Smart Linking Your Events

By default the events you create in your Google calendar will not know what matter or event type they need to be in HoudiniEsq. To save you from having to add this information later we have a smart linking feature. The smart link is a simple syntax that will tell Houdini how to associate the events.

• If I have a matter in HoudiniEsq with the matter reference ‘John Smith Slip and Fall‘ and the matter id is ‘js-saf-1234‘ I can create an event in my Google calendar called  ~john smith OR ~js-saf as the subject. When this event is being sent to HoudiniEsq to sync, HoudiniEsq will notice that syntax and do a search for matters with a matter reference or matter id that fits with the text after the ‘~’ sign.

• The example above will help link the event to a matter, but you can go further than that and determine what type of event you want this to be. HoudiniEsq already has event types set in the program (default ones and custom user-created ones). Using the same syntax as above you can tell HoudiniEsq what type of event this is. To further the example above. My event type is a court appearance for John Smith. If I want to associate the event with Mr. Smith’s matter and have the event type sync with HoudiniEsq’s calendar I would enter the following into the Google calendar’s subject line; ~john smith, ~court

• Beyond that you can also state the billable time and billable amount with this syntax. If appear in court for John Smith and record the event as three hours of my time, but include a billable rate that is not based off of the three hours I spend there I would enter the following in the Google calendar subject line; ~john smith, ~court, 3.0, $450

• The decimal point for a custom event time is required so that HoudiniEsq knows that value is for the event duration and the $ is required for a custom billable amount so that HoudiniEsq knows this is a currency value.

Note – The Google account you set up in your profile is the account that all of the synchronization will happen with. Example; lets say you have three HoudiniEsq seats and all three of them have their own Google account setup. Each Event added will go to that specific user’s staff calendar. For more information on setting up Google, check out our Staff Profile Setup article here.