Document Automation

The Challenge

After collecting questionnaire data, information typically needs to be transferred into contracts, reports, and other documents. Manual copying can be time-consuming and may introduce errors.

How Fluvial Works

Fluvial connects documents to questionnaire data through defined mappings.

Define Your Document Structure

Create templates for the types of documents you need—vendor profiles, compliance reports, service agreements, or rating summaries. These templates define what information each document contains and how it should be organised.

Connect Questions to Documents

Set up reusable connections between your questionnaire questions and document fields. When a question asks for a company name, certification status, or risk rating, you specify where that information should appear in your documents. These connections can be saved and used again for future assessments.

flowchart LR
subgraph Q1["Risk Assessment Project A"]
QE1["Q 123
Company Name: 'Acme Corp'"]
QE2["Q 125
Revenue: '50M'"]
end

    subgraph Q2["Due Diligence Project B"]
        QE3["Q 456
Company Address: '123 Main St'"]
        QE4["Q 458
Industry: 'Technology'"]
    end

    subgraph CM["ContentMap: Vendor Profile"]
        direction TB
        P1["Q 123 → /company/name"]
        P2["Q 125 → /financial/revenue"]
        P3["Q 456 → /company/address"]
        P4["Q 458 → /company/industry"]
    end


    subgraph CD["Content Document"]
        direction TB
        JSON["Populated Content
{
  'company': {
    'name': 'Acme Corp',
    'address': '123 Main St',
    'industry': 'Technology'
  },
  'financial': {
    'revenue': '50M'
  }
}"]
    end

    QE1 --> P1
    QE2 --> P2
    QE3 --> P3
    QE4 --> P4

    P1 --> JSON
    P2 --> JSON
    P3 --> JSON
    P4 --> JSON


    style Q1 fill:#e1f5ff
    style Q2 fill:#e1f5ff
    style CD fill:#e8f5e9

Generate and Update Documents

Once connections are established, Fluvial can automatically create documents from questionnaire responses. When source information changes, you can choose to update the documents automatically or review changes before approving them. The system keeps track of what changed, when, and why.

Share in Any Format

While Fluvial stores document data in a structured way, you can output documents in whatever format you need—PDF for distribution, HTML for web viewing, or data feeds for other systems. Your branding and formatting preferences are maintained in customizable templates.

Building Organisational Knowledge

Beyond individual projects, Fluvial helps organize information into a reference library. Documents can be organized by the entities they describe (vendors, regions, industries), with access controls and change tracking.

Real-World Example

Advisory Firm Building Vendor Intelligence

An advisory firm conducts vendor evaluations for clients. They use Fluvial to build a database of vendor information.

They create a standard vendor profile template that captures capabilities, certifications, performance history, and risk factors. When conducting a client assessment, questionnaire responses populate these profiles. As they complete more projects, their vendor database grows.

For subsequent client engagements, they can reference existing vendor information while keeping client-specific details confidential. The audit trail documents how assessments were conducted.

Visit our Solutions to see how document automation applies to specific industries and use cases.

Workflow Integration

Documents can move through approval processes with whatever stages you need, e.g. draft, review, approved, and published. Set up requirements for legal or compliance sign-off before documents are finalised, and trigger notifications or system updates when documents reach certain milestones. These workflows can be customised using a GUI workflow builder and simple expression language policies.

// Allow access to vendor profiles for users in procurement or legal
user.roles.contains("procurement") || user.roles.contains("legal")

// Restrict sensitive financial data to senior analysts
entity.data_classification == "financial" && user.seniority >= "senior"

// Organisation-based access control
entity.author_org_id == user.org.id

// Time-based restrictions
now.getHours() >= 9 && now.getHours() < 17

Distribution & Display

Fluvial is a data platform, not a publishing system. Documents in Fluvial are structured data—not presentation formats like PDF or web pages. This architectural choice gives you complete control over how information is displayed and distributed.

Why Data-First?

Flexibility: Your document data is stored as clean JSON structures that can be transformed into any format—web pages, PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint slides, or data feeds for other systems.

Ownership: You control the presentation layer. Use your own brand, hosting, and distribution channels. Integrate with existing systems and workflows without being locked into a proprietary publishing platform.

Future-Proof: As presentation technologies evolve, your underlying data remains unchanged. Adopt new formats and channels without migrating or re-structuring your content.

Display Options

Self-Service: Use our REST API to retrieve document data and render it however you need. Most development teams can integrate Fluvial data into their existing web applications, reporting tools, or document generation systems.

Managed Display Service: For organizations that need a turnkey solution, we offer an optional managed display and distribution service. This handles hosting, formatting, and delivery of reports and documents while maintaining the same data flexibility.

Example Implementation: See Laculine, our consulting demo site. Click “Risk Ratings” to see how Fluvial document data can be rendered as interactive web reports.

Rationale

In 2005, publishing data-driven reports was technically challenging—platforms needed to bundle data storage with presentation.

In 2025, consuming and rendering structured data is straightforward. By separating concerns, Fluvial gives you greater flexibility for distribution, better integration with your existing systems, and freedom to evolve your presentation layer independently.

What Makes Fluvial Different

Most questionnaire platforms offer basic export features—typically PDFs or spreadsheets.

Fluvial maintains connections between source data and documents. Information can be updated, mappings can be reused across projects, and the system records how documents were created and modified. This transforms your assessment data from isolated project artifacts into organisational assets that compound in value over time.