Scheduling Appointments Through Online Intake

Purpose: Allows agencies to send an online intake application to display a list of upcoming available appointments. The client can then schedule themselves into an available Clinic Appointment, or upcoming Office/Staff Appointment, depending on process configurations.

Cost: $1,000.00 one-time setup fee.

Requires: An online intake site. The receiving site must also be using the Clinics module if clinic scheduling is desired.

Related: Scheduling Appointments Using External Forms

In this Article:

• Create Appointment Slots for Scheduling
• Scheduling Appointments
• API User Setup
• Online Intake Process Setup
• Testing
• Additional Options
• Notes and Known Issues

Create Appointments for Online Intake Scheduling

Users must first create the staff, office, or clinic appointments, and then must designate which of those appointments should display on an online application. The process for doing so is slightly different depending on whether users are creating appointments for a clinic event, or staff/office appointments in the calendar module.

Clinic Appointment Slots

To create clinic event appointment slots that will display on an online application, staff must first create those clinic appointment slots in the LegalServer Clinic Module (see, generally Clinics and Clinic Events). To select which of these appointments should be display at the end of the online application, from the Clinic Event Profile, go to Actions > Edit Clinic Event Time Slots to see a list of appointments for this clinic event. Select Publish Online = Yes for any appointment slots that should display for the applicant.

Staff or Office Appointment Slots

To create staff or office appointment slots that will display on an online application, staff must first create those appointment slots in the LegalServer Calendar Module by going to Calendar > Actions > New Staff Appointment Slot (or New Office Appointment Slot). Users can set the time, location, attendees, and number of appointments as with other calendar events, and will want to select Type = Client Appointment (Block Schedule) to create that staff appointment. For general information about creating calendar events, see: Calendar Events, Tasks, and Deadlines.

In order for these calendar appointments to display at the end of an online intake, at least one of the Interview Types must be set to "Online Intake Appointment Slot." Users may also want to select additional interview types to indicate an In-Person Interview, Emergency Interview, etc. but "Online Intake Appointment Slot" must be one of the choices selected in order for a given staff or office appointment to display at the end of an online intake process.

Note that for office and staff appointments, there is no way to designate that only *some* of these appointment slots should display on at the end of an online intake within the same Staff Appointment Event. Users will want create a separate calendar event for those appointments which should display for an online applicant, and a separate calendar event with appointments that should only be viewed internally.

Scheduling Appointments through Online Intake

The online intake process can be configured to display either clinic appointments, or calendar appointments, or both, depending on admin setup.

Clinic Appointments

If a site administrator has configured the online intake process to display upcoming clinic appointments, at the end of the online intake process applicants will see a list of those upcoming clinic appointments that match the Legal Problem Code selected during their online intake. Applicants will then be able to directly schedule themselves into one of the displayed appointment times.

At this point, while the Online Application is still pending, the selected appointment will display as "reserved" on the clinic event page. If that application is rejected from the production site, the reserved appointment is released and will display as available for later online applicants. Once a site user begins the intake process on the production site, the clinic appointment slot is confirmed and can be edited as per any other clinic event appointment. Additionally, once the case is opened, the clinic appointment will display as expected on the case profile.

Staff or Office Appointments

If a site administrator has configured the online intake process to display upcoming staff or office appointments, at the end of the online intake process, applicants will see a list of those upcoming appointments. As of 2022-11-04, Staff and Office appointments will be filterable by Legal Problem Code and County, however that requires requesting the filters to be enabled by submitting a help ticket. Note, however, that by default the Staff and Office appointments are not filterable by Legal Problem Code; applicants will see all upcoming Staff and/or Office appointments that have been made available to display for an online intake. Site users can add client instructions and additional information to the online intake process to help clients choose an appropriate option, and it is also recommended that users create descriptive titles like "Bankruptcy Screening," or "Immigration Intake," when creating Office and Staff appointments.

While the online application is still pending, the name of the applicant will display as a Pending E-Transfer for that calendar appointment slot. Once a user starts an intake process on the production site, the name and case number of the client will display as a Case for that appointment slot. Once the intake is completed, the office appointment then displays on the case profile as expected.

