Category: TimeNet Law

TimeNet Law 2.7.5 is now available! This killer update includes over 20 new features and improvements, as well as a number of fixes and safeguards to improve stability of the software, especially under large database loads. You’re gonna love this update so check it out now!

Download a free trial of TimeNet Law 2.7.5 right now at timenetlaw.com!

Complete Release Notes

– Billed slips can no longer be edited, moved or deleted until the relevant invoice is cancelled – this is a safeguard to prevent billing issues
– Matters with billed slips can no longer be deleted – this is a safeguard to prevent billing issues
– Slip Analysis Report has new option to combine report or split by client
– Slip Analysis Report now shows time in tenths when that option is set
– Slip Analysis Report now allows you to not show any timed slips
– New option to show the Matter Number on invoices
– Improvements made to the slip timer
– Spell Checking is now enabled throughout the program. Red words are misspelled, right-click to correct or learn the word.
– Improved the behavior of the Matter Notes drawer and edit field
– Matter windows now show the total time and dollar amount of the selected slips at the bottom
– New feature to increment time up or down one tenth in time fields with arrow keys when time entry is set to Tenths
– New option to show Aged A/R on invoice footnotes
– New ability to withdraw funds from client/matter accounts without applying them to an invoice with detailed note entry
– Withdrawals will be shown on relevant matters like all other previous payments
– Withdrawals will not count towards collections and will be depleted and tracked from the initial deposit
– New Matter Settings option – Parties and Split Billing
– Add names, addresses, phone numbers, position titles and more to your matters
– Each party can be responsible for a percentage of the billing from this matter
– When invoicing, multiple copies with pro-rated balances for each party are generated
– Improvements and polish to invoice layout and headings
– Fixed issues with Payment Center and Billing Center when using certain tax settings
– Optimized Billing Center’s Invoices section
– Fixed an issue with Total dollar discounts and percentage discounts shown on invoices
– Fixed issues that caused crashes in the Payment Center

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TimeNet Law 2.7.4 is now available! This update mostly addresses stability with Dropbox and other Cloud database storage scenarios, and fixes some report calculations.

Download a free trial of TimeNet Law 2.7.4 right now at timenetlaw.com!

Complete Release Notes

– Fixed some calculation issues and improved speed in various reports
– Reliability and data integrity improvements when networked
– Collection calculations on reports with date filters calculate correctly under all conditions

Learn More About TimeNet Law Here

TimeNet Law 2.7.3 is now available! This update brings some great new features to the Client section of TimeNet Law, fixes some issues, and improves speed throughout the application.

Download a free trial of TimeNet Law 2.7.3 right now at timenetlaw.com!

Complete Release Notes

– Credit Report properly combines all like payments together
– Fixed an issue with the Credit Report search filter not properly filtering under some conditions
– Improved reliability of Payment Center
– Improved calculation of Credit History section in Payment Center
– Improved Client Information window
– Clients can now have unlimited phone numbers, email addresses and fax numbers, with labels
– Clients now have a New Parties section – Name, Role, Conflict Status (neutral, associated, conflicting)
– Improved progress bar on Ledger History Report
– Shrunk number of pages of Ledger History Report by 66%
– Improved efficiency of database in speed and size
– Various layout and UI enhancements

Learn More About TimeNet Law Here

TimeNet Law 2.7.2 is now available! This update has been in the works for over a month, and with over 15 new features, lots of fixes, improvements and polish, we’re really excited about it!

TimeNet Law 2.7.2 is available now from our website at timenetlaw.com. A free trial is available for download if you’d like to check it out.

