Tutorials
How to generate residential lease agreements PDFs with Notion
Learn how to setup an automation system to generate Lease Agreements workspace and generate PDFs within Notion
By Sanat Biswal · 2026-06-15 · 14 min read
If you have rental properties and you are managing the properties within Notion, then it must be a tedious task to manage everything right from maintaining the tenant names, tenant addresses, their details and all the way upto creating the lease agreements for them.
While this might sound okay for 1-2 leases but when you are generating lot of leases together at a time, the manual copy and paste is always prone to errors and brings inconsistencies to the PDFs generated.
Even if you maintain 50 units or 5000 units, it doesn't make a difference until and unless the entire workflow is not automated to produce lease agreements on automation.
US alone has over 46.1 million renter households which speaks volume of how the process of generating leases everyday can be a slow and time consuming process every time.
Today, in this beginner's friendly guide we will see how we can generate Lease Agreements on automation directly from Notion using PDFOutput automation tool without any use of coding.
By using this simple automation method, we can automate not only leases but also property brochures, purchase agreement, conveyance deed, gift deed, mortgage agreement etc.
Once we have covered the discussion, we will go through the following topics:
- How to create lease agreements with tenant and property details using Notion?
- How to generate lease agreements on demand and automatically when new tenants come in?
- How to create conditions lease agreements depending upon the situation?
- How to save each lease agreement directly onto the notion database once its generated?
- Landlords Database - This database contains the information for the landlords including their names, address, phone etc.
- Properties Database - This database contains the information for the properties including the property name, property address, monthly rent details etc.
- Lease Agreements Database - This database contains the lease agreements details such as Lease Number, property details, tenant details etc.
- Google Document or
- Word File or
- PDF File or
- Choosing from a list of pre-defined template added to template source
- Zapier / Make Automation - These automation tools most often don't produce PDFs with the right format and layout as preferred.
- Native Notion Export - Native notion export doesn't preserve the formatting and the layout and also doesn't support bulk pdf processing.
- CSV Export - While exporting the database in a CSV Format, it loses most of the properties from the Notion Database when its exported as a CSV File.
- A Blank Document or
- A Word File or
- A Google Document or
- Uploading a PDF File
- Leads to human errors - Creating lease agreements manually be a major cause of human errors as every information entered into generating the lease must be vetted and verified before generating.
- Inconsistency for document formatting - Producing leases manually can also cause inconsistency in formatting for the documents as not all the formats are well preserved each time when produced manually.
- No mechanism to track PDFs generated - When the PDFs are generated doing it manually there is no mechanism involved to be able to track the PDFs generated as its all manually done.
- No time saved in manual PDF processing - Producing PDFs manually can lead to wastage of time which can lead to inefficient operations and broken systems at times due to lack of proper infrastructure in place.
- PDF File Name - User can define the field which would be referenced to when naming the PDFs while generating the PDFs. By default this is set to title type property.
- Google Drive Folder (Optional) - User can define the Google drive folder (optional) to save the PDFs in addition to saving it within the notion Database.
- If you are happy with the preview output, click on the Setup Automation button to setup the automation to generate the documents.
- If you aren't happy with the preview output, click on Back and retry mapping the properties for generating a fresh preview of the document.
- GeneratePDF - This controls the records ready for automation to generate the PDFs.
- Choose Document - This defines which template source (document) will be used to run the automation (if we are using multiple templates on the same database).
- PDFFiles - This stores all the PDFs generated during the automation.
- google_drive_file - This stores the file URL's generated and saved in the Google Drive file.
- Using a simple table formatting while using tables and
- Using a simple font style while using simple styling effects supported by Google Docs
Let's get started….
Prerequisites for generating lease agreements PDFs on automation using Notion?
In this guide, we will learn you to automate and generate lease agreements using Notion in PDFOutput.
3 things that are essential and will help generate leases on automation using Notion are:
1. Notion Account
!Notion workspace setup for Lease Agreements
First of all we need a proper notion database workspace setup that will help pull in the details related to the Lease Agreements.
Here's the workspace setup that we need in here:
Here's how the 3 databases are laid out:
Lease Agreements Database (Primary)
!Lease Agreements Database in Notion
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 |
Properties Database (Secondary)
!Properties Database in Notion
| 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 |
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. Template Source
We need to add a template source file to the setup which will define how the Lease Agreement will look like.
When you are connecting your Google account, make sure to allow access and provide all the permissions necessary to access the files.
!Template source options in PDFOutput
For this demonstration, we will use a pre-defined template file "Lease Agreement" which is the exact template source we need to produce the automated PDFs.
We simply need to search for the template in the search section to find the Lease Agreement template and once selected we can continue to proceed further (discussed later).
