Each year, the entire PandaDoc organization sets company goals and a theme to align our work across every team.
With all of our product releases this year, it should be no surprise that this year’s theme was the ‘Year of the Customer.’
50,000+ businesses trust our product daily to help them create, manage, track, and e-Sign documents, but more importantly, be more efficient.
Efficiency is our favorite word because being more efficient allows us to work faster and return to what we enjoy outside of the office.
So, all that to say, we’re thrilled to recap and celebrate all we’ve accomplished and, more importantly, all that our customers have accomplished this year. Because ultimately, when our founders, Mikita and Sergey, started this company in 2011, they had one thing in mind: our customers. Here’s to you and everything we’ve built because of you.
First up, create
We launched over 60 features this year and decided to recap each in the specific document workflow stage.
Let’s start with the first and perhaps the most exciting step: create. Creating a document can be a somewhat exciting stage as it shows what’s to come when entering a new business relationship.
Each feature released this year enables our customers to create the most powerful documents to win more business. And with AI so hot right now, many of those updates are dedicated to our new friend of efficiency.
Fields Autoplacement
With field auto-placement, you can easily upload your files and let our AI model suggest an optimal placement for fields.
Multi-Selectable Fields
Specific deals require collecting vital customer information like billing addresses, dates, and names. Simplify the process using fields instead of chasing them down in emails or document comments. Customers can fill out these fields in the document before signing, ensuring all required info is in one place.
Variables in Titles
Repetitive typing wastes time. Introducing Variables in titles to speed up document completion. Now, you can include Variables in document titles for auto-fill when creating a doc from a template.
AI in Text Blocks
AI in text blocks is an ideal solution for effortlessly generating and refining content in your templates and documents. With Chat GPT 3.5 Turbo by OpenAI, this powerful tool streamlines your writing process for outstanding results. Experience the seamless integration of AI and text creation, revolutionizing content production.
Bundled Docs via API
Easily send bundled documents via API, insert one within another, check status, and retrieve information. Seamlessly integrate PandaDoc UI capabilities into bundled documents via API, including pricing tables and content placeholders.
Stop, collaborate, and listen
Sorry, I had to throw that Vanilla Ice reference in there when talking about the next step in the document process: collaboration.
Collaboration strengthens the relationship between buyer and seller, and when focusing on building this part of the product, we focus on our favorite word: efficiency.
The idea is to take you out of those lengthy email threads or eliminate work across multiple tools and keep you in one place, your document, so deals keep moving forward.
Collaborate on Draft Documents
Suggesting edits in draft documents makes it easy for you and your colleagues without a PandaDoc license to collaborate on documents before you send them to your customers.
Approval Workflow Enhancements
You can set up an automated internal workflow to send documents to designated approvers before sending them to your recipients. Account owners, Admins, or Managers within a workspace can manage workflow and act as document approvers (if selected as approvers.).
Rooms (Still in early access)
Say bye-bye to scattered documents and never-ending emails. Establish dedicated spaces for each of your customers, streamlining access to documents and collaboration all in one place.
Forms (still in early access)
Effortlessly create documents by collecting data with intuitive forms that seamlessly auto-populate information into essential documents. Your single or multiple documents are then ready for approval or signing without error.
Sharing is caring (signing is too)
You’ve created and collaborated; now it’s time to sign. (I didn’t even mean to rhyme there, oops. 😉)
Currently (as of November 2023), our customers have sent over 1.4 million documents this year. And let’s assume there are at least two signatures required per document, which means that’s almost 3 million legally binding eSignatures collected. Wow.
Our customers seem to be putting good use to all the improvements we’ve made when sending and signing documents. Let’s check them out.
Non-Sequential Signing Groups
Signing orders allows you to manage your document distribution list efficiently. If you’d like specific recipients to sign a document simultaneously, you can group them by dragging one role/recipient over another. This way, you can combine sequential and non-sequential signing options as necessary.
eSignature for Chrome Extension
Our eSignatures for Chrome extension allows you to easily upload a file and send it to your recipients to collect eSignatures. Max efficiency!
Signature Date Stamp
With the PandaDoc date field, you can customize the date format, enter rules, or enable autofill for signing dates. Set a default format in Workspace settings to format new date fields consistently. No need to set it each time!
Autofill with Custom Date
A favorite this year! Utilize the date field to automatically populate with a specific number of days after document signing. Apply this feature in contracts to set deadlines, payment terms, notice periods, and more. For instance, specify payments due 30 days after signing.
Recipient Groups (Early access)
Recipient group allows you to streamline the document signing process by assigning fields to groups of recipients rather than individuals. With recipient groups, any group member can sign the document with their signature.
Just got paid
Millennials — isn’t there an *NSYNC song about getting paid? If only we could convince our product engineers to play the tune whenever our customers receive a payment on their documents… kidding. But it would be cool to hear that cha-ching.
Who doesn’t love money? And who loves it even more when it’s easy to collect it? Well, that’s always our big focus here at PandaDoc: to help you close more deals and get paid faster with one tool.
