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I have 50 PandaDoc templates running across four or more businesses. Building them took time. Using them saves far more. Here is exactly how I approached the setup — and why rushing it is the one mistake you should not make.
50
Active templates
4+
Businesses covered
30+
Documents sent per month
Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link. If you sign up for PandaDoc using my link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I personally use and genuinely rate. The views expressed are my own based on real usage across my businesses.
The one thing most people get wrong before they start
Templates are not something you set up quickly. They are something you set up properly.
When most people start with PandaDoc, they rush the template setup. They want to get a document out the door, so they grab something that works well enough and send it. That habit compounds. Before long they have ten half-built templates that are all slightly different, none of them quite right, and every send still requires manual fixes.
I did the opposite. Before I sent a single document through PandaDoc properly, I sat down and built each template from scratch — branding correct, dynamic fields mapped, T&Cs locked in, pricing table structure set. It took more time upfront than the quick-and-dirty approach. But the result is that I now send over 30 documents a month across four or more businesses, and the actual time spent building each document is minimal.
The mindset shift that matters: template setup is not a feature of PandaDoc. It is the feature. Everything else follows from having good templates. If you approach it as something to do quickly so you can get to the “real” work, you will spend the rest of your time undoing that decision.
Related
For context on how I actually use these templates day-to-day, see how I use PandaDoc to send client proposals across multiple businesses.
What actually goes inside a PandaDoc template
A PandaDoc template is not just a formatted document. It is a structure with fixed parts, variable parts, and logic baked in.
Before building anything, it helps to understand what a PandaDoc template actually consists of. Most people think of it as a Word document equivalent — a layout you fill in each time. It is more than that.
| Component | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed content blocks | Text, images, and layouts that never change between sends | Company intro, terms and conditions, your logo, cover page design |
| Dynamic fields | Placeholders that get filled in when you create a document from the template | Client name, company name, project date, specific service detail |
| Pricing table | An interactive line-item table with auto-calculating totals | Service items, quantities, unit costs, subtotal, total |
| Content library items | Pre-saved reusable blocks that can be dropped into any template | Standard scope of work sections, T&Cs, signature blocks, service descriptions |
| Signature block | An assigned eSignature field linked to the recipient role | Client signature, printed name, date — auto-assigned when you send |
| Branding settings | Logo, colour scheme, fonts set at template level | Each business has its own branding baked into its own set of templates |
Understanding these components before you build means you make sensible decisions about what to lock and what to leave flexible. Fixed content that you treat as variable gets edited by mistake. Variable content that you treat as fixed means every document takes longer than it should.
How I build a template, phase by phase
This is the order I work through every time I build a new template — for any business, any document type.
01
Branding first, always
I set the logo, colour scheme, and font for that specific business before I write a single line of content. Branding that gets added as an afterthought never quite looks right. When it is built in from the start, every section looks like it belongs to the same document.
Each of my businesses has its own branding in PandaDoc. The templates for Carden IT Services look like Carden IT Services documents. The digital marketing templates look like those. A client never receives something that looks like it came from the wrong company.
02
Map what changes and what stays the same
Before I add a single field, I map out the document. I go through it section by section and ask: does this change per client, or is it always the same? The answer determines whether it becomes fixed content or a dynamic field.
Company introduction: always the same. Goes in as fixed text. Client name: always different. Becomes a dynamic field. Standard T&Cs: always the same. Gets locked in as a content library item so it cannot be edited by accident. Pricing: always different. Goes into a pricing table.
This mapping step takes ten minutes and saves hours of frustration later.
03
Set up dynamic fields for everything variable
Dynamic fields are the part most people either skip entirely or do half-heartedly. They are the whole point of a template. A field for client name, company name, date, and any service-specific detail means every document I create from this template is pre-structured for personalisation without reformatting anything from scratch.
I name my fields clearly so anyone using the template knows exactly what to fill in. “Client First Name”, “Project Start Date”, “Service Description” — descriptive, not cryptic. When you have 50 templates and other people occasionally working in your account, clear naming matters.
04
Build the pricing table structure
I set up the pricing table with the standard service categories for that business. The structure — column headers, any fixed line items, tax settings — is built into the template. When I create a document, I only need to enter quantities and prices. Totals calculate automatically.
This removes two problems at once: manual arithmetic errors, and inconsistent formatting between documents. Every proposal has a pricing table that looks identical in structure, regardless of who built the document.
05
Load T&Cs into the content library and lock them
Standard terms and conditions go into PandaDoc’s content library as a saved block, then get pulled into the relevant templates. This means T&Cs are consistent across every document that uses them, and they are not freely editable text that someone can accidentally amend when they are rushing to get a proposal out.
