Tutorials
How to generate Commercial Lease Agreements on automation in Notion
A step-by-step guide on how to create commercial lease agreements on automation using Notion
By Sanat Biswal · 2026-06-20 · 15 min read
If you are looking to create commercial lease agreements documents for your commercial business properties, you are in the right place.
Using Notion and generating commercial leases directly from the Notion Database is what this article post is all about.
PDFOutput is an automation tool that can easily map Notion database properties to placeholders in a template, using the format {{placeholdertext}}, and converts the resulting document into a PDF.
A template source is added in one of the following 4 ways:
Let's understand how PDFOutput automation works…
Prerequisites for using PDFOutput automation tool?
PDFOutput requires 3 things to automate PDF generation and create documents.
1. Notion Database
!Notion workspace setup for Commercial Lease Agreements
First thing to add is a Notion Database or Datasource.
This allows PDFOutput to generate PDFs within the same Notion database (or datasource) as per the information available in the Notion Database.
PDFOutput connects with the provided database (or datasource) as added by the user and then it fetches the properties of the Notion Database (or datasource) to map as placeholders inside a template source.
Users will be able to add as many notion databases (or datasources) as they want, the tool is versatile enough to continue generating as many PDFs as they want.
For this demo, we will look at how to generate commercial lease agreements PDFs on automation using Notion.
We will connect following 3 databases (used as a datasource) which will be converted as PDFs when a lease agreement entry is added and is ready to be generated as PDF.
The Commercial Lease Agreements will contain following 3 databases which needs to be connected:
1. Lease Agreements Database (Primary)
This database will contain the key fields related to the leases which includes:
| Field Name | Field Type | Used For |
|---|---|---|
| Lease Number | Title Type | Unique reference ID |
| Property | Relation Type | Linked to Properties Database |
| Tenant | Text Type | Tenant Name |
| Start Date / End Date | Date Type | Lease Duration |
| Status | Select Type | Draft / Active / Expired / Terminated |
2. Properties Database (Secondary)
| Field Name | Field Type | Used For |
|---|---|---|
| Property Name | Title Type | Unique Identifier |
| Landlord | Relation Type | Linked to Landlord Database |
| Full Address | Text Type | Location Reference |
| Monthly Rent | Number Type | Base Rent Amount |
| Status | Select Type | Available / Occupied / Under Maintenance |
3. Landlords Database (Secondary)
| Field Name | Field Type | Used For |
|---|---|---|
| Landlord Name | Title Type | Primary Identified |
| Contact and communication | ||
| Phone | Phone | Direct Contact |
| Tax ID | Text | Legal Documents |
| Status | Select | Active / Inactive |
2. Google Account
The second prerequisite is having a valid google account.
User need to have a google account that will allow them to process the added template as a google document for generating PDFs.
As mentioned before, a template source can be added in one of the following 4 ways:
Once a user chooses to add a template from any one of the above 4 methods, the source that is added gets automatically converted to a Google Document that would be used to map the data for generating PDFs.
3. PDFOutput Account
!PDFOutput Account Sign In Page
Having a PDFOutput account is a must as it allows to connect both Google Document and Notion Database together for being able to generate the PDFs.
PDFOutput has a free plan which allows testing for free pdf generation to test the automation process.
How to setup PDFOutput automation? (Step-by-step guide)
Here's a step by step guide on how PDFOutput works:
Step : 1 Connecting Notion Database (or Datasource)
The very first step to using PDFOutput is connecting Notion Database (or Datasource) which will be used to fetch the properties for converting as PDFs.
In order to connect a Notion Database, here's the steps to follow:
!Click on New Connection to create a new connection
!Click on Connect Notion to create a new Notion connection
!Click on Select Pages to select the notion pages
!Search for Commercial Lease Agreements
!Click on Allow Access to gain access to the datasource
Once the access has been granted it is time to connect a new template source.
Step : 2 Connecting Template Source (Selection of a template)
!Template source options in PDFOutput
As mentioned before a template source can be added in one of the following 4 ways:
For this demonstration, we will be adding the template by choosing a lease agreement template from the list of available templates.
