Time and Billing Reports: “Aging Report”
November 16, 2009
Often, users of TurboLaw Time and Billing who are switching from another time and billing system want to pull up certain types of reports, but they only know the name of the report from their previous billing system.
To help with this, we are going to be posting a series of articles that describe step-by-step how to produce the same reports you’re used to from your old billing system in TurboLaw Time and Billing.
Displaying an “Aging Report” in TurboLaw Time and Billing
In today’s article, we’re going to show you how to display what other billing programs might call an “aging report.”
Note: you can click any of the images in this article to enlarge the picture.
Step 1: Switch to the Bills view by clicking Bills from the left-hand navigation bar.
Step 2: Using the options at the bottom of the left-hand navigation bar, choose to see bills grouped by Age.
That’s it! The bills you see are now grouped by age, so you can see at a glance how many bills are in each age category, and what the totals are for each age category. This is what some programs might call an “aging report.”
You can also print this view by clicking the File menu and choosing Print.
As always, our goal is to make TurboLaw Time and Billing as easy to use as possible – and that includes making it easy to switch to TurboLaw Time and Billing from another billing program. If you have questions about how to produce a report from your old billing program in TurboLaw Time and Billing, feel free to ask us!
Time and Billing Reports: Client Recap
November 9, 2009
Often, users of TurboLaw Time and Billing who are switching from another time and billing system want to pull up certain types of reports, but they only know the name of the report from their previous billing system.
To help with this, we are going to be posting a series of articles that describe step-by-step how to produce the same reports you’re used to from your old billing system in TurboLaw Time and Billing.
How to Produce a “Client Recap” Report in TurboLaw Time and Billing
What some billing programs might call a “Client Recap,” TurboLaw Time and Billing calls “Account History.”
TurboLaw Time and Billing makes it very easy to see a “client recap” report for a particular client.
Step 1: Open the client you wish to view the recap report for.
Step 2: Click the Account History button.
That’s it! The account history window is the TurboLaw Time and Billing equivalent to a “Client Recap” report in some other billing programs. You can view the account history as either a “tree” type view (with items “grouped” into 4 main groups) or as a grid (like a check register). You can also print both views by clicking the Print button.
As always, our goal is to make TurboLaw Time and Billing as easy to use as possible – and that includes making it easy to switch to TurboLaw Time and Billing from another billing program. If you have questions about how to produce a report from your old billing program in TurboLaw Time and Billing, feel free to ask us!
Time and Billing Reports: MTD or YTD billed by client or time keeper
November 2, 2009
Often, users of TurboLaw Time and Billing who are switching from another time and billing system want to pull up certain types of reports, but they only know the name of the report from their previous billing system.
To help with this, we are going to be posting a series of articles that describe step-by-step how to produce the same reports you’re used to from your old billing system in TurboLaw Time and Billing.
How to Produce MTD or YTD “Billed by Client” or “Billed by Time Keeper” Reports in TurboLaw Time and Billing
In today’s article, we’re going to describe how to produce a class of reports, and not just one particular report. Specifically, we’re going to show you how to produce MTD (month-to-date) or YTD (year-to-date) “Billed by Client” or “Billed by Time Keeper” (what TurboLaw Time and Billing calls “Staff Member”) reports.
Although TurboLaw Time and Billing doesn’t let you restrict the displayed information to just a particular range of dates (e.g., YTD or MTD), you can easily export the data you see on your screen into a program such as Microsoft Excel, which is capable of very advanced data manipulation and display – including the desired MTD or YTD reports.
In general, it is possible to pull up these types of reports in Excel in just a minute or two.
Note: you can click any of the images in this article to enlarge the picture.
Step 1: From the Home screen, click the Add/Edit Work Items button to bring up the Time/Work window.
Step 2: From the Time/Work window, click the Export button and save the exported data on your computer.
Step 3: Open the file you just saved with your preferred spreadsheet program (e.g., Microsoft Excel).