Complete Release Notes

– Joint Billing — ability to bill for multiple matters to one Master Matter
    – Can turn multiple matters into one invoice
    – Master Matter automatically links with all other matters in the same group
    – All linked matters are billed to the Master Matter for simple reporting
    – Quickly see which matters are linked from the Master Matter
– New Matter Settings button in Matter window toolbar
– New Address Book Viewer
– New system-wide keyboard shortcut for bringing up the timekeeper timer (default is Shift+Option+Space)
– New ability to omit the fund replenishment amount on invoices (when billing multiple invoices in one cycle)
– New ability to only show 1, 2, 3 or 4 lines of a Slip’s note on invoices, so the rest can be kept internal
– New Preference Option: Default Slip Time
– New Preference Option: Select which Address Book Group to pull contacts from when creating clients
– Conflicts found will now play an alert sound, if Play Sounds is enabled in Preferences
– Can now click the Conflict icon in the Main Window to see what the conflict is
– Bulk invoice generation only includes a required replenishment amount only on the first invoice
– The Slips list now remains active and editable while the timer is running in the Matter window
– Fund Deposits are now shown before Fund Withdrawals on invoice footnotes
– Invoices with both a dollar discount and percentage discount are now clearer
– All discounts are clearer on invoices
– When autosaving, Matters no longer lose focus of the field or list you are in
– In the Timekeeper Timer Link Slip window, clients are now sorted alphabetically
– In the Timekeeper Timer window, if a timer is running when making into a slip, the timer now continues running
– Timekeeper Timer slips now automatically start timing with preference option
– The Timekeeper Timer’s edit time HUD window now properly displays the OK button and other graphics
– The Timekeeper Timer’s edit time HUD window now properly allows time entry in hh:mm:ss or tenths
– Improved and optimized syncing of Matters and re-calculation after invoicing, canceling an invoice, applying a payment, etc.
– Slip notes shown in Slip Analysis report now appear consistently below the row
– Fixed layout of Slip Analysis Report
– Fixed an issue where Timekeeper Timers were not properly saving when quitting TimeNet Law
– Fixed an issue with Invoice Summary report’s Previous Payments section with certain date filters
– Fixed an issue in the Slip Analysis Report where Flat Fee Items and Additional Charges might be doubled
– Fixed an issue with disbursements showing a negative amount in the Payment Center under some payment conditions
– Fixed an issue where clients list temporarily might not show all clients after closing Preferences
– Fixed an issue with deleting deposits form Matter UAC funds
– Fixed an issue with sorting by last name
– Fixed an issue with Conflict of Interest checks

Learn More About TimeNet Law Here

TimeNet Law 2.7.1 is now available for download, along with TimeNet Law Control Center 1.4. You can download TimeNet Law now from our website, or by clicking this link: http://www.applesource.us/pub/bin/files/timenet_law_1.zip

Release Notes

– Ability to set Matters as Inactive and hide them from the main list
– Ability to modify auto-complete list without going into Preferences (or needing permissions)
– Ability to move or refund money to and from all accounts
– Ability to turn events and completed tasks from iCal into billable slips
– Ability to apply dollar discounts to total, not just fees or disbursements
– Dollar discounts no longer show a leading 0 if the discount is less than 10.00
– Ability to allocate percentages of Matter revenue per Timekeeper
– New Revenue Allocation Report
– New Move Slips command to streamline moving Slips from Matter to Matter
– Added 3 new categories of ABA Task Code Sets: Counseling, Bankruptcy and Activity
– Fixed a rare issue with adding flat fee item slips
– Fixed an issue with Matter refreshing in a networked environment

TimeNet Law 2.7 is now available for download. You can download it now from our website, or by clicking this link: http://www.applesource.us/pub/bin/files/timenet_law_1.zip

Release Notes

– Fixed an issue where custom fields wouldn’t appear on invoices that were re-issued
– Fixed an issue where pasting data into parts of the system could cause data glitches
– Client Groups are now sorted
– Fixed an issue with creating Slips from the Timekeeper Timer
– Improved performance and reliability when working on a WAN (Dropbox, iCloud, etc.) network
– Fixed issues with changes not propagating to the network 100% of the time
– Fixed an issue that would cause errors when creating new matters or copying and pasting between matters quickly
– Fixed an issue that rendered a Client’s Billing Type unchangeable in Networked mode

TimeNet Law 2.6 is now available for download.

