your Google account

When you open TypeFlow for the first time, it asks you to connect your Google account. Click "Connect Google Account" and follow the authorization steps.

This allows TypeFlow to access the Google Docs templates in your Drive. The authorization is standard OAuth, which means TypeFlow can only access files you explicitly select.

Step 3: Select your contract template

After authentication, TypeFlow displays your Google Drive files. Navigate to the folder where you saved your contract template and select it. The template now links to your Airtable base and is ready for field mapping.

How to Map Airtable Fields to Your Contract Template

Mapping connects each Airtable field to its corresponding placeholder variable in your template. TypeFlow shows your available fields on the left and detected template variables on the right.

Click on an Airtable field, then click the matching template variable to create the connection:

• Airtable field "Company Name" → Template variable {{company_name}}
• Airtable field "Start Date" → Template variable {{contract_start}}
• Airtable field "Total Price" → Template variable {{total_amount}}

Once done, you can import TypeFlow to Airtable.

How to Automate Contract Generation in Airtable

Method 1: The Classic Implementation

The classic method gives you full control over when to generate a contract. Indeed, you need to click on a button to trigger the contract generation.

you can add a button directly in your Airtable base:

1. In TypeFlow scroll to the bottom of the page and click on " Classic Implementation"

2. Copy the URL, it should look like this: "https://app.TypeFlow.us/api/generate-doc?record_id="&RECORD_ID()&"&table_id=xxx&flow_id=xxx"

3. Go to your Airtable table and add a new button field

4. Paste the URL from TypeFlow to the URL Formula

Now whenever you want to generate a contract, you can click the button in Airtable and it will generate the PDF for you.

Method 2: The Airtable Automation

You can use the Airtable Automation to automate your contract generation. Automations run based on specific events in your base. You can choose from several trigger options depending on your workflow.

Here are the most common triggers:

• When a record is created: Generate a contract as soon as someone adds a new client to your base.
• When a field changes: Generate a contract when a status field updates to "Approved."
• On a schedule: Generate a batch of contracts every Friday afternoon or on the first of each month.

To set this up, click the Automations tab in your base, then "Create automation." Choose your trigger type and configure the conditions that activate the automation. For the purpose of this article, we will trigger the PDF genration whenever the field Status, for any invoice, is equal to "Ready".

Go to Automation in Airtable

Click on "Add a trigger" and Choose When a Record matches a condition

3. Select the table you want to trigger the automation on (in this case the Invoices table)

4. Select the field you want to trigger the automation on (in this case the Status field)

5. Select the condition you want to trigger the automation on (in this case "is")

6. Select the value you want to trigger the automation on (in this case "Ready")

7. Now choose a record that matches the condition

8. Now click on Add an advanced logic or action

9. Pick Run Script. A new popup appears.

10. Go back to TypeFlow and select Automation in Airtable. Copy the script.

11. Paste the script in the popup.

12. In the left-side of the popup, do not forget to configure the variable input, record_id. You need to select Airtable Record ID from the dropdown. See the image.

13. Test your script, and see if it works. Adjust if needed (most of the time the error comes from the record_id variable - see step 12).

14. Now name your automation and save it.

Method 3: Form Submission

I decided to add this method, but it needs to be used in a particular context. Indeed, it's possible to add a signature in the TypeFlow form. So whenever someone signs the form (and thus the document), it updates the record and regenerates the contract.

So now it's possible to generate the contract (without any signature). Send the contract with the form. Whenever a signature has been signed then the document is regenerated with the signature.

If you activate the feature to not override the attachment field, you will be able to have different documents throughout the journey.

Best Practices for Airtable Contract Automation

Following a few simple practices prevents common problems and keeps your automation running smoothly. I've seen these issues come up often, and addressing them upfront saves troubleshooting time later.

Use clear naming conventions

Match your Airtable field names as close as possible to your template variable names. If your Airtable field is "Client Email," name your template variable {{client_email}} instead of something generic like {{email}}.

This one-to-one correspondence makes mapping intuitive and reduces confusion when you return to update templates months later. Consistent naming also helps if multiple people on your team manage the automation.

