How to Update and Refresh Templates in Quip

Why Existing Documents Are Not Automatically Updated

Quip templates generate documents as independent copies at the time of generation. Subsequent changes to the template do not propagate to previously generated documents. To update those documents, you must use one of the options below.

Example: A revenue operations team updates their quarterly business review (QBR) template to add a new section. The 40 existing QBR documents created from the old template do not inherit this change. The team can use Option 3 (Salesforce Flow) to automate inserting the new section into all existing documents.

Option 1: Manual Document Update

Open each generated document individually and make the changes manually. This is the simplest approach but is only practical for a small number of documents. No automation or additional configuration is required.

Option 2: User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Workflow

Before deploying a template update to all users, create a copy of the template, apply the changes, and test with a small group of users in a user acceptance testing (UAT) process. Once validated, update the production template. New documents generated after the update will use the new template version.

Option 3: Salesforce Flow Automation

Use a Salesforce Flow with the Quip Edit Document action to programmatically insert or update content in existing documents. This is the recommended approach for bulk updates across many documents.

In your Flow, use the Quip document URL stored on the related Salesforce record to identify each document to update. The Edit Document action can append text, update a named section, or replace content in a template section.

Note: This requires the Salesforce administrator to configure a Flow with access to the Quip document URL field on the relevant Salesforce object.

Option 4: Regenerate Documents from the Updated Template

If the changes are significant, the most reliable option is to regenerate documents from the updated template and archive the old versions. This creates fresh documents with all new template content, but requires users to transfer any data entered in the old documents to the new ones.