Looking for technology information? For law firms and those involved in the legal industry, one of the best independent sources is Technolawyer. If you haven’t heard of Technolawyer before, you should check them out.
Technolawyer is a free, online newsletter. Actually it is a series of newsletters filled with useful information on legal related technology and independent product reviews. You can choose which publications you wish to receive and you can submit questions to the community. There is no charge, but you do have to register. There are archives available that are a wonderful resource and easily searched. Some information requires “points” but they are easy to earn through minimal participation.
Technolawyer recently released a comprehensive resource – “TL Research Buyer’s Guide to Legal Billing Software”. This guide compares many of the leading billing products, including both desktop and cloud based products.
Most every law firm needs billing software and choosing the right package for your firm can be difficult. This new guide makes the process easier by providing information to help you narrow your choices through comparative information in one place. Even if you already have software you may want to see what is available in the market. While changing is a big step and should not be taken lightly, knowing what else exists and what features are available can help you determine if change is worth evaluating.
We recommend starting your process by thinking about your wants and needs. Next review the Buyer’s Guide to identify the products worth further research. Then you should look to the companies or consultants for demos, discussions and testing, an important part of the decision process.
Visit http://www.technolawyer.com/tll/legal-billing-software.asp where you can learn more about the Buyer’s Guide, view the table of contents, join Technolawyer for free and download your copy of the guide.
If you want a personal touch in making the decision, please contact us. With years of experience and as certified consultants on a number of products we can help you with the evaluation process to make sure you get a solution that will work for your office for the long term. Once you choose a solution we can provide help with implementation, conversion if necessary,and training so that you can move forward with the best results.
Archive for Product News
For those using, or considering, Amicus Attorney Gavel & Gown has formally announced Amicus Anywhere with Amicus Premium 2013. Amicus Anywhere is designed to give you access to your data from wherever you are located using whatever device you choose.
Your data is securely stored on your own server but you have access from anywhere.
“Amicus Anywhere includes Amicus TimeTracker, an app that helps you see and do your time entries effortlessly on your smartphone. With TimeTracker you will capture billable time you were losing before by recording it live on your phone.”
QuickBooks 2013 is now shippping. Should you upgrade? We believe in keeping current, which is generally defined as the current version or two back. If you are running QuickBooks 2011 0r QuickBooks 2012, take a look at what’s new and then decide. If you are running QuickBooks 2010 or older, it’s probabably time.
Changes to all versions of QuickBooks (Pro, Premier, Enterprise)
- A whole new look
- Each transaction form has its own icon ribbon. Designed to make it easier to navigate to related functions.
- Open Window list replaced by My Shortcuts panel.
- Improved Customer and Vendor Centers - Sales tax and payment settings, related Contacts
- New Transaction Ribbon Bar
- New time and expense billable preferences, make it easier to control billable expenses.
- Print Bills – a capability missing from prior versions.
- More control over online payment methods.
- Expanded Item-based reports. Print Item, Name and Description on new reports.
New features in QuickBooks Premier 2013 and Enterprise 13.0
- Send Journal Entries
- Email journal entries from one QuickBooks company to another. No restrictions.
- Reduces the need to send an accountants copy to your bookkeeper or tax preparer.
- Batch entry of Transactions
- Type in multiple transactions. Data entry more quickly than tranditonal register entry.
- Cut and paste from Excel spreadsheets.
- Much improved Write-off of invoices.
- Create Credit Memos for bad debt or discounts
- Adjusts sales tax liability correctly
- Increased limits for lists.
- Capacity expanded from 10,000 to 100,000 for most lists.
- Up to 50 items in a Group (previously 20).
- Improved Inventory Management.
- Better management of re-order points
- Auto-create Purchase Orders when below re-order points.
- Default Classes for Items, Names and Accounts.
- New Bin Tracking.
- In addition to warehouse location.
- Can transfer bin to bin.
- Bin is now available on Sales Orders.
