*********NOTE* - Due to changes in labeling, all references to Bills have been changed to Invoices, and all references to Billings have been changed to Time Entries in the Guide below. At some point, the Video above may also be updated. *************

Document Templates in Curo365, once set up properly, can save you hours of work on the week and days on the year, but they take a bit of a time investment on the front end to get them operational. This Guide will take you through the entirety of the Document Template process, from setup to execution and a little management on the side, follow this Guide and you’ll be cruising in no time.

A Document Template allows you to generate a Document with pre-filled information. So instead of writing, for the thousandth time, ‘Dear Client’ and then having to go and change the Client Name every time, the system will be able to look at the information in Curo365 and shove the Client’s Name in for you. Pretty neat, huh? But again, it’ll take some effort.

*NOTE* - One thing a bit unique about this Guide is that it needs a good deal of elaboration in places that are hard to convey in static text and images, so if you find yourself struggling with the comprehension of this Guide at any point, I HIGHLY recommend watching the Video above!
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​***IMPORTANT NOTE FOR MAC USERS*** - This process will not work on Mac computer. We'll be using something specific to Microsoft called XML Codes, and those Codes are not available on any version of Word that works with Mac. If you're using a Mac device and planning on doing Document Templates in Curo365, you'll need to have access to a Microsoft device at least for the purposes of building these Templates.
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Before we can start to fill out our Template, we actually need to specify some information for Curo365 so that the system can generate it for us. The Templates are set on an Entity or Record Level, and you’ll need to be in the type of Record in which you expect to be using this Template in order to create it in the first place, upload it or use it later. For this example, we’ll create a Template for a Matter, the most common of all Records on which you’ll create Templates. Go ahead and start by click in the Matters Entity on the left side of the screen.

Now you’ll need to choose a Matter. It doesn’t matter which one, but you’ll need to be in an actual Record in order to get the options that you need, so choose one now and continue.

At the top, right of the screen, click the Ellipses and then click Word Templates.

A new set of options will appear here, but right now, we need the system to create a Template for us. For our first step, we’ll choose Download Template.

The purpose of this next portion of the process is to decide what Entities/Records will be referenceable in your Template. We’ll discuss those types in just a moment, but first, we need to choose an Entity/Record to which this will be attached. This next part is going to be a little complicated, so again, if you’re having trouble following this, head back up and watch the video for this portion. My explanation for this part begins at 4:45.

The Entity – Every Document Template will be attached to a specific Record Type and accessible from that Record Type only. For example, if I created a Welcome Letter that simply took Contact Information and nothing else (name, address, etc), then I would probably add that Document Template to the Contact Record Type. If I were in a Contact, I would have the option of generating that Letter for that Contact, but if I were in a Matter or any other Record Type, I wouldn’t have the option to generate that Letter, because it would be attached to a different Record Type.

In this way, you can ensure that the proper Document Templates are selected every time, and you can also keep organized, rather than having 30 Templates when you only want to choose from 3. Choose the Entity to which you want your Template attached.

*NOTE* - Your Template Entity will DEFAULT to whatever Record Type you were in when you chose to download the Document Template.

1:N Relationship – This next section will allow you to choose the first set of Secondary Entities that you want referenceable in your document. Secondary Entities are Entities to whose Data we’ll have access, aside from the initial Entity. So we can use any Data in any Field in the Matter Record, since that’s what we started with, but we can also access the information in any other Entities/Records selected from this first list.

You’ll likely notice, however, that not all Record Types are included/available in this list, and that’s because this first list in the 1:N category only lists Records that can be used multiple times in a Matter. For example, there will only be one Client on a specific Matter (and we’ll discuss single-use Records below) but there can be multiple, non-unique Invoices or Appointments. There can be multiple Records of the Invoicing Record Type called Invoicing.

Most often, you won’t want to include any of these non-unique, repeating Entities, as the only way to display their information would be in a Table or a List, but in the event that you do want to display multiple entries from a specific Record Type, click the ones to which you want access.

N:1 Relationships – This next set of options, like the last set, is for other Records to which we’d like this Template to have access and from which we’d like to be able to pull information, but unlike the 1:N options, these ones are all unique. There will only be one Record of the Contact Record Type called Client, for example, or only one of Record of the Business Center Record Type called Business Center.

Choose now the other Records/Entities to which you’d like your Document Template to have access.

*NOTE* - It can be hard to visualize all of the information that you’ll need in a Document Template at the outset, so for the N:1 Relationship, feel free to choose Select All.

Once you’ve checked off all of the Entities that you’re wanting to use, click Download!

The new Document Template will be downloaded into your Computer’s Downloads Folder, so find it and go ahead and Open it now.