Step 4: Now that you have the data in Excel, you can bring Excel’s advanced filtering and reporting tools to bear on it. Just select the columns you would like to filter by, and then click the Sort and Filter button in Excel.
(Note: these pictures are taken from Microsoft Excel 2007 – if you are using a different version or a different spreadsheet program, your options will look different. Please consult your program’s help file for how to perform the equivalent steps in your particular program.)
Step 5: Set the filtering options you would like on the columns you have selected. You can do this by clicking the little drop-down type box which appears in the heading of each column.
Above: the Date column showing the filter drop-down button
Above: the filter drop-down lets you filter dates in any way you like. In this picture, we are filtering for YTD (year-to-date).
Above: you can also filter by name. In this picture, we are filtering by client name.
That’s it! Now your data is filtered to be either MTD or YTD, as well as restricted by client or time keeper (what TurboLaw Time and Billing calls “Staff member”).
You can print this data directly from Excel, or use it to perform other manipulations on the data – for example, you might want it to sum up the Amount column.
Of course, there are no limits on what you can do to the report – Excel provides a tremendous number of tools for analyzing data such as this. The only real limit is your imagination as to what sorts of reports you’d like to see!
As always, our goal is to make TurboLaw Time and Billing as easy to use as possible – and that includes making it easy to switch to TurboLaw Time and Billing from another billing program. If you have questions about how to produce a report from your old billing program in TurboLaw Time and Billing, feel free to ask us!
Time and Billing Reports: “Open Slips”
October 26, 2009
Often, users of TurboLaw Time and Billing who are switching from another time and billing system want to pull up certain types of reports, but they only know the name of the report from their previous billing system.
To help with this, we are going to be posting a series of articles that describe step-by-step how to produce the same reports you’re used to from your old billing system in TurboLaw Time and Billing.
How to Produce an “Open Slips” Report in TurboLaw Time and Billing
In today’s article, we’re going to explain how to produce what some billing programs call an “open slips” report.
In TurboLaw Time and Billing, what other programs might call an “open slip” we call simply an “unbilled” item. Here’s how to see a list of unbilled items.
Note: you can click any of the images in this article to enlarge the picture.
Step 1: From the Home screen, click the Add/Edit Work Items button.
This will bring up the Time and Expenses window.
Step 2: Click the Status column to sort the items by status (billed or unbilled). You’ll have to click the column twice if you want unbilled items to appear first (the first click sorts the list alphabetically, the second click reverses the sort).
Once the list is sorted, you are looking at your report of unbilled items – in other words, the “open slips.”
You can either print this report (click the Print button) or use the Copy or Export buttons to copy the list to another program or save it as a file for further modification.
That’s it! That’s how you pull up a report of unbilled items in TurboLaw Time and Billing – what other programs might call an “open slips” report.
Pro Tip: the steps above will show unbilled items for all clients – if you want to restrict your report to the unbilled items for just one client, first open that client’s window and choose the Edit Time/Work option as shown here:
This will display the same window, but the items shown will be only for that one client.
As always, our goal is to make TurboLaw Time and Billing as easy to use as possible – and that includes making it easy to switch to TurboLaw Time and Billing from another billing program. If you have questions about how to produce a report from your old billing program in TurboLaw Time and Billing, feel free to ask us!
Time and Billing Reports: “Open Invoices”
October 19, 2009
Often, users of TurboLaw Time and Billing who are switching from another time and billing system want to pull up certain types of reports, but they only know the name of the report from their previous billing system.
To help with this, we are going to be posting a series of articles that describe step-by-step how to produce the same reports you’re used to from your old billing system in TurboLaw Time and Billing.
Displaying an “Open Invoice” Report in TurboLaw Time and Billing
In today’s article, we’re going to show how to display an “Open Invoice” report in TurboLaw Time and Billing.