Here are the steps involved to add a new template source:
!Search for Commercial Lease template
!Choose the template and click on Continue
It will take you to the next step, i.e. Mapping.
Here we will map the the properties fetched from the Commercial Lease Agreements database that was added earlier to generate the PDFs.
Step : 3 Mapping Notion Properties (Provide data)
The final step of the automation process is to setup the automation and map the properties onto the template source file added.
When we clicked on Continue in the previous step, we proceed to the Provide Data stage where we can map the properties of the notion database one by one.
Following are the steps to start mapping the notion properties and creating a preview output of the document:
!Choose the primary database DB_Leases
As these 2 databases are connected with each other it will be visible one below the other on the right side.
!Properties of DB_Leases and DB_Properties loaded
!Click on Preview Output button
This will proceed to the Preview Output step (final step) where we can setup the automation.
Additional Settings :
But before proceeding the Preview Output step, we have a few additional settings which we can setup for the automation:
Eg: If we select Lease Agreement Number which has value of Lease-001, then the PDF generated will be saved with the name of Lease-001.pdf .
Step : 4 Setting up the Automation (Preview Output)
!Preview output of the Commercial Lease Agreement PDF
When we click on Preview Output button it takes us to the automation step, where we can finally setup the automation to run the automation forever.
Once the preview output is generated ( by default it always creates PDF for the first record from the database only), we will be able to setup the automation for this.
!Setup Automation button in PDFOutput
Click on Setup Automation button and then it will create an automation successfully.
Once the automation is setup properly, its time to generate the PDFs from the Notion Database.
How to generate PDFs from Notion Database
There are several ways to generate PDFs on automation in PDFOutput from a Notion Database:
1. Using Button Automation (Recommended)
Using a button to generate the PDFs is the recommended way to generate the PDFs directly inside Notion Database in a single-click of a button.
Follow the steps to setup button automation inside Notion Database (one-time setup):
!Click on the 3-dots for the automation
Follow the steps mentioned thereafter and it will help setup the automation directly inside the Notion Database.
Once the setup is done correctly, clicking on the button allows directly generating PDFs directly inside the Notion Database.
2. Using GeneratePDF property in Notion Database
Under this option, we will be able to generate the PDFs by setting up the required records for PDF generation directly within the Notion Database.
By default, PDFOutput always creates a property named as GeneratePDF that helps us identify the records that are expected to be generated as PDFs.
Note : This property can be edited and can be changed to a different name as per the requirement of the user.
Follow the steps below to generate PDFs directly inside Notion Database using GeneratePDF property.
!Click on the GeneratePDF property
!Set the selection option as Ready to Generate
It will change the status of the record from Ready to Generate → Processing… → Completed to mark the status of completion
The PDFs generated will be stored in the PDFFiles (default property) field in the Notion Database.
3. Using Preview Output option
If you want to just generate a preview of the output to check how the final output will be displayed, we need to use Preview option.
There are 2 ways to generate a preview document:
1. Using Preview button in the PDFOutput dashboard
Once an automation is setup and running a Preview document can be generated.
For this, here's the 2-steps to follow to generate the PDFs:
!Click on the 3-dots to show options
!Click on Preview Output option
2. Using Preview option in the Notion Database
Once the automation is setup and activated, you will be able to find Preview option in the GeneratePDF property.
!Click on the GeneratePDF property in Notion Database
It will change the processing status of the record from Preview → Processing… → Completed and complete the processing status of the records.
Once the pdf is generated it will automatically be stored back onto the PDFFiles property in the Notion Database.
4. Using Batch PDF option
PDFOutput also has the flexibility to produce PDFs in batches . (100 PDFs at a time)
For this we can follow the steps below to proceed:
!Click on the 3-dots for the automation
This will run the automation to generate the PDFs directly inside the Notion Database as the batch PDFs is triggered.