3. PDFOutput Account
!PDFOutput Account Sign In Page
Finally, we will require PDFOutput account where users can sign in to setup their account and connect Notion datasources as discussed above and the template file that will enable us to produce certificates on automation.
PDFOutput is the connecting tool that acts like as the bridge between the Notion Data sources and the template file which will be connected to produce the PDFs on automation.
What are limitations of other PDF export methods using Notion
Here's 3 key limitations while generating the PDFs using other methods with Notion:
Eg : Relation and Rollup properties are not preserved correctly as expected.
Thus, the fastest and the recommended way to produce professional looking branded lease agreements suited to your brand is to use PDFOutput automation tool which syncs with Notion data sources perfectly to create PDFs on demand matching the exact template as specified by you.
What are the benefits of using PDFOutput to generate lease agreements in Notion?
Creating lease agreements requires a lot of time to manually edit and design the template source making sure its error free and matches the exact styling and requirement as expected.
A template source that can be added can come on one of the following 4 formats:
Doing things manually can be a cause of several issues which includes:
To avoid these issues and generate documents on automation with ease, PDFOutput becomes an imperative solution to bring the best results.
How to setup automation for generating lease agreements in Notion?
Here's a step by step guide on setting up the automation for generating the leases in Notion:
1. Adding Notion Databases (Connecting Notion Database for automation)
Once you signin into PDFOutput, you will first need to setup a New Automation.
Click on New Automation to get started.
It will take us to the setup page where we need to connect Notion Account.
!Connect Notion button in PDFOutput
Click on Connect Notion to be able to add Notion Databases.
!Select Pages to connect Notion Database
Click on Select Pages to allow the access to connect Notion Database.
!Search for Notion Databases to allow access.png)
!Allow access to connect Notion Databases.png)
Search for the Notion Databases and click on Allow Access to add the databases.
Note: For this demonstration, I have created a data source Lease Agreements which contains the 3 databases we had discussed earlier. So adding Lease Agreements will automatically add all the 3 data sources into my setup.
Once this is done, you will be redirected to the next step, i.e. adding a template source to the setup which will contain the Lease Agreement template.
2. Selecting a template (Connecting Template Source for automation)
As per the discussed above, there are 4 different ways to add a template source file for setting up an automation.
We will use a predefined template for Lease Agreements and will use the template for setting up the automation.
How to add Lease Agreements template source file in PDFOutput?
Search for Lease Agreements and select the template and click Continue to proceed further.
!Search for Lease Agreements template in PDFOutput
!Lease Agreement template selected and loaded
This will allow us to modify the template as added and setup the automation workflow which can generate the PDFs one by one.
Alternatively, if you want to add your own template then add the template either through a Google Docs or Word File or PDF File.
If you want you can even start blank with a new template altogether and create the design in there.
3. Providing Data (Mapping Notion Database properties for PDFs)
In this step, we are going to map the notion database properties one-by-one onto the template source file added and setup the automation for the same.
When you proceed after adding the template in step - 2 and click Continue, it will take us to the Provide Data stage.
Here we can select the Lease Agreements database from the Select Notion Database dropdown on the right and we will be able to see all the connected properties from the Landlords and Properties.
!Select Lease Agreements database and view connected properties
Once Lease Agreements is selected it will load all the properties of Lease Agreements, Landlords Database and Properties Database.
Its time to map the properties onto the Lease Agreements template loaded on the left.
How to map the properties of notion database onto the template source file?
Click on Copy to copy the properties and then Paste (Ctrl + V / Cmd + V) the properties onto the template.
Once the properties are mapped through copy and paste, we will click on Preview Output to see a preview of the output file.
!Mapped properties on the Lease Agreement template
Additional settings of PDFOutput before preview of the document
2 additional settings to configure before previewing the PDF:
4. Previewing Output (Generate preview and setup automation)
It processes the document with the placeholder values being fetched from the databases connected including the Properties and Landlords secondary databases.
!Preview output of the Lease Agreement PDF
Once the preview is created, check the output to see if anything is missing or if anything was not mapped correctly.
How to setup the automation after preview is generated?
Once preview of the document is created, there are 2 ways to proceed further to setup automation:
!Setup Automation button in PDFOutput
Once you click on Setup Automation, it creates an automation that can be now triggered to generate PDFs directly from the Notion Database (discussed below).
What are the different ways to generate Lease Agreements on automation using PDFOutput?
PDFOutput offers 3 ways to generate PDFs on automation.
1. Using Preview Output feature
When an automation is setup we will be able to click on 3-dots and then click Preview.
