NetDocuments

Legalsense integrates with ⧉ NetDocuments, a cloud-based document management system used by law firms to manage legal files and other supporting documents. With this integration, you can synchronize Legalsense matters, clients, and, optionally, invoices with NetDocuments for a more seamless workflow and less manual administration.

This article explains how to set up the integration and how to use the additional integration features that extend your workflow further. If you're setting up the integration for the first time, read the section Enhanced integration features as well, so you can set up the basic integration and the additional features in one go.

Note: If you're new to NetDocuments, the NetDocuments glossary at the end of this article explains the terms used throughout.

Set up the NetDocuments integration

Step 1: Gather the required information

Contact Legalsense Support to enable and configure the NetDocuments integration. Support asks you for the following information.

1. Your NetDocuments repository ID. Find this in the NetDocuments Admin Console under Admin → ☰ → Information and Settings. Admin is the dropdown at the top right under your name, and ☰ is the menu at the top left. The repository ID is listed as ID in the General section.

NetDocuments Admin Console, showing where to find the Information and Settings section

NetDocuments Admin Console General section, showing the repository ID.

2. Your default cabinet ID. Open the cabinet you want to use as the default in NetDocuments (not in the Admin Console) and look at the address bar. The cabinet ID is the last part of the URL and starts with NG-, for example: https://eu.netdocuments.com/neWeb2/cabinet/NG-AB12CD34. In this example, NG-AB12CD34 is the cabinet ID.

3. The ID of the Client Profile attribute. Find this in one of two places: the list of all Profile attributes on the cabinet administration page, under Configurable Document Attributes (the IDs appear in parentheses), or in the Admin Console under Admin → Profile attributes, which lists your custom Profile attributes and their IDs. If you don't have any Profile attributes configured, contact Legalsense Support.
4. The ID of the Matter Profile attribute. Find this the same way as the Client ID above.

List of custom Profile attributes in the NetDocuments Admin Console, showing their IDs.

5. A contact email address. The address Legalsense should use for correspondence about your integration, for example if your NetDocuments credentials need to be updated.

Step 2: Authorize the connection

Once Legalsense Support has enabled and configured the integration, go to Settings → Integrations → NetDocuments. You need administrator rights to access this page. The configuration table is now filled in.

Click Get authentication code to authorize Legalsense to connect to your NetDocuments repository. This redirects you to the NetDocuments Login Authorization consent dialog. Click Allow to connect Legalsense to your NetDocuments account.

How the integration works

The integration synchronizes and updates client and matter information from Legalsense to NetDocuments.

Important: The synchronization works in one direction only, from Legalsense to NetDocuments.

Once the integration is enabled and configured, you can find clients and matters created in Legalsense when you search in NetDocuments. NetDocuments calls a matter-based view of documents a Workspace: a Legalsense matter corresponds to a Workspace in NetDocuments. You can see a link to the NetDocuments Workspace on the matter page in Legalsense.

Synchronized data

By default, Legalsense synchronizes:

• Client number, as the Client Key in NetDocuments.
• Client name, as the Client Description in NetDocuments.
• Matter number, as the Matter Key in NetDocuments.
• Matter name, as the Matter Description in NetDocuments.
• Matter type, as the Profile attribute Type in NetDocuments. You define matter types in Legalsense at Settings → Lists → Matter Types. You can use this to apply different Workspace templates within NetDocuments. For example, if you have a matter type Insolvency and also have it set as a Workspace template in NetDocuments, Legalsense applies that template when it creates the Workspace.

Note: Legalsense applies a Workspace template only when it creates the Workspace, not afterward.

Synchronization process

Legalsense sends a client or matter to NetDocuments as soon as you save it in Legalsense, so there's minimal delay between editing a matter or client and finding the update in NetDocuments. There's no scheduled synchronization in between: if an item can't be sent, it stays in the queue until it's sent again, for example when you save the client or matter again or click Resync element.

To follow the synchronization in Legalsense, go to Settings → Integrations → NetDocuments → Queue. Once Legalsense processes an item successfully, it moves to the Synced list.

NetDocuments queue configuration in Legalsense, showing items awaiting synchronization and the Synced list.

Enhanced integration features

The integration extends beyond the essential data synchronization described above. To use any of the features below, contact Legalsense Support first.

Invoice synchronization

As an additional feature, Legalsense can sync finalized invoices to the corresponding matter Workspace in NetDocuments, with support for custom document types or folder storage.

Note: Legalsense stores an invoice related to multiple matters in each relevant matter Workspace.

If you want Legalsense to upload all invoices into a specific folder within a NetDocuments cabinet, give Legalsense Support the name of that folder. If you don't specify a folder, Legalsense sets the invoice's DocType attribute to Invoice on synchronization, to simplify document search.

Synchronized and delayed matter closure

Legalsense can sync the archiving of clients or matters with your NetDocuments environment: the corresponding clients or matters receive a closed status in NetDocuments. Contact Legalsense Support to enable this feature.

You can also delay the closing date in NetDocuments relative to the archiving date in Legalsense. This creates a time window during which updates in NetDocuments are still possible after you archive a client or matter in Legalsense. If you want this, tell Legalsense Support how many days to use for the delay.

Chinese wall compliance

For firms with both legal and notarial practices, this integration supports separating access between practices, in line with regulatory requirements; see the article ↪ Chinese walls. Contact Legalsense Support to enable this feature.

