Smarter Drafter saves form fillers time in re-keying data previously entered for a matter. Form Fillers will be able to select a matter, and if there was previous data entered, this will automatically assigned from the Matter Record.
Smarter Drafter stores data based on records created on a matter. Records group data as Roles which relate to a person, company or data that you may want to use across matter. Records also group data based on Matter Details, which are information that is matter specific.
A record must be assigned to a form against a respective Role or Matter Details category in order for its data to be added automatically to a form.
Form Builders will create the document automations with the necessary structure so that the data flows correctly. For Form Builder, learn how to setup a form for Matter Record here.
Getting started
1. Navigate to Form Library, locate a form and click Start a form.
2. Add a matter source and matter.
Once this information is added, if the form is setup with role mapping, information on the roles assigned will appear. Smarter Drafter will automatically add any previous data entered for the matter based on the records created in the matter and the category of data (Role or Matter Details).
If a matter does not have any data relevant for the form, no records will be automatically assigned.
Clicking on 'Review' will display the table of form Roles and Matter Details with the ability to assign records to the respective fields.
3. Click 'Start form now', fill in the form and click submit
Since there are no records assigned, Smarter Drafter will create new records and store the data completed in the form.
4. Review submission details and submit form.
Any records created will appear in this review dialog, with the ability to edit the label of the record. Note that this does not change any of the values entered in the form, this is the display name shown only.
Once the form is submitted, any new records will be created.
5. Next time starting a form, use the same matter to see the entities automatically assigned
Where a record created has played the role in the form, the record will be automatically assigned. This will bring in any of the data stored on the record that is relevant to the form.
You can use the same form or a different form to bring in the records data for the matter.
Clear all allows all of the assigned entities to be removed from this form submission, which will not add the records and their data to the form.
Auto-assign will bring back any of the records found for the matter.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are new records created?
New records are created when there are no records assigned to a Role or Matter Details in the initial start form dialog.
In the below example, no roles for Client, Lawyer or Matter Details are assigned. When filling in the form three new entities will be created and be assigned the respective roles of Client, Lawyer and Matter Details.
How can existing data be updated or new data added?
At the start of a form, when there are records assigned, this will then assign the fields in the form associated to the record. Any changes made to those fields will update the respective record.
For example, if there was a field that was mapped to Lawyer James Cameron, in the form any pre-filled data for James can be updated which will then replace any existing data. Similarly, if there are any empty fields associated to the Lawyer the new data will be added.
Are multiple entities assignment to a role supported?
Yes, one or more records can be assigned. This is achieved by the form section being setup as a Repeating section. Repeating sections will have a maximum number of records allowed to be assigned.
What is a conflict?
Where there are more records identified on the matter than the form Record Types (Role and/or Matter Details) allows to be assigned, a conflict will be tagged for this form role. Smarter Drafter cannot decide which is the right record to choose, therefore it is up to the form filler to choose the right record to assign.
Click 'Add assignee' where there is a Conflict. This will display a side panel with the ability to select the right record. Select the record and click Assign.
The conflict will then be removed.
Note that if a form filler is to start the form without clearing the conflict, the only impact will be that that no data will be automatically populated for that form role.
Can a record play more than one role for a matter?
Yes, a record that plays a Role can be associated to one or more roles for a matter. This allows scenarios such as when a person may play the role of a Client in one document and in another they play the role of a Defendant.
Simply assign a record to the different role you want them to play for the form submission. Once the form is submitted, the record will now have the multiple roles they play for the matter stored in their record.
Note: Matter Details type records cannot be assigned to a Role. A Record cannot be assigned more than once in a submission.
Can Actionstep or Unity contacts be assigned to a role?
Smarter Drafter has deeper integrations with Actionstep and Unity, that brings in data from these systems into Smarter Drafter forms. These contacts will be automatically assigned from the matter to the form roles.
However, any additional data captured from Smarter Drafter for the assigned Actionstep or Unity contacts will not be stored and brought in to a future form for the matter. A future release will combine these two data sources together so that data stored in Smarter Drafter will work alongside Actionstep or Unity.