!Preview option from the 3-dots menu in PDFOutput
It will quickly create a preview output fetching value from a row of the database.
This helps understand how the automation will generate the PDF to help us understand how the processed file will look like.
2. Using Batch PDF feature
If you want to generate PDFs in batches in bulk, then we have the option to go with Batch PDF.
Click on the 3-dots and then click on Batch PDF.
!Batch PDF option from 3-dots menu
!Batch PDF processing in progress
!Batch PDF generation completed in Notion
This will help to process PDFs in batches of 100 files each time.
This is useful when we processing a bulk of PDFs in one go.
3. Using one-click database automation
This is my favourite way to generate the PDFs in one-click directly inside the Notion Database.
!One-click database automation generating PDFs in Notion
!Generated PDF files stored in Notion database
When the notion databases are connected and loaded for the first time, it adds the following properties onto the database:
Important Note: Don't change these property names when they are added onto your Notion Database, as PDFOutput detects these properties by their names and does the job for automation.
So, back in the database, when you mark your record as Ready to Generate under the GeneratePDF column, it will convert that record from Ready to Generate → Processing… → Completed indicating the PDF has been generated.
Critical Considerations Before You Automate Leases in PDFOutput
Here's some important considerations to understand before setting up Notion Automation for generating lease agreement PDFs using PDFOutput:
1. Always preview your output before finalizing the Notion Automation
Before setting up the notion automation to generate your PDFs, always ensure that you have previewed the document being generated to make sure that the formatting of the document is intact and matches the exact output as expected with the placeholders getting replaced from the notion database values correctly.
This will help us affirm of the exact expected output when the automation starts to run inside the database described as per method - 3 above.
2. Use consistent pdf file naming convention for all the outputs
While generating the pdf, make sure to use a same consistent style of the pdf files name when the pdfs are being generated.
This helps ensure the file names are synonymous with each other and maintain the uniformity when it comes to following the naming convention.
If you are looking to use a custom file name which is not directly related to any of field names provided in the notion database, then you can use a formula type property and look to create a custom formula which can define the field name you are looking for before creating a pdf.
Eg: Let's say you want to use Lease Number combined with the database name, it can be defined as pdf file name.
You can create another formula type property that would hold the value like ["Lease Number_" + "Lease_Agreements"], this will create a custom file name that will be unique for each pdf that will be generated.
This will fetch the Lease Number values for each lease agreement record and then add the same to "Lease_Agreements" while creating the pdf.
So, let's say we have 3 leases with the following details, here's how they will be named:
| Lease Number | Database Name | PDF File Name |
|---|---|---|
| LN-001 | Lease_Agreements | LN-001_Lease_Agreements |
| LN-002 | Lease_Agreements | LN-002_Lease_Agreements |
| LN-003 | Lease_Agreements | LN-003_Lease_Agreements |
3. Always use appropriate dimensions for images
PDFOutput also supports media file types. These can be in the form of a png or jpg file type.
While adding the image type placeholders, add the same onto the document.
An image file type requires the dimensions to be marked with the placeholder value. Eg: For the placeholder "Property Image", the placeholder can be "\{\{Property Image\}\}_\{\{20*20\}\}".
Here the dimensions are specified as 20 - Width and 20 - Height, these are defined in inches and can be adjusted as per the user's requirements to suit their preferred size.
So, whatever you provide inside the \{\{…\}\} after the placeholder value, it would define the dimensions of the image marked in inches and the output is generated according to that.
4. Using a simple pdf template document to create reliable output
While designing the sample template source file to create the PDFs, make sure to keep the following in consideration:
Using any form of formatting techniques that are complex can break the structure and also are a major cause of templates not able to produce a consistent output as expected.
5. Use proper format for the date field values as required
By default, all the PDFs which are generated, they follow the date format in the form of "MMMM DD, YYYY".
Eg : For the date value 20th May, 2026 provided, it will generate the placeholder value as May 20, 2026.
If you want to generate the date value in a different format, let's say in the form of "DD.MM.YYYY", i.e. 11.05.2026, then we can simply add another formula property in the database, let's say "New_Date" with the following formula:
"[formatDate(prop("originaldatefield"), "DD.MM.YYYY")]"
It will create the new required new date value in the above format of DD.MM.YYYY as we require.
Afterwards, we can map this new field "New_Date" onto the template source file instead of the original date field mapped.
The output will show the date value in the above desired format of DD.MM.YYYY as we require instead of the "MMMM DD, YYYY" field.
Common Pitfalls in PDF Lease Agreement Generation (& How to Fix Them)
Here's few common problems that usually comes up while generating Lease Agreements PDFs in Notion and ways you can fix these issues:
1. Placeholders aren't generating correctly in the document created
Issue 1 : The placeholders that are added onto the template source file don't get replaced with the values fetched from the notion data source.