FIRST TIME

If this is the first time that you’ve set up a Document Template or you don’t see the Developer tab on the top row of your options, continue here, but if not, skip ahead to the part that says EVERY OTHER TIME

On the top left of Microsoft Word, click File,

And look on the bottom, left for Options.

Next, click Customize Ribbon, and then find the empty Developer Box on the right side. Put a Checkmark in it,

And then click OK.

EVERY OTHER TIME

We need to get our list of available Fields to appear, so click the Developer option at the top right and choose the XML Mapping Pane.

Under the Custom XML Part is a Dropdown menu. Click that and look for the option that includes Curo in its name. Usually, it will be the last option. Select it.

Here, you have a collapsible option that should reflect the first Entity on which you put this Template, or rather, the Entity to which this Template will be attached. Once you click the small arrow, you’ll see an option for every field in the Matter Entity/Record Type. You’ll use these Field Names to fill in the dynamic Fields of your Template!

If you continue to scroll down, you’ll see more collapsible lists for every related Entity for the Entity we chose. For example, if you needed info on the Client, perhaps their email address, you could expand the Field indicated below and find it there.

Next, either write your Document Text here in the main body or Copy/Paste your Text from something else, but here’s a PRO-TIP: after getting your Text in, go through and Highlight every bit of data that you want to Modulate, that you want to be dynamic and for which you’d like data to be filled, as shown below. Doing this will allow you better visualize what Data you need to Import through the XML codes.

Now, for each of your Fields that need to be changed, you’ll need to find where that Data is stored. If it’s Matter info, it will be in the Matter section, but if it’s info from another Entity, you’ll have to scroll down to the appropriate section, as shown below. For our first Field, we want to replace Client with the actual First Name of the Client. We know that the Client Name is stored in the Client Contact Record, so when we scroll down, we look for the Contact Record on the Matter for the Client.

1 – Highlight the Field

2 – Look in the XML Codes for the corresponding Field info from Curo365 that equals what you highlighted, in this case, the Field firstname is what we’ll use to replace [client]. Right-Click it once you find it.

3 – click Insert Content Control

4 – And choose Plain Text

Now your highlighted Field looks like this. This Field is now ready to take data when the Document is Generated from within Curo365.

Let’s look at another example. We want the Matter Name in this next Field. The Matter Name is data associated with the Matter, so instead of having to expand an extra section, we simply need to find the appropriate Field in the Matter subsection.

In the Example below, curo_name is the code that stores the Matter Name, but it might take me a few tries to figure out exactly which one is right. Sometimes you have to do some trial and error before getting the right field, but most of them should have a Field Name that corresponds pretty closely to what you want.

It will take you some time to get all of this done, especially if it’s a large Document or this is your first time, but once finished, Save As the Document and name it something that makes sense. You’ll be looking at a lot of these in a list and, in order to pick out the one you want when you need it, you really want to make sure that it’s named very specifically.

Now that we have our Document all Edited and Fielded (the XML Fields Codes have all been put in), let’s get it back into Curo365. Head back to the same place that you created the initial Document Template, click the Ellipses and choose Word Templates again.

Choose Upload Template

Find the File in your computer and Upload it.

Finally, Refresh your page, and let’s see about creating our Document! Click the Ellipses one more time and choose Word Templates.

Then find and click your newly-uploaded Document Template.

A brand-new Document will download to your Computer, but this one should contain the correct information for every Field that you set up.

Open the Document and check the Data. Provided there was corresponding info in Curo365, those Fields have been filled with everything that you set up in previous steps!

*NOTE* - If a corresponding Field didn’t have any Data in the Record in Curo365 (as in, if you there was no First Name in Curo365 to put into the First Name Field in your Document) it will simply display nothing on the Generated Document.

It’s VERY rare that you’ll create a Document perfect, on the first try. Most of the time, you’ll get a Field wrong, or perhaps the formatting didn’t look quite right. Whatever the reason, simply Make the Changes to your copy, Reupload it as shown above, Regenerate it and Check Again.

Rinse and repeat until you have a version that you like.

HOWEVER, all of the failures will still exist as Template options from which to generate in the system and will need to be Deleted. Here’s how to cull the herd until you’re left with only the one that you want, because, as we all know, there can be only one.

For the last time, hit the Ellipses in the top, right and choose Word Templates.

Now choose View All My Templates.

For Best Results, Organize by Newest to Oldest in the Modified On column.

Choose all but the top one (thereby leaving the most recent (theoretically, the best) as your main one), and choose the Delete option in the top Ribbon.

This is a HUGE undertaking the first time that you try to do it on your own. Hopefully, someone has been able to take you through the process before attempting it solo, but if not, the video at the top of this Guide is really very thorough.

If you’re having any issues, please, please, please reach out in the chat and let me assist, but otherwise, be confident and experiment. Failure is the best teacher, so fail, try again, and look forward to the end goal of never having to edit these Documents again!