New Site Administrators

This page is designed to highlight topics that are most immediately relevant to new site administrators.

We also have a LegalServer Youtube Channel.

For information on free and paid training options: LegalServer Training

If your organization hasn't gone live yet, but is about to, see the Training Before Go Live page.

Links

The most important thing to learn on this page is including links in emails to support@legalserver.org and tickets you file from your site.

By "including a link", we mean copying the URL of the page you have a question about or have a problem on, and pasting it into the body of your email or the ticket description.

Changes and Other News

At least one person in the organization should join the siteadmins group (mailing list), but as many as want to are welcome.

In addition to the weekly release notes, we periodically post important updates, for example warning about site downtime for maintenance. Other site administrators may also post items of interest or solicit ideas or help from fellow site administrators.

Getting Help

Search this site.
Attend our free web trainings and free Office Hours sessions.
Contact us at support@legalserver.org
- There is no per-incident or other charge for asking for help. We will always tell you up front if there would be a charge for proposed work or specific help.
- Descriptive subject lines in emails are helpful in general, but especially if there is a serious problem. "Site is down", "Users can't login", "Can't do intake", etc.
- Links are very helpful. Very. Copy and paste the URL of the form, profile, report, etc. where you are having trouble or have a question.
- Did we mention that links are helpful? They are.
File a support request from your site. Help menu > Support Request.
Post broader policy and workflow questions to the siteadmins mailing list (siteadmins@legalserver.org) to get feedback from other administrators.
Hire us for training or work sessions.

Being Emailed When a Support Request is Filed from Your Site

At least one email address should be in this field on the Admin > Site Settings page:

This is super extra important if you have an online intake site, so you know if applicants are getting errors in your online intake of wonder.

Poverty Scales

Not having a current poverty scale will prevent users from completing the financial information page in intakes, and prevent them from opening cases. Poverty scales are maintained on the Admin > Poverty Scales page. See the help page for more information.

Demo Site

Each organization keeps its demo site. If your LegalServer site is abc.legalserver.org, your demo site is abc-demo.legalserver.org. The demo site is an excellent place for administrators to test new configurations, try new features, and train users. Demo sites are updated weekly (overnight on Wednesdays) with that week's new features and fixes. There is no delay like there is for live sites.

Maintaining User Accounts and Permissions

Resetting passwords, removing the ability to login when users leave your agency, setting permissions, etc. See User Accounts and User Roles and Permissions.

Maintaining Lookups

Admin > Lookups is where you maintain the values users see in dropdown fields on forms and profiles. For example, should the Gender dropdown display just Female and Male, or also display Transgender, Unknown, Refused, or other values. See Lookup Lists.

Offices, brochures, zip codes, common adverse parties, and grants (funding codes) may look like lookups and act like lookups, but they are not lookups. Each has its own link on the Admin page.

Adding Fields

The Fields - Adding New Fields to a Site page explains how to add new fields to your site's database. If you are still onboarding (have not gone live yet), talk to your onboarding person before adding custom fields.

Changing Forms and Profiles

Process Management - Editing Forms and Links

Other Interesting Admin Pages

Reports

Site administrators are also often report writers. The Reports Manual covers building and editing reports (as opposed to running existing reports)

Miscellaneous Tips

Finding user accounts: If you don't see someone on the user list or pro bono user list, you can adjust the list filters, or use the Search menu to search Contacts for the person's name (users are automatically made contacts).
Missing lookup values: Most lookup lists (Gender, Race, Language, etc.) display active values by default. Remove the Active = Yes filter to see all the values in a list.
Support likes URLs: Emailing us with a question about a form, profile, etc.? Save yourself and us time by copying the URL when you are looking at the relevant page and pasting it into your email. For reports, right click the report name (or edit link/pencil) and "Copy link address" (or whatever your browser calls it).