Getting Started

Welcome to FactBox. Legal case-management software designed specifically for the problems of busy lawyers. FactBox simplifies your case work by keeping the facts for your case in one place, getting everyone working together on the same page, and delivering editable work product in one click.

Features

FactBox features a simple workflow for keeping your facts organized, finding new connections, and generating editable Microsoft Word reports.

Categorized Capture

Categorize facts and new ideas as you build your case. Set up the structure when you start a case or build it as new topics emerge. FactBox centralizes all of the content in your case.

New Connections

See your case from different perspectives and uncover new connections with a single click. Sort and filter to rapidly zero in on fact clusters and edit your content seamlessly.

Effortless Reports

Generate editable client-ready work product right from your view of the case.

Cases

A case holds everything related to the project you’re working on. It contains issues, sources, tags and facts.

Case Creation and Copying

Name your case and click create. You can also choose to duplicate an existing case. Copying an existing case allows you to make templates for the cases you frequently use.

Issues

Issues are the flexible hierarchical structure for your case. To add an issue, click the issue counter, then add issue. You can add sub-issues by clicking the plus icon next to a selected issue. To edit an issue name, click the issue then the pencil icon or on the name. Enter or click out of the field to save your changes. To delete the issue, click the trash icon. Issues can be reordered by dragging and dropping. When deleting an issue with sub-issues or associated facts, you will be prompted to reassign these items to another issue.

Sources

Sources in FactBox are materials you can reference and cite in facts. For attorneys, you can think of sources as “evidence.” FactBox offers the following source types:

• File - Any file limited to 250 MB. PDFs can be linked to specific pages with fact bookmarks.
• Link - A specific URL for a website and an optional link name.
• Note - A plain text annotation.
• Person - An individual’s name, role and contact information.
• Box File - Linked Box file via the Box integration.**
• Dropbox File - Linked DropBox file via the DropBox integration.
• iManage Doc - The .nrl file that links to the latest version of the file referenced. Uploading an .nrl file will open the linked file on machines with access to iManage. If you use the version of iManage integrated with Outlook, save or drop a file to your desktop to prepare the .nrl file.

Tags

Tags let you associate facts across your case. Where issues provide structure for your case, tags provide a way to make associations across this structure. To add a tag, click the tag counter, then add tag. To edit a tag name, click the tag then the pencil icon or on the name. Enter or click away to save your changes. To delete the tag, click the trash icon.

Contributors

Invite your firm employees and outside consultants to work on your cases. New FactBox contributors will be invited to join and added to your firm. Access to cases is per-case, so inviting a colleague to one case won’t allow that colleague to see any others.

Editing Facts

Click to select a fact, then click edit (or simply double-click the fact) to open the fact editor.

Generate a Report

Generate an editable Word .docx report of your current fact list by clicking ‘Generate.’ The fact list view settings (such as the filtering, sorting, and format) will be reflected in the report.

Case Settings

Hovering over the case name reveals two options.

Changing the Case Name

Clicking the case name makes it editable. Hit return or click away to save the change.

Archiving the Case

Clicking the trash icon will prompt for archive confirmation. Archiving the case will remove the case from your case list but it will remain in our database. Please contact us (email or phone) if you would like to retrieve an archived case or if would like to remove a case and all of its associated data from our database.

Switching Accounts

If you work on Cases in different Accounts, you can switch accounts via the Account name dropdown in the top nav bar. Switching Accounts will refresh the Cases list to display the Cases you have access to in the Account.

Facts

Facts are the atoms that form a case. A fact has a title, content, and key date and links to issues, sources and tags. Facts appear as rows in the table view and paragraphs in the memo view.

Fact Content

The fact content is the text body for a fact. FactBox is optimized for paragraph-sized text chunks. Splitting up a long thought into chunks lets you tag, categorize and attach sources to each chunk.

Key Date

The key date lets you assign a timestamp to a fact. The key date can be as broad as an entire year or precise to the second. Use the key date to set when the fact took place, or mark an important date.

Fact Title

Fact title is optional. Use the title to set a headline or brief summary of the fact.

Autofill

The title and key date fields are auto populated using the first words and the first detected date when text is pasted in the fact content.

