Tutorial ID | T-37 |
Section | Reporting & Billing |
Title | Creating and Managing Custom Documents |
Subtitle | Build custom documents that stay accurate, consistent with the report, and correctly scoped for their audience. |
Before You Begin
You know the purpose of the custom document and who will read it.
You have access to the validated content or source documents the custom document will be built from.
What You Will Accomplish
By the end of this tutorial, every custom document you build will stay traceable to its source, consistent with the master report, scoped to its intended audience, refreshed when the case changes, and easy for the team to find.
Why Does This Tutorial Matter
A custom document is powerful because it presents exactly the view you need, built from the same source documents and controls as the rest of the case. Keeping it that way means it stays a single, defensible version of the truth rather than a second one competing with the report.
Left unmanaged, a custom document built by hand loses its link to the source, one built earlier quietly goes stale as the case changes, a bespoke summary starts to describe a fact differently from the main chronology, privileged content ends up in a document meant for an external reader, a reused template carries over the wrong case's data, and a pile of unlabeled documents becomes impossible to navigate.
Steps
Start from a clear purpose — decide what the document is for and who will read it before you create it.
Use a template for anything repeated, so formatting, structure, and terminology stay consistent across similar documents.
Keep statements traceable — where the document makes a factual claim about the record, link or cite the source.
Verify manual content with the same source-check discipline you'd apply to AI-generated content, since a hand-written error is still an error.
Give documents clear, consistent names so the current one is easy to find and an outdated one isn't used by mistake.
When the underlying records change, review and update any custom document built on them rather than letting it drift.
Delete superseded or redundant documents so the case doesn't accumulate conflicting versions.
Tip Where a custom document would repeat something the standard report already covers, point to the report instead of duplicating it. One source of truth is far easier to keep right than two. |
What to Do if Something Goes Wrong
The list below covers the most common problems when creating and managing custom documents. Each entry follows the same pattern: what you'll notice, why it likely happened, a real example, and how to fix it.
Problem: A statement in a custom document can no longer be traced back to a specific source document.
Likely cause: Content was assembled or pasted into the custom document by hand, losing the link back to its source and escaping the validation that protects the rest of the report.
Example: A summary paragraph is typed directly into a custom document from memory of the case, with no link back to the record it's supposed to reflect.
Fix:
Build custom documents from content that's already been reviewed and validated, rather than from raw AI output.
Keep the link between each statement and its source document wherever the platform supports it.
Re-check any content that was edited or rewritten while building the custom document.
Problem: A custom document still shows an old picture of the case after new records or an updated chronology have changed it.
Likely cause: The custom document was created once and never revisited as the underlying case content changed.
Example: A custom summary written early in the case still describes a treatment as ongoing, months after the records show it concluded.
Fix:
Note which custom documents depend on case content that may change.
When new documents arrive or the report is updated, review the affected custom documents and refresh them.
Date or version each custom document so it's clear what state of the case it reflects.
Problem: A custom document describes a provider, date, or finding differently from the main chronology.
Likely cause: The custom document wasn't cross-checked against the main report's names and terms, so it drifted into its own wording for the same facts.
Example: A bespoke summary refers to a diagnosis using different terminology than the one used consistently throughout the chronology, and a reader isn't sure if they're the same finding.
Fix:
Use the same standard names and terms in custom documents as in the main report.
Cross-check key facts — names, dates, diagnoses — against the chronology.
Reconcile any differences so the case tells one consistent story across all documents.
Problem: A custom document built for an external recipient includes internal analysis that shouldn't have gone with it.
Likely cause: The intended audience for the document wasn't decided before it was built, so privileged or internal material was never screened out.
Example: A summary meant for an insurance adjuster still contains a paragraph of internal case strategy notes.
Fix:
Decide the audience for each custom document before building it.
Include only the content appropriate for that audience, leaving out privileged or internal material.
Review the finished document against its intended scope before sharing or exporting.
Problem: A name, date, or entity from a previous matter still appears in a custom document reused as a template.
Likely cause: Case-specific details weren't removed when the document was turned into a template for reuse.
Example: A custom letter template reused for a new client still shows the previous client's name in a sample paragraph.
Fix:
When reusing a custom document as a template, remove case-specific names, dates, and entities.
Replace them with neutral placeholders where the structure should be kept.
Confirm that nothing from the original matter remains before applying the template to a new case.
Problem: A team member can't quickly find or identify the right custom document among several similar ones.
Likely cause: Custom documents were created without a consistent naming convention, so they accumulated without any clear way to distinguish them.
Example: Three summaries with nearly identical names sit in the case, and no one is sure which one reflects the current version of events.
Fix:
Adopt a consistent naming convention that identifies the document's type, matter, and date.
Remove or archive custom documents that are no longer needed.
Use labels and filters to keep custom documents organized and retrievable.
Summary
Every custom document now stays traceable to a validated source, current with the case, consistent with the master report, scoped to its intended audience, free of leftover data from reuse, and easy to find — so it remains a reliable view of the case rather than a second, competing version of the truth.