Set up the firm's standard client views

When a lawyer shares a matter with a client, the client by default gets full access to everything in it: every task board, timeline, structure and insight. That suits a client who works on the deal with you. It does not suit a client who should follow the timetable but not edit the chronology, or the client's management who only need the group chart. As an admin, you set up named client views once, so lawyers pick the right access in one step instead of choosing it element by element on every matter.

Two questions decide the views. What kinds of client does the firm share matters with? And for each kind, what may they see and what may they change?

Create a client view

1. Open the Admin panel from the bottom of the navigation sidebar and go to Layouts.

2. Click the plus after the Manager, User and Client tabs. In New client view, give the view a name the lawyers will recognise, such as "Deal client, view only", and click Create. The view opens as a new tab.

   

3. To rename the view later, click the pencil icon (Rename / description). The Description there is a note for admins: lawyers see only the name when they share, so put what matters in the name.

Set the access the view gives

4. Under Default access when this view is shared, choose what the client gets on a matter shared with this view:

   • Boards: Full access shares the matter's task boards, Do not share keeps them back.
   • Timelines and Structures: View only lets the client read them, Allow editing lets them change them, Do not share keeps them back.
   • Share insights by default: on shares the matter's insight tables, off keeps them back.

   

   A new view starts with full access to boards, view-only timelines and structures, and insights shared. Changes are saved as you make them.

Views for each kind of client

How lawyers use the views

When a lawyer shares a matter, the Client view list in Share matter with a client offers Standard client, which gives full access to everything, and every view the matter can use: yours, the group's and the matter's own. The view sets the starting access. The lawyer can still switch to the advanced option in the same window and pick exactly which boards, timelines, structures and insights to share. See give the client access to the matter and decide what clients see on a matter.

A view sets access, not the page the client lands on. The client's matter overview follows the Client tab, whichever view they were shared with; see set what every matter overview shows.

Your views also show in the layout editor of every group and matter, marked Inherited from organisation. They can only be changed here. A group or matter that needs something different creates a view of its own next to yours.

Tips from practice

• Name views after the client, not the setting. "Deal client, view only" tells a lawyer when to use it; "Boards off, timelines on" does not.
• Keep to a few views. Three or four cover most of a firm's matters. A long list sends lawyers back to choosing access by hand.
• Changes apply to the next share. A view's access is applied when a lawyer shares the matter. Clients who already have access keep what they were given; see review and end outside access.
• To remove a view, open its tab and click the bin icon (Delete view). It goes at once, without a confirmation, and lawyers stop seeing it in the Client view list.
• Check before the first real share. Share a test matter using the view, then check what the client sees.