Skip to main content
TrustRadius
HotDocs by CARET

HotDocs by CARET

Overview

What is HotDocs by CARET?

HotDocs is a document automation and assembly software product, acquired and now supported by AbacusNext since 2017.

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

HotDocs is a versatile document generation tool that is widely used across various departments in organizations, including legal, human …
Continue reading

HotDocs Review

8 out of 10
March 20, 2018
Incentivized
We are a managed services company that installs, configure and supports HotDocs for our clients. HotDocs is a document automation program …
Continue reading
Read all reviews
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

Basic

$25

Cloud
per user/per month

Enterprise

Contact sales team

Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Return to navigation

Product Demos

FinovateSpring 2017 / HotDocs

YouTube
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is HotDocs by CARET?

HotDocs by CARET Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(13)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

HotDocs is a versatile document generation tool that is widely used across various departments in organizations, including legal, human resources, and marketing. Its primary purpose is to automate the process of generating frequently used documents, saving both time and money while ensuring accuracy. Companies with a large number of documents that are needed repeatedly find HotDocs particularly useful.

One of the key use cases of HotDocs is transactional drafting. Users can create templates and a master questionnaire to automate the drafting process. This feature is especially beneficial for tasks like drafting multiple documents with the same information for government-insured construction loans, where it saves an impressive six to seven hours of manual document drafting every day. Real estate professionals also rely on HotDocs to quickly generate group forms for the same transaction, streamlining their workflow.

Another significant use case for HotDocs is its ability to produce letters and standard documents consistently across multiple locations. Users can easily create templates and customize them based on specific requirements. Paralegals utilize HotDocs to draft estate planning documents by conducting an interview with clients and then editing the generated documents in Microsoft Word before presenting them to clients. This powerful document generation application ensures proper formatting and includes all necessary information, making it a valuable asset in an estate planning practice.

Furthermore, managed services companies specialize in installing, configuring, and providing support for HotDocs on behalf of their clients. This enables organizations to leverage the benefits of HotDocs without the burden of managing the software themselves. Overall, HotDocs is user-friendly and seamlessly integrates with other software platforms, making it an indispensable tool for automating document assembly across various industries and departments.

Users commonly recommend the following:

  1. Get proper training and support: Many users advise booking training sessions and doing tutorials to learn how to use HotDocs effectively and efficiently. They recommend taking as much training as possible to save time in the future and suggest paying for training with a third-party consultant. Users also emphasize the importance of having a solid relationship with the salesperson and architecting a plan for implementation and roll-out.

  2. Invest time in learning the software: Users recommend taking the time to learn HotDocs thoroughly, as it speeds up the template building process once known. They also suggest automating several forms to get a feel for the software and recommend using cheat sheets and practicing with it. Users advise ensuring that the developer receives training as well.

  3. Consider overall costs and alternatives: It is recommended to do due diligence when looking at alternatives and testing them thoroughly. Users advise considering the overall cost, not just the licensing, and having a plan for return on investment. Additionally, they suggest consulting someone who has used HotDocs before and keeping in touch with them. Some users also recommend comparing HotDocs to Acrobat's similar features to assess ease of use.

