From Conga to Apsona: How Fine Line Tile Streamlined Financial Workflows
A leading distributor replaced a slow system, achieving full automation in just four days with Apsona
Client
Fine Line Tiles
Industry
Manufacturing & Distribution
Engagement
Apsona Premium Support
Case Study Contents
Client Overview
The Fine Line Tile, a Salesforce-driven business, was using Conga for financial receipt generation but faced daily challenges: slow load times, complex setup, and limited ease of use for their team. Seeking a faster, more intuitive alternative, they discovered Apsona through the AppExchange and our educational content. After exploring our documentation and demo videos, the client independently tested Apsona’s document merge capabilities and quickly saw the potential to streamline their workflow.
When one final reporting challenge blocked their full migration, they reached out to Apsona Support to help complete the transition, kicking off a fast-paced, four-day implementation that fully replaced their Conga setup.
The Goal: Seamless Document Generation
The Fine Line Tile’s objective was to replicate and enhance their existing Conga-based document generation process using Apsona aiming for speed, simplicity, and a seamless user experience across Salesforce Classic and Lightning.
- Create six custom merge buttons on the Opportunity object, each configured to generate Purchase Orders, Quotes, and Invoices in both PDF and Word formats.
- Pull data from multiple Salesforce objects — including Opportunity, Account, and other related or indirectly connected objects — to ensure all necessary information appeared in the generated documents.
- Generate each PO using a standardized template featuring the company logo and consistent formatting across all documents.
This setup fully automated the client’s financial document creation process, allowing the team to generate and distribute polished Purchase Orders, Quotes, and Invoices with a single click — directly from Salesforce.
Data Flow & Configuration
The Apsona configuration for The Fine Line Tile was built to streamline and automate the generation of Purchase Order (PO) documents by leveraging structured data across multiple interconnected Salesforce objects.
In the existing business workflow, each Opportunity represents a customer order and is associated with multiple Products, each carrying specific details such as product name, code, quantity, unit, and price. Every Product, in turn, is linked to a particular Vendor, making it essential to generate separate POs for each vendor involved in the same Opportunity.
Key Objects Used for Document Merge
| Object | Relationship | Parent / Child | Key Fields (Used in Document) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opportunity | Parent to Product | Parent | Name (PO Number), Close Date / Created Date (PO Date) |
| Product | Lookup to Opportunity | Child of Opportunity | Quantity, Unit of Measure, Product Code, Product Name, Description, Unit Price/Cost |
| Account (Vendor) | — | — | Account Name, Billing / Shipping Address, Phone, Fax, Account Type (Vendor / Architect / Engineer) |
| User (Sales Rep) | Standard / System Object | — | Full Name (Sales Rep) |
Products Involved
The goal was achieved using a combination of Salesforce native objects and Apsona for Salesforce, primarily leveraging:
Apsona Document Merge
Automated the generation of Purchase Order (PO) documents by mapping Salesforce data into a structured, branded Word template.
Apsona Multi-Step Reporting (MSR)
Retrieved and connected data across multiple Salesforce objects, acting as the main report to supply accurate, structured data for each PO.
Apsona Single-Step Reporting
Configured as a sublist to fetch detailed product information in a clean, tabular format within the merged document.
Apsona Button
Allowed users to generate PO documents with a single click directly from the Opportunity record.
Apsona Document Template
Ensured consistency, company branding, and data accuracy across all generated Purchase Orders.
User Needs & Edge Cases
During implementation, several advanced user requirements emerged that went beyond standard document generation. These scenarios required precise filtering, sorting, and configuration within Apsona Multi-Step Reporting and Document Merge.
- Excluding Internal Product Line Items
Users wanted to exclude product items such as SOE Discount and SOE Product Margin from the PO, as these were internal tracking records not meant for clients.
- Positioning Packaging & Freight Product Line at the End
The “TFL Packaging and Freight” product needed to appear last in each PO document, regardless of list position.
- Generating PO for the Vendor with Specific Product Items Associated with its Opportunity
Each vendor-linked PO should contain only the relevant Opportunity’s product items. Initially, all vendor products across Opportunities were appearing, creating confusion.
- Using Sales Rep Information from the Object User
Each PO needed to include Sales Rep details, stored in the User object, which wasn’t directly related to Opportunity or Product.
Apsona-Powered Features & Solutions
| Problem / Requirement | Apsona Feature Used | Description / Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Excluding internal product line items from the PO document. | Filter Logic in Multi-Step Report | Applied a filter on the sublist (single-step report on the Product object) using the Product Name field with the operator “Starts With” and the value “SOE.” This ensured internal product items like SOE Discount and SOE Product Margin were excluded from the document output. |
| Ensuring TFL Packaging and Freight product appears at the end of every PO. | Sort & Order Configuration | Used Apsona’s Range & Sort feature in the single-step report to define a custom sort order. Since the product name starts with “TFL,” alphabetical sorting alone wasn’t sufficient. We sorted first by Unit (descending)—as TFL always has one unit—and then by Product Code (ascending), ensuring the TFL item consistently appears last in the PO. |
| Generating vendor-specific POs showing only products from that Opportunity. | Run Parameter | Even after applying report-level filters, all vendor-related Opportunity products were being fetched. To resolve this, we used the Run Parameter feature in the main merge action. In the Choose Option step, a text-type Run Parameter was created. In the Match Field step, under the Record Group, the Run Parameter filter was applied to the Opportunity Name field. This enabled user input during merge execution and ensured only the selected Opportunity’s products were included. |
| Displaying Sales Representative details in the generated PO. | New Step Creation in MSR & Object Linkage | Added a new step in Multi-Step Report linking the User (Sales Rep) object for inclusion in the PO document. |
Impact
-
Purchase Order documents were generated within seconds without performance delays.
-
Standardized templates ensured consistent branding and formatting across all financial documents.
-
Improved data accuracy and minimized manual errors in the financial workflow.
Client Feedback & Next Steps
★★★★★
Best Doc Merge tool on the AppExchange
"From support to functionality, Apsona is a MUST HAVE for your biz if you're doing doc/email/merge for sure (I only use that part) but I'm sure we will explore other features in the future. Shweta and Pranav (and the whole team) have the most attentive, helpful, and diligent about making sure everything runs smoothly. It runs natively so NO DOWN TIME. We used to have to wait on external servers, wasting hours a day sometimes for load times (5-10min with Conga), now it's nearly instant (5-15sec) even with big requests."
— Judy Massey