Tutorial ID | T-27 |
Section | Reporting & Billing |
Title | Using Ready-Made Report Templates |
Subtitle | Match each template to the right case type, order, document set, and audience before you build the report. |
Before You Begin
You know the case type and the specific report type you need to produce, such as a medical summary, billing summary, or causation analysis.
You know who the report is for — for example, an internal reviewer, an attorney, an insurance company, or a court.
What You Will Accomplish
By the end of this tutorial, every report you build will start from the template that matches its case type, in the right order, with a section for every document the case actually contains, and in language appropriate for whoever receives it.
Why Does this Tutorial Matter
A ready-made template is a starting point, not a finished structure — it's built around the documents, sequence, and formality that suit most cases of a given type. Matching it correctly to the case in front of you means the report needs little restructuring before it's ready to share.
Get the match wrong, and a report built on the wrong template needs significant restructuring, templates in the wrong order force the reader to jump around the case out of sequence, a template with no section for a non-standard document buries or omits a significant finding, and a template pitched at the wrong formality can get a report returned before its content is even evaluated.
What to Do if Something Goes Wrong
The list below covers the most common problems when using ready-made report templates. Each entry follows the same pattern: what you'll notice, why it likely happened, a real example, and how to fix it.
Problem: A report built from a template includes sections the case doesn't need and is missing sections it does need.
Likely cause: The template was selected without confirming the case type and the specific report type required, such as a medical summary versus a billing summary.
Example: A causation analysis template is used to build what should have been a medical summary, and the report structure doesn't match what the attorney asked for.
Fix:
Open the case and review the Case Summary and Expected Outcome fields to confirm the case type and the specific report type required.
Go to Templates and review the templates already used for the case, reading each name and structure carefully.
If the wrong template was selected, go to Reports and create a new version of the report.
Look through the list of templates on the left and choose the one that most closely matches the expected output, adding it to the list on the right.
Remove any extra, irrelevant, or mistakenly used template from the right-hand list.
If no template matches the case type, create a new one using the Template tool.
Don't begin assembling the report until the correct template has been confirmed.
Problem: A reader has to jump out of sequence between billing information, chronology, and conclusions.
Likely cause: Multiple templates were applied to the report without confirming that their order reflects the logical progression of the case.
Example: A billing summary template is placed before the medical summary, so the reader sees costs before understanding what they relate to.
Fix:
Go to Reports, open the report that needs changes, and create a new version to review the current order of templates.
Confirm whether the sequence reflects the logical structure required for this report type — for example, cover page, pre-event chronology, post-event chronology, medical summary, analytical sections, billing summary.
If the order is incorrect, drag each template into the correct position, working through the structure from start to finish.
Use Preview to review the report before saving, confirming the sequence reads logically from start to finish.
Once the preview confirms the correct order, save and finalize the new version, and delete the previous version to avoid confusion.
Problem: A document in the case, such as an independent medical exam or a specialist opinion, has no section to appear in and gets omitted or misplaced in the report.
Likely cause: The template was built around the standard document set for its case type, and the case includes a document type the template didn't anticipate.
Example: A vocational assessment report has no corresponding section in the standard template and ends up dropped from the report entirely.
Fix:
Before applying the template, open the file batches and review the full set of case documents.
Note any document type that falls outside the standard set the template was built for, such as an independent medical examination or a specialist opinion on an atypical condition.
Open Template and check whether a template already exists that covers this kind of case.
If none exists, determine the correct structure based on the case and create a new template, choosing the proper type and layout for it.
Use the updated template to update the report or create new reports going forward.
Problem: A report reads as too informal or too technical for the person who receives it.
Likely cause: The template's language and formality level weren't checked against the intended recipient before it was applied.
Example: A template built for internal case review, with informal shorthand and abbreviated headings, is used for a report submitted to a court.
Fix:
Before selecting a template, confirm the intended recipient — for example, an internal reviewer, an attorney, an insurance company, or a court — and note their language requirements.
Open the template and read through its section headings and any pre-written content to evaluate whether the formality level fits the recipient.
If the language is too informal for the recipient, revise the headings and pre-written content to match the required formality before applying it.
If the language is overly formal or uses legal terminology that doesn't fit the audience, simplify it accordingly before applying the template.
Once the language is confirmed appropriate, apply the template to the report.
Tip Confirm the case type, the recipient, and the full document set before opening any template — most template mismatches trace back to one of these three being checked too late. |
Summary
Every report now starts from the template that matches its case type, follows a logical order, includes a section for every document the case actually contains, and reads in language appropriate for whoever receives it — so the template needs no restructuring once the report is assembled.