Search
The search is located centrally within the Desktop App and provides quick access to contacts, matters, documents and transactions. It is also the entry point for contact creation.
The search plays an important role in locating records for the purpose of linkage. For example; when a contact must be added to a document, matter or other resource, the user clicks the empty "Add contact" hyperlink and is immediately taken to the search window. Upon locating (or creating) the desired contact, the search populates the empty hyperlink with a reference to the chosen contact.
The search window displays different options depending on which mode is selected. The following modes are available:
- Contacts
- Matters
- Documents
- Transactions
Common Functionality
- Search term - One or more keywords that in some way describe the contact(s) you are searching for. These will be matched against a selection of fields (name, address, etc).
- Match type - You can determine whether to match all words in the search term, or any word.
- Search results - After the search is complete, contains the results that matched the search criteria. Simple summary details are displayed. The results are listed in order of rank/relevance, best match first. You can navigate between multiple pages of results.
Similar-sounding results
Search results may contain similar-sounding results, shown in grey text. For example, if you search for "Smith" you may also get results containing "Schmidt".
Contacts
The contact search appears whenever details about a person or business are required in any capacity. As with other types of searches, the Desktop App opens the contact search when a contact is required for a particular hyperlink, or it can be accessed at any point in time by clicking the prominent Search button at the top of the main window.
The contact search is the entry point into contact creation. Once the search has completed (to verify that the contact does not already exist), the option to create or import becomes available.
Advanced options
These are shown by clicking the cog icon in the top right of the search window.
- Contact type - You can restrict your search to either individuals or entities.
- Fields - Determines which fields the keywords in the search term will be matched against. For example, search for all contacts on a particular street.
Matters
ContactsLaw includes a sophisticated matter search, for locating any active or archived matters in the system.
Advanced options
You can toggle this by clicking the cog icon in the top right of the search window, which the displays the following settings:
- Matter type - Restrict your search to Prospect, Client and Administration matters.
- Status - Restrict your search to Active and Archived matters
- Fields - Restrict your word search to match only against the fields you select.
Documents
The document search allows you to quickly and easily locate any document within ContactsLaw.
Advanced options
- Search in - Toggle between all documents and those belonging to the tab which is currently selected (in the main window).
- Fields - Select the fields you want to search in. The document description is the most common field to match. You can also type all or part of a contact's name and match documents who are associated with a particular matter.
- Date - You can restrict the search to a specific date range.
- File type - Restrict results according to the format of the document (e.g. PDF).
Transactions
The transaction search allows you to quickly locate general/trust transactions.
Advanced options
- Chart of accounts - Whether to match transactions in general or trust (including controlled money).
- Fields - Select the fields you want to match against. Code and description are most common.
- Date - Restrict to a specific date range.
- Amount - Filter by the amount debited/credited by the transaction.