In TurboLaw Time and Billing, “Invoices” are called simply “Bills,” and bills can be either Open (Unpaid) or Closed (Paid). Here’s how to bring up a list of Open (Unpaid) Bills, or what other programs might call “Open Invoices.”
Note: you can click any of the images in this article to enlarge the picture.
Step 1: Switch to the Bills view by clicking Bills from the left-hand navigation bar.
Step 2: Using the options at the bottom of the left-hand navigation bar, choose to see Unpaid Bills. You can choose to group the bills in any way you want – for simplicity in this example we choose No Grouping to produce just a simple list of bills.
The list you see will be all of your open (unpaid) bills – that is to say, all of your “open invoices.” You can print this list by clicking the File menu and choosing Print.
That’s it! That’s how you bring up what other billing programs would call an “Open Invoices” report in TurboLaw Time and Billing.
As always, our goal is to make TurboLaw Time and Billing as easy to use as possible – and that includes making it easy to switch to TurboLaw Time and Billing from another billing program. If you have questions about how to produce a report from your old billing program in TurboLaw Time and Billing, feel free to ask us!
Solving the Problem of Sending Sensitive Files via Email
June 19, 2009
A common problem for law firms (and for businesses in general) that is getting increasingly more attention these days is how to share files and documents between people – such as between a lawyer and a client, or between members of a team that are not physically in the same office. (Such sharing is often described as collaboration.)
The classic approach to this – and the one most people probably think of first – is to simply email the files to whomever needs them, have them edit the files, and then email them back. This method is relatively easy and popular because most people already know how to use email.
However, increasing privacy and data protection laws, as well as the increased risk of identity fraud (a.k.a. “identity theft”) have made many people re-think the classic approach of emailing files around.
This is because there are lots of downsides to using email to share files:
- Sending a large number of files is cumbersome
- Different email providers all have different limits on the maximum size of attached files
- Email has no “security” built in – because emails are sent “in the clear” they can potentially be intercepted and read, or even modified
- Sharing files with multiple people for collaboration (shared editing) is basically impossible
- Some people are trained to avoid opening attachments because of past experiences with viruses
- Some email programs (notably Microsoft Outlook) just flat-out block certain types of attached files
Part of the problem is that sending files via email is simply not what email was originally meant for. Email was originally “text only” – the ability to “attach” files to email was not originally part of the email specification. In fact, attachments were sort of “grafted” on much later – circa 1996, in fact.
Fortunately, there are better options for sharing files instead of email – and they are just as easy to use. You just need to know about them.
There are several “file sharing” websites and services available these days – precisely because of the need to share files without sending them through email. We’ve picked out two that are a good match for law firms and other small businesses: Box.net and drop.io.
(Full disclosure: we are not affiliated with these companies in any way – we have picked these two based on the merits of the services they provide.)
Both of these websites offer the same basic service: upload your file (or files) to their server (protected with a password if you wish) and then get a link you can give to other people so that they can get the file. Basically, both of these websites are acting like digital “drop boxes.”
Both websites offer a “free” service that is limited in the number of files you can save, and both offer a paid service that gives you a lot of space to store files (useful if you’re sending big files – like videos or audio transcriptions – back & forth). 
Both of these services allow you to organize the files you upload, control what access people have to them (for example, you might want to give someone only the permission to download the file, but not to re-upload it back), and set “expiration dates” for the “drops” that you create. All of these options give you incredible control over how you end up sharing files and documents with your clients and with other firms.
These services are managed via the web, so you can upload files from wherever you are. And because they are both web-based, you don’t have to worry about whether the person with whom you are trying to share files has a PC, a Mac, or whatever. If they can get on to the Internet, they can get the files.
The best parts of these services, though, are that they provide you with a simple, secure, safe, and controlled way to share documents, forms, and other files with your clients or other law firms – without exposing yourself to the potential problems that come with sending things via email. And you can do all this very easily from a web site, without needing to have an IT person come in and set it up for you – which is a real bonus in these tough economic times.