Solution : This happens usually when the field being mapped from data source isn't exactly the same field that is added onto the template source file.
Eg: If the field name present in the Leases database is "Lease_Number" and the placeholdertext mapped to the template source is "LeaseNumber", then it will not be able to replace the placeholdertext correctly.
This is due to the difference between "_" present in the database which is not present in the placeholder added in the template source.
Here's some common examples of patterns which don't work:
| Database Value | Placeholder Text | Result |
|---|---|---|
| LeaseNumber | Leasenumber | ❌ - "N" is capitalized in the database which is not same in placeholder value |
| leaseNumber | LeaseNumber | ❌ - "l" is not capitalized in the database which is not same in placeholder value |
| LeaseNo | LeaseNumber | ❌ - "No" is used as a short variation in the database which is not same in placeholder value |
| Lease_Num | LeaseNumber | ❌ - Underscore + abbreviation in database doesn't match placeholder |
For this, always ensure to click on Copy for the placeholder values shown for the notion database and use Ctrl + V / Cmd + V to paste the mapped values onto the template source loaded on the left.
This always ensures that the placeholder texts are correctly added onto the template source file.
2. Images don't come up correctly in the template source file
Issue 2 : Adding images as placeholders onto the template don't generate the desired images as expected.
Solution : When you add the placeholder of images into the document, make sure to add the placeholder in the format of \{\{imagefield\}\}_\{\{2030\}\}.*
Here, 20 defines the Width and 30 defines the Height of the image in inches.
Here the placeholdertext \{\{imagefield\}\} is the field name from Notion Database and using the "_" along with allows you to also define the image dimensions in inches marked in Width and Height.
3. PDF file is not generated as per desired format expected
Issue 3 : The pdf file generated isn't showing up in the correct format as expected.
Solution : This issue happens when the template file used has a complex layout that includes elements not natively supported by Google Document on its own.
When you add elements that is not natively supported by Google Document it can lead to formatting issues reflected with how the design and layout of the document looks like.
Always use a simple template and avoid using any complex layout and formatting for the template that's not natively supported by Google Document.
This helps to create PDFs which are generated as its expected.
Start Automating Lease Agreements from Notion today
If you are consistently generating Lease Agreements doing things manually everytime.
It takes a lot of valuable time and is also error prone, thus it's high time to change this working style.
Setting up a PDF automation workflow using a tool like PDFOutput allows you to produce PDFs on demand right inside your Notion Database using the methods explained earlier.
Stop doing things manually which includes Copy and Paste for every element one by one, but rather setup a PDF automation workflow in PDFOutput that generates professional looking Lease Agreements matching your requirements complying with industry standards and giving you the best automated solution.
It will take less than 10 minutes to setup everything one-time and you will enjoy the automation to run lifetime.
If you have any more questions, please reach out to me at notionformyuse@gmail.com for further assistance.
FAQ's on using PDFOutput
Here's some frequently asked questions about PDFOutput on how to use the tool:
How to use PDFOutput that produces PDFs in batches at once for Lease Agreements?
Yes, you can produce PDFs in batches at once for the Lease Agreements.
Click on the 3-dots icon adjacent to the active automation setup on your dashboard, you will find an option for Batch PDFs.
Click on Batch PDFs and it will start producing PDFs in batches of 100 files at once directly inside Notion Database.
Can I specify a PDF File name for the PDF files generated in PDFOutput?
Yes, you can always define a field name reference which would be used to provide a name for your PDFs generated.
All you need to ensure is that you have one Notion field filled in as a reference filed that will be used to name the PDF files.
Eg : If you have a field by the name of Lease Number, and you select that field for naming the PDFs and generate the PDFs it will produce the PDFs with the Lease Number values.
Can I use multiple lease agreement template source on the same Database?
Yes, you can add more types of lease agreements to setup automation on the same Database.
Each time you create a new automation with a new document make sure to connect the same database and the document reference will be saved in the Choose Document field in the Notion Database.
Selecting a particular template source in the Choose Document field in the database will automatically generate the lease agreement as per that template as required.
Can I produce Residential Lease Agreements PDFs on demand?
Yes, PDFOutput allows you to produce lease agreements PDFs on demand whenever required.
Simply mark your record to "Ready to Generate" under GeneratePDF field and it will start producing the PDFs on demand directly within the Notion Database.
If you want to create a Preview document before generating the PDFs you can choose to select Preview… and it will create a preview of the document inside the Notion Database as well.
Ready to automate your lease agreements? Get started for free and create your first Lease Agreement automation in minutes.