Organization Manager

Introduction

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The Organization Manager is used to manage information about your organization including the name, mailing address and billing information. The Organization Manager also allows you to define and manage more information about your organization such as: Divisions, Matter Bill Rate Types, Groups, Classification Codes, Staff, Status Codes and more. Information from the Organization manager is used throughout other parts of the Houdini ESQ application, such as in your Calendars Events and Contacts.

Once you have logged in to Houdini ESQ, go to the Main Menu by clicking the orange arrow in the upper left hand portion of the screen. This will bring up a menu. From this menu, choose Organization. This will bring up the Organization Manager

Organization Information

The top portion of the Organization Manager is called the header. The header contains the basic information about your organization and contains three tabs:

General - The general tab includes your organization’s name, URL, slogan and Federal ID.

Mailing Address - This tab contains the mailing address for your organization. Check the Divisional Mailing box on this tab if you would like Division information rather than Organizational information on forms and invoices.

Billing Info - These tabs contain the billing address for your organization. Check the Divisional Billing box on this tab if you would like Division information rather than Organizational information on forms and invoices. You can also set the number at which invoices begin at. In this example, invoice numbers will begin at 1000.

The bottom portion of the Organization manager has more tabs where you can further define your Organization.

Divisions tab

Houdini ESQ supports very large organizations. If you are a smaller firm with satellite offices you can use divisions so that invoices and all correspondence has a different address and contact information. When you add Staff you must specify which division they belong to. At least one division is required.

This tab allows you to define and edit the various Divisions of your Organization. Houdini ESQ requires that at least one Division to be defined. If you are a solo practice, you can set up a division with the same information as your Organization. To create a new Division, click New. To Edit an existing Division, click the Division you would like to edit and click Edit.

Task/Categories tab

Task are types of Events. Categories are types of Matters or types of Contacts. Each primary record (Matter,Event and Contact) have a Task or Category field. The primary records and their forms are generic. By adding a Category you can add Classification Codes, Status Codes and Custom Fields that only pertain to a specific Category.

For example, The Matter form only contains basic information. As a Personal Injury Attorney I would like to have the Matter form include the following.

The date of the accident
The location of the accident

I would add a Matter - Personal Injury Category. By doing so I can now add the custom fields I need from the Form Fields tab of the Organization Manager.

In addition I would like to have several check boxes on the Matter form as follows.

[ ] Work Related
[ ] Automobile
[ ] Officer on Scene

Since I created a Matter Category I can add these as Classification codes via the Classification Codes tab.

Now whenever I or my staff create a Mater and select the Category "Personal Injury" The matter form will include the two custom fields and the three check boxes.
See the Classification tab and Custom Form Fields tab discussions below for sample images.

Groups tab

Groups can be assigned to Staff Members. You can create as many as you like and can assign as many groups to a Staff member as needed. Besides being a convenient way to view data, Groups are also used for Access Control. For example, Staff members assign assigned to the Admin group can access the Organization manager.

This tab allows you to define and edit the various Groups of your Organization. These Groups are utilized throughout Houdini ESQ and you can create as many Groups as you need. To create a new Division, click New. To Edit a n existing Division, click the Division you would like to edit and click Edit.

Classification Codes

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The above image shows a Matter form with the Classification draw toggled open.

Classifications codes are used to categorize and filter data within Houdini ESQ. You can define as many Classification Codes as you need. To create a new Classification Code, click New. To Edit an existing Classification Code, click the Classification Code you would like to edit and click Edit. Each Classification Code has a Task/Category.

For example, in the image above is a Contact form that has classification codes. These Classification codes where created in the Organization Manager by selecting Contact (Record Type) and Client (Form Type/Record-Sub Type). When a Staff member creates a Contact and selects the Form Type Client these classification codes will appear.

Record types are Event, Matter, Contact, Todo, Rate, Invoice etc. You can assign as many Classification codes to a Record and Record Sub-Type as you wish.

A typical use case would be, you create a Matter Sub-Type called Personal Injury. You would like to be able to more finely define the Matter so you create one or more Classification codes. Under Classification Codes in the Organization manager you create a Auto Accident, Slip and Fall, and Work Related Classification codes selecting Matter and Personal Injury as their Record Sub-Type.

Now when you enter a Matter of type Personal Injury you will have the option to check one or more associated Classification codes for personal Injury such as

(x) Work Related

(x) Slip and Fall

( ) Auto Accident

( ) …

When viewing data you can now filter on Classification codes. For example you may want to view all Personal Injury Matters but only those that are Auto Accidents.

Custom Form Fields tab

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The above image shows a Matter form with the custom fileds placed on it.

Form Fields are a great way to supplement all primary record types such as Matters, Events, Contacts, etc. You can customize forms by adding your own form fields with just a few clicks. Custom Form Fields support validation and can be created at anytime. You specify the Record and the Record Sub-Type. When a Staff member opens a Event and selects the record Sub-Type Personal Injury for example, they will see the custom fields you assigned and can immediately start entering data into those fields.

Status Codes tab

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The above image shows a Matter form with the Status Code dropdown open.

Status codes are used to categorize the current status of an Event, Matter, Contact etc. You can create as many Status Codes as you need. To create a new Status Code, click New. To Edit an existing Status Code, click the Status Code you would like to edit and click Edit.

Status codes can be used for any purpose you choose.

When accessing a form such as a Matter. The status codes assigned to Matters will appear in a drop down for your selection as depicted in the image above. Only one Status Code may be assigned to a Record.

You can filter data in List, the Matter Dashboard and the Calendar by selecting the a Status Code.

Staff Tab

This tab allows you to define the Staff in your organization, organized by Division. To create a new Staff member, click New. To edit an existing Staff member, click the Staff member you would liked to edit and click Edit.

Staff members are given access to Houdini, given an alias and optionally assigned other aliases. You can assign or revoke a Staff members access rights, assign a Staff member to one or more groups, limit a Staff members access to a specific IP and view a Staff's login logs.