Introduction

HoudiniESQ 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 of 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 within the Matter form. This streamlines your data entry. 

Layout

Here, we can enter data on our contacts including first/last name, which Contact Group they are in (Type), ID, what Currency they use, and all other personal information about the,. We can also quickly associate Matters, Documents, Events, Notes, and Trust/Retainer Ledger information with them.

Specify a Group: Required Field

Select a Group from the drop down menu.

Why does the Contact form have a required field called Group? A Group is the type of Contact you want to use for this Contact. In Houdini just about any form can have custom fields. 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 Settings as a Contact type. Add a drop down field to the Contact - Judge type and you can now collect additional information. The Group function is also a great way to visualize your contacts. You can sort, filter and group by Contact Type.

Notice that we have a Custom Field for Attorney in this screenshot. This denotes whether the Attorney is active or not.

Add Phone Numbers

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. You can also denote whether this is the Primary Phone Number for this Contact.

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

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

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.

For more information on HoudiniESQ, please click here.