Document automation: 4 ways to keep your legal work on track

Legal technology can feel complex. It can seem as though your work is spread thinly across many online tools, programs, systems, and people. Do you check your email for the latest contract version, or is it saved to a server? Who is the next person that needs to approve the work?

What is document workflow automation?

Document workflow automation is a smart, connected capability that provides a secure repository to access and organize documents. It allows you to automate workflows of document generation, track progress, and use data surrounding your automation process to identify trends and visualize them in dashboards. Most importantly, document automation should work for you, not against you.

Thomson Reuters document automation solutions help you navigate through the complexity of your tasks so you can do your best work.

Below are four ways document automation can help you keep your work on track.

1. Custom workflows for your business

Every firm has a unique document creation and approval process. Whether it is a particular partner who needs to sign off on a document or a paralegal who needs to create the initial draft, the process can be long and daunting without a system to stay on schedule.

Document automation makes it easy; you don’t need a programmer to automate your workflow. With the right solution, you can create customized workflows for your firm to get the work where it needs to be at the right time. Customizing workflows means you can automate repetitive tasks and keep legal matters moving forward, getting each piece of your firm’s work in front of the right people.

2. Time saved while drafting

Document templates are the backbone of your work — you shouldn’t have to create every document from scratch every time. With document automation, you can generate fully drafted and branded legal documents by completing an online form. 

You can create and upload essential templates to use time and time again. Then, creating a new document for your client is as simple as filling out a form and populating the fields you need. You don’t need to comb through a complex document to ensure you have ticked all the boxes. Automation can shave hours off tasks so you can deliver documents to clients quickly and save your firm money.

3. Simple collaboration with your clients

Emails can easily get lost in back-and-forth communication with clients. It can be hard to know where the latest version of a document is and if you have captured all the feedback and notes necessary to get the work done the right way.

With Thomson Reuters document automation solutions, you can simplify the connection by communicating with your clients within the tool. For each client, you can set up a custom dashboard to view documents and work directly with your client on the documents they need to complete. You can also select who can see the clients’ documents at your firm, which allows you to safeguard your work and protect your clients’ privacy.

4. Intuitive reporting to help you make data-driven decisions

The best business decisions are made with data. You may think something needs to change, but you could create more problems by making a change without knowing what the data tells you.

With generated documents and their data stored in one place, you can gain deeper insight into your processes. With easy-to-use reporting, you can get an executive-level view of workflows and templates to identify gaps and opportunities for saving time. Working this way means you can make decisions using the data to support your intuition.

Stay on track with document automation

Above are four ways document automation helps you stay on track, but these four are by no means an exhaustive list — there are no limits on what document automation can help you accomplish.