Common Issues on generating PDFs in PDFOutput and ways to fix the issues
Some of the most common problems that are associated with generating PDFs using PDFOutput are as follows:
1. The placeholders don't populate correctly onto the document as expected
Issue : The placeholders that are added on the template source file don't actually get replaced with the placeholder values that are received from the data source
Solution : This is a common problem that often happens when the field that is being mapped isn't exactly the same field name that is added to the template source file being used in the setup.
Eg: If the field name that is added in the database is named as "Lease_Number" and the placeholdertext that is being mapped onto the template source filename is "Lease_No", then it will not be able to replace the placeholdertext properly as expected.
Always make sure to use the exact precise placeholder mapping as required as its added in the notion database to ensure that the placeholders are always correctly replaced while the PDFs are being generated.
This also includes any form of capitalization or any form of underscores being used in the placeholder text wherein the placeholder text would be differently generated.
So, always follow the practice to just Copy and Paste the placeholder values onto the template to ensure the placeholders text are correctly added onto the template source and eventually also get correctly replaced as well.
2. Line Items added don't generate dynamically in the output file being added.
Issue : The line Items that are added don't properly generate the values that are fetched from secondary databases connected dynamically in the setup.
Solution : This problem often happens when the line items database (secondary databases) are not connected properly with PDFOutput.
While adding the placeholders text being used, always make sure to check upon the Line Items Database used (secondary database) and always ensure that the database is connected.
Here's how to fix the issue:
If you don't find PDFOutput as one of the options available in the list of connections, then it means PDFOutput is not connected yet.
Selecting PDFOutput from the list shown adds PDFOutput to list of Connections available.
3. PDF File generated is not shown as per correct format as expected
Issue : The pdf file that is created doesn't preserve formatting of the document as is expected.
Solution : This happens if the template file being used has a layout that is complex to read the includes the elements that are not natively supported within Google Document.
So, always ensure to use simple elements that have native support by Google Document and which will help to avoid any kind of design or layout issues that might come up during the generation of PDFs.
Start Automating PDFs using PDFOutput from today
If you happen to generate PDFs regularly while using Notion as your source of CRM, PDFOutput offers you the best solution to generate PDFs directly inside the database.
Generating PDFs manually is a time consuming process and is always prone to errors when its generated, so its always recommended to create an automation setup that can handle the automation process on its own.
Setting up a PDF automation workflow using a tool like PDFOutput also allows you to produce the PDFs on demand right inside your Notion Database using the methods that have been explained above.
It often take less than 10 minutes of your time to setup everything for once and you will start to enjoy the automation that will run for you lifetime.
If you have any questions on how to use PDFOutput, please reach out to me at notionformyuse@gmail.com for any further assistance.
FAQ's on using PDFOutput
Here's some of the most frequent questions asked about PDFOutput and ways to use PDFOutput:
1. Can I generate PDFs in batches at once using PDFOutput?
Yes, you will be able to produce PDFs in batches at once with the help of PDFOutput.
For this to happen, once the automation is setup properly, click on the 3-dots → Batch PDFs to start generating PDFs in batches of 100 PDFs in one time.
2. Can I use multiple template file onto the same database to create PDFs?
Yes, you can use multiple template files on the same database.
Once you save the automation with new template source selected each time, you will be able to select the desired template from the Choose Document field that is created in the Notion Database.
Choosing a particular template source file from the Choose Document field in the database will help automatically generate the PDFs as per the template file that is setup.
3. Can I generate PDFs on demand from Notion anytime?
Yes, PDFOutput always allows you to produce any documents on demand whenever its required.
Setup the automation for the PDFs and then set your desired records to "Ready to Generate" within GeneratePDF field added in the database and then it will start to produce the PDFs right back onto the Notion Database.
Similarly, if you are looking to create a preview of a document before generating the PDF, you can choose "Preview…" and it will start to generate a preview output of the document right inside the Notion Database as well.
Ready to automate your commercial lease agreements? Get started for free and create your first Commercial Lease Agreement automation in minutes.