Convert Quote to PDF using Inbuilt Functions

If you read my blog or if we have met, I've probably told you about my love of Word Templates. I think they are brilliant and I’ve deployed them numerous times for customers. One of the requests I get a lot is to convert quotes, invoices or any other Word Templates to PDF. I’ve written about how to do this using Flow and OneDrive’s Convert to PDF action.

Quietly, a few months ago, an update for D365 Customer Engagement was pushed out which allowed users to convert Word Templates to PDF natively, without the need for Flow. This is available for any D365 CE customer, provided you are on the latest release (which should be everyone unless you are special) so you can use this now. But first we need to switch it on.

Navigate to the Sales hub -> App Settings -> PDF Generation and switch this setting on.

Next, you need to ensure you have a Word Template saved in the system for use on Quotes, either system or personal as this function works for both. Again, if you need some pointers on creating templates, I’ve got you covered.

Navigate to a quote and you will see two new options on the command bar Create PDF and Email as PDF.

Clicking on Create PDF gives you all the Word Templates for a quote in the system and choosing any of them, generates the Word Template and downloads it automatically as a PDF.

Clicking on Email as PDF opens up an email Activity (full screen, not the fancy new popout functionality i wrote about here<email enhancement>) with the Word Template PDF as an attachment.

N.b. it’s important to point out that you cannot attach files to an email activity, without first creating the email, so by pressing this button, you actually create the email. If you don’t send the email, it will remain in the system unless you delete it or send it.

Currently, this functionality is only available on Quotes, but that’s not to say it will never be rolled out to other entities like Invoices, Orders or custom entities. Stefan Strube recently documented that the action in the API can be called to convert any Word Template on any entity using Flow. This gives us hope that either you will be able to call it officially via a plugin or that it will be rolled out to other entities as an on demand function. For now, it’s just available on quotes but, watch this space.

Ciao for now!