# Client Portal: Meeting Notes

## Kickoff Meeting (Week 1)

**Attendees:** TomlTech (2 developers, 1 PM), Client (3 partners, 1 paralegal, 1 IT person)

**Key Outcomes:**

- Client showed us their current workflow: documents are emailed as attachments, printed, signed, scanned, emailed back, saved to the shared folder, and then printed again "for the file"
- We suggested that the portal could eliminate approximately 6 of these 8 steps
- The senior partner asked "but where does the paper go?"
- We explained that there would be no paper
- The senior partner did not like this
- Compromise: the portal will have a "Print" button on every page

**Action items:**
- [ ] Send wireframes (TomlTech)
- [x] Send current document list to understand volume (Client, received: 47,000 documents in a zip file with no folder structure)
- [ ] Resolve the fax question

## Design Review (Week 3)

**Attendees:** TomlTech (1 developer, 1 designer, 1 PM), Client (2 partners, 1 paralegal)

**Key Outcomes:**

- Presented wireframes. Client liked the overall layout.
- Client asked why it doesn't look like the Apple website. We explained again that it is a document portal, not a product showcase.
- Client asked if we could make the login page "more welcoming." We added a stock photo of people shaking hands. Client approved.
- The paralegal asked if the search function could search inside PDFs. We said yes. The paralegal was visibly relieved. This suggests the current "search" method is manual.
- One partner asked if clients could edit documents in the portal. We said no, it's a document portal, not a document editor. The partner said "Word has that." We said this is not Word. The partner said "can you make it more like Word?" We said no.

**Action items:**
- [x] Revise wireframes with stock photo
- [ ] Send revised quote including PDF search
- [ ] Research fax APIs (reluctantly)

## The Fax Meeting (Week 5)

**Attendees:** TomlTech (1 developer), Client (1 partner, 1 IT person)

**Key Outcomes:**

- Dedicated meeting to resolve the fax requirement
- Client sends approximately 200 faxes per month
- Client receives approximately 15 faxes per month
- All received faxes are from one company, which also has email
- Asked client why they don't email the 200 outgoing faxes instead
- Client: "The courts require fax"
- Checked with 3 courts. None require fax. All accept electronic filing.
- Client: "We've always done it this way"
- Agreed to integrate with an eFax API so faxes can be sent from the portal
- Developer has mild existential crisis about building fax features in 2026

**Action items:**
- [x] Research eFax API pricing
- [x] Add fax to the project scope
- [x] Add fax to the project budget
- [x] Add fax to the list of things we never thought we'd build