Document Automation: Getting Started

Document Automation: Getting Started

Overview

Matters.Cloud includes a document automation engine that allows you to quickly and easily generate document based on pre-defined Microsoft Word Templates. Whether you need to create contracts, legal documents, or other types of business documents, our document automation engine can help you get the job done quickly and efficiently.

Note: Document automation requires each user to be licensed at the Advanced user license level.

Key Benefits

  • Create a central repository of shared templates for all members of your team to access.
  • Generate documents in a few clicks including pre-populated data regarding the client and matter you are working on.
  • Download documents or save directly to the matter folder(s) on OneDrive.

Creating Templates

Matters.Cloud templates are normal Microsoft Word documents (.docx) sprinkled with MailMerge fields to perform operations. The following section uses the notation«=client.name»to refer to Word MailMerge fields. In most cases firms will likely have existing documents they are looking to automate and will use these as the basis for their templates within Matters.Cloud.

Content Insertion

The most basic operation is to insert content. The contents of a context variable can be inserted using a field like:

«=client.name»

A detailed list of available content fields can be found in the following article:

Uploading Templates

Matters.Cloud stores copies of the templates in use by a firm in a central database reporsitory. To upload a template follow these steps:

1. Login to Matters.Cloud as an administrator and navigate to Setup > Matters > Templates.
2. Click the 'New template' button
3. Complete the following fields:
  1. Name: The name of the template you wish users to see.
  2. File name: The name of the output document you want to generate, you can include the following tags which will be replaced when the document is generated:
    1. [date]
    2. [client_code]
    3. [client_name]
    4. [matter_code]
    5. [matter_name]
  3. Template file: Use to select the template file you have created in Microsoft word format (.doc or .docx)

Creating Documents

Matters.Cloud allows users to generate documents based on the central templates directly from each Matter using the following steps:

1. Navigate to an existing Matter and select the 'New document' button on the Matter profile card:



2. Complete the following fields:
  1. Template: The template you wish to base the new document on.
  2. File name: The name of the file that will be generated.
  3. Correspondence address: The address related to the selected addressee you wish to include as part of the document (defaults to primary address for the selected contact)
  4. Client address: The address of the client you wish to include as part of the document (defaults to primary address for the client)
  5. Save document: If you are connected to either OneDrive or NetDocuments you can save the document directly, otherwise the document will simply download via the browser.
  6. Folder: If you choose to save the document you will be able to select either the Matter level folder or an existing subfolder. (OneDrive only)
Note: If using the system in conjunction with OneDrive and the user specifies an existing file name a new version will be created for the existing document.

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