Contacts¶

This page is for anyone at the firm who keeps the address book: attorneys, paralegals and office staff. It covers how to find, add, edit and delete contacts, file them in folders, and connect them to matters, to each other and to Google Contacts. If you are new to Kosmos, read Getting started first.

What a contact is¶

A contact is one person or organization the firm deals with: a client, an opposing party, another lawyer, a court, a witness. You enter a contact once and can then place it on any number of matters.

You do not mark a contact as a client. A contact is a client because a matter names it in its Client field (see Matters). The badge beside the contact's name, and the lists under Clients, follow from those matters and change on their own when a matter's client or status changes.

Only the matter's Client field counts. Placing a contact on a matter's Contacts tab, in any role, does not make it a client.

The Contacts page¶

Click Contacts in the sidebar. The page has three parts.

• On the left, Clients lists Pending, Current and Former, and Folders lists the firm's folders by name, then Unsorted. Click one to choose what the middle list shows. Click the highlighted one again to go back to Unsorted.
• In the middle, Contacts lists the names in your choice, in name order. Click a name to open the contact.
• On the right is the contact you opened.

The page starts on Unsorted (the contacts in no folder), then keeps your choice until you change it or sign out. The list has no search box, sort options or pages. An empty list reads "No contacts selected." On a phone, the round folder button at the bottom right opens Clients and Folders.

To find a contact wherever it is filed, use Search in the sidebar. See Search.

Good to know:

• There is no list of every contact. A contact in a folder is not under Unsorted, and a contact that is not a client is under no Clients list. Use Search when you do not know where a contact is filed.
• When you open a contact from Search or from a matter, the middle list changes to that contact's folder, or to Unsorted if it has none. If you were on a Clients list and the contact is a client, it changes to the contact's Clients list instead.

Add a contact¶

1. Click Contacts in the sidebar, then the + button at the top of the Contacts list. Add Contact opens. (From anywhere else, press Space, then n, and choose Contact.)
2. Enter the Name.
3. Fill in the other fields that apply and click Submit.

The new contact's page opens on its Details tab, and the middle list shows the folder you put it in, or Unsorted.

Good to know:

• Kosmos does not check for duplicates, and two contacts cannot be merged. Use Search before you add someone.
• Only US numbers are accepted. Any other number is refused with "Enter a valid 10-digit US phone number." Put it in Notes instead.

The contact's page¶

Click a contact's name. Its page opens with the name and client badge at the top. At the top right, the copy button copies all of the contact's details (on the Details tab only), the cloud button copies the contact to Google Contacts (described below; it is there only when the firm's Google account is connected), and the pencil button opens Edit Contact.

Trust and Intake appear only for a contact with a client badge, not for a Nonclient. You need the Financial permission to see Trust. Ask your administrator. Assign to Matter and Remove from Matter are at the foot of every tab except Related.

Good to know:

• Open Matters and All Matters include every matter that has the contact on its Contacts tab in any role. If you can see only assigned matters, they list only those. ID is the matter's client reference number, or the number Kosmos gave it if it has none.

Record how two contacts are related¶

1. Open the contact, click Related, then Add Relationship.
2. Under "Elena Rivera is …", choose the Relationship, for example Employee of, and the other Contact. Notes is optional.
3. Click Submit.

The relationship appears on both contacts' Related tabs, each in its own words: Elena Rivera's says Employee of, and her employer's says Employer of. Click the relationship in a row for Edit and Delete. An administrator maintains the list of relationships under Settings → Contacts.

Edit a contact¶

1. Open the contact and click the pencil button at the top right. Edit Contact opens with the same fields as Add Contact.
2. Make your changes and click Submit.

The page reloads and shows the new details.

Delete a contact¶

1. Open Edit Contact and click Delete.
2. A Confirm dialog asks "Delete this contact? It is removed from every matter it is on, and this cannot be undone." Click Delete.

The Contacts page opens again. The contact is gone from the list, and no contact is open on the right.

Kosmos refuses to delete a contact that is the client on a matter (whatever the matter's status), has trust activity, or has been sent a trust deposit request. It keeps the contact and gives the reason, for example "Elena Rivera was not deleted: this contact is the client on 1 matter and has trust activity."

