Contact

Introduction

Houdini ESQ does not have a concept of a Client, just Contacts. When a Contact is made the primary Contact of a Matter however, the Contact is considered a Client.

Contact Menu

There are several ways you can add a Contact to the system.

1. Click the New Contact icon located at the top of the Houdini desktop.

2. From the Roster - Contacts tab click the plus icon.

3. From the Matter Dashboard - Related Contacts area click the plus icon.

4. From the Matter Desktop - Related Contacts widget click the plus icon.

5. From the Matter form click the plus icon to the right fo the Client field.

Please note, the prefered method of adding a new contact to the system is via the Matter form. In most cases you will need to collect information regarding your client as well as the Matter or Case. Some call this Client Intake. To make the process simple when you have a new Client and Matter you should create a new Matter first. From the the client field click the plus icon to open the New Contact form right withing the Matter form. Thsi streamlines your data entry. See Add a Matter.

Layout

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The Contact form has 6 primary areas.

1. Form Type bar: From the form type bar you can specify a Contact color. Form Type, specify if thisentry is a Company, specify if you would like to be notified if this Contact record changes, specify if theic Contact record will be private (viewed by you only) and toggle the Classification draw open and close via its icon.

2. Name bar: Here is where you specify the Contacts name. If you check the [ √ ] is Company a Company name filed will appear as well. When you specify that this Contact is a company then the Company name will be used on all coespondance including Invoices.

3. Contact Personal Details: These feilds are were you specify personal contact information such as DOB, Serial Number and a DMV number. IMPORTANT DO NOT enter the Contact's Social Security Number. If you must use the Contact's Social Security Number only use the last four digits. Social security number should never be placed into a database no matter how secure. You hear about laptops, servers backup tapes and backup drives disapearing all the time. Their is no way to secure data on a drive 100%. Thet best we can do is make it difficult but given enough time and computing power any security mechanism can be cracked. We suggest you only store DOB, last 4 of SSN and DMV number.

You will notice the lock icon. This indicates that these fields are encrypted and only vieable by the Contact owner (individual who created the Contact record).

4. Contact information: Use this area to add your Contacts phone numbers, email addresses and postal addresses.

5. Memo area: Place any comments into this area. Do not specify Matter information here since a Contact/Client can be a party of many Matters. Save Matter Details for the Matter form. You can add a Contact from the Matter form. The New Contact area of the Matter form is identical to this Contact form.

Specify a Form Type : Required Field

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Select a Form Type from the drop down menu.

Why does the Contact form have a required field called Form Type? A Form Type is the type of Contact form you want to use for this Contact. In Houdini just about any form can have custom filelds. The Contact form is no exception. For example, assuming you are using Houdini for Legal Practice Management, most Contacts can be entered as General Contacts but what if you have Contacts of a different nature that require you to record additional information such as a Judge. You may want to include the County the Judge is assigned to. In this case you would create a catagory called Judge and add it via the Organization manager as a Contact type. Add a drop down field to the Contact - Judge type and you can now collect additional information. The form Type is also a great way to visualize your contacts. You can sort, filter and group by Contact Type.

The above image shows two Contact forms. Notice the custom fields in the bottom form?

Add Phone Numbers

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1. To add a Phone Number click the plus sign icon. This will add a Phone Number entry field. Enter the phone number without any formatting. The phone number will be formatted for you.

2. To remove a Phone Number click the minus icon.

3. To collapse all phone numbers click the Phone Number area title bar. Click it to toggle between expanded and collapsed views.

Add Email Addresses

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1. To add a Email Address click the plus sign icon. This will add a Email entry field.

2. To remove a Email Address click the minus icon.

3. To collapse all email addresses click the Email Address area title bar. Click it to toggle between expanded and collapsed views.

Add Postal Addresses

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1. To add a Postal Address click the plus sign icon. This will add a Postal entry field.

2. To remove a Postal Address click the minus icon.

3. To collapse all postal addresses click the Postal Address area title bar. Click it to toggle between expanded and collapsed views.

Assign Classification Codes

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To assign Classification Code to your Contact click the Classification Codes icon.

Classification Codes can be used for just about anything. In the above example we are using the General Contact type and have selected plaintiff. You can slect one or more Classification codes but in this instance only one is necessary.

Use the Organization manager to create any number of Classification Codes. You cn create them for Contacts, Events and Matters. See creating Classification Codes or Organziation Manager.