Client Portal’s forms allow you to efficiently collect information from your clients. Send forms to clients through the Client Portal, and their submitted answers will be automatically entered into your Filevine project’s fields.
- How to Use Forms
- Forms Workflow
- Send a Form
- What the Client Sees
- Language and Translation
- Submitted Forms
How to Use Forms
Client Portal forms can be used to intake data and documents from any contact you have invited to the Client Portal, at any point within the life of a project.
For example, in a criminal defense case, a form could be sent to collect information about a client’s remediation progress. In immigration law, you could use a form to gather information and documents for removal defense.
Forms can be used to collect data, but they can also be used to have clients review Filevine data: a form will reflect any data already entered in that field in the Filevine project, and the client can review and edit it. For this reason, employ caution when sending forms to multiple contacts in the project. If the same form is sent to multiple contacts, their answers will overwrite each other.
Forms Workflow
Forms are managed across three places: the Client Portal Manager, Filevine, and the Client Portal:
- In the Client Portal Manager, an Admin user must build the form using fields from your Filevine project template. Learn how to create and build forms in the Client Portal Manager.
- In a Filevine project, send the form to a client in a client portal message.
- In the Client Portal, the client is notified that they have a task. In the portal, they can fill and submit the form.
- Once the client submits the form, the information is entered into the fields in the Filevine project. A note is created in the project’s Activity feed logging the changes.
Form Titles
Each form has both an “internal title” and a “display title.” The internal title is not shown to the client, and is intended to help Filevine users differentiate between forms. For example, the internal title might be “Client Employment Information - MVA,” while the display title is “Employment Information.”
The internal title is used when a Filevine user is selecting the form template in the Filevine project. The display name is used:
- at the top of the form itself
- as the name of the form where it appears in the Client Portal
- as the {{formname}} variable that can be added in the form’s default portal message
Send a Form
In the Filevine project, send the client a form by attaching it to a portal message. You will receive the client’s responses in the project once they’ve submitted the form.
Tip
Client Portal forms can only be sent if the Use new Activity toggle is on and the new feed is active.
Send a Portal Message
In the project’s Activity feed, click Add new activity and select Send a Client Portal Message. Select the recipient, as you would for any portal message.
Next, click Attach Form, and select from the dropdown, which includes all forms for that project template. (In the dropdown, the forms’ internal titles are displayed.)
A form may have default subject and message text, which is set up in the Client Portal Manager. This default text may also include some variables, like {{fullname}}, which will be filled based on the recipient and form you selected. You can edit the subject and message here, if desired, before sending the form.
Heads Up!
If you edit the message—for instance, removing and attaching a form, or changing recipient—please review the subject and message fields to ensure the information is still accurate.
Any time a form is selected from the dropdown, the default subject and message text is appended to any text already present in those fields, with variables filled based on the current selections.
This means, for example, that if you enter text in the subject and message fields before selecting a form, that text remains. If you change the recipient, the subject or message may still contain the name of the original recipient. If you add a form, remove it, and then add another form, the default subject and message fields will be added twice.]
Once you’ve selected and adjusted the fields, click Send Message. The client will be notified of a client portal message. See the client view in the next section.
What the Client Sees
When a Filevine user sends a form, the client will be notified of a new portal message. In the portal, they will see a new message with the form attached, and they will have a new “task,” which appears on their home page and in a new Tasks section.
The client can click on the task or the form attachment in the message to open the form.
What Shows on a Form?
Form fields reflect the field data in the Filevine project. If a field is empty in the project, it will appear blank on the form.
If a field contains data in the Filevine project, the data will show on the form, and the client can edit the field data. If the field is marked as read only, the client can view it and use it as a guide, but cannot edit it. For example, the client’s first, middle, and last name are included in the form by default as read only fields.
Heads Up!
This data is reflected live. If fields have been edited in Filevine since the form has been sent, the client will see the newest version of the field data. If the same form is sent to multiple clients in the same project, their answers would overwrite one another.
Fill and Submit Form
The client can edit any fields in the form (unless the field is read-only). For non-English language options, read the Language and Translation section.
Tip
The client can navigate away from the form and their answers will be saved, provided they continue in the same device and browser.
When the client clicks Submit Answers, the form will be submitted. After the client has submitted, they can view a receipt of the form with their responses in the Tasks page, in the Completed Tasks section.
Language and Translation
If a client’s browser is set to a different language than the form was created in, the form and field data will be translated to the client’s browser language. The client will see a note informing them that they are viewing a translation of the original form.
The user can fill the form in any language. Upon submission, depending on Org-level and individual field level translation options, the form responses may be translated into English. Learn more about the translation settings in Forms in the CPM.
Submitted Forms
Once the client submits the form, in Filevine:
-
All affected fields are updated in the project.
Note: Depending on the translation settings selected in the Client Portal Manager, some or all form responses may be translated from the client’s language into English. -
A note is added to the Activity feed. The note includes a change log that lists every affected field, what it was changed from, and what it was changed to. If a form response has been translated, this is noted in the change log as well.
Like other notes, this note is internal. Filevine users can add and comment on it as usual, and clients will not see comments. -
A “form response” .pdf is generated. The document is attached to the aforementioned note and added to the project’s Docs section. The .pdf may be tagged as #form-submission or with any custom tags added in the Client Portal Manager.
Note: The form response .pdf contains the client’s responses exactly as entered. The information entered in the project may be translated, depending on the client’s browser language and the translation settings selected in the Client Portal Manager, but the .pdf will contain the responses as the client entered them, and can therefore be used as a reference if any questions of the translation arise.
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.