Selecting Issues

By default, facts are categorized in the ‘Organize Later’ issue. Click the issue field to open the issue selector. Click an issue in the list to select it, then click outside of the dialog to close. You can select multiple issues, add new issues and search for issues in the issue selector.

Selecting Sources

Click ‘Set Sources’ to open the source selector. Like the issue selector, you can click a source to select it, select multiple sources, add new sources and search for a relevant source in the source selector.

Adding Bookmarks

Click the plus icon next to a .pdf file source in the source selector to add a bookmark. A bookmark can be a single page or a page range. Links will open to the bookmarked page in a new browser tab if your browser is set to open .pdf files. Here are instructions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari with Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer. Mobile browsers do not support opening .pdf bookmarks.

Selecting Tags

Click ‘Set Tags’ to open the tag selector. Like the issue and source selectors, you can click a tag to select it, select multiple tags, add new tags and search for a relevant tag in the tag selector.

Navigating Facts

You can navigate to facts (ordered by recently added) using the ‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ buttons.

Filtering and Sorting Facts

View By Filter

Change the grouping of the fact list by selecting an attribute from the View By dropdown. You can group your facts by issue, key date, tag, contributor or creation date.

Item Selection

Just below the View By selector is the item selection. Each item in the tree corresponds to a section in the fact list. Clicking an item toggles the section in the list.

Collapse

Subitems can be hidden by clicking the minus icon of a parent item to save space.

Multiple Filters

Subdivide and further filter your facts with other attributes by adding filters. Each subsequent filter subdivides the sections from the previous filter.

Hide Facts

Temporarily hide facts by selecting the fact and clicking ‘Hide.’ This will exclude the fact from the list, useful for hiding draft facts. Click ‘Unhide’ in the bottom right corner to include them again.

Outline Reports

Generate an outline list of view by filter items from a view by filter by clicking the cog icon and selecting ‘Generate Outline.’

Table View

The default view for your fact list and generated reports. Return to viewing your fact list and generated reports in table format by clicking ‘Table.’

Memo View

View your fact list and generate reports in memo format instead of table format by clicking ‘Memo.’

Account

Manage your profile and firm account on the account page.

Email Verification

Please verify your email using the verification link emailed to you after sign up.

Account Password

Your password must be at least eight characters and contain one uppercase letter and one number.

Profile

First and last name are editable.

Security

Two-Factor Authentication

Enable two-factor authentication on your user account by verifying a phone number.

Billing

After signing up, you have a free 7 day trial. To add a plan, select a billing period and a plan from the My Firm Section of the Account page. We offer one plan, the Pro plan - $89/member/month or $890/member/year (2 months free). Enter your payment information and click submit. To update your card information, click ‘Update Card.’ To change your billing period, select a different period, then confirm your selection. If you would like to cancel your FactBox subscription, please contact us.

Refer a Colleague

Get one month free for every colleague you refer who signs up and adds the Pro plan.

Account Members and Roles

The admin role is designed for your firm members who manage the billing, integrations or members. The contributor role is designed for everyone else in your firm.

The firm creator receives the admin role. Admins may add members by clicking the add button in the members section of the account page. Invited members will receive a link to join by email.

Admin members of your firm may assign firm members the contributor or admin role. Both contributors and admins may create cases and join cases to which they are invited. Admins may manage firm members and settings.

Admins can change a member’s role by selecting another role from the dropdown next to the member. Admins may remove members from the firm by clicking remove next to a member. Removing a member will revoke their access to the firm and any cases within the firm.

Integrations

Connecting Integrations

Connecting your Dropbox account grants your firm read access to your Dropbox folder so you can link to your Dropbox files in FactBox. Ditto for Box.

Selecting Sources

After connecting your account, Dropbox will be available as a source type. Same for Box.

Examples

We built FactBox to be flexible and to fit easily into your existing workflow, but sometimes an example makes it easier to get started. We’ve pulled together a sample case that highlights the ways many of our customers use FactBox. You can base your case structure on this example or branch out and build a system unique to your needs.

Apps

FactBox is a web application you use in your browser. We also have a free desktop app so you can add facts and launch the case view in your browser.