Airtable

The DocsAutomator-Airtable integration enables you to convert Airtable records into PDF documents and Google Docs. The system operates on a “primary table and linked tables” model, where documents are generated from records in your main table while data lists (“line items”) can be pulled from related tables. Documents can be generated automatically when a field changes to match a condition (Auto Creation), from a button, formula, or script inside Airtable, or manually from DocsAutomator.

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Step-by-Step Setup

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Triggering Methods

You can generate documents from Airtable three ways: automatically when a field changes, from inside Airtable with a button or script, or from DocsAutomator.

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Automatic — Auto Creation

Pick a field and a condition that should fire generation. When a record changes to match (for example, Status = Approved, or Invoice Total is greater than 5,000), DocsAutomator generates a document for that record, usually within seconds. Nothing needs to be set up inside Airtable. Open Auto Create on the automation page, turn on Auto creation, then pick the field, the condition and the value. The status line under the toggle shows when Airtable last sent an event, so you can tell at a glance that the connection is alive. Every evaluated change is visible in Documents → Logs: records that fired show as runs marked Auto, and records that did not fire show a row explaining why.

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Fields and conditions you can trigger on

Trigger field types supported:

• Single select and multiple select (multiple select fires when the chosen option is among the selected values)
• Checkbox
• Text fields: single line text, long text, email, URL, phone
• Number fields: number, currency, percent, rating
• Date and date and time
• Formula, rollup, count, and lookup fields. The conditions follow the computed result: a number formula gets number conditions, a text formula gets text conditions. These also fire on indirect changes: edit a line item, and a trigger on the invoice’s rollup total fires when the recomputed total matches. For lookups, the trigger fires when any looked-up value matches the condition.
• Attachments (empty / not empty)

Conditions match the field type and use the same vocabulary as conditional sections: equals, does not equal, contains, does not contain, is greater/less than (or equal), is empty, is not empty, is checked/unchecked, and is after/before for dates. “Is empty” and “is not empty” need no value. Records that are created already matching the condition also fire, so imports and bulk-added rows are covered. Renaming a select option in Airtable does not break the trigger, and percent conditions are entered on the normal percent scale (50 means 50%).

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How often Auto Creation fires

Auto Creation reacts to changes, and it deliberately avoids generating the same document twice:

• Only the watched field counts. The condition is evaluated when the field you picked changes. Editing other fields on a record that already matches does not generate another document.
• The same record does not fire twice within 10 minutes. If a record generated a document less than 10 minutes ago, a further matching change is skipped and logged as a suppressed refire. This prevents duplicates when a record is edited several times in a row.
• Rapid edits within 5 seconds count as one change. Airtable batches quick successive edits, and DocsAutomator collapses them into a single evaluation.
• Bulk updates log at most 25 skipped records per automation, per batch of changes. The documents still generate for every matching record; only the skip rows are capped, so the log stays readable after a mass update.

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Auto Creation limits and lifecycle

• Auto-generated documents count against your plan’s document quota, exactly like manual runs.
• Turning Auto Creation off removes the webhook from your Airtable base.
• Changing the base or table of an automation switches Auto Creation off, because the watched field no longer exists. Pick a new trigger field and switch it back on.
• Automations that use the same base share one webhook. Airtable allows an app two webhooks per base, so this stays within the limit no matter how many automations you run.
• DocsAutomator refreshes the webhook daily. Airtable expires webhooks after seven days and stops notifications after repeated delivery failures; the daily job renews them, re-enables notifications, and recreates a registration that Airtable has dropped. Missed changes are collected on the next refresh.
• Formula fields in an error state (#ERROR!, NaN) are treated as empty and never match a condition.

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Trigger from Airtable

Fire generation from inside Airtable with a button, formula, script, or the extension:

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From DocsAutomator

You can always generate a document for any record from inside DocsAutomator: click Generate manually on the automation page and pick the record. This works on every Airtable plan.

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Field Type Reference

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Configuration Options

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E-Signatures

DocsAutomator supports collecting legally binding e-signatures on documents generated from Airtable records. After a document is created, it can be automatically routed to one or more signers for signing. To enable e-signatures, open your automation’s output settings and toggle on the e-signature option. You can then configure signers by mapping their email address and name to Airtable fields — for example, map a “Client Email” field to the signer email and a “Client Name” field to the signer name. If your document requires multiple signers, you can choose between sequential signing (signers sign in a defined order) and parallel signing (all signers receive the request simultaneously). Add e-signature placeholders such as {{esign.signature.1}} and {{esign.date.1}} to your template to define where signatures and dates appear in the final document. Signed PDFs can be stored back to an Airtable attachment field automatically once all parties have signed. This keeps your records up to date without any manual steps.

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Frequently Asked Questions