Packages

What a package is

A package is a service the firm offers, set up once and attached to matters ever after: "an estate plan", "a prenuptial agreement". It gathers in one place the work an engagement of that type produces and the price the firm charges for it, so opening a new matter means choosing a package rather than assembling documents and forms by hand every time. Packages live in the Data area of the console (Data → Packages), open to firm admins and attorneys.

A package's contents are an ordered list of items, each one of three kinds:

• An intake item references one of the firm's published intake forms: the questionnaire this kind of engagement sends to the client.
• A document item references a document template: a will, a trust, a power of attorney. See documents and templates for how templates themselves are set up.
• A service item is a named piece of work with its own price ("Document review", say) that has no document behind it.

Each item can carry its own label and description, can be required or optional, and can apply once per matter or once per represented party, so a couple's parallel documents come out as one item for each spouse. The package also carries the engagement's pricing: a flat fee, or an hourly rate with an estimate range, plus an optional upfront payment.

Attaching a package to a matter

Staff attach a package from the matter's Overview. Required contents are always included; optional contents are offered as checkboxes, so the attorney decides at attach time whether this client's plan includes, say, a living will. Individual items can also be added a la carte without a package.

The attached contents become the matter's scope of work, and the scope drives everything downstream: which questionnaire goes out to the client, which documents the matter prepares, what appears on the engagement letter, and what is billable. Each item shows its readiness as the matter progresses, service items are marked done by staff, and any item can be removed from scope deliberately.

Lifecycle and guardrails

Packages are versioned the same way templates and intake forms are. Editing a published package starts a draft; publishing makes the draft the version new matters attach. Matters keep the package version they attached, so revising a package never quietly rewrites engagements already in flight.

Two guardrails are worth knowing:

• Re-publishing a bundled template or form never breaks a package. Its contents keep pointing at the latest published version automatically; there's nothing to re-wire.
• Archived items are flagged, not hidden. If a template or form a package references is later archived, an amber warning follows the package through the list, the editor, and the matter view until the item is re-pointed. It's a nudge rather than a block: existing matters are unaffected, but the warning stays visible until resolved.

Archiving a package works the same way as elsewhere in the library: it stops appearing for new matters, and matters that already attached it are untouched.

Offering a package at the contact form

A package whose current version bundles exactly one published intake form (with at least one question) can be offered on the firm's public contact form: turn on Offer at contact intake on the package. Prospects who pick that service when they reach out receive a head-start link to its questionnaire automatically. See intake for the front-door flow.