Not only did we roll out our most significant update to quotes, now known as PandaDoc CPQ, but we also made some other enhancements.
PandaDoc CPQ updates:
- Extended Member Role Permissions like editing columns and sections and even adjusting products in the quote builder.
- Enhanced Quote Builder Visuals help craft a more engaging experience for your customers by changing the product card and Grand Total layout’s design settings, typography color, and more.
- Improved Catalog Sorting & Search helps you search your catalog items by product name, SKU, description, custom field names, and their values.
PandaDoc for Salesforce CPQ Integration
PandaDoc’s integration with Salesforce CPQ allows you to generate and customize easily and eSign professional-looking quotes within Salesforce CPQ.
The 2-Way Sync feature can update a Salesforce opportunity when a quote’s status changes and a Salesforce quote status when a PandaDoc document’s status changes.
Payment updates
Quote Builder Recurring Payments: simplify subscription management for your business by enabling recurring payments through the quote builder. This feature is available on Stripe, Square, and Authorize.net.
Save time and make things even easier for your customers by offering local payment methods per region on Stripe and Square and enabling payment gateways directly on your templates or documents.
Practically turn back time
At the top of the post, we mentioned that one of the biggest reasons why PandaDoc was created was to save you a ton of time – and we deliver on this promise year after year.
Well, 2023 was no different. This year we improved our two most popular types of automations: PandaDoc Automations (PandaDoc to PandaDoc recipes) and External Automations (PandaDoc to external platforms recipes like CRMs, HR, and storage tools).
Here’s just a sampling of the possibilities:
- Move a document to cloud storage (Microsoft One Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box)
- Move a document to a PandaDoc folder
- Send another PandaDoc document whenever a document’s status is updated
- Change quote/opportunity/ deal stage in Microsoft Dynamics, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, or Zendesk Sell whenever a document’s status is updated
- Create a record in BambooHR, Greenhouse whenever a document’s status is updated
- Oh, and don’t forget about our CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and more
Store, manage, and then store some more
How many times a day do you misplace things? Or can’t remember what you named a document? Are you just a person who tends to be overall forgetful?
Thankfully, we’ve built enhanced search functionality so great that even the world’s biggest absent-minded folks will be impressed.
Enhanced Search Capabilities for PDF and DocX
Locate your documents through an algorithm with powerful ranking logic that allows a more granular search and can even search uploaded PDF and .docx docs.
Company Metadata in Filters and Document Info
The Document info panel lets you preview document details without opening it. You can see recipient analytics, general info, and an audit trail.
You can also quickly remind a document signer. Access the Document info panel within a document, too.
Keep eyes and tabs on the (doc) prize
It’s been said that the most prized feature that our customer’s love is our document tracking capabilities.
No longer are you flying blind or guessing after you hit send on that final version of proposal, quote, contract, or even the simplest of documents.
Luckily, we’ve made even more enhancements to keep you in the loop. Just call our customers the ultimate document detectives.
New Home Dashboard and Tabs Order Customization
One of our most significant product updates to date – Home is the first thing you see when you log in to your PandaDoc account, and it received a little facelift this year. Home allows you to track your documents’ latest activity and quickly identify any that need immediate attention.
Customize your Tabs in Home
You can customize the Overview by selecting which tabs to display in Tabs settings. Simply uncheck the tabs you don’t need to monitor, then select Apply.
Extended Expiration Date
Give your recipient more time to sign. Extend the document expiration at the template or document level or even after it’s sent. Our Enterprise plan allows you to extend the document expiration for as long as you’d like.
Just a few more things
Phew. You made it to the end. Well almost…
We couldn’t let this post end without other releases worth mentioning.
PandaDoc New Look & Feel (UI)
The New Look and Feel update is just the beginning of our product evolution. Based on your feedback, we’ve created a sleek design that seamlessly integrates with our multi-product platform. We’re committed to simplifying and enhancing your experience across all our pages and apps. We hope you enjoy this new unified and smooth experience.
Redesigned Marketplace
Discover our powerful add-ons in the redesigned Marketplace, with future integrations in the works.
European Portuguese Interface Language
Já estava na hora, or we should say it’s about time we introduce the Portuguese language to the PandaDoc product. Now, you can change the interface language in your account to Portuguese.
EU Servers
PandaDoc provides the flexibility and security your business needs, allowing you to choose servers in two AWS data hosting locations: the U.S. or the EU.
Okay, we’re done now. We promise.
Hard to believe 2023 is ending. It feels like just yesterday we wrote our 2022 year-in-review post.
Despite this year’s challenges in tech, we can confidently say that we’ve built a product our customers love. And we did it all for them. Thank you for your dedication. Thank you for your business. We wouldn’t be here without you.
Don’t miss our last What’s New in PandaDoc webinar in early December to learn about 2024 plans. Cheers to the future, and see you in 2024!
Disclaimer
PandaDoc is not a law firm, or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. This page is not intended to and does not provide legal advice. Should you have legal questions on the validity of e-signatures or digital signatures and the enforceability thereof, please consult with an attorney or law firm. Use of PandaDocs services are governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
