What s New in PCLaw Version 7

Transcription

1 What s New in PCLaw Version 7 In the past year we have had many great ideas submitted to wishlist@pclaw.com, the address for clients' suggestions and requests. Many of these ideas have been incorporated into PCLaw Version 7. Some of the new features include document and management, custom tabs for the Matter, Client, and Contact Managers, a feature to track phone messages separately from phone calls, batch check printing, the new Matter Status report, and the new Cash Flow Planner report. Document Management The biggest additions to PCLaw are the document management tools for maintaining documents, , and precedents. Raises the Bar Again 505 CONSUMERS ROAD SUITE 600 WILLOWDALE ONTARIO M2J 4V8 TEL (416) FAX (416) PEARL STREET BOX 2000 BUFFALO NEW YORK TEL (800) The New Document feature lets you select a document and save it in PCLaw. You can associate the document with a matter and attach an author, document type, description, comments, and creation date and time. Not only can you add documents but you can also add pdf, text, jpeg, gif, and avi files. Basically, any file that can be opened on your workstation can be added in PCLaw. The Open Document feature lets you open and change any PCLaw document in Microsoft Word. The Document Manager organizes documents, , and precedents by matter. Filters lets you reduce the list of documents you are working with by selecting a particular author, creation date range, modified date range, or document type, and by selecting either documents, , or precedents. You can perform searches of the documents in PCLaw by searching for a file name, searching for specific text in the comments and description of a document, or searching the contents of a document. Search preferences are defined in Tools > PCLaw Indexer Preferences. If integration with Microsoft Word has been enabled in Connection Settings, a new PCLaw Toolbar appears in Word that gives you access to PCLaw information for your documents and lets you save a document without being in PCLaw. A new Quick Docs button appears on the toolbar of the Matter Manager, Contact Manager, and Document Manager that will open a default letter or fax, new document, or PCLaw precedent in Word. If integration with Windows Explorer has been enabled in Connection Settings, you can right-click on a file in Explorer and select Add Document to PCLaw. You can also right-click on the Windows Taskbar, select Toolbars, and select PCLaw to put the Add and Open a PCLaw Document buttons on your taskbar. Drag a file onto the Add button to add it to PCLaw. Use the Open button to open a PCLaw document from the taskbar. If Outlook Integration has been enabled in Connection Settings, a prompt appears when you send to save the in PCLaw. The can be associated with a matter and you can enter comments and a description of the . The Document Manager is found on the new Practice Management tab of the Quick Step Menu. You ll also find the Matter Manager, Calendar, Phone Call Manager, and Contact Manager buttons in this tab. Page 1 of 10

2 Managers Filters in all the managers have improved with a Defaults button that resets the filters to those originally provided with PCLaw. A new Close button on the manager s toolbar will save any changes and exit the manager. If you use the Windows close button to close the window, changes are discarded. Clients The Client features are only available in PCLawPro. The New Client feature contains more information about the client and lets you select from an existing contact or vendor. The new Client Manager, which replaces the Open Client feature, lets you work with client information and matters associated with the client. Matters New Matter The New Matter feature has been changed so that you only have to enter mandatory information. To customize a matter further, use the Matter Manager. Matter Manager The Matter Manager replaces the Open Matter feature and contains all the information previously found in Open Matter window. The Billing Info and Other Info tabs have been replaced with the Billing and Settings tabs. New boxes on the Main tab include a Title, Middle Initial, Designation, and Company. The new Referral Type lets you specify how the matter was referred to you by an existing contact, by a referral source specified in the new Referral Sources database, or by some other means. There are three addresses available on the Main tab the Client Address, the Billing Address, and a new Second Billing Address. Use the Second Billing Address if you need to send bills for the matter to a second address in addition to the Billing or Client Address. If you are using Split Billing, you will find information from the former Split tab on the Billing tab in the Split Matter button. If you allocated percentages of fees to different lawyers, you will find the allocations on the Billing tab in the Split Lawyer Charges button. The new Docs and tabs show documents and associated with the selected matter. Contacts associated with a matter can be assigned a role, which is the type of contact with respect to this matter. You can customize the tabs in the Matter Manager and the other Managers by dragging a tab to a new position or by right-clicking over a tab to add or hide the tab. Headings in the grid area, available on many tabs of the Matter Manager, can be added or hidden by rightclicking over a column heading. You can also rearrange the order of the columns by dragging a column headings to its new position. Grid manipulation is also available on all other windows with grids. Page 2 of 10

