Service · Software development

Custom document configurator development.

A question tree that your employee or customer clicks through, and at the end a correct contract, policy or report rolls out, with the right clauses, the right prices and the right legal text. For law firms, accountancy, insurers, HR, banks and healthcare.

Question-tree engineDocument generationClause libraryE-signature

Document generation is not a Word mail merge.

Anyone who has ever pieced together a mortgage quote or rental agreement by hand knows the problem. Ten variants of the same clause. The wrong version of the general terms and conditions. A VAT rate that differs per situation. A name that didn't make it onto page three. A document configurator catches this structurally by explicitly modelling all choices and variations in a question tree, and having the output generated by a template engine that makes no substitution errors. The customer or employee answers questions, and the system generates the correct PDF or Word document with the right text variants, prices and legal clauses.

We build these configurators to order for organisations that can't get by with standard packages such as HotDocs, PandaDoc, DocuSign CLM or Conga. Often because the industry-specific clauses, the integrations with CRM and accounting, or the white-labelling for partners need to run so deep that a commodity tool falls short. The result: documents that are legally sound, legally up to date, and produced in seconds instead of hours. Also read about document workflow automation for the part that comes after generation: review, approval and archiving.

A good configurator always consists of three layers that work together. A question-tree engine that asks the right questions at the right time, with conditional logic (if the answer is A, also ask questions B and C). A template engine that can render Word or PDF templates with placeholders, conditional blocks and repeating sections. And a clause library in which your legal or tax team manages, versions and approves the legal wording centrally — separate from the templates themselves, so a change to one clause automatically carries through everywhere.

Three flavours of document configurator

Depending on who uses the configurator — your own employee, your customer via a portal, or multiple partners under a white label — we choose a different set-up. We'll advise which one fits in our first conversation.

Compact project · fixed sprint budget

Internal configurator for one team

The legal, tax or HR department answers questions in a wizard and receives a correct Word or PDF document from a validated set of templates. Suitable for lawyers generating standard contracts, HR teams drawing up employment contracts, or accountants producing parts of annual accounts.

Question treeWord/PDF outputVersion controlSSO
Mid-sized project · fixed sprint budget

Customer portal with self-service generation

Your customers work through the question tree themselves and get a document back straight away — optionally signed immediately via DocuSign, Signhost or Itsme. Suitable for insurers (policy applications), banks (credit quotes), estate agents (tenancy agreements) or B2B SaaS companies offering tailored master service agreements per customer.

Customer portalE-signatureAudit trailBranded
Larger project · fixed sprint budget

Multi-tenant white-label platform

A document platform that you offer to your customers — think of an accountancy firm that lets its SME clients generate documents themselves, or a law firm that connects partners under its own brand. Multi-tenant architecture, per-customer branding, separate clause libraries, and deep integrations with accounting and CRM systems.

Multi-tenantWhite-labelCRM integrationAI review

What you get at the end.

A production-ready document configurator, plus everything around it so you can manage and extend it yourself without needing us every time.

  • The configurator itselfProduction and staging environments, running in your cloud (Azure, GCP, AWS) or with us. Including the question-tree editor that lets your team add new questions and templates themselves.
  • Template libraryThe Word and PDF templates with placeholders, conditional blocks and repeating sections. Version control per template so you can always trace which version generated which document.
  • Clause libraryReusable legal wording, structured by category, with version control and an approval workflow. Your legal team can add new clauses independently.
  • IntegrationsIntegrations with CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive), accounting (Exact, Twinfield, AFAS), e-signature (DocuSign, Signhost, Validsign) and document storage.
  • Codebase + documentationFull source code, build instructions, an architecture overview and an incident runbook. No lock-in to us as an agency.
  • Audit trailWho gave which answer, which template version was used, which document was ultimately produced. Important for compliance audits.
  • Maintenance contract (optional)Monitoring, backups, security patches, and ongoing development of templates and clauses. Fixed monthly price, four response-time levels.

When a custom configurator is the right choice.

