Simplified Free Form Checkouts

Asking clients for credit card information during a free consultation or for a zero-dollar resource can create unnecessary friction. Cogent CRM now allows you to hide payment fields entirely when an order total is $0, making the checkout process much smoother for your clients.

1. Open the Form or Survey containing your Sell Products element.
2. Select the Sell Products element.
3. Toggle the Require card for $0 orders setting to OFF.

Note: This setting defaults to ON, so your existing forms will not change unless you manually update them. Subscriptions and free trials will still require a card to ensure future billing can be processed.

Custom Field Metrics in Dashboards

Tracking specific financial metrics like case values or settlement amounts used to require manual exports to spreadsheets. You can now use any numeric or monetary custom field on Contacts or Opportunities as a live metric in your dashboards and reports. Any new custom field you create will automatically appear in the metric picker.

1. Open a dashboard widget, custom report, or the Custom Metric module.
2. Select Add a metric.
3. In the Field dropdown, choose your specific numeric or monetary custom field.
4. In the Aggregation dropdown, select how you want to view the data: Sum, Min, Max, or Average.

This allows you to build real-time dashboards that reflect the actual financial health and case values of your practice without manual calculations.

Expanded AI Model Support

To give you more flexibility in how you use artificial intelligence, Cogent CRM has expanded its AI Agent Action to include additional AI models. This allows you to select the specific model that best fits the complexity of the legal task at hand.

1. Open the AI Agent Action within your workflow.
2. Click the model dropdown menu.
3. Browse the available models and select one based on its description and the complexity of your task.

AI-Assisted Calendar Configuration

Setting up complex appointment calendars can be time-consuming for staff. Cogent CRM now features Calendar AI, which allows you to set up a fully configured calendar simply by describing your specific needs in plain English.

1. Use the Calendar AI guided flow to describe your specific use case.
2. Follow the prompts to add team members, set availability, and choose meeting locations.
3. Review the live preview of your booking calendar to ensure it looks correct.
4. Book a test appointment to confirm the setup works as intended.

If you encounter issues with specific time slots not appearing, you can ask Calendar AI to troubleshoot the configuration and identify exactly what needs to be changed.

Secure Card Collection for Appointments

To prevent client confusion, Cogent CRM has separated the process of collecting a card for future billing from the process of taking an upfront payment. This ensures that clients booking free appointments are not asked for credit card details unnecessarily.

1. To collect a card for future use without an immediate charge, enable the Collect Card on File option in your Calendar Payment settings.
2. To charge for an appointment, use the Charge upfront setting.

With these changes, if a client uses a discount coupon that brings their total to $0, the system will automatically skip the card collection process, providing a much cleaner experience for free bookings.

How-to: Automate outbound calls with Voice AI

Automating client outreach just became more efficient with the integration of Voice AI directly into the workflow builder. You can now trigger outbound calls as part of an automated sequence to handle reminders or follow-ups without needing a separate setup page. Additionally, the daily outbound call limit has been increased to 5,000 calls per location.

1. Open the Workflow Builder.
2. Add the Voice AI action to your workflow.
3. Accept the terms and configure your outbound call settings.

How-to: Automatically link related records in your CRM

Keeping client files organized is critical in a law office. You can now use the "Associate Records" workflow action to automatically link related records, such as connecting a new contact to an existing company or opportunity, ensuring your CRM remains organized and connected.

1. Create a Custom Object if you need to track specific legal entities or case types.
2. Create a new Workflow.
3. Set a Trigger (such as a form submission) to start the automation.
4. Add the Associate Records action.
5. Define the matching criteria to ensure the correct records are linked together.

Automating these connections reduces manual data entry and ensures that all relevant information is always tied to the correct client record.