Booking Appointments
Booking appointments with your matters is a key function of your firm that you will be able to streamline and automate with Lawmatics.
The first step in creating appointments is adding your appointment types. Appointment types label the different kinds of appointments your firm hosts, and allow you to trigger different automated workflows based on the type of event that is booked.
These appointment types are internal, and will not be visible to your clients. To give a few examples, your appointment types could be “Initial Consultation”, “Follow Up Appointment”, “Signing Meeting”, etc. You’ll create these appointment types in settings, in the Appointments section.Learn more about appointment types here.
You’ll also want to add in your firm’s address(es). These addresses will be available to select from when setting the location of the appointment.
You can add in your address in Firm Settings. First, you will click the Add Address button (pictured below), and type in the address. You can also create an address for phone or virtual location, shown below.
Once you have added in the addresses, then you’ll click Add Location, give the location a label and select the appropriate address from the dropdown list.
Once you’ve created the appointment types and locations, you are ready to book an appointment. This can be done from the calendar (found under the CRM tab), from an individual matter, or from the shortcut menu found by hovering on the orange plus sign in the top right.
Whichever of these methods you choose to book the appointment, you will see a box that looks like the image below.
Remember that the Display Name is visible to the attendee, but the appointment type is not. Make sure to select the location, choose the firm host(s) and the matter attendee, enter a description if you wish, and choose the date and time.
You can select from any of your firm's Lawmatics users as the firm attendee(s), and if the attendee has synced their external calendar, the appointment will automatically appear on their synced calendar. Each user can manage their calendar sync and availability in Calendar Settings, learn more about that here.
We suggest clicking the option to Send Calendar Invite, shown in the image above to ensure the matter and any additional attendees automatically receive an invitation to their own calendar connected to their email address. It is important to note that the "Send Calendar Invite" will only be available to turn off or on if the main host of the meeting has their calendar connected to Lawmatics, otherwise the toggle will be disabled.
There is also an option to create a built-in reminder by clicking the Send Reminder toggle, shown above. This option will send a generic reminder email template at the relative time that you specify. For more customization, we suggest using appointment reminders that you can find on your appointments/events settings page. Learn how to use appointment confirmations and reminders here.
From the "Create New Appointment" layer you can also book using a host's or hosts availability as well. Similar to a booking form, when using the "Use Availability" tab it will find time when the host selected has availability based on their external calendar integration and their calendar settings.
You can also use our Appointment Requests or Booking Links to invite clients or leads to book their own appointments based on your availability. Appointment requests will be emailed directly to the individual. Booking links on the other hand, can be placed on your website or built into an email template in Lawmatics.
You can also book appointments directly from a custom form. When you are building an internal form, you will see the option to include an Appointment field. Note: this option is ONLY available in internal forms since it does not limit booking based on your calendar availability.
When this object is used in the internal form, your staff will be able to book an appointment while filling out an intake all in one seamless step.
Learn more about using objects in custom forms here.
FAQ's
Is there a difference between Appointments and Events?
Yes, appointments refer to an individual booking on the calendar.
Can I book an appointment with multiple contacts in my CRM?
No, any given appointment can only be booked with one contact or matter in Lawmatics. If you have your external calendar synced, you can always edit the appointment there to add additional attendees.
Which firm user should I select as the meeting host?
When an appointment is booked in Lawmatics, it will automatically sync onto the host's external calendar, as long as they have one connected in their calendar settings page. You have the option to add as many hosts as you would like, selecting from any of your Lawmatics users. The appointment will be synced onto the external calendar for all users that you have selected as the host.