Standard packages such as HotDocs, PandaDoc, Conga, Contractbook and Templafy cover many basic scenarios perfectly well. Custom pays off when one of these patterns sounds familiar — otherwise we'll advise you to open an off-the-shelf tool.

Industry-specific

Notarial or banking flow

Deeds, mortgage agreements, articles of association or administrative decisions require sector-specific clauses and formal legal requirements that generic CLM tools do not support.

Multi-system

Deep integration needed

The configurator has to pull data from your CRM, accounting system and a DMS, and write the result back with an e-signature status. That kind of orchestration is not part of an off-the-shelf package.

White-label

You serve end customers

An accountancy or advisory firm wants to offer its clients a configurator under its own brand. Multi-tenancy with per-client branding and separate clause sets is not a standard feature.

Compliance

VAT, GDPR or sector compliance checks

When documents must comply with VAT provisions, GDPR clauses or sector rules (DORA, NEN 7510), and you want an AI check step to catch defects, a custom solution is the right route.

Which sectors we build this for.

Document configuration applies to every sector where the output is a standardised, legally sound or regulated document. Below are the patterns we come across most often — your industry is probably among them.

Law firms and notaries

Deeds and contracts from a question tree

Tenancy agreements, sales contracts, wills, articles of association and deeds of incorporation. The client or employee works through an interview flow, and the configurator drafts the right document with the right clauses — including references to legislation and general terms and conditions.

Accountancy and tax

Annual accounts and VAT reports

Standard sections of annual accounts, compilation reports, VAT return explanations or tax reports. With an AI check step that flags when the VAT determination does not match — a common error in borderline cases.

Insurers

Policies, terms and follow-up claims letters

Policy terms that vary by cover, customer segment or risk profile. Follow-up claims correspondence that is ready within seconds in your house style and the right legal framework — often linked to your claims or policy administration.

HR and temp agencies

Employment and temp contracts

Employment agreements, NDAs, dismissal letters, appraisal forms. Often with multi-collective-agreement logic: depending on the collective labour agreement, different provisions end up in the document. Integration with your HRIS (AFAS, Visma, Personio) for automatically populated master data.

Banks and mortgages

Credit quote and mortgage deed flow

Credit agreements, mortgage quotes, master agreements. Often with deep BKR (credit registration) and source-file integrations, strict compliance validations and direct integration with digital signing (DocuSign, Validsign).

Real estate

Rental and purchase agreements

Tenancy agreements (residential, commercial, ROZ models), estate agency agreements, purchase deeds. The variables are generally easy to model in a question tree, and it saves estate agencies hours of manual work per file.

Healthcare

Treatment plans and care agreements

Treatment plans, treatment agreements, discharge and referral letters. Linked to the EHR for validated patient data, and with GDPR-aware storage of the generated document.

Education and government

Diplomas, administrative decisions and permits

Diploma extracts, learning agreements, certificates. For government clients: decisions, administrative orders and permit documentation with the required legal structure and archiving rules.

Not sure about a large project yet?

Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day

With OneDayBuild, we make your idea tangible in a single day for €1,150, so you know whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we deduct the cost in full.

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Our tech stack for document generation.

We choose tools based on your existing landscape — no one-size-fits-all stack. We do have a few firm favourites that scale well in practice and need little maintenance.

Template engine

docxtpl, Open XML SDK, WeasyPrint

For Word output we use docxtpl (Python + Jinja) or the Open XML SDK in .NET. For PDF rendering we usually use WeasyPrint, Puppeteer or Playwright — depending on the complexity of the layout. Specialty: pandoc and LaTeX for scientific or heavily formatted documents.

docxtplOpen XML SDKWeasyPrintPuppeteer
Question tree engine

Custom decision tree or Camunda DMN

For mid-sized question trees, we build a custom engine with JSON schemas and a React front end. For heavy compliance flows (banks, insurers), we use Camunda DMN or a comparable rules engine, which makes the logic auditable and versions traceable. For lighter cases, n8n also works as a low-code orchestrator.

