How to Generate Documents from Salesforce Custom Objects

Every Salesforce org has custom objects, project records, subscription records, property listings, service agreements, custom intake forms, whatever your business actually runs on beyond the standard objects Salesforce ships with. 360 InstantDocs supports Salesforce custom object document generation the same way it supports standard objects like Opportunity and Account, no restrictions, no separate tier of support. This post covers how to enable a custom object, map a template to it, and set up generation so any user can create documents in Salesforce from a custom record in one click. 

One-time setup, then every custom object is ready to go.

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Which Custom Objects Support Document Generation? 

Short answer: all of them. If the object is accessible in Salesforce and has fields holding actual data, 360 InstantDocs can pull that data into a template. There’s no whitelist of “supported” custom objects to check against first, if it exists in your org and holds the information a document needs, it’s fair game. 

Understanding the naming convention matters before diving into setup, though, since it’s easy to get tripped up here if you haven’t worked with custom objects much. Standard objects use clean API names, Opportunity, Account, Contact, no suffix attached. Custom objects follow a different convention, always ending in a double underscore and a lowercase c, so a custom Project object becomes Project__c, a custom Subscription object becomes Subscription__c, and so on. 

It is easy to locate the exact name of any API name in Salesforce. All you need to do is navigate to Setup and click Object Manager, locate your desired object in the list and its API name will be displayed directly on its detail page. It’s worth copying that exact string somewhere handy before moving into the next step, since template mapping depends on getting that API name exactly right. 

Step 1: Enable the Custom Object in 360 InstantDocs 

Before any template can pull from a custom object, the object itself needs to be turned on inside 360 InstantDocs’s configuration. This happens through the Object Configuration screen, and it’s a one-time setup per object rather than something you need to repeat for every template built against it later. 

Start by going to 360 InstantDocs Setup, the app’s own admin area inside Salesforce. From there, open Object Configuration, which lists every object currently available for document generation in your org. Find the custom object by its exact API name, for example Project__c or Subscription__c, using the naming convention covered in the last section. Once you’ve located it, enable the object and save. That’s the whole step. Once saved, the object shows up as an option anywhere else in 360 InstantDocs that asks you to choose a source object, template creation, Quick Actions, bulk generation, all of it. 

Step 2: Map a Template to the Custom Object 

With the object enabled, the next step is connecting an actual template to it. This happens through the template record in Salesforce, specifically the SObject Name field, which needs to be set to the custom object’s API name, the same Project__c or Subscription__c you enabled in the previous step. 

With that field now mapped correctly, the next step is to launch the template file within Microsoft Word through the use of 360 InstantDocs Add-In. At this point, the sidebar of the Add-In will display the fields that have been mapped to the custom object for Salesforce document generation for custom object setup, allowing for the placement of merge fields exactly in the same manner as any other object. This is where the actual template content gets built, pulling in whatever fields the custom object holds, project name, subscription tier, service start date, property address, whatever your specific object tracks. 

Quick Action or URL Button, which fits your workflow better? Let’s talk it through. 

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Step 3: Set Up Generation on the Custom Object Record Page 

A template mapped to a custom object doesn’t do much good if there’s no way for a user to actually trigger it from a record. This step adds that trigger directly to the custom object’s page layout, so generation is one click away from wherever users already work. 

There are two common approaches here, and which one fits depends on how much control you want the end user to have at the moment of generation. 

Quick Action approach: A Quick Action needs to be created for the custom object and configured in such a way that the InstantDocs generation screen for 360 is launched from there. This way, the user gets an opportunity to confirm the settings or modify them, like picking up one template from many. 

URL Button approach: Create a custom button on the object with a URL pointing to the pre-configured generation action, hard-coding the template and format so the user has no choices to make. Add that button to the page layout the same way. This fits situations where you want generation to be genuinely one click, no screen, no decision, just an instant document. 

Either way, once added to the layout, anyone with the right permissions viewing a custom record sees the generation option right there, no navigating away from the record to find it. 

Using Merge Fields from Related Objects 

Custom objects rarely exist in isolation. Most have lookup relationships pointing to Account, Contact, or Opportunity, and templates often need data from those related records too, not just the custom object itself. 

This works through dot notation in the template’s merge field syntax. A custom Project__c record with a lookup to Account, for instance, can reference Account.Name directly in the template, pulling the related account’s name without that data needing to live redundantly on the Project record itself. The same pattern extends further where relationships allow it, pulling data several levels deep through a chain of related lookups, so a template can reach well beyond the fields sitting directly on the object it’s generating from. 

It is very significant in the practical sense, because custom objects are normally designed in a lean manner, where the only information stored is the one specific to that object, and all the other information is obtained through a lookup. In this case, having the ability to refer to fields such as Account.Name, Contact.Email, and other related fields in a template makes it unnecessary to duplicate the information into the custom object. 

Bulk Generation on Custom Objects 

Bulk generation works identically on custom objects as it does on standard ones, which is worth knowing since it means there’s nothing special to configure beyond what’s already covered above. 

Inside the Bulk Generation wizard, select the custom object the same way you would select Opportunity or Account for a standard bulk run. Choose a list view or report from which you want to generate documents from custom salesforce objects, pick the template you mapped in Step 2, and generate for all selected records in one action. Whether it’s a batch of subscription renewal notices, property disclosures for a set of active listings, or service agreements for a group of active contracts, the process is exactly the same regardless of whether the underlying object is standard or custom.