Sending and Submitting Forms

Lawmatics can help speed up and automate your intake process through the use of our electronic custom forms. These are found under the Assets tab at the top of Lawmatics, hover your mouse on it and then select Custom Forms.

If you are looking to fully automate your process, you can send any of your forms via automations, so that they will send to your matters automatically when triggered. You may prefer a bit more of a personal touch when sending out your forms, so instead of building forms into automations, you can also use Lawmatics to send them out manually with just a few clicks. 

Whichever way you decide to send your forms, you will also want to keep track of the completed forms submitted by your recipients, aka your form submissions.

Let's walk through all of these elements of sending forms.

Sending Forms via Automation

When creating or editing an automation, you will see the action item titled Send Form. Once you have selected this action item, you will then be prompted to choose which custom form you wish to send, along with other delivery options, shown below.

Use the toggles, shown above on the right, to select whether you would like to share the form via Email, Text Message or both. You also have the option to share the form via Portal.

When you select the Email option, you will have the option to send our standard template with a custom email message or you can send your custom asset email, if you have created one for that form.

When sending via text message, you will have the option to use merge fields if you would like, and you must also click the button to insert the form share link, as shown below.

Note that whether you are using the automation to share the form via email or text, you will have the option to set a delivery window if you would like.

When you share a form with one of your matters via automation, once they receive the form and click on the link to begin filling it out, they will see any information that you have already collected from them pre-filled in the form. They will not need to retype basic information like their name, email address, phone number, or any other fields that have already been populated.

If a form is shared via automation, you will still see the activity logged on the matter's timeline when it is sent. When they submit the form, it will save the form to their existing matter and log it on their timeline, you will never get any duplicate matters when sharing forms via automation.

You also have the option to trigger an automation when a form is submitted. By default, Lawmatics automations only run once, meaning that if the condition is met multiple times the automation will only run the first time the condition is met. The Filled a Form entry condition, however, gives you the option to have the automation only run once (like normal) OR to have the automation run every time the selected form is filled out.

If the latter is selected, then any given matter will run through the automation each and every time they submit the selected form.

Manually Sending Forms

If you want to manually share a form to an already existing matter, you’ll go to their matter profile page and click the ... icon near the top left of the page.

From here you can either open a form to be filled out internally (Open Form), or share a form directly to this matter (Share Form). Selecting the Share Form option will email the form to the matter to fill out. You will see the form share logged on their activity timeline, and the system will also automatically save the submission once they have filled out and submitted the form.

Sharing the form this way will not create a new matter or any duplicate matters, but rather will update the already existing matter. When they receive the form, they will once again see their information pre-filled in the form.

Note that Lawmatics custom forms auto-save while being filled out, so for both of the methods described so far (automations and manual send), your matters will never have to worry about losing progress on their forms if they close the tab or their internet crashes, etc. They can simply click again on the link that was sent to them for the form, and they will be able to resume right where they left off.

If you are looking to send a form to someone who is not yet created as a matter in Lawmatics, you’ll do so by hovering on assets and selecting Custom Forms. Then, as long as the form is not internal, you can click the … icon on the right and select Share. You will then copy this generic share link, or enter the person's email address to share it with them.

When the person fills out the form and submits it, a new matter will be created for them. Note that this method will not autosave their progress, since it is not attached to a matter yet.

Form Submissions

After someone has completed and submitted a form that you've sent to them, there are several ways to go about reviewing their submission.

First, you will see the submission logged on their matter timeline. A copy of their submission will also save automatically to the Files tab on their matter. You will also see this file logged on the timeline, both shown below.

Click any of the icons highlighted above, or go to the Files tab to view the submission.

After a form is submitted you may occasionally wish to transfer that form submission to an existing matter or use it to create a new matter. Lawmatics makes it easy to do just that. Simply click on the Resubmit icon, highlighted below.

Then you will be given the option to select an existing matter to resubmit this form to, or create a new matter with this form data. 

Choose to include the file attachment as a form fill, or choose to save as a simple data update, which will populate the data but not track it as a form submission.

You can also turn on notifications so that you receive an email alert when someone fills out a form. This email notification will also include an attachment of their submission. Turn on this notification by going to settings > notification settings. Note that each of your users can select their own notification preferences.

Lastly, you can also view all submissions for a particular form by going to the Custom Forms page under the Assets tab. Click the ... icon on the right for that form, and then select submissions. 

You will then see a list of all matters who have submitted that form, and you can easily view each submission by clicking the document icon on the right.

FAQ's

Will the recipient know if they have received the form via automation or manual send?

No, when they receive the form they will not know if it came from an automation or if you manually sent it to them.

Can I share the submission with my client so they have it for their records as well?

Yes, simply go to the matter's profile and click the Send Email button. When you browse the attachments dropdown, you can easily select any of this matter's form submissions to attach to your email. You can alternatively go to the Files tab for the matter, use the arrow icon to download their form submission out of Lawmatics, and then print or upload the file to dropbox, etc.

Will I be notified when they have started filling out the form?

No, you will only be notified when they have submitted the form. If they come back into their form several times to continue filling it out, you will not receive multiple notifications, since you are only notified of submissions.