Creating a Matter

In this article, you will learn the different ways you can create a matter.

Ways to Create a Matter

Matters Menu

1. Click on the "Matters" menu item at the menu at the top of your screen
   
   
2. Next, click on "Matters List"
   
   
3. Click on the green "Create Matter" button.
   
   

Global Create Button

1. Click on the Global Create Button (found at the top right of your screen)
   
   
2. Then click on the "Matter"
   
   
3. Click on the type of Matter you want to create
   
   
4. Fill in as much information as possible (You must fill in everything with a red * beside it.)
   
   
5. Once you have filled in all the information, scroll down and click the "Create Matter" button.
   
   

Matter Creation Fields

After selecting to create a matter, a pop-up window will open that prompts you to select a Matter Type. To learn more about setting matter types up, please see Creating Workflows. 

After you have selected the matter type you desire, you will be taken to the main matter creation screen. 

At this point, you can still change the matter type by using the drop-down field in the top-left corner.

You can also select a template, which will populate fields with data that has already been entered into a template matter. To learn more about setting this tool up, please see Matter Templates. 

Matter Properties

Matter Name

A name to identify the matter. Any convention can be used. Last Name, First Name is quite common.

File Reference

The 'File Reference' can be used as another way to label the matter and search for it. 

Priority

'Priority' is an optional field that you can use for internal prioritizing, as the name suggests. The field only accepts numerical values.

Assigned to

At this point, you can also decide who the matter is assigned to. It will be set to the current user by default, but you can also open the drop-down field to select another 'System User'.

Status

Dictates whether the matter is Active, Closed, or Inactive. This will be set to Active by default, and as you are opening a new matter, it will likely need to remain as such.

Date

Upon creating the matter, you can also specify the date on which it was opened (in most cases this will match the creation date) and you can also set the status of the matter (Active, Inactive, or Template). 

Sales Status

If you have enabled 'Marketing Activities' for the matter type in question, you would see this section next:

It is quite simply a matter of associating any of those marketing activities with the matter if they apply, and denoting the level of contribution with any accompanying notes where necessary.

Parties

In this section, you will be adding parties to the matter by selecting from a list of contact records you have created. Required parties are indicated by a red asterisk (*). If you wish to create a new party at this point, simply type their name into the search bar and click 'Create Contact' as shown below.

Matter Data

Again, the presence/absence of this section depends entirely on how you have configured your workflow for the matter type. If you have enabled custom data fields to be available for population upon creation of the matter, the following is an example of what you might see:

The types of fields you see can be customized and you may end up seeing only drop-down fields instead of text blocks, but you can read more about that on Custom Data. As with the other sections, required fields are indicated by a red asterisk (*).

File Note

The last section available will be the File Note section, in which you can add commentary of any form to the matter upon creating it. A file note can be captured to communicate and store information about the matter which can be accessed by other users to track progress and updates. A tag can be added to denote the nature of the file note, which you can later use to apply filters on list views with.

After you are happy with all of the above sections, click on the  'Create Matter' button to create the matter. A notification will pop up near the bottom of the screen to indicate that the matter was successfully created. You can click on the 'Edit' button within this notification to open up the newly created matter.

• Closing a Matter
• Deleting a Matter