Overall, users find HotDocs to be a great tool that can streamline document creation, but they stress the importance of investing time in learning the product properly and considering all aspects of its implementation.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-9 of 9)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Prakul Sharma | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Hotdocs is among the decent tool which is used to generate the documents which are used frequently by various department in my organization like legal, human resource and marketing. It indeed saves lots of time and money making the work easier and more accurate. It is very much suitable for the company like us as there are hundreds of documents which we need again and again.
  • It is very helpful in creating customized document template which is used frequently.
  • It saves lot of time and one can create the document template in minutes even if it is too complex.
  • The integration of this tool to Microsoft Office 360, Microsoft Word and PDF and editing it as per the need makes it very useful.
  • You can save the edited document in the template library section and can use it anytime again, which I think is a very important feature of this tool.
  • I think the subscription of Hotdocs is a little bit expensive.
  • Though the tool is very comprehensive but its not user friendly, making it complex to use.
  • There are no subscription plans for solo users or a freelancers.
  • It doesn't support HI-DPI displays.
It is well suited in the organisations which deals with lots of paper work like legal, teaching, research, etc as they need similar kind of documents again and again. In a typical office set up it is of great use by human resource, marketing and legal department. Hot docs is not suitable if you have a proprietary or solo business as it do not caters to them.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Hotdocs is a document creation tool that may be used either alone or in conjunction with another information source. It is a question-based system that is highly powerful for writing papers in the right format and with all of the relevant information included. User's might switch from earlier Wordperfect templates to this new version.
  • Easy to use and quick when it comes to creating documents
  • Template personalization can range from simple to quite complex
  • The engine is continually running and producing papers swiftly and effortlessly
  • Most HotDocs templates demand high-level code. This includes complicated Word codes
  • Using HotDocs is incredibly user-friendly. Creating and maintaining templates is a programming task
Using HotDocs is a good idea for any firm that produces a significant number of documents, especially if the bulk of those documents are template-based. Employees become significantly more productive by reducing the amount of time they spend developing papers using templates rather than creating documents from scratch.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have used HotDocs to automate document assembly in an estate planning practice. It is designed to streamline the drafting of customizable estate planning documents.
  • Automates document assembly.
  • Standardizes forms among organization.
  • Allows staff members to greater assist in the preparation of legal documents.
  • It can be hard to effectuate changes or correct errors.
  • Changes require considerable skill.
It is very helpful for automating document assembly in legal practice.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are utilizing HotDocs to help us with transactional drafting. While facilitating government-insured construction loans, there are often 30-40 documents that need to be drafted, much with the same information. We created templates of each of these documents as well as a master questionnaire. After completing the questionnaire, all necessary documents will be drafted in a matter of minutes. While setting up the templates took a decent bit of time, training, and learning, they save us six to seven hours of document drafting every day, allowing us to greatly increase our workload.
  • Personalized training. We were able to get an expert on a video call who walked us through solutions to each of our unique problems (i.e. all fifty states have different notary blocks, how can we auto-populate it when the state of the deal is selected?).
  • Team access. Multiple people can work with the templates at once, thus allowing the members of our team who deal with financials to work on their documents while others focus on the organizational and legal documents.
  • Once you have successfully drafted your templates, it runs incredibly smooth (barring any minor hiccups that happen with software updates) and efficiently.
  • This is a software written by coders. Unless you have a background in coding, some of the thought processes going into how to set-up a template are not intuitive. This is definitely software that you need guidance through. (The on-boarding template practice is a must.)
  • Some of the template building icons could be more defined and explained in a way that a non-coder could understand them.
  • There is no mass-document download. So we have to individually download 30-40 documents one-by-one instead of clicking "download all."
If you are doing transactional documents, HotDocs is a game-changer. If there are only a few select variables that change while the remainder of the work mostly consists of form language, this is a program that will dramatically increase efficiency. Even the most technical and dense documents can be turned into a template, as long as you are willing to take the time to invest in future time saving.

However, if the majority of the work that you are doing is not constantly repeating, this may not be the software for you.
April 24, 2020