Deleting is permanent. Deleted with the contact:

• its place on every matter's Contacts tab;
• its relationships on other contacts' Related tabs;
• its copy in Google Contacts, if it has one.

The intake a contact was created from is kept.

Organize contacts in folders¶

A folder is a named set of contacts, shared by the whole firm. A contact is in one folder or in none (Unsorted).

• Create a folder. Click the + button beside Folders. In Add Folder, enter the Folder Name (50 characters at most) and click Submit.
• Rename a folder. Click the menu button beside the folder, then Edit. Change Folder Name and click Submit.
• Move a contact. Open Edit Contact, choose another Folder (or the blank choice for Unsorted) and click Submit. Contacts move one at a time.
• Delete a folder. Click the menu button beside the folder, then Delete. Delete Folder opens. For an empty folder, click Delete. If the folder holds contacts, it says how many and offers two buttons. Keep Contacts deletes the folder and moves its contacts to Unsorted. Delete Folder and Contacts deletes the folder and, without asking again, the contacts in it, with everything listed under Delete a contact.

Delete Folder and Contacts never deletes a contact that Kosmos would refuse to delete on its own: a client on a matter, or a contact with trust activity or a trust deposit request. Those contacts move to Unsorted, and Kosmos says how many, for example "Kept 2 contacts that are clients or have trust activity or trust deposit requests. Find them under Unsorted."

Put a contact on a matter¶

On a matter, each contact has a Group (the side or cluster it belongs to) and a Role (what it is on that matter). This is usually done on the matter's Contacts tab, where you can also change and remove assignments: see Contacts in Matters. You can also do it from the contact's page:

1. Click Assign to Matter. Assign Contact to Matter opens.
2. Choose the Matter (only Open matters that you can open are offered), the Group and the Role, then click Submit.

The All Matters tab opens with the matter in it. To take the contact off a matter, click Remove from Matter. Remove Contact from Matter opens. Choose under Matter (each choice names a matter and the contact's role on it) and click Submit. The contact itself is kept.

A contact can hold more than one role on a matter, but Kosmos does not put it on a matter twice in the same group and role. It says, for example, "Marcus Bell is already on Rivera v. Northside Logistics as Witness in Third Parties."

A matter's client is set in Edit Matter, not here. Role does not offer Client, and Remove Contact from Matter does not offer the row that stands for the matter's own client. When that leaves nothing to choose, it says "There is no matter to remove this contact from. A matter's client is changed in Edit Matter."

Good to know:

• Group offers the firm-wide groups only. To use a group made for one matter, assign the contact on that matter's Contacts tab.

Contacts created from an intake¶

On an intake, the menu button has Add to contacts. It opens Add Contact with the intake's name, address, phone and email filled in. Click Submit and the contact is created as a Potential Client, listed under Pending. The intake's menu then offers Open contact. You can do the same while opening a matter, with Convert an intake… (see Matters). Both need the Intakes permission. Intakes are described in Intakes.

Copy a contact to Google Contacts¶

If an administrator has connected the firm's Google account (see Google integrations), you can copy contacts to it one at a time. The cloud button is shown only while that account is connected.

1. Open the contact.
2. Click the cloud button at the top right, beside the pencil button.

Kosmos adds the contact to the firm's Google Contacts and reloads the page. The button is now highlighted and shows a crossed-out cloud. Click it again to remove the contact from Google Contacts.

Good to know:

• Nothing is copied until you click the button, and nothing comes back from Google. Google receives the Name, the first Email and the three phone numbers only.
• Each time you edit a copied contact, Kosmos replaces the copy in Google Contacts, so anything added to it in Google is lost.

Who can see contacts¶

Every user can see, add, edit and delete every contact and folder. No permission limits this. What a contact's page shows about matters, money and intakes does depend on what you can see elsewhere:

• If you can see only assigned matters, Open Matters and All Matters list only those, and Assign to Matter and Remove from Matter offer only those.
• The Trust tab is shown only to users with the Financial permission.
• View Intake Details on the Intake tab is shown only to users with the Intakes permission.

See What you can and cannot see.