- New Bar Code Scanning
- Bar code image can be associated with any Item.
- Use UPC or generate your own bar codes.
- Scanner does not behave like a keyboard! It’s intuitive. Automatically adds line items to form.
- Create new Purchase Orders with scans of bar code images.
- Create Item Receipts with scans at the loading dock.
If you would like to discuss whether QuixkBooks 2013 is right for you or see a demo, please call Caren at 203-254-7736.
Note: Our thanks to Pete Bornstein, BizPro Consulting Services for providing and organizing the information above.
LexisNexis has recently announced a warning about some error messages that may appear in PCLaw and Time. The messages are due to Certificate Expiration Issues and will not affect the functionality of your software or harm your data.
If you encounter these issues, you can use the steps below to resolve the issue, or you may call us for assistance. If you have a valid AMP, you can get technical assistance from LexisNexis.
As always, we at Time & Cents Consultants / 35*45 Consulting – Global will help all of our clients to the best of our ability and experience. Please call us for any help or if you need to upgrade your software.
Time Matters version 7 through 11.1:
Starting June 23, 2012, users of Time Matters versions 7 through 11.1 with integrations with Microsoft office 2003/2007 may get a message when opening Microsoft Office. The message, “macro cannot be found or has been disabled because of security settings”, is just annoying and has no impact on product function.
You can resolve the issue with the following options:
1) Click ok to close the message and disable the macro security settings. If you are running Time Matters version 7 or 8 you must use this option or upgrade your software.
2) Upgrade to TM 11.1 SP1 if you have an active AMP.
3) If you are running Time Matters version 9 through 11.1 a Certificate will be available from the Support Center
PCLaw version 8.10a/ 8.10b and 9.31a/9.31b:
On June 20, 2012, PC Law versions 8.10a/ 8.10b and 9.31a/9.31b may receive a message upon login to PCLaw. The message “Invalid PCLaw program files – Please reinstall” may prevent access to PCLaw. Please note that, despite what the message says REINSTALLATION WILL NOT RESOLVE THE ISSUE. This issue will impact very few customers as most users of these older versions have already installed the updates to fix the issue.
If you encounter this message, you may try the following options to resolve the issue.
1) Upgrade to PCLaw 12 if you have an active AMP.
2) If you use PCLaw 8.10a/8.10b, you can upgrade to 8.10c. This is no longer supported but is available to users.
3) For users of PCLaw 9.31a/b, upgrade to 9.31c
Again, users must have an active AMP to get technical support from LexisNexis, but we are always here and willing to support your software as best as we can.
In March I traveled to Toronto to attend the annual Gavel & Gown Certified Consultants Conference. While Amicus 2012 has been out for a while, it was interesting to get additional perspective on the new features.
So what did I learn that can help you?
- Amicus Premium billing including the link with QuickBooks and the power of reporting
- The new document manager in Amicus 2012
- The power to use custom fields in reports
- Amicus Attorney Cloud Edition
Probably the most exciting part of the conference was a preview of Amicus Attorney in the cloud. This product was officially announced a few days later at American Bar Association Techshow in Chicago. Imagine the power of Amicus Attorney on your IPad or other device with a connection to the internet. As a cloud based solution you never have to worry about upgrades or server maintenance. Of course, since Gavel & Gown understands the legal market, the application and the environment will meet all the requirements for confidentiality of data, uptime and backup that are critical to attorneys. Amicus Attorney Cloud Edition is expected to be available this summer. You can read the press release at http://www.amicusattorney.com/company/press-releases/20120329-amicus-cloud or watch www.amicusattorney.com/cloud for more information.
Amicus Attorney Cloud Edition differs from Credenza and is designed for those who want the power of Amicus Attorney through the internet, with no concern of a server or networking.
