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Posts tagged ‘time and billing’

TurboLaw Time and Billing 1.21 Released

We’ve just released version 1.21 of TurboLaw Time and Billing. This release is primarily a maintenance release, focusing mostly on some very minor issues. Although primarily a maintenance release, there are 2 new features in this release, and we do highly recommend that all users install this update once your software notifies you (watch for the notification in the bottom of your TurboLaw Time and Billing window!).

The 2 new features in this version are:

In the Account History window, if your client has matters listed, these matters will have a subtotal, just like the top-level items in this window.
In the Clients window, we’ve added a new column for Client ID which will either show your custom client ID number (if you’ve entered one), or TurboLaw Time and Billing’s own internal ID number if there is nothing else to display. This column can also be sorted, so you can use your client ID number to find clients quickly.

Both of these new features are the result of customer suggestions – so if you have suggestions or ideas of your own, please don’t hesitate to let us know!

TurboLaw Time and Billing 1.20 Released

Once again, we here at TurboLaw are very excited to announce a major new release of our simple, easy-to-use time and billing software, TurboLaw Time and Billing version 1.20! This is a major new version of TurboLaw Time and Billing, and includes some exciting new features that make it even easier to manage your firm’s billing and timekeeping.

New feature: Reports

The biggest new feature in version 1.20 is the new Reports module. This new module, which can be found on the left-hand navigation bar (right next to “Graphs”) allows you to pull up various reports on how your firm is doing.

The available reports include:

Received payments
How much have I billed, overall
Billed Expenses
Billed Time
Unbilled Expenses
Unbilled Time
Paid bills
Voided bills

All of these reports can be filtered by date, as well as other options such as including or excluding certain clients, staff members, or categories. Most reports also include the ability to “group” the results so that you can see, for example, all of your billed time, grouped by client.

In addition, all of the reports can be printed, previewed directly on your screen, or saved to one of several formats, including PDF, RTF (an editable document format), plain-text, Microsoft Excel, or CSV.

New feature: Export to LEDES

Another major new feature in this version of TurboLaw Time and Billing is the ability to export a bill to LEDES 1998B format. This format (which stands for “legal electronic data exchange standard”) is used to submit bills electronically. With version 1.20, you can now click the Export to LEDES button when viewing a bill to save it to this format, so that you can submit it electronically.

Other improvements

This version of TurboLaw Time and Billing also includes a number of other improvements:

When viewing a graph, the labels along the X-axis will now automatically rotate 45 degrees when there are more than 5 labels to help make it easier to read (so that the labels don’t overlap one another).
When merging data from another TurboLaw Time and Billing database file, the program can now detect when two entries are identical so that unnecessary duplicates are not created.
There are a number of behind-the-scenes improvements to the Time and Billing database to significantly reduce the (already small) chance of file corruption when opening a file on an unreliable network connection (e.g., a wireless network).
The bill and statement template editors as well as the print preview windows have received a graphical update.

As always, your TurboLaw Time and Billing program will check for updates automatically and notify you when a new update is available. Just watch for the pop-up balloon, or for this message at the bottom of your screen:

Many of the new features in this version of TurboLaw Time and Billing were inspired by feedback we received from our users, but we are always looking for more ways to improve the program – so if you have any ideas, suggestions, or other thoughts, please let us know what you think. (If you don’t have TurboLaw Time and Billing yet, you can try it for free for 30 days.)

We hope you enjoy this latest version of TurboLaw Time and Billing!

The Underused “Save & New” Button

One of the most underused buttons in TurboLaw Time and Billing is the Save & New button. Today we’d like to take a look at this oft-ignored button and show how you can use it to save yourself some time and effort.

The "Save and New" button

In all of the “entry” type windows in TurboLaw Time and Billing you will find the humble Save & New button sitting right up next to the Save & Close button. For many people, the Save & Close button is all you need – after all, once you are done entering something (such as a time entry, an expense, or a payment) you are typically done and don’t need to enter the same thing again.

However, let’s suppose that you’ve got a list of things you need to enter – maybe a list of work you’ve done during the day but didn’t get around to entering into TurboLaw Time and Billing yet. This is where the Save & New button can really save you some effort.

The Save & New button does basically the same thing as the Save & Close button – except, as its name suggests, after you click it, instead of closing the window, it clears the window and makes it ready for you to enter a new item again immediately.

Let’s take the example of having a list of work you’ve done during the day. You might think that in order to enter all these time entries into the program, you would have to:

Double-click your client’s name from the list of clients
Click the Time/Work drop-down button and select Enter New
Enter the time
Click Save & Close for the time entry window
Click the Time/Work drop-down button again and select Enter New
Enter some more time
Click Save & Close for the time entry window
Click Save & Close for the client window
Start over again with the next client you did work for

That’s a lot of clicking! Fortunately, you don’t have to do it that way - thanks to the Save & New button, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort. Starting from the Home screen, you could instead:

Click the Enter Time/Expense button and choose Enter Time
Enter the time
Click Save & New
Enter more time… and repeat as many times as you need.

As you can see, that is a lot less clicking! Thanks to the humble Save & New button, you don’t have to keep going all over the program – you can stay in the same window and enter multiple items (time, expenses, payments, etc.) all without ever leaving the same screen.

This is just an example of one of the many ways that TurboLaw Time and Billing was designed to help save you time and effort in completing your billing. After all, wouldn’t you rather spend your time doing something else?

TurboLaw Time and Billing 1.19 Released

The latest version of TurboLaw Time and Billing, Version 1.19, contains some new features that were implemented based on suggestions and feedback we received from you!

The most anticipated new feature is the ability to add a client’s “account balance” to a bill. Previously, to show a client’s overall balance (including any retainers paid and anything billed against that retainer), you had to print a statement. Now, however, you can add some of the information previously only found on statements to your bills instead – saving you both time and effort.

To help illustrate this new feature, this version of TurboLaw Time and Billing also includes new bill templates designed to take advantage of the new information that can now be added to a bill.

Other new features and improvements in this version include:

A new “Refresh” button in the main window so you can easily re-load the list of bills/clients/staff if something has changed. (You can still refresh any list in the program by simply pressing the F5 key on your keyboard.)
Significantly improved performance when you have a very large number of clients/work items/expenses/etc. listed in the program all at once.
Fixed a small problem that was causing a preview of your selected template not to appear in the “Settings” window.

As always, your TurboLaw Time and Billing will check for updates automatically and notify you when a new update is available. Just watch for the pop-up balloon, or for this message at the bottom of your screen:

Remember – we really do listen your feedback (as this new version demonstrates), so please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any thoughts or comments about the program.

We hope you enjoy this latest version of TurboLaw Time and Billing!

TurboLaw Time and Billing 1.18 Released

Summertime has finally arrived, and most people’s thoughts turn to barbecues, beaches, and vacations. But here at TurboLaw, our only thoughts are bringing you new and improved products to help you spend less time working