NetDocuments Setup for Use with Actionstep

Modified on Wed, 06 Sep 2023 at 07:29 AM

NetDocuments can be customized in many ways (like Actionstep). We recommend that you set it up a certain way to get the best out of the integration but this is not meant to be a limiting way that you configure your system. You can configure it, however, suits you best.


This will involve 3 steps

  1. Setting up your Profile Attributes
  2. Defining Workspace Templates
  3. Configuring your Profile Attirbutes

 

Setting up your Profile Attributes

You can configure your NetDocs Cabinet to link to both Clients and Matters (recommended), or

Matters only. For More information about what Attributes are and how they work see the

NetDocuments User guide: Define Profile Attributes


To set this up login to your NetDocuments account and go into the Admin section.


Then click on Define profile attributes.


Here you will define your document profiles. As NetDocuments has powerful full-text searching, you usually do not need to have many profile fields. If you want to link both Clients and Matters then you should add both of these. You may want to add further options like "Document Type", for example.


Use the Create button to add a profile Attribute for "Client" and one for "Matter".



For the Client Attribute

On the Profile Attribute Definition screen for Client:


Type will be Text (usually).

Maximum length should be large enough to accommodate even long client names.

Link to Parent should be set to "None".

Tick Use lookup table. (This is important for the

Actionstep integration)

You would normally want to tick Prompt if Empty to ensure documents aren't just dumped anywhere.

You can leave the remaining fields un-ticked.

 

 

 

TIP

If you have already setup your attributes and you are wanting to edit the profile attribute definition again, click on the attribute from the list and then, on the resulting screen which lists the values, click the Modify attribute definition link in the top left of the screen.


 

 

For the Matter Attribute

On the Profile Attribute Definition screen for Matter:

 

 

When Editing the Matter Attribute do the same as above (for Client) with one exception: Use the Link to parent to link the matter attribute as a child of the client attribute.


 

 

For the Document Type Attribute

We would also suggest creating an Attribute for your Document Types. This allows you to arrange your documents into different types, e.g. Emails, Correspondence, Quotes, invoices, etc.


If you do setup a Document Types attribute it should not have a Link to a Parent. Document Types that link to a parent will not be able to be selected in Actionstep.


.

 

Define Workspace Templates

Go back to the Admin screen and click on your cabinet.

 


Click on Define workspace templates towards the top left of the screen


Make sure that the Base workspaces on this attribute is set to "Matter".


Enter in a plural form of Matter ("Matters")


If you have setup a Documents Type Attribute you may want to choose it from Organize documents within workspaces by this attribute to that Document Type.


Tick the box for Enable workspaces for this cabinet and use the default.


In the Templates Details part of this screen you can use the Workspace Title to define how the Workspaces in NetDocs that are created from Actionstep will be named. You can use this to define how they will be named, ie, client name then matter name. For instance:

 

[ParentDescription]: [MatterKey]- [MatterDescription]

Will show the Client_Name: MatterNumber - Matter Name, eg, Connor Smith: 198 - Sale of 45 Wilson Street.

Click Save Templates once you have made the changes.


If you have an Attribute for Document type like we mentioned above you can automatically create folders for each of the types in NetDocuments by Clicking on Pre-Define Document Type Workspace Filters at the bottom of the screen and select them all and save.


If you click the Display containers in two columns tick box at the bottom of the screen you will be able to have a slightly more organized workspace display rather than all listed vertically.

 

Configuring Document Attributes

Document attributes set what you will be able to record as an attribute against each document in NetDocuments.


When generating a document from a template in Actionstep and saving it to NetDocuments, Actionstep can populate:

  • The Client attribute
  • The Matter attribute, and
  • The Document Type attribute

If you have other document attributes beyond these three then there may be errors as you save a document to NetDocuments. Actionstep recommends that you only configure document attributes listed above.

 

To set your document attributes in NetDocuments, go the NetDocuments Admin > Select your Cabinet and go to the section Configure Document Attributes.

Tick the boxes for one or more of the Client, Matter and Document type attributes only.


Scroll to the bottom of the screen and Submit to save the changes.

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