Gavel & Gown will still offer and fully support Credenza, and they continue to enhance it regularly. Credenza is the solution if you like to work in Outlook but want the ability to organize all of your information according to client files or projects. This includes email, contacts, tasks and notes. For a single user, there is a free edition of Credenza so you can easily try it and see if it works for you. If you are part of a team or want more features, you can upgrade to Credenza Pro for firm-wide practice management including collaboration tools, cloud document management and billing.
Amicus Premium Billing offers a tightly integrated billing solution for those using Amicus Attorney Premium edition. The elimination of links greatly simplifies the billing process and lets you see the data you need with just a mouse click. For accounting the link to QuickBooks is well designed, having learned some lessons from other products. Is it perfect, No. You still need to enter client expenses in both Amicus and QuickBooks, but Amicus Premium Billing is well on its way.
Making Amicus Premium Billing even more powerful is the use of SQL Reporting Services. For those who have worked with Amicus Attorney reports in the past, you know that the reports were based in Crystal. If you know crystal, you know if can be difficult to work with. SQL Reporting Services offer more power and flexibility. We saw samples of reports developed by other consultants that included dashboards to view billing information. If you choose Amicus Premium Billing we can help you set it up and design the reports you need to run your practice.
Amicus Attorney 2012 introduced the new Document center. With powerful search functions and the ability to see documents on all your files or your contacts, the Document center will make your work easier. You can now search for a document without knowing what file it was part of, make a copy of it and use it for another matter in just a few steps.
Last but not least, users of the Premium Edition have long had the ability to setup custom fields and custom pages. However, getting the data out in a format you could use was significantly limited. With Amicus Attorney Premium Edition 2012 you now have the reports for custom pages and custom records on your files. These reports are created in SQL Reporting Services and offer a starting point for us to help develop your reports.
Amicus Attorney is moving forward in many exciting directions. If you would like to get more out of your current version or would like to learn about upgrading, please contact us at 203-254-7736.
Timeslips version 2012 has just been released and you may be wondering if you should upgrade. The new version features shortcuts to streamline the way you work and speed up your billing activities.
For years, in order to approve a bill and be able to reprint a bill from within Timeslips, you had to print to paper, or use a workaround. This wasted time, paper, ink and money. With Timeslips version 2012 you have the ability to print to PDF without printing to paper, while retaining the ability to reprint bills from within Timeslips. In addition, you now have the ability to reprint to RTF files.
Timeslips v2012 print to PDF feature offers new options to control how the files are named when saved. This saves time because you no longer have to manually rename files to your standards.
Timeslips has long offered the ability to spell check words which can save the embarrassment of sending out bills with spelling errors. With Timeslips v2012 you can more easily add or remove words from your personal dictionary. In addition you can now choose up to six dictionaries to be used when reviewing text; including American, British, Canadian, American Legal, British Legal and Technical.
To make Timeslips easier to use and tailor to your needs, improvements have been added to features for navigation and to use of general settings and personal preferences.
Need help with collection letters, retainer requests and late reminders and other correspondence? The new mail merge capability has been added to allow you to merge client information with Microsoft Word.
Purge closed client names by using filters, importing client reference settings and a prompt to create payments from an account when entering a funds deposit for a client with a balance are all features that we know Timeslips users have been waiting for.
Call us today to discuss how any of the new features might improve the way you use your time or for a quote to upgrade your Timeslips to the current version. Please have information on the version you are using, as well as how many licenses you have and how many you think you will need. You can find this information in Help – About Timeslips.
The decision to upgrade to a new version of Timeslips is one best made by the users. We, at Time & Cents Consultants, recommend that our clients be on a version that is within 3 years old. Many software companies have instituted a new technical support platform that only offers support to clients who have a version that was released within that time.
If you have received a notice from Timeslips that says your software will be “unsupported”, feel free to call us with any questions. If you choose not to upgrade at this time, Time & Cents Consultants will be happy to continue to help you for as long as we are able!
Caren is proud to be an Associate of 35★45 Consulting Group, a LexisNexis Premier Certified Consulting group.
Please visit their website here.