Overview
This article explains how to set up risk assessments between Legl and Actionstep with support from the Legl team. Once enabled, your fee earners can start a risk assessment from an Actionstep matter, the assessment arrives answered with information already held on the matter, and the result is written back to Actionstep when the assessment is completed.
ℹ️ Important
This feature is currently in beta and is enabled firm by firm by the Legl team. Contact your Customer Success Manager to request it.
Before you start
Confirm the following before you begin:
You are an Admin in Legl. Risk assessment templates, and the Actionstep settings on them, are only available to Admins
You have an Actionstep user account with administrator permissions, so you can add fields to a matter type
Your firm has connected Actionstep in Legl
You know which Actionstep matter types each risk assessment template will be used on
You have a risk assessment template ready. It can be a draft or a published template, but not an archived one
How risk assessments and Actionstep work together
There are two settings to configure, and both live on the risk assessment template rather than on the integration settings page:
Autopopulate decides which Actionstep field fills each question in your template. This is what pre-fills an assessment when a fee earner starts one from a matter
Send results decides what Legl writes back to Actionstep when an assessment is completed, closed or reopened
You configure each template once. The settings carry across when you create a new version of that template.
How to set up risk assessments
Step 1: Ask the Legl team to enable the feature
Contact your Customer Success Manager and ask for risk assessments for Actionstep to be enabled. Until this is done, the Actionstep settings described below will not appear on your templates.
Step 2: Connect or reconnect Actionstep
An Actionstep administrator must:
Log in to Legl
Go to Settings and select Integrations
Connect Actionstep. If your firm is already connected, disconnect and reconnect
Click through to grant access
ℹ️ Important
Firms already connected need to reconnect. Risk assessments read the drop-down options held in your Actionstep fields, and an older connection does not include permission to do this. If the field list or the drop-down options look incomplete later on, reconnecting is the first thing to try.
Step 3: Load your Actionstep fields into the template
Go to Risk Assessments and select Templates
Open the template you want to set up
Select the ActionStep · Autopopulate tab
Click Refresh Actionstep fields
Legl reads the matter info fields your firm uses in Actionstep and remembers them. The tab shows Fields last read, with the date and time. Repeat this step whenever you add or rename fields in Actionstep.
Until you refresh, only the six standard matter facts are available: Matter name, Matter reference, Matter status, Matter type, Matter opened date and Fee earner.
Step 4: Create the fields in Actionstep
If your firm does not already have fields in Actionstep for this assessment, Legl can create them for you.
Click Create fields in Actionstep
Choose the matter type this assessment is used on
Click Create fields
Legl adds a Legl Risk Assessment section to that matter type, containing one field for each question in your template, and maps each field onto the matching question. It also adds a button to the matter that your fee earners use to start the assessment.
Questions you have already mapped are left as they are, so it is safe to run this more than once. Any questions Legl could not create a field for are listed under Some questions were left out, with the reason for each. Country and nationality questions are not created automatically, but can be mapped by hand to an existing Actionstep drop-down in Step 5.
If your firm already has fields in Actionstep that you would rather use, skip this step and map them yourself in Step 5.
Step 5: Check how questions are mapped
The mapping table has four columns:
Question — the question in your template, with its type and section
ActionStep field — the field that fills it. Search for a field, or leave the question as Not mapped
If they disagree — choose Legl wins or ActionStep wins for when both systems hold a different value
Autopopulate — turn filling on or off for that question
Two things to check before you save:
Drop-down questions. Where a question is mapped to an Actionstep drop-down, the row shows Match values. Open it and choose which option in Legl each Actionstep value corresponds to, or choose Leave blank. Any value you do not match leaves the answer empty
Questions that control other questions. If an answer decides which other questions appear in the assessment, Legl highlights the row. Check the matched values carefully, as these determine how the rest of the assessment behaves
Number fields in Actionstep can fill short text questions, as Legl does not have a number question type.
Click Save. A confirmation message appears when the mapping is saved.
ℹ️ Important
Checkbox questions that allow more than one answer, and confirmation checkboxes, cannot be filled from Actionstep in this version. They remain in the table, greyed out, with the reason shown. They still work as normal in the assessment itself.
Step 6: Choose what Legl sends back
Select the ActionStep · Send results tab and turn on Send results to Actionstep. There are four things to set:
About the assessment. Choose which matter info field receives each of: Overall risk level, Assessment status, Reassessment due date, and Link to the assessment. Anything left as Not sent is not written.
The client's AML panel. Legl reports the assessment's progress and risk level on the Actionstep contact the assessment was started from. Enter the AML Risk value your firm uses for each Legl risk level, and optionally choose one answer to repeat in the panel note.
The matter's AML review status. For matter templates, turn this on to have Legl move the AML status banner at the top of the matter: In progress while the assessment is being worked on, and Complete once it is approved. The banner must be enabled on that matter type in Actionstep for this to appear.
Answers to send back. Every question you mapped in Step 5 is listed here. Turn on Send back for each answer you want written to the matter.
Click Save.
ℹ️ Important
The six standard matter facts, such as Matter name and Fee earner, are owned by Actionstep. Legl can read them but cannot write to them, so they cannot receive results. Only your firm's own matter info fields can be written to.
Step 7: Publish the template and test
If you have been editing a draft, publish the template as you normally would.
Then test the set-up end to end:
Open a matter of the relevant type in Actionstep
Find the Legl Risk Assessment section and click the button to start the assessment
Select the client and start the assessment in Legl
Check that the answers you mapped have been filled in
Complete the assessment
Return to the matter in Actionstep and check the fields, the AML review banner, and the contact's AML panel
What your team sees
Once the template is set up, your fee earners:
Open a matter in Actionstep and click the button in the Legl Risk Assessment section to start an assessment
Land in Legl with the client and matter already identified, and with the mapped questions already answered
Are shown both values where Legl and Actionstep disagree, and can switch to the other one
Complete the assessment as normal
Your fee earners do not need to be Admins, and they do not need to configure anything.
What happens next
New risk assessments started from an Actionstep matter arrive with the mapped questions already answered
Completed, closed and reopened assessments write their results back to the matter and to the client's AML panel
Completed assessment PDFs are filed to the linked matter in Actionstep
The Linked matters tab on an assessment shows every matter it is linked to, whether results were sent, and lets you retry if a send has failed
Important information
Answers are filled in when the assessment is created, not continuously. This is a head start rather than a live sync, and mapped fields are not re-read later
An empty field in Actionstep never overwrites an answer in Legl. Blank values are skipped
Results are sent when an assessment is completed, closed or reopened. The first send happens only once an assessment has been completed at least once
Mappings and results settings carry across when you create a new version of a template, so they do not need to be set up again at each revision
Unlinking a matter does not reverse results that have already been sent
ℹ️ Further guidance
To bill your clients for completed risk assessments, see How to set up automatic disbursements for the Legl and Actionstep integration.