Client Interview Overview

A client interview is an interview you send via email to an external user to gather their data.

For example, if you want to create a document based on your client's details, you can send a client interview to gather data directly and generate a document based on their answers.

In this topic Hide

  1. Overview
  2. External Users
  3. Prerequisites
  4. Common Tasks
  5. Workflow
  6. Common Reference Topics

Overview

A client interview enables an external user to input data directly into your Advance work item. Instead of completing a HotDocs interview on behalf of your customer, you send a link to your customer inviting them to enter their own data.
Advance creates a unique link to an interview to gather data from your client, then uses that data to produce a new, customized document. The interview is accessible to individuals outside of your organization who do not have an Advance account. The external user accesses the interview for the work item you specify and enters their data. After the external user submits the client interview, you can view their data and generate documents.

External Users

The external user sees a simplified version of the Advance user interface to input data. The external user can save, reopen and submit the interview answers. Internal users cannot see answers until the external user submits them.
External users cannot preview or download a document from their interview.

Prerequisites

Client interviews are an additional feature of Advance and must be activated in your tenancy. Contact your account manager if you would like to add client interviews to your Advance subscription.

Common Tasks

Among others, the client interview feature enables you to perform the following common tasks:

Workflow

You create a work item, then create a client interview to send to your external user. Your external user accesses the client interview via the link in an email and enters their data. After the client submits the interview, you can access their answers. Using your client's information, you can add or edit data and create a document as you would with any work item. You can choose to use passphrase authentication to add a layer of security to your client interviews to prevent unauthorized access.

The link is active for 96 hours from creation by default; you can set the number of hours the link is active in Site Settings. If the client does not access the client interview link within 96 hours the link expires. Once a client clicks on the client interview link, the interview is then active for 96 hours from last access. If the interview is not accessed for a period of 96 hours or greater and your client wishes to continue to access the interview, you will need to send a new link.

The version of the template used is the live version when the client clicked the link.

You might also want to use a series of client interviews to collaborate on your work item. For example, once your client submits their data, you can make your own changes and send a new client interview with the latest version of the answers. Once you send a client interview, you attach that client's details to the work item. You can send further client interviews, but only to that client.

Common Reference Topics

Among others, the following reference topics may relate to this conceptual area: