Client Intake - facts, events, players and documents
When you start a new case, traditionally, you take your client through several interviews or meetings to ferret out initial information - which naturally also raises follow up questions. MasterFile's Word based client intake forms simplifies this process. You can simply send one of the intake forms to your client to complete themselves, listing any evidence, facts, and more , as well as any personal details if necessary.
The client intake forms are practice specific Word .dotx templates. This means you can customize them like any Word document or use one as a basis for your own. A plain form called 'Basic Tables' is also included with just section section where evidence, basic facts and events, players, and related questions are listed. In any template, this is the set of tables MasterFile will automatically load in your case.
Use 'Basic Tables' internally to rapidly bulk or batch load facts and players yourself, for any case.
- Word documents (.doc or .docx) are created from Word templates (which have the extension .dot or .dotx). When you create a blank intake document, as explained below, the Word document is created from the template you choose.
A .dot or .dotx template must be opened from within Word using File > Open and choosing the document extension type from the drop down at the bottom of the Open File dialog box. Simply double clicking on a .dot or .dotx" template does not open a template for editing; rather, it creates an actual new Word document.
Practice specific sections
In any template, note that
- Neither a template's title page nor its TOC can be deleted.
- If you alter parts of a template, or add sections, update the TOC by right clicking over its contents and choosing 'Update Field' and then 'Update entire table'.
- To add new sections, simply choose the "Title - Report" paragraph style for the section title to ensure it appears on the contents page. The "Title - Report" style will automatically create the new section on a new page.
MasterFile specific sections
After the practice specific tables are four tables for players, facts, documents, and questions. The player, facts and documents tables can be automatically be imported from completed intake forms; therefore, neither these tables' pages, nor the tables themselves can be removed, nor should any columns be added or deleted from them. Each of these tables also contains an identifying bookmark that should not be removed or modified. You can, however, move their entire page(s) elsewhere in the document and then update the Table of Contents (TOC).
Saving templates
Your own templates must be saved as Word .dot or .dotx files in the 'Templates' directory under the MasterFile installation directory, which by default is at C:\Program Files (x86)\MasterFile\Templates.
Any template must include "MF Client Intake -" in its file name.
To edit an existing intake template you must open it using File > Open in Word. You can not open .dot files by double clicking on them. Doing so creates a new blank, Word document and the .dot template will not be edited!
Importing templates
When you import a completed intake document, a document and fact profile is created for each row in the document inventory and fact table, a player keyword is created for each row of the player table. A document profile is also created for the intake document so it's readily available for future reference.
All profiles and player keywords are linked to the issue 'Client Intake' by the intake document name so you're able to quickly locate all profiles and players that were imported.
Since all required information for document profiles is not provided in the client intake form tables, default values are used for the missing values and the document summary field will reflect this.
A profile is not created for rows with errors such as an invalid date. These are highlighted in red in a new version version of the intake document (with the suffix '- RED MARKUP') which is attached to the intake document's profile.
- Click [R+ Intake : Reporting : Send > Client Intake]
- Select a template. A blank intake document is created in Word. This is a standard Word document which your client will fill out. Instructions for your client are included in the document
- Switch to Word and add any case specific information you need.
- Save the document, giving it a meaningful name, and send to your client.
- Click [R+ Intake : Reporting : Send > Client Intake]
- Click 'Select a completed client intake document' and navigate to the completed intake document you want to load. It opens in Word and is checked to ensure required tables are not missing, columns have not been modified, etc.
When you see
- Click 'Yes' to proceed.
The imported intake document is opened in Word so you can review any errors. Any errors are highlighted in red in a new version version of the intake document (with the suffix '- RED MARKUP') which is attached to the intake document's profile.