Airtable form to custom PDF

Airtable Forms don't automatically generate custom PDF documents after a submission.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to automatically generate a custom PDF from an Airtable form submission using Airtable Automations and Plumsail Documents. The generated PDF can be emailed to the customer, saved back to Airtable, or both.

In this article:

• Why generate PDFs from Airtable Forms?
• Step-by-step guide to generate a custom PDF from an Airtable form
  • Step 1. Create an Airtable base and tables
  • Step 2. Create an Airtable form
  • Step 3. Set up a Plumsail Documents process
  • Step 4. Create an Airtable Automation
  • Step 5. Generate and email the PDF automatically
• When to use Plumsail Forms instead?
• Conclusion

Why generate PDFs from Airtable Forms?

Automatically generating PDF documents from Airtable Forms can save time, reduce manual work, and help create a more professional experience for your customers. Some of the key benefits include:

• Generate proposals, quotes, invoices, contracts, and other business documents automatically from Airtable form submissions.

• Keep a consistent, professional design by using reusable templates with your company branding.

• Reduce manual work and avoid copying data between Airtable and your documents.

• Automatically email the generated PDF to the customer or save it back to your Airtable base.

 

Step-by-step guide to generate a custom PDF from an Airtable form

In this tutorial, we'll build a simple workflow that automatically generates a PDF proposal after someone submits an Airtable form.

The workflow looks like this:

Airtable Form → Airtable Automation → Plumsail Documents → PDF

Step 1. Create an Airtable base and tables

Start by creating a new Airtable base that will store both your customer submissions and the list of services used to generate proposals.

First, create a new base in your Airtable workspace:

 

Create the Services table

Create a table named Services and add the following fields:

• Name
• Description
• Price

This table acts as your service catalog. Customers will be able to select one or more services when submitting the form. These selections will later be included in the generated proposal.

 

Create the Form Submissions table

Next, create a second table named Form Submissions. This table will store all responses submitted through your Airtable form.

 

Add the following fields:

• Customer name
• Email
• Company
• Project
• Services (Link to another record) - link this field to the Services table so users can select one or more services from your catalog:

 

• Total price (Rollup) - calculate the total cost of all selected services using the following formula:

SUM(values)

 

• Valid until (Formula) - automatically calculate the proposal expiration date using the following formula:

DATEADD(TODAY(), 2, 'weeks')

 

Step 2. Create an Airtable form

Now it's time to create a form that customers will use to submit their project details.

1. Go to the Forms tab in the top navigation
2. Select Build it yourself:

 

3. Select the Form Submissions table and enter a name for your form:

 

4. Click Create form

You can customize the form as needed by adding or removing fields, renaming them, and changing the description, logo, background, and other settings.

The main step is to add the Services field and hide service prices from the form. This way, customers can choose the services they need, while prices will only appear in the generated PDF proposal.

Click + to add a field. You'll see all available fields from the Form Submissions table, including Services:

 

You can configure the field from the panel on the right. For this example, hide the service price:

 

You can also mark any fields as required:

 

Once your form is ready, click Publish to make it available.

After publishing, you'll be able to share the form publicly, restrict access to people in your organization, or choose another sharing option. We'll return to the published form in the final step, after connecting it to Plumsail Documents.

Finally, our form looks like this:

 

Step 3. Set up a Plumsail Documents process

Now switch to Plumsail Documents and create a new document generation process. This process will generate PDF proposals from Airtable records submitted through your form.

Create a new process

Log in to the Plumsail Documents account and create a new process. You can upload your own template, start with a blank document and build the template from scratch, or choose one of the ready-to-use templates.

For this example, we'll use this proposal template.

 

Enter a process name (for example, Create PDF Proposal from Airtable), select the output file type, and click Create:

 

After the process is created, the template editor opens automatically. The template already contains sample tokens. We'll update them later in the tutorial after connecting Airtable to Plumsail Documents and add the correct Airtable field names.

Add delivery

The next step is to send the generated proposal to the customer automatically. To do this, add an email delivery to your process:

 

Choose one of the available delivery providers. For this example, we'll use Gmail.

Connect your Gmail account and configure the delivery settings:

 

You can also use document tokens in the delivery settings. For example, use the customer's email address in the To field or include their name in the email subject or message.

Configure settings

There are just two final settings to configure.

First, switch the process to Production mode to remove the Plumsail watermark from generated documents:

 

Then open Template settings and specify the output file name:

 

Step 4. Create an Airtable Automation

Now let's connect Airtable with Plumsail Documents and configure the automation that will generate PDF proposals automatically.

Add the Plumsail Documents extension

First, add the Plumsail Documents extension to your Airtable base:

• Open your Airtable base and click Extensions in the top-right corner
• Select Add an extension
• Search for Plumsail Documents and install it:

 

After connecting your Plumsail account, click Add document generation button. Although the button won't be part of the final workflow, we'll use it to generate the automation script in the next step.

Configure the button:

• Select your Plumsail Documents process
• Enter a button name
• Choose whether to download the generated document or attach it to the Airtable record:

 

The extension also shows all available Template tokens. If your template uses different token names, you can copy the correct ones from here and update your document template:

 

Create the automation

Open the Advanced section of the extension and generate the automation script:

 

Copy the generated script. We'll use this script in the next step to start the Plumsail Documents process automatically.

Then open the Automations page in Airtable and create a new automation. For the trigger, select When record is created and choose the Form Submissions table:

 

Add a Run script action, paste the generated script, and create an input variable named RecordId. Map it to the Airtable Record ID from the trigger:

 

Test the automation and, if everything works correctly, turn it on:

 

Step 5. Generate and email the PDF automatically

Your workflow is now ready. Publish your Airtable form and share it with your customers:

 

When a customer submits the form:

• a new record is created in the Form Submissions table
• Airtable Automation starts the Plumsail Documents process
• a personalized PDF proposal is generated
• the proposal is automatically emailed to the customer:

 

When to use Plumsail Forms instead?

Airtable Forms work well for many data collection scenarios. However, if you need more control over the form itself, Plumsail Forms can be a better choice.

With Plumsail Forms, you can build fully customized forms with conditional logic, advanced layouts, file uploads, electronic signatures, and additional features that aren't available in Airtable's built-in forms.

Plumsail Forms integrates seamlessly with Plumsail Documents, allowing you to generate proposals, quotes, contracts, invoices, and other PDF documents automatically after a form is submitted.

For example, see how Northern GeoSeptic uses Plumsail Forms together with Airtable and Plumsail Documents to automate proposal and site report generation.

We use Plumsail Forms for everything from client onboarding to job applications. This data now feeds directly into Airtable without me lifting a finger.

Conclusion

The combination of Airtable Forms and Plumsail Documents allows you to automatically generate professional PDF proposals from every completed form.

The same approach works with quotes, contracts, reports, and many other business documents. Once configured, the entire workflow runs automatically, saving time and reducing manual work.

Start your free 30-day trial of Plumsail Documents and build your first document automation. Need help getting started? You can always book a free introductory call with our team.