Test your template before going live

Generate a test contract using sample data and document templates before you automate for real clients. Review the test document carefully to check that all variables populate correctly, formatting looks right, and nothing appears cut off or misaligned.

Create a test record in your Airtable base with fake data like "Test Client 123" and "$999,999.99" for pricing. This makes it easy to spot where data appears in the final document.

Store generated contracts in Airtable

Add an attachment field to your Airtable base to save the final PDF directly to each record. This keeps all client-related documents organized in one central location instead of scattered across email or Google Drive.

You can configure TypeFlow to upload the generated PDF back to your Airtable record. This creates a complete audit trail showing when each contract was created and what data it contained.

Benefits of Automating Contract Generation

Automation transforms contract creation from a tedious manual task into a background process that runs itself using TypeFlow. The time savings add up fast, but the benefits go beyond just speed.

Save time on repetitive document tasks

Manual contract creation means opening a template, copying data from Airtable, pasting it into the right spots, checking for errors, and saving the file.

With automation, that same contract generates in between 5 to 30 seconds (based on 2000+ TypeFlow customer implementations, 2024-2025). If you create 20 contracts per month, contract automation saves you roughly 5 hours of work.

Reduce errors and maintain consistency

Data comes directly from your Airtable base, which eliminates manual typos. Manual copy-paste operations cause errors and rework for 48% of information workers (Adobe/IDC, 2024). You won't copy the wrong client name or transpose numbers in a price.

Every contract uses the same template, so your branding, legal language, and formatting stay consistent. This consistency builds trust with clients and reduces legal risk from using outdated or incorrect contract versions - a problem that affects 36% of businesses who have agreements with missing or incorrect information (Adobe/IDC, 2024).

Scale your contract workflow

As your business grows, you can handle more contracts without adding manual work or hiring staff. An automated system generates 100 contracts as easily as it generates 10.

This scalability means your operations can expand without your administrative burden growing at the same rate. Studies show that addressing document automation gaps can yield a 36% increase in revenue (Adobe/IDC, 2024), while manual document processes create bottlenecks that prevent businesses from scaling effectively. The automation handles the increased volume while you focus on serving more clients.

Common Issues and Solutions

Even well-configured automations sometimes hit snags. Here are the most common problems and how to fix them.

Variables not populating

If a variable shows up as {{client_name}} instead of the actual client name, the mapping is broken. Make sure that the variable has been correctly typed in your Google Docs (remove it and retype it).

PDF formatting problems

Complex formatting sometimes breaks during PDF conversion from Airtable. Nested tables, unusual fonts, or heavy image use can cause layout shifts or missing elements.

Stick to standard web-safe fonts and simple table structures. Test your template after any formatting changes to catch problems before they affect real contracts.

Automation not triggering

If your automation doesn't run, verify that the trigger conditions are being met exactly as configured. A status field that says "Approve" won't trigger an automation looking for "Approved."

Also check that TypeFlow still has permission to access your Airtable / Google Account. Authorization tokens expire occasionally, and you'll need to reconnect if that happens.

How TypeFlow Compares to Other Airtable Contract Tools

Several tools can generate contracts from Airtable, but they differ in approach and complexity. Here's how TypeFlow stacks up against common alternatives:

TypeFlow works with Google Docs, which most people already know how to use. You don't need to learn a new template editor or proprietary syntax. If you can format a Google Doc, you can create a contract template.

The native Airtable extension means no third-party connectors or additional accounts. Everything lives inside your existing workflow.

Generate Professional Contracts from Airtable in Minutes

You now have a complete roadmap for automating contract generation from Airtable. The setup takes less than an hour, and once it's running, you'll save hours every week on document creation.

TypeFlow connects the tools you already use—Airtable for data management and Google Docs for document design. This familiar foundation means less learning curve and faster implementation.

About This Data

The setup times, processing speeds, and best practices in this guide are based on real-world data from 2000+ TypeFlow customer implementations (2024-2025). All customer examples are anonymized to protect confidentiality. External research citations (Adobe/IDC, 2024) provide independent verification of productivity challenges that contract automation addresses.

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