Release Notes

– Added an option to save invoices in CSV format
– Added new Monthly Report for Timekeepers and Clients
– Added new security settings to Control Center
– Made corrections to Balance Forward and Previous Payments when Bulk Invoicing
– Improved invoice layout
– Made some corrections to calculations performed when showing fund balances in the Payment Center
– Improved Timekeeper entry to include ID and position, and made Timekeepers easier to edit
– Made improvements to invoice summary lines
– Removed default coma on invoices and reports between city and state when fields are left blank
– Enabled graphic and textual headers to work at the same time
– Matter Filter in Slip Analysis Report
– Ability to show Flat Fee Slips and Additional Charge Slips in Slip Analysis Report
– Double-clicking a slip in the Slip Analysis Report now selects that slip after opening the matter
– Slip Analysis Report now can generate reports for clients
– Credit Report – double-click any Amount Left row to see detail of where the money is
– Fixed an issue with the Main Window remembering which client(s) were expanded
– Fixed an issue when copying and pasting slips from one matter to another
– Fixed various bugs from bug reports
– Fixed Group Totals showing incorrect 0.00 amounts on Invoice Summary Report
– Fixed an issue with automatic payment application on generated Invoices when using certain settings with Bulk Invoicing
– Fixed an issue with Matter Unapplied Credits balances shown on invoices

It’s been awhile since our last post. TimeNet Law has come a long, long way in the last year.

What’s New in TimeNet Law

Robust Reporting
– See how much time has been logged today, or yesterday, or last week with the Slip Analysis Report. Get a concise overview of your firm’s time.

– Keep clients happy with easy to read Credit Reports and Invoice Summaries that provide clear breakdowns of time spent and money collected & applied.

– Completely customizable Client Report shows you all of the data you need and nothing you don’t. See this data plotted on a bar graph for even greater visual coherency. Double-click any column to see a matter-by-matter breakdown of the data that encompasses that figure.

– Many more reports provide you with all the data you need: Statement of Account Report, Aged A/R Report, Net Investment Report, Billed/Unbilled Fees & Disbursements Reports, Trust/Escrow/Unapplied Credits Reports and more.

Powerful Tracking of Fund Accounts
TimeNet Law now allows you to store funds in client level accounts or matter level accounts. This makes organizing funds and grouping vendors and persons responsible for payment very simple. TimeNet Law also has a new Unapplied Credits fund (both at the client and matter level) to allow you to store funds in a general retainer account.

Funds can be deposited into these accounts and then applied to invoice balances manually or automatically. Detailed Credit Reports show you exactly how the funds were deposited and applied out, even showing how much (if any) is left from each payment.

Task Code Billing
Task Code is a new setting that can be applied at the client or matter level. Once Task Code Billing is enabled, slips added to the matter must be selected from pre-defined lists. This uniform list allows for compatibility with Electronic Billing services, and also simplifies entering tasks and expenses while cutting down on user entry errors.

TimeNet Law currently has four categories to choose tasks from:
Project Task Codes
Litigation Task Codes
TradeMark Task Codes
Patent Task Codes

When entering charges, the list is broken into subcategories so you can easily make your selection. Here is the Litigation Task Code Set:

Other New Features
TimeNet Law has many additional features, too many to list them all. Here are some highlights:

– Each matter has 4 custom fields for information that must be shown on invoices
– Ability to show clients sorted by last name
– Ability to track and show Timekeeper IDs
– Timekeeper Summary option for invoices
– Create Group listings under each client and subcategorize matters into those groups

More to Comethe standard in legal billing and accounting.

TimeNet Law 2.1 is coming out any day now, so I wanted to take a few minutes to explain the new features and changes so everyone can understand what’s going on here.