If you send documents back & forth frequently via email – especially confidential or sensitive documents – you really should check out one of these type of services. They may just end up saving you from a lot of trouble later on down the road.
Icon courtesy of the Crystal Icon Set. Box.net and drop.io logos are trademarks of their respective companies.
Where are my documents?
May 21, 2009
One of the questions we sometimes get asked in regards to TurboLaw Document Software is “where are my documents actually saved?”
The short answer to this question is “wherever you want them to be saved,” but that’s not necessarily helpful, especially if you’re not paying attention to where you save your documents and are just accepting the default save location. So we’ll go into it in a little bit more detail here.
First though, a little bit of terminology: It’s important to remember that TurboLaw is not really “document management” software – it doesn’t save your documents in some special “repository” that you can only access through TurboLaw itself. In fact, any documents you create with TurboLaw are just saved on your computer as normal Word or Excel files.
It’s a little bit inaccurate to speak of your documents being “in” TurboLaw – they aren’t really “in” TurboLaw, they’re “in” your computer, and you just happen to be looking at them “through” TurboLaw. You can also look at your documents “through” any other program you wish – such as Windows Explorer or Microsoft Word or Excel.
With that out of the way, we can talk about where your documents are actually saved when you create them with TurboLaw. There are 2 different scenarios to consider, depending on what you are doing.
Creating a Blank/Empty Document
Creating a blank/empty document is the simplest and fastest way to bring up a form in TurboLaw – although of course you pay for that speed with the time it takes you to fill out the rest of the form by hand, since a blank/empty form is, by definition, empty – that is, no case or client information is inserted for you automatically.
Whenever you create a blank/empty form, TurboLaw saves it into a “temporary” folder on your computer. (After all, since there’s no case involved here, TurboLaw has no idea where you might want to save the document, so a temporary folder is the best it can do.)
After you’ve created and opened a blank/empty form, you can choose the Save As menu in Word or Excel to save the file anywhere on your computer that you’d like. If you would like to just print the document and be done with it (and never use it again), you don’t need to save it at all – just fill it out, print it, and close it.
If you don’t save your blank/empty form somewhere else, then when you are done with it, TurboLaw will delete it from the temporary folder. After all, that’s why it’s called a “temporary” folder. But as long as you remember to save your files where you want, you don’t have to worry – just don’t save them in the temporary folder!
As a safety precaution, TurboLaw reminds you that your blank/empty document is saved initially in a temporary folder every time you open a blank/empty form (unless you have specifically checked the box to not be shown the reminders).
Creating a Document for a Case
When you create a document for a case, the documents you create are saved into the folder for that case.
If you don’t tell TurboLaw otherwise, it will automatically create a folder for your case and manage it for you. The folders that TurboLaw creates are still saved on your computer, but they are named with the internal “ID number” of the case, so that TurboLaw can find them quickly.
The default location where TurboLaw creates these automatic folders may vary depending on the version of Windows (or the version of TurboLaw) on your computer, but you can see what it will be by clicking the View menu in TurboLaw and choosing TurboLaw Status, then looking for the Cases Path. This is the “root” folder where TurboLaw will create additional folders for each case you create (unless you tell it otherwise). If you are using TurboLaw on a network, this folder will be on your network as well – otherwise, it will be on your computer’s local hard drive.
If you choose to use the Alternate Case Folder option when creating a case, you can tell TurboLaw to save the documents for that case in any folder you want. Once you have done this, TurboLaw will save any documents for that case in the folder you picked.
If you ever want to see where the documents for a particular case are saved, just click the Open this Folder button to see the folder for that case open up in Windows Explorer.
Once the folder is open in Windows Explorer, you can look at the Windows Explorer address bar to see the exact location of that folder.