3 New Renumbering Matters and Clients The Renumber Matter/Client feature lets you change a matter nickname, change a client nickname, or transfer a matter to a different client. Closing Matters When you close a matter, if the matter has unbilled disbursements in a closed month, PCLaw will prompt to see if you want them reversed before closing. If you respond No, you cannot close the matter. When deactivating matters, you can now enter a File Location. When archiving matters, you can enter a Destroy Date, the date after which the physical file for a matter can be legally destroyed. The default Destroy Date is based on the number of years specified on the Matters tab of System Settings. The option to Permanently Remove Matter Information has been changed to Destroy Matter Information. Closed Matter Register The new Destroy Date can be seen in the Closed Matter Register. Contact Manager The Car Phone button has been changed to Other Phone. The phone number buttons now open up a New Phone Call window while the buttons open up a new window. The Contact Information and Contact Address tabs are directly editable now that the Open button has been removed. Contacts can have both an office and a home address. New Notes, Calls, Documents, and tabs display entries for the selected contact, client, and vendor. As with the other managers, you can hide tabs, change the tab order, and customize the grid headings by rightclicking. Settings for exchanging contacts with Microsoft Outlook have been moved to Options > Connection Settings. New Custom Tabs You can create custom tabs that contain information you require with the Custom Tabs feature. This feature replaces the Custom tab formerly of the Open Matter window. Custom tabs can be associated specifically to matters with a particular type of law. Use the Add Tabs tab in the Matter Manager, Contact Manager, and Client Manager (available in PCLawPro) to add a custom tab. Phone Calls While recording a phone call in the New Phone Call window, you can access the other Managers or the Calendar at the same time. When adding a new phone call, after selecting a contact and pressing the tab key, a list of phone numbers for the contact appears in a menu. You can select one of these numbers or type an entirely different number. If Start Timer on New Call has been selected on the Calendar tab of Workstation Settings, the timer will start as soon as you open the New Phone Call window. Page 3 of 10

4 New Phone Messages The new Phone Messages feature tracks phone messages separately from phone calls. Phone Call Manager The Phone Call Manager tracks both phone calls and phone messages. The New Message button on the toolbar is used to record a new phone message. If Search for Unread Calls at Startup has been selected on the Calendar tab of Workstation Settings, a prompt will appear when you start PCLaw to notify you of unread phone calls or messages. You have the option of opening the Phone Call Manager to review the calls and messages at that time. When you review a phone message, the Taken By box indicates the PCLaw user who recorded the message. Calendar The Filters button in the Calendar has new options to include completed, uncompleted, or both completed and uncompleted to do s, appointments, and reminders. You can exclude to do s or reminders or show to do s only if they are due. The new Today button displays today s appointments and to do s (based on the date typed when you started PCLaw). The Show/Hide To Do s button has been replaced with Show Appointments Only, Show To Do s Only, and Show Both options. When viewing appointments in the Weekly view, if there is space, the description will wrap around instead of being cut off. If you hold the mouse over a to do or appointment, the details of the event will pop up if Pop Up Details is selected on the Calendar tab of Workstation Settings. Pop Up Details also appear in all other PCLaw grids. When a reminder (an appointment or to do with a reminder date) appears in the To Do list, the words Reminder About accompany the text. A new check box, All Day Event, found on New Appointment and New To-Do windows will schedule the event from 7 am to 7 pm when selected. The new Print button in the same window prints a copy of the event for your records. If Include Holidays has been selected on the Calendar tab of Workstation Settings, holidays will appear in the calendar. Use the Holidays feature to import standard holidays into the list and to insert you own special days. These holidays appear in the calendar on the appropriate date. If an event is scheduled on a day in which a holiday falls, you will receive a warning. In the Appointment window, the Completed check box has been removed. Now appointments are considered completed once their due date has passed. Now you have the ability to post an appointment to time when a matter has not been selected. The entry will become an administrative time entry. Entries that have been posted to time already show a yellow clock on the right side. Page 4 of 10