First of all, TimeNet Law 2.1 is probably one of the most, if not the most, substantial updates we’ve ever released since TimeNet Law 1.0. This new update introduces a new billing system that most of you should be very familiar with. Matters behave in much the same way, except now when you create an invoice from a matter, that invoice is stored within the matter. Invoices have their own balance, dates, and payments. Slips are added to invoices on a slip-by-slip basis (rather than a date filter, as before). Once a slip is invoiced, it then “belongs” to that invoice and can no longer be worked on. This allows TimeNet Law to differentiate between Billed work and Work in Progress.

Let’s take a look at how this works. Here I have a Matter with three timed slips on it.

In older versions of TimeNet Law, I could immediately add payments by clicking the Payments toolbar button, and those payments would apply to the whole Matter. Not any longer. In order to apply payments, you must first invoice the work. Do this by clicking the Invoice button, as you would have in the past.

Now you have the option of giving this invoice an invoice number, if you uncheck Draft. If Draft is unchecked, all slips included in this invoice will be set to Billed and will then be owned by this invoice number. You may also set the invoice date, the due date, and select additional content to appear on the invoice. If you click the Slips tab, you’ll see a list of all Work in Progress slips for this matter.

As you check and uncheck slips, the invoice total will change to reflect what is included. Taxes, discounts and previous payments are also included in this total.

When you click Create, an invoice is generated. If the Draft button was unchecked, all included slips will be converted to Billed and belong to that invoice.

Billed slips will appear as green items in the matter window. You may also choose to hide billed slips under the View menu so they do not clutter up the matter window anymore.

Clicking the Invoices toolbar button (next to Notes) will slide out the invoices drawer. Here, you can see all existing invoices for this matter, re-issue an invoice, apply a payment to an invoice, or cancel an invoice.

The All-New Billing Center

Another great new feature of TimeNet Law 2.1 is the brand new Billing Center.

The Billing Center has four functions.

The Clients section shows you all clients in TimeNet Law, their balances, and their fund accounts. Balances are calculated from invoices. If a client has a fund balance that is below their required minimum, they will appear in red. You can now bulk-generate a list of statements for your clients. Statements will show all invoices with outstanding balances, with a total, and will show any required funds to bring trust/escrow accounts to their required minimum.

The Work in Progress section is like the old billing center – it shows you all work currently unbilled, and lets you bulk-generate invoices. When bulk-generating invoices, you will have two options: include all unbilled slips, or include unbilled slips within a date range (similar to the old method of bulk invoicing). The difference here is if you uncheck the Draft button, all slips invoiced will be finalized, set to Billed, and owned by the invoice generated for that matter.

The Invoices section shows all invoices in TimeNet Law, their balance, and due date. From here, you can apply payments to an invoice or cancel an invoice.

The Automatic Bookkeeper section is just like the old Automatic Bookkeeper function in TimeNet Law, only now payments are added to invoices specifically, as opposed to the entire matter.

Upgrading from Previous Versions of TimeNet Law

Because TimeNet Law’s core billing system is so different in 2.1, your database will have to be updated. TimeNet Law will prompt you when this update happens. It’s important to understand that all previous payments will be applied to 1 invoice number per matter. This invoice is auto-generated, and all slips that fall before a certain date range (the first of April, for example), will be set to Billed and owned by that invoice. This ensures all work performed and payments recorded can be carried over to the new system.

Historical data may need to be modified by hand. You can easily move slips from one invoice to another by right-clicking them in the matter window, so you may generate as many invoices as you want with correct dates, slips and payments if you choose to go back and make everything accurate. This is an optional step and is not required to continue using TimeNet Law.

Final Thoughts

There are lots of other great new features in TimeNet Law 2.1 – some are byproducts of the new system, for example, intelligent reporting is now possible with aged A/R, distinguishing between Work in Progress and Billed, etc. etc. Some other new features are still kept a secret – nice surprises for when you try out the new version. The interface has been refined throughout to make navigating through TimeNet Law easier and more fun.

All-in-all, TimeNet Law 2.1 is a killer update that we know you’re going to love. Stay tuned for release next week…

(Now I’m going on a vacation!)