In the picture above, you can see that this case is saved in one of TurboLaw’s managed folders – that’s the reason why it ends with that really long number. The files are still on your computer, even though TurboLaw is controlling where they are saved – and you can do anything with those files that you want. After all, it’s your computer, and they are your files!
TurboLaw always strives to keep things as simple as possible, letting you get down to the business of creating the documents you need. However, knowing a little bit about where TurboLaw saves your documents – and the power it gives you to control where those documents are saved – can help you be more “in control” of your document workflow, and help you stay on top of your work.
Keeping Your Clients’ Data Safe
March 4, 2009
We all know that it’s important to protect sensitive information, but with so much information these days stored in our computers (in files, databases, emails, etc.), it can be hard to know how to protect these digital files adequately. In this article, we’re going to talk about easy steps you can take to protect sensitive client information – client’s names, Social Security or Tax ID numbers, etc. – and the documents that may contain such information.
With the increasingly worrisome trend of “identity theft” (which might be more accurately described as “identity fraud”), comes the need to take steps to reduce the risk of personal information being stolen and used fraudulently. Many states (including Massachusetts) have or are beginning to pass laws to address this issue – but ultimately, if you take and store this sort of information, the responsibility for protecting it is on you.
First off, it’s worth knowing what sort of personal information might be saved, and where on your computer it is saved:
- TurboLaw Document Software stores client’s names, addresses, and in some cases, Social Security or Tax ID numbers. This information is stored both in TurboLaw’s database file and in any document or form you create that calls for that information.
- TurboLaw Time and Billing, on the other hand, does not ask for any personal information beyond a client’s name and address.
So, what can you do to protect this information? There are many different ways you can protect information, but here are some of the simplest:
Using Microsoft Window’s own Solution
Microsoft Windows itself has something built-in that can help you. Windows (2000 or later) has a feature called the Encrypting File System. This feature allows you to “encrypt” files on your computer, so that if your computer is (for example) stolen, the person who stole it won’t be able to read the encrypted files.
Below are two articles which describe how to use this feature and some “best practices” for using it:
- How to encrypt a file in Windows XP (the method described is similar in Windows 2000 and Windows Vista)
- Bets practices for the Encrypting File System
- It is worth noting that this method of protecting your files is only as strong as the password you use on your computer – if you don’t use a password, or if you use a simple, short password, then your files will not be very secure. A full discussion of choosing a good password is beyond the scope of this article, but you can read some tips and suggestions in this article: Strong Passwords: How to create and use them.
Knowing this, and knowing that you can click the “View” menu in TurboLaw and choose “TurboLaw Status” to see where TurboLaw is currently saving your database and case documents, you can encrypt that folder (as well as any other folders on your computer where you store documents that might contain sensitive information) and know that your data is protected.
Other Solutions
There might be reasons why you wouldn’t want to use Microsoft Windows’ own solution. Fortunately, other solutions are available (although they are a little bit more technical).
For example, you might use software such as TrueCrypt to encrypt an entire disk on your computer – or create a “virtual” disk which is also encrypted.
Another option is to store your data on a USB flash drive which comes with encryption options (similar to TrueCrypt).
Final Thoughts
If you have an in-house IT department (or an arrangement with an IT provider or firm), we would generally recommend that you speak to them for advice on how to secure sensitive client data on your computers.
However, if you are a small firm or a solo practitioner, the tips provided above will help you be more proactive about protecting the sensitive information that is increasingly stored on your computer.
Timeslips to TurboLaw: How to print a worksheet in TurboLaw Time and Billing
January 29, 2009
Today’s tip is for people who are switching to TurboLaw Time and Billing after having previously used Timeslips.
One of our customers, a former user of Timeslips, called asking if she could print worksheets in TurboLaw Time and Billing. If you’ve been wondering the same thing – here’s your answer!
