Practice managers can manage client appointments on behalf of all lawyers in their law firm in the Firm Dashboard area. Appointments are updated in real time and you can see a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of all client appointments at any time.
Changes made by practice managers have the same effect as changes made by lawyers, both of which perpetuate throughout LawTap to keep everyone up to date.
Appointments in the Firm Dashboard area can originate from three sources:
In this article, we take you through the process of managing appointments for multiple lawyers in your firm. The instructions include how to access, filter, search, sort, view, reschedule, cancel, delete, confirm and download appointments, as well as how to reply to client feedback about an appointment.
Lawyers can execute all the actions mentioned in this article on their own behalf in their My Dashboard area. See Managing your client appointments on LawTap as a lawyer for more.
Accessing client appointments
To access your firm's client appointments, select Firm Dashboard in the top bar.
Your Firm Dashboard area includes an appointment summary for the last 30 days above the filtering and search options, and a table below that lists appointments for all lawyers. For each appointment, you can view:
ID: The LawTap appointment ID number.
Status: The appointment status.
Appointments are marked Past, Future, Now or Cancelled, and can additionally be marked as Pending and No Show, depending on the circumstances.
Date: The date and time of the appointment.
Appointment: The appointment type.
Professional: The name of the lawyer.
Client: The name of the client.
Actions: Actions that can be executed for the appointment.
The actions available for each appointment typically depend on a number of factors, including when the table is viewed (past or future), the settings for the appointment type (for example, If rescheduling or reviews are enabled), and whether and when the appointment took place.
Filtering, sorting and searching appointments
The filtering, searching and sorting functions in Firm Dashboard make it easier to manage appointments:
Filtering: Allows you to filter appointments by appointment type.
Searching: Allows you to search for appointments by client name.
Sorting: Allows you to sort appointments by date.
To filter appointments:
1. Select an appointment type in the pick list.
2. The table reloads automatically to display only the selected appointment type.
To search for appointments:
1. Enter a client's name or surname (or the first few letters of either) in the search box.
2. Select the search icon.
3. The table reloads to show only results that match the entered search term.
To sort appointments by date:
1. Select the up or down arrow is the Date column.
2. The table reloads to display appointments in date order (latest first) or reverse date (latest last) order.
After the reload the arrow switches to the opposite of what is was previously.
Viewing appointments
The View action allows you to view the full appointment details.
If applicable, additional actions, for example Confirm, may be available when you view the details.
To view an appointment:
1. Select View in the Actions column.
2. Full details of the appointment display:
Summary: A summary that includes the status, type, and date and time of the appointment, as well as links to view the location (if applicable) on Google Maps, and to email and call the client directly.
Exactly how emailing and calling works depends on the setup on your device. For example, the client name link typically automatically opens the dial pad (with the client's number) on your mobile device, and the email link opens your default email application. Note! On a PC, direct emailing only works with applications like Outlook, and not web-based email accounts like Gmail.
Appointment Form: The information entered on the appointment form when the appointment was booked.
For the default appointment types, like phone calls and meetings at your offices, this is a summary of the legal issue, but appointment types that use custom forms may have additional information.
Client review: A review left by the client.
Only applies to past appointments for which your client has left a review. See Managing lawyer appointments on LawTap as a client for more.
Actions: Actions available for the appointment.
Confirming pending appointments
If an appointment type requires a conflict check, appointments booked directly by clients need to be confirmed, before the appointment is finalized. The unconfirmed appointment is marked Pending until this is done.
The conflict check requirement is set in the appointment type configuration. See Adding and managing appointment types for your law firm as a practice manager for more.
To confirm a pending appointment:
1. Select View in the Actions column.
2. Select Confirm in the appointment detail page.
3. Select Confirm Appointment
4. A notification displays advising that the appointment is confirmed.
The client will receive a notification of the appointment confirmation by email and SMS.
Rescheduling appointments
You can reschedule any appointment before the scheduled time.
Clients can also reschedule appointments, if this option is enabled in the appointment type configuration. See Adding and managing appointment types for your law firm as a practice manager and Managing your lawyer appointments on LawTap as a client for more.
To reschedule an appointment:
1. Select Reschedule in the Actions column.
2. Select a new appointment date and time in the lawyer's calendar in Calendar Availability or Flexible Date/Time mode.
Calendar Availability displays the lawyer's normal availability and Flexible Date/Time allows you to schedule appointments for specific times and durations, which can be outside of their standard office hours. See Booking client appointments for lawyers in your firm as a practice manager for more.
The client will receive an email and SMS notifying them of the rescheduled appointment. Any reminder notifications (email and SMS) set for the appointment type will also be sent automatically for the new date and time.
Cancelling appointments
You can cancel any scheduled appointment.
To cancel an appointment:
1. Select Cancel in the Actions column.
2. Select a reason and then select Cancel Appointment.
Selecting Other activates a text box that allows you to enter a more specific reason.
3. The appointment is marked Cancelled.
The client is automatically advised of the cancellation by email and SMS.
Labelling appointments as No Show
If a client fails to attend an appointment, you can record this by marking the appointment No Show.
To record a client's failure to show up for an appointment:
1. Select No Show in the Actions column.
2. Select Yes in the Are you sure? dialog.
3. The appointment is marked No Show.
If you fail to attend a scheduled appointment, the client can mark the appointment No Contact. See Managing your lawyer appointments on LawTap as a client for more.
LawTap monitors No Show and No Contact appointments and takes appropriate action, where necessary.
Replying to client feedback
You can reply to a client's review about a lawyer's past appointment.
To reply to client feedback:
1. Select View in the Actions column.
2. In the Review section, select Reply.
3. Enter a reply on behalf of the lawyer and select Continue.
4. You will receive confirmation that the reply has been added successfully.
Review replies are not subject to approval by LawTap and display immediately in the Verified Client Reviews section of the lawyer's profile.
Client reviews are subject to review by LawTap and only display publicly after approval. See Managing lawyer appointments on LawTap as a client for more.
Downloading appointments
You can download all lawyer appointments in a CSV (comma-separated values) file. This is useful when you want to transfer data to another system or work with it in a spreadsheet application like Microsoft Excel, for example.
To download your appointments:
1. Select Download (below the table).
2. The file downloads to your system in CSV format.
The file is named <Your Law Firm Name> - LawTap Appointments.csv