5 With Linked Dates, you have the ability to link an item to the completion date of another item (the completion date is assumed to be the due date once the due date has passed). Items based on the completion date of another date are marked with a question mark after the date to show that it is a tentative date. New Purge Calendar Entries To reduce the size of your calendar files, use the new maintenance feature, Purge Calendar Entries. With this feature you can remove appointments, to do s, notes, and phone calls based on your own set of criteria. New Merge Addresses The new Merge Addresses feature lets you merge client, contact, and vendor addresses into one address file. This is useful because if a client, contact, and vendor are the same entity and you change the address in the vendor file, for example, the address also will be changed for the client and contact. Merging addresses does not affect a matter s billing address. You can merge addresses for all entities or you can manually associate a client with a contact and/or vendor. You may have merged addresses already if you responded Yes to the prompt you received during the installation of your PCLaw update. Pop Up Help Vendor Pop Up Help has a New button to add a new vendor and a Change button to change vendor information. In G/L Pop Up Help, accounts won t be displayed if Show Account in Pop Up Help was not selected when the account was added. To see all the G/L accounts in Pop Up Help, select Show All Accounts. Accounts Payable Accounts Payable is now a standard feature in PCLaw. In the New Vendor window, you have the ability to create the vendor from an existing client or contact. In the New Payable window, you can add a new vendor without leaving the window. When processing payables, A/P checks no longer use the template for general checks. They use the new default A/P Check Template defined in System Settings. Deposit Slips Deposit Slips are now a standard feature in PCLaw. Date Entry Features When you enter dates in PCLaw, you can enter a t or T in the Date box to automatically use today s date. Grid Areas Like the grids in the Managers, the grids on data entry windows can be customized. You can add and remove columns on the grid by right-clicking in the heading area. If you select Restore Columns from the menu that appears, the columns are reset to those originally provided with PCLaw. If the Remove option is not available, the column is mandatory and cannot be removed. You can rearrange the order of the columns by dragging a column heading to a new position. Page 5 of 10

6 Most data entry windows show a summary of the selected matter. This summary area is highlighted in color now for better visibility. On Data Entry windows that affect the bank, the current bank balance appears below the allocation area. General and Trust General and Trust check and receipt numbers have increased from five to eight digits. The Additional Receipt, Additional Check, and Additional Payee Information windows that appear when you print now have a Template box showing the default template from System Settings. You can override the default here. New Batch Check Printing You can print general and trust checks in a batch if Batch Check Printing has been selected in System Settings. When you click Print and the Additional Check Information window appears, select Add to Check Printing Batch. When you click OK, the check is stored away for printing in a batch. The check appears on the Bank Journal immediately but a * indicates that it has not been printed. When ready to print a batch of checks use the Check Batch Printing feature on the File pull-down menu. Bank-to-Bank Transfer The new Bank-to-Bank Transfer feature replaces the former General-to-General Transfer feature. New Matter-to-Matter Transfer for General Accounts The new Matter-to-Matter Transfer feature lets you transfer a general retainer from one matter to another. Trust Checks and Receipts If Carry Matter Nickname Forward on Trust Checks and Receipts has been selected in Workstation Settings, then the matter nickname will be duplicated on each line of the allocation area of trust checks and receipts. Trust-to-General Transfer A new Details button in the allocation area of the Trust-to-General Transfer window lets you change the interest amount, invoice number, and G/L account for the transfer. New Transferring Expenses The new Transfer Expenses feature lets you transfer disbursements, en masse, from one matter to another. Memorized Transactions If Use Memorized Trans. for Receipts has been selected in System Settings, then receipts will be memorized. Recurring Entries When you create a recurring entry, you can choose from two new frequencies quarterly and semi-annually. When you use a recurring entry, you can sort the list of recurring entries by Name, Next Due Date, or Frequency. If you use a recurring entry when today s date is not equal to the due date, a warning message appears. When a recurring entry becomes due, a window appears when you start PCLaw. This window lists all the recurring entries and the dates on which they are due. From this list, select which entries to process. When processing multiple checks and receipts, PCLaw prompts you to enter the correct forms into the printer before printing each set of checks and receipts. Page 6 of 10

7 Register When you start the Register, the tab that appears will correspond to the Group Tab that has been selected on the Quick Step Menu. For example, if the Billing tab has been selected on the Quick Step Menu, then the Register will open directly to the Invoice tab. You can disable this feature by de-selecting Open Register Based on Current Quick Step Tab in Workstation Settings. The General and Trust tabs of the Register now contain an Account Balance column. You can rearrange the tab order of the Register by dragging a tab to its new position. You can also rearrange the order of the column headings by dragging a column heading to its new position. Reports When you view reports on the screen, you can use the new Refresh button to automatically regenerate the report after drilling down an item and making changes. Simply click the Refresh button on the Report Toolbar to immediately see the effect of your change. New Matter Status Report This report lists the dates of the last document, time entry, and appointment entry for each matter. You have the option of only including matters with activity between a specific set of dates and the option to include matter balances. New Cash Flow Planner The Cash Flow Planner shows cash on hand, cash billed, and cash received in the month as well as the aged Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Work-in-Progress figures. New Document Listing This report lists documents according to your specifications. It includes the matter, document name, document type, type of law, creation date, last modified date, description, and comments unless Simple Format has been selected in which case only the matter, document name, description, and comments appear. General and Trust Bank Journals The Other tab of the General and Trust Bank Journals contains a new option Show the Running Balance. This option is selected by default. In Australia, when Deposit Slips have been activated, the Daily Total on the report switches to the Bank Deposit Total. Billing (Fees) Journal On the Other tab of the Billing (Fees) Journal is a new option to sort the invoices by invoice number. If sorting by matter, the invoices are printed in date order within matter. PCLawPro systems using the accrual method of accounting can see which invoices have been provisionally written off by the letters PWO. Client Ledger If you select Show Paid by Check # on Paid Payables on the Other tab, the report includes the number of the check that paid the Accounts Payable invoice. Page 7 of 10

