many popular programs. As important as information manage- ment is, the actual business end of the law is vital as well. Most of us still live and die by our timekeeping and struggle endlessly to keep better track of our time. ProLaw captures time easily with a few mouse clicks. However, even more important than keeping track of time is billing for time. Most time and billing programs turn the creation of invoices into a dreaded chore. ProLaw created some excellent statements, allowing me to create a de- sign for my invoices or utilize some of their built-in formats.
Other important “back office” features include the ability to analyze the impact of a settlement offer in a contingent case and the ability to precisely track the dis- bursements in a trust account. The accounting features, which for me are sometimes the most baffling parts of these types of programs, seem to have been cre- ated for those of us whose eyes glaze at the mention of terms like general ledger and posting. There is one place to post each and every transaction, whether that transaction is writing a check, making a deposit or allocating one vendor’s bill
among multiple clients. The built-in cost recovery features made my secretary smile, as she is the one who has to review my toll call phone records and track down those Federal Express receipts for client billing.
The last “back office” feature seems
more directly designed for the larger firms rather than the smaller. The reporting fea- ture of ProLaw creates all kinds of reports analyzing the firm’s health. There is an amazing array of ways to look at the data: by attorney, by client, by matter type, by originator or by billing method. The re- ports can be generated using one of the multiple types of reports included and custom fields are also available. Overall, this was a pretty dazzling pro- gram, integrating an incredible amount of information at the same time. The program’s strongest feature is the on-site training that prepares all users for future data entry and collects existing firm and client data. This integrates the documents and work habits and thereby eases the transition to this program. The financial investment is large, but one that is well worth considering for your firm’s inte- grated future.
=TIME MATTERS 3.0 (By Steve Schmidt. This article originally appeared in October/November 2000 Law Office Computing.)
How would you like each lawyer in
your firm to have an exact duplicate of that lawyer’s files, appointments, To-Do’s, billing and e-mail on a laptop maintained automatically on a daily basis? Time Mat- ters 3.0 does just that. It’s one of three core programs indispensable to any law office that wants to be completely auto- mated, and the program in which all of the raw data should be created. With Time Matters 3.0, Timeslips 10 and Quickbooks (or another suitable account- ing program), complete automation is possible as follows: All information (cli- ents, appointments, To-Do’s, documents and phone calls) are created in or entered into Time Matters. Each event, To-Do or phone call is billed through Time Mat- ters via the Timeslips link to Timeslips. The Timeslips link to Quickbooks trans- fers the billing information to Quickbooks.
(Continued on page 42)
Spring 2001
Trial Reporter
41
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