How Hot is HotDocs

Riva Schwartz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Hot Docs is the engine. We use it for real estate forms. It makes it easy to generate a group [form] based on the same transaction.
  • It allows you to fill a form OR to use the Q&A approach.
  • It takes a particular fact pattern and applies it over several forms.
  • It does not allow an edit to a form to be saved. If you edit a form and close out, you have to start all over again.
  • It should fill in certain items that are usually the same , with an allowance for revising if necessary.
  • Lender credit cannot be shown as a "minus" on the closing disclosure , even though it is supposed to be.
  • There needs to be a signature line on the Seller Closing Disclosure.
  • It is not compatible with the newest version of WordPerfect (X9).
I use it for bank closings, used to use the HUD-1, now the closing disclosure and the seller closing disclosure.
Kandice McElroy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our Firm letterhead and proprietary standard forms are in HotDocs and used across the Firm at all locations. This allows us to produce letters by location quickly as well as produce standard documents by practice area consistently. We also purchase standard forms from the State of Iowa which are also held in HotDocs. These forms provide consistency as well as a quick start to drafting documents and letters.
  • Letterhead template - Creates quick letters with standard branding. Able to set locations, writer, etc.
  • Answer sets can be saved and reused. This eliminates the need to reenter client information.
  • HotDocs is difficult to develop new documents as it's as complicated as programming at times. I often have to call for assistance.
  • The tables can be frustrating. It makes it hard to insert between items as you have to make sure it doesn't offset other areas.
HodDocs definitely has a place where it helps with efficiency. For instance, when drafting documents, HotDocs can make it a quick process by simply answering questions. The challenge though is developing the questions and basic shell. I would probably use it more if it was easier to build new documents. But for existing documents, it's easier to modify (depending on the level of modifications).
Jason Shindler | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
HotDocs is used by most of the paralegals in the organization to draft estate planning documents for our clients. It allows users to complete an "interview" and then download draft estate planning documents based on the interview. They then edit the documents in Microsoft Word and then present them to the clients.
  • Allows users to complete an interview
  • Allows users to download draft documents
  • Allows programmers to create the interview and document templates.
  • Licensing: the company seems intent on milking this product for as much as they can. I receive monthly sales phone calls, yet support calls are not helpful.
  • We use the online "document services" product -- it occasionally has unexplained outages and support is not helpful.
  • The product has weird limitations that limit its utility -- the interview engine can only support certain types of data. Several programmers have expressed frustration to us about this.
It is well suited for a "medium" user -- it is too hard to set up for a typical paralegal and too limited for someone with advanced and complicated needs. If you are the "Goldilocks" user, it is just right. If you are on either end, there could be other programs that might be a better fit.
Derek Schroeder | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
HotDocs is used as a document generation application, either stand-alone or with another information source. It is question-based and extremely powerful for creating documents in the proper format and with all necessary information.
  • User-friendly and quick for producing documents.
  • Customization for templates can be easy or extremely complicated.
  • Engine always functions and produces documents quickly and easily.
  • Can accept data from another system and force necessary questions to users.
  • Most HotDocs requires high-level coding in order to create templates. This includes complicated codes to insert into Word.
  • From the user perspective, using HotDocs is very simple and easy. Creating and maintaining templates requires nearly a programming background to perform.
  • Cost for software varies but is generally a sizable cost, especially Developer licenses.
  • New versions must be purchased to keep up with newer versions of Microsoft Office.
HotDocs is useful for any company that generates a large number of documents, especially when a majority of the documents are template-based. The time used for creating documents from templates without document generation makes employees much more efficient.
March 20, 2018

HotDocs Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are a managed services company that installs, configure and supports HotDocs for our clients. HotDocs is a document automation program that is used to generate similar documents/forms with minimal effort (once the system is set up on the backend). HotDocs, though a little complex on the backend, is extremely easy to use on the front end. It also integrates with many other software platforms, which is great.
  • Auto-generation of forms/documents (with little effort)
  • Reasonably priced, especially as the ROI is 10 fold (over time more like 100)
  • Very easy to use on the front end
  • Back end of the product is a little tricky at times
  • To fully benefit from the use of the product, training is highly recommended (developer)
HotDocs is a MUST for a law firm or any company that uses forms, contracts or similar documents. Generation of documents with HotDocs (after the program is configured) takes a couple mouse clicks, vs find/replace, saving the same document over and over (no no for law firms due to metadata, but many do it anyway).
Return to navigation