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!)