ReactCamunda DMNn8nJSON schema
E-signature and compliance

DocuSign, Signhost, Itsme, eHerkenning

We integrate e-signature as standard via DocuSign, Adobe Sign, Signhost or Validsign. For stronger authentication, we use Itsme, iDIN or eHerkenning. We build GDPR and sector-specific compliance (DORA, NEN 7510) into the audit trail and the hosting strategy, preferably on an EU-only cloud.

DocuSignSignhostItsmeeHerkenning

How a configurator project runs.

1

Introduction and document inventory

Together we map out which documents you currently produce, which variants exist and where the pain points are. We often find that the number of genuinely distinct template variants is smaller than it feels, which is an important insight for scoping.

2

Question tree design and template analysis

A workshop with your legal, tax or HR team to model the decision logic. Which questions lead to which clauses? What are the conditional blocks? We map out the decision tree and validate the logic against sample documents.

3

Building in sprints

A working build every sprint: first the question tree engine, then the template engine, then the integrations. Your key users test along and flag edge cases early. The MVP is ready after a number of sprints for one document type, and we then scale out type by type.

4

Migration, training and rollout

Existing templates are migrated to the new platform, key users receive hands-on training, and we roll out in phases, often starting with one department or one customer group before going wider.

5

Further development and maintenance

A document configurator is never "finished": laws change, new document types are added and the question tree has to evolve. We offer an ongoing maintenance contract or a fixed-capacity model for further development.

Frequently asked questions.

What clients usually want to know before we start.

Why not use mail merge in Word or a PandaDoc template?
For a handful of simple templates that's fine, so use whatever already works. Mail merge and standard CLM tools break down as soon as you need conditional logic (if situation A, use this clause, otherwise that one), repeating sections (a variable number of shareholders), version control on clauses, or integrations with your CRM and accounting system. A document configurator handles that complexity in a structured way.
What is the difference with a document management system or workflow tool?
A document management system stores, versions and retrieves documents. A document workflow handles review, approval and signing around a document. A document configurator comes before both: it generates the document itself based on the answers in a question tree. We often combine them in a single platform.
How complex can the question tree get?
Very complex. We have built configurations with hundreds of questions, conditional jumps, reusable sub-trees and variable insertions in multiple places within a document. We do recommend starting with one document type in the first sprint and expanding from there, rather than modelling everything at once.
Can AI help prevent errors in, for example, VAT determination?
Yes, and it is a growing application. We can optionally build in an AI review step that reads the generated document and flags when the VAT determination, a tax category or a GDPR clause doesn't match the answers in the question tree. The AI doesn't replace a lawyer, but it catches common mistakes before a document goes out the door. Also read about CSRD and ESG reporting software, where we apply similar AI checks.
Which e-signature providers do you integrate?
DocuSign, Adobe Sign, Signhost, Validsign and Itsme are the ones we see most often. For government clients or stronger authentication, also iDIN and eHerkenning. We have no preference: we connect to what you already use, or advise based on the use case (qualification level, cost, ease of use).
How do we handle white-labelling for our clients?
The platform is set up as multi-tenant: each client gets their own logo, colours, clause library and user management. Under the hood there is one codebase, with a tenant layer on top that can be configured per client. This set-up is particularly popular with accountancy and advisory firms that take work off their SME clients' hands.
What determines the cost?
Three factors: the complexity of the question tree (how many questions, how much conditional logic), the number and complexity of the templates, and the number of integrations (CRM, accounting, e-signature, DMS). For an initial indication, we'd be happy to discuss your scenario; we can often give a range during the introductory call.
Do you work with our IT and legal departments?
Almost always. Legal provides the substantive clause validation and approves the question tree, while IT is involved for SSO, security and hosting. We hand over knowledge in the final sprint, deliver a runbook for incidents, and agree clear responsibilities for ongoing maintenance.

Talk to us about your document configurator.

A no-obligation introductory call of half an hour. We listen to which documents you currently produce, where the pain points are, and where a configurator would genuinely help versus where your current approach works perfectly well. If relevant, combine it with a conversation about a product configurator or smart API integrations.

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