Pending Transfer

Initiated Intake/Case:

API User Setup

Create API User Role and API User Account

The appointment scheduling blocks get information from the live site via API, so a valid API Username and Key will be needed to unlock information from the live site and show it on the online intake site. Site admins must first create an API User Role on the production site with at least the three permissions below (Login, API Access, and API Search Cases by Phone). Site admins will then need to create an API User assigned to that API User Role. Note the username and password used, as those will need to be added to the relevant Online Intake block (see Block Configuration, below).

NB: We highly recommend manually logging in with these credentials once to ensure the user account was created properly.

Password Expiration

If your site expires passwords, you need to note somewhere to periodically change the API user's password on the receiving site and update it on the the online intake site.

Online Intake Process Setup

On the online intake process, site admins will then add either the Online Intake Clinic Event Appointment block or the Online Intake Appointment block to the end of the process (usually the "Resources Page" or similar). Note that an Online Intake Appointment block must be on the same page as Online Intake Transfer block (so that the intake record can first be created), but must appear below that block Online Intake Transfer block to work as expected.

Block Configuration

Admins will then enter the API user credentials into either the Online Intake Clinic Event Appointment block (for displaying available clinic appointments) and/or the Online Intake Appointment block for Office/Staff appointments.

Testing

You can of course step through an online intake to reach the point where available appointments are displayed. An alternative is to create an auxiliary process and form, put the process in the Actions menu, and use that on an existing matter on the OI site. The form needs to contain the Online Intake Appointment block, configured with the API credentials, just as your "real" intake form is.

If you have appointment slots configured on the destination site, but no available appointments appear on the online intake, grab the credentials from the Online Intake Appointment block and try logging in on the destination site.

Additional Options

Please note: to enable both these options, you must file a ticket to request the configuration be enabled. While there is no additional cost for these options, they must be enabled by support.

Please also note: Both these options are available only for Staff/Office Appointments.

Restrictions on Legal Problem Code, County of Residence, and / or Intake Program

You can restrict what Staff/Office Appointments display as available to Online Intake users based on the case's Problem Code, County of Residence, and/or the Intake Program.

If you are using a static process to create Staff or Office Appointments, you can enable these fields under Site Setting > User Interface > Show Problem Codes on Calendar Slot Form & Show Counties of Residence on Calendar Slot Form. You cannot control where on the static form they appear.

If you have a dynamic form (or create a dynamic form for just this reason) you can add the fields "Problem Code" and "Counties of Residence" just as you would any other field. Generally "Program" is already there, but if it's not - you know what to do.

When the configurations are enabled, the Online Intake Appointment block will display options to limit results based on one or both of these fields.

"Closing" an intake based on appointment availability

There are situations in which the application itself should not be submitted if there are no available appointment slots. Once set up, this configuration will mark the intake as closed in the online intake site, and will mark the case as a rejected electronic transfer, with the reject reason of "No appointment Available".

The set up is the same as above, you must pair the Online Intake Transfer block with the Online Intake Appointment block. The system must transfer the case to match the criteria and pull back any appointment slots. If you select "Automatically Close the Intake When There Are No Appointment Slots" the online intake's disposition will be set to closed, and the electronic case transfer will be rejected.

There are situations in which the availability of an appointment is an early step of an intake, and you don't want your applicants to book an appointment until they complete the rest of the intake (why do a full financial screen if there's no available appointment you may ask). To do this, you'll want to pair the Online Intake Transfer block with the Online Intake Appointment Block and select both "Automatically Close the Intake When There Are No Appointment Slots" AND "Hide Results List and the Ability To Schedule an Appointment". This will let the applicant know whether or not there is an appointment available.

Important: you will want to set up branch logic on the form after you're using the Online Intake Appointment Block to close a case to control the next steps and messaging to your applicants.

If there is an appointment available and the applicant complete's the intake, at the point where you want the applicant to book an appointment the same set up will be used, the Online Intake Transfer block paired with the Online Intake Appointment block. This effectively transfers the online intake a second time, with fuller information and a booked appointment.

Notes and Known Issues

The Online Intake Clinic Event Appointment block does not have a configuration option for "Schedule: Max num of days in the future" like the Online Intake Appointment block has (for staff and office slots). Clinic slots will display as far in the future as there are slots marked as Publish Online. (LS-93090).

The "Prevent Submit When There are No Appointment Slots" does not hide the Continue button. (LS-114491).