8 Work-in-Progress On this report, time entry descriptions wrap around instead of truncating. The Firm Totals Only check box has been added back to the Common tab. The Other tab contains a new check box to include retainers. When selected, a new column and summaries appear showing retainers. You can also summarize this report now by working lawyer, responsible lawyer, client introducing lawyer, and, if you are running PCLawPro, matter introducing lawyer. List of Clients This report has new options to include the Billing Address and, if you are running PCLawPro, to include the Matter Introducing Lawyer. If a matter has been closed, the Destroy Date appears on the report. Closed File Report The Closed File Report now includes the new Destroy Date. Receivables by Client The Other tab contains new check boxes to include summaries by collecting, responsible, client introducing and, if you are running PCLawPro, matter introducing lawyer. Payment Allocation Listing The Other tab now contains an option to exclude applied general retainers. Daily Time Summary The heading line now includes initials representing the days of the week. There is also more room for notes to be shown. Appointment Listing The Common tab contains a new option to include phone calls. The new Contact button lets you show only appointments associated with a particular contact. For appointments with multiple timekeepers, instead of showing multiple in the Lawyers column, PCLaw shows multiple timekeeper nicknames as many as will display in the column. Appointment Schedule This report now includes options to include appointments and to do s. Custom Reports With custom reports a new column is available for applied general retainers. This column shows the amount of retainers used during the period applied against the responsible lawyer. Another new column shows the matter quoted amount. Billing Pre-Bill Now you can drill down on an item on a displayed pre-bill to make changes. Create a new pre-bill to see the effect of the changes. If the pre-bill template is blank in System Settings, the pre-bill will be generated using the matter s billing template. Page 8 of 10

9 Quick Bills You can change the invoice number on a Quick Bill as long as Restrict Invoice Number Override is not selected in System Settings. Quick Bills will now include charges from the Client Ledger. Disbursements will be included in the disbursements section. Time will be included in the fee total but will not be part of the fee description. To change the allocation of fees to lawyers, use the new Allocation button. Quick Bills now include trust-to-general transfers and general retainers. New Mark Offsetting A/R as Paid This new utility cancels out positive and negative outstanding invoices of equal amounts if the Accounts Receivable balance for the matter is zero. Both invoices are marked as paid so the matter can be closed; however, the payments do not appear on the General Bank Journal because they did not occur in real life. General Ledger Statements In the G/L Account Selection area, when you select a range of G/L accounts, you can see the account nickname in addition to the account name. You can also produce a General Ledger Statement for a selected set of G/L accounts. If you want the G/L Statement window to stay on the screen after you print a statement, de-select Close Data Entry Windows on OK in Workstation Settings. G/L Adjustment and G/L Opening Balances The new Print button prints a record of any adjustments to the General Ledger. Bank Balances The Bank Balances feature now gives you the option of listing balances either as of today or including postdated items. Bank Reconciliation When looking at entries on the Mark Items window, you can change or remove an item with the new Change and Remove buttons. When displaying the Bank Reconciliation Report on the screen, you can drill down on an item by doubleclicking it. Lists All the lists formerly found on the Options pull-down menu, such as explanation codes, have moved to Options > Lists. Bank Accounts Bank account nicknames can be up to four digits in length now. Explanation Codes For firms who use taxes, explanation codes can be assigned a default tax category. This category can be overridden in the allocation area of expense recoveries, general checks, and quick bills. Page 9 of 10

10 Lawyer Budgeting If you are running PCLawPro, the Lawyer Budgeting feature is now found on the Tools pull-down menu. Electronic Billing If you are using the Electronic Billing optional module, you will see two new boxes on the Special Fields tab of Options > Lists > Lawyers and Rates. Two new firm identifiers have been added to the Firm tab of Options > System Settings. Instead of using the Custom tab in the Open Matter feature to enter extra information required for electronic bills, use the Default tab of the Matter Manager. New electronic billing fields will be found on a tab in the Matter Manager that represents the layout you are using. Page 10 of 10