Our customer explained that the type of “worksheet” she used to print was just a list (a grid, really) of the time/expenses for a particular client or staff member. Since TurboLaw Time and Billing allows you to print just about anything you see on your screen, all you need to do is just bring up a list of the time/expenses for a client or staff member and you can print that out as a “worksheet.”
For a client, you do this by first double-clicking the client’s name from the Clients list. Then, click either the Time/Work button or the Expenses button (circled in red in the picture below), and choose Edit Time/Work or Edit Expenses.
This will open a new window which shows you the time and expenses for this client.
Note the Print button (we’ve circled it in red) in the top-left corner of the window – this means that you can print what you see on the screen!
Just click the Print button to print out the list that you see – this is your worksheet! (You can also choose Print Preview and save the results as a PDF, or add watermarks, headings, and other options – or choose Page Setup to make changes to the page margins.)
If you would rather see the time and expenses for a particular staff member, just switch to the Staff list, select the staff member you’d like to view work for and then click on View Work (circled in red in the picture below).
The same sort of window will open up as shown previously, except now it will list time and expense entries for that staff member, instead of for a client. You can print the list just the same as before.
TurboLaw Time and Billing allows you to print just about anything you see in the program – most windows have a Print button in the upper-left corner, and if you see a print button – you can print what you see!
Although the terminology used in TurboLaw Time and Billing is sometimes different from other billing programs (we try to stick with “plain English”), you’ll find that you can still do most – if not all – of the same things. Of course if you are not sure how to do something, just contact us and we’ll be happy to help you!
Transferring TurboLaw to a new computer
December 17, 2008
Note: This article refers to TurboLaw Document Software, not TurboLaw Time and Billing.
Lots of people get new computers around this time of year, and it’s an unfortunate fact of life that when you get a new computer, you have to re-install all of your programs on that new computer – and TurboLaw is no exception.
Of course, here at TurboLaw we try to make the process of moving to a new computer as easy as possible. So if you’ve got (or are going to get) a new computer (either as a gift or because an old computer died), here’s some tips and information to help make it a little bit easier to get your TurboLaw software up and running again.
Lost your TurboLaw CD? No problem!
Just give us a call at (800) 518-8726 and let us know. We’ll give you a special web link you can use to download the software on your new computer.
Using TurboLaw on a Network?
In most cases, if you have TurboLaw’s data saved on a network, you don’t need to “move” anything from your old computer – since all your data (cases, documents, files, etc.) is saved on your network, not on your computer. Just re-install TurboLaw on your new computer, use the Network Setup Assistant to point it to where your data is on the network, and you’re all set!
Need to transfer your cases and documents to a new computer?
Although copying your cases and documents to a new computer is fairly easy, we’ve gone and made it even easier by providing you with a utility to help “migrate” your TurboLaw cases and files to a new computer.
We call it the “Migration Wizard“.
The TurboLaw Migration Wizard
This handy little program will archive all of your TurboLaw cases, documents, and files into one handy little “migration file” which you can easily copy to your new computer using a disk, send via email, copy over your network, save to a USB memory stick, or any other method you want to use.
Once you’ve got the migration file on your new computer, this same little program will help you “un-pack” all of your TurboLaw cases and files into your new computer. Easy!
You can download the Migration Wizard here and read instructions on how to use it here.
Don’t forget to register!
When you install TurboLaw on a new computer, you will have to register it on that computer. TurboLaw will prompt you to do this the first time you open it, although you have up to 30 days before you must register. Once you’re satisfied that all your cases are moved to your new computer, you can un-install TurboLaw from your old computer (Start > All Programs > TurboLaw > Uninstall TurboLaw or use the Add/Remove Programs control panel applet) and register TurboLaw on your new computer. No “codes” or any other information is required to register on-line (just click the “Register Online” button when prompted). If you can’t register on-line for any reason, just give us a call.
Not sure what to do?
If you’re not sure what to do when it comes to transferring your TurboLaw data to a new computer (or if you even need to do this), just contact us – we’re here for you.
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