For T&Cs documents specifically — where the whole document is cover page, small print, and signature block — this approach means the T&Cs template is almost entirely pre-built. The only things that change are the client-facing details on the cover and the signature block assignment.
06
Place and assign the signature block
The signature block goes in last, at the bottom of the document, assigned to the recipient role. This means when I send any document built from this template, the recipient is automatically designated as the signer. No extra configuration per send.
For documents requiring multiple signatures — internal sign-off before a client sees it, or a contract where both parties sign — I set the signing order in the template too. Again, that is a decision made once, not repeatedly.
The content library — the part most people ignore
The content library is where reusable blocks live. It is the difference between maintaining one set of T&Cs and maintaining fifty.
Most people who set up PandaDoc do not use the content library properly. They build their terms and conditions into one template, then copy-paste them into the next, and the one after that. Three months later, they update their T&Cs, and they have to chase down every template to apply the change.
The content library solves this. Any block of content that you use in more than one template should live in the content library. Standard T&Cs. Scope of work boilerplate. A company description that you include in proposals. A service summary that appears in multiple document types. These are all candidates.
When you update a content library item, every template that uses it reflects the change. When I needed to update standard payment terms across several of my businesses, it was a single edit — not a hunt through 50 templates.
Worth knowing: Content library items can be set so that they are not freely editable within a document. If you have T&Cs or legal language that must not be changed, set the block as locked content when you save it to the library. It will appear in documents but cannot be altered without going back to the library item itself.
How I organise 50 templates without losing my mind
A template library that is not organised is just a different kind of mess.
When you have 50 templates across multiple businesses and document types, the library can become difficult to navigate quickly. The fix is simple but it requires discipline from the start: folder structure and naming conventions.
I organise templates into folders by business first, then by document type within each business. So there is a folder for each company, and inside that folder there are proposals, contracts, T&Cs, HR documents, and so on. Finding the right template is a matter of two clicks.
For naming, I include the business name, document type, and a version or date where relevant. Something like “Carden IT — Client Proposal — v2” or “Carden Digital — Employment Contract — 2025.” When someone else needs to use a template quickly, they do not have to guess which one it is.
PandaDoc also supports tags, which I use as a secondary layer of organisation. A tag for “proposal,” “contract,” “HR,” and “T&Cs” means I can filter by document type across all businesses if I need to.
Important
Set up your folder structure before you build your templates, not after. Moving templates between folders once they exist is straightforward, but having a clear structure in place from day one means you never end up with 40 templates in a flat list that takes two minutes to scroll through.
The mistakes that cost people the most time
These are the shortcuts that turn into long detours.
- Rushing the first template to get a document out quickly A template built in ten minutes sends documents that take twenty minutes to fix. The upfront session is not optional — it is the whole point.
- Treating T&Cs as regular editable text If your standard terms are just a text block in a template, they can be changed by anyone who creates a document from it. Use the content library, set the block as locked, and remove that risk entirely.
- Not naming dynamic fields clearly Fields named “Field 1” or “Text Box” mean nothing to anyone creating a document three months later. Name them descriptively from the start.
- Skipping the folder and naming structure until the library is already messy Retrofitting organisation onto 30 templates is unpleasant. Doing it from template one is not. Decide on the system before you build anything.
- Building separate T&Cs into every template rather than using the content library When your terms change, you want to update them in one place. If they are copy-pasted into every template, every template needs a manual update.
- Not testing a template properly before using it with a real client Create a document from the template, fill in every dynamic field, check the pricing table totals, and preview the signed version before you send it to anyone. A missing field or a broken table is far more embarrassing when it is a real proposal.
The return on time invested
Good templates pay for themselves quickly. Bad ones cost you every time you use them.
The setup session for each template took me an hour or so per business, per document type. That sounds like a lot until you consider that those templates are used dozens of times a month, and each use takes a fraction of what it used to take.
The broader point is that the time investment in setup is finite. The time you get back from it is ongoing. Every template I build properly is paying dividends every time someone in any of my businesses sends a document from it.
For a full picture of everything PandaDoc can do — proposals, HR documents, contracts, tracking, pricing — see my full PandaDoc review.
Ready to build templates that actually work?
Start with the 14-day trial on a paid plan. The free plan caps you at five documents a month — not nearly enough to build and test a proper template library.
Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link. If you sign up for PandaDoc using my link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I personally use and genuinely rate. The views expressed are my own based on real usage across my businesses.