You achieve the separation by configuring distinct cabinets for lawyer and notary matters, which means the NetDocuments integration configuration needs additional credentials. Legalsense Support asks for:

1. The lawyer cabinet ID. Go to the cabinet your lawyers use and copy the URL; the cabinet ID is at the end. See step 1.2 above for a more detailed explanation.
2. The lawyer Matter Profile attribute ID. Find this the same way as the Matter Profile attribute ID in step 1.4 above.
3. The notary cabinet ID. Go to the cabinet your notaries use and copy the URL; the cabinet ID is at the end.
4. The notary Matter Profile attribute ID. Find this the same way as the lawyer Matter Profile attribute ID above.

Workspace access management

In Legalsense, you can manage access to a matter by selecting which users can access it. If this feature is enabled, you can define the access kind on a matter: give access to everyone, or restrict access to explicitly chosen users. This per-user access can also be mirrored into your NetDocuments environment.

Contact Legalsense Support for help enabling this feature. Read the sections below before configuring Workspace access management, since you'll need to make several choices.

User matching

For this feature to work correctly, users in Legalsense must also exist in NetDocuments. Legalsense matches users by email address, so the addresses must be identical in both systems.

Important: Legalsense doesn't create users in NetDocuments. It assumes that every Legalsense user with access to a matter already exists in NetDocuments.

When matters sync, Legalsense checks whether the Legalsense users also exist in NetDocuments. If a user is missing, Legalsense notifies the contact email address set in the configuration.

Access Control List

In NetDocuments, access to a Workspace and its folders and documents is managed with an Access Control List (ACL) that has the following levels:

In the NetDocuments configuration in Legalsense, enable Manage workspace access and select a Matter access level to choose which ACL level applies to Workspaces and their documents in NetDocuments.

NetDocuments configuration in Legalsense, showing the Manage workspace access and Matter access level settings.

To enforce the ACL, NetDocuments creates user groups that define which users can access which information, and at what level. Besides applying the access level to your matter Workspaces and documents, choose a Workspace ACL management strategy:

• Replace: the access rights specified in Legalsense replace the existing user groups in NetDocuments.
• Add: Legalsense preserves the existing user groups in NetDocuments and adds an extra user group that reflects the access rights defined in Legalsense.

For example, say you've enabled Workspace access management in the NetDocuments integration configuration. Based on the users selected for a matter in Legalsense, NetDocuments creates a user group called Notaries.

With the Replace strategy, only members of Notaries get access to the matter Workspace in NetDocuments. Legalsense removes any other users who had access to NetDocuments before the synchronization and don't match the rules defined in Legalsense. Similarly, if your ACL settings in NetDocuments differ from the access level chosen in Legalsense, Legalsense overrides the existing settings. With the Replace strategy, Legalsense becomes the primary source for defining user access to a matter Workspace and its documents in NetDocuments.

With the Add strategy, Legalsense preserves the existing user access rights and access level settings, and the Notaries user group doesn't override the existing rules.

Custom integration

Legalsense offers customized integration options for your firm's specific needs, including additional cabinets based on matter type or other criteria, and automatic creation of general matters for new clients. Custom requests need a preliminary evaluation and may involve extra work, which a Legalsense consultant discusses with you. Contact Legalsense Support for more information or to discuss your integration needs.

NetDocuments glossary

The NetDocuments environment phrases terms differently from Legalsense. The following table displays the relevant terms and what they refer to within NetDocuments.

Troubleshooting

Changes don't arrive in NetDocuments

Legalsense sends a client or matter to NetDocuments when you save it. If changes don't arrive, check the following:

1. Check your email. If the connection has expired, Legalsense emails the contact email address from the configuration with the subject Legalsense needs new credentials for NetDocuments. This can happen automatically once a year, or after your NetDocuments environment was reconfigured.
2. To renew the connection, go to Settings → Integrations → NetDocuments → Configuration, click Get authentication code, and click Allow in NetDocuments.
3. Go to Settings → Integrations → NetDocuments → Queue to see which items are still waiting. Click Resync element to send an item again.
4. Check any warning emails from Legalsense. These tell you, for example, that a Legalsense user wasn't found in NetDocuments, or that the invoice document type doesn't exist in NetDocuments. Make sure the user's email address is the same in both systems. See User matching.

Duplicate workspaces

When you connect an existing NetDocuments installation to Legalsense for the first time, Legalsense may not know exactly which existing Workspaces correspond to which Legalsense matters, and it may create a duplicate Workspace. You can prevent this by giving our migration consultant an accurate list of which Workspaces belong to which matters, preferably as a spreadsheet with these columns:

1. The Workspace ID in NetDocuments (a value containing the ! character).
2. The name, number, or ID of the matter in Legalsense.

If you don't provide this list, or it contains errors, Legalsense still attempts to sync with the correct Workspace by comparing the matter name in Legalsense with the Workspace name in NetDocuments. If this fails and Legalsense creates a duplicate Workspace, contact Legalsense Support with the ID of the Workspace you originally intended to use.

Duplicates can also appear after you change a client or matter number. NetDocuments identifies clients and matters by their number, so a new number creates a new entry, and the entry with the old number stays.

Important: Avoid changing client or matter numbers after they have been synchronized. Contact Legalsense Support to clean up duplicate Workspaces.

Connection errors

Sometimes Legalsense can't reach the NetDocuments servers because of a connection error. When this happens, the queue size keeps increasing, and changes you make in Legalsense are no longer immediately reflected in NetDocuments. These errors are usually temporary and resolve on their own. If an item stays in the queue, click Resync element next to it.

If the connection has expired, follow the steps in Changes don't arrive in NetDocuments. For other errors, such as server outages or bugs, our monitoring team notices and resolves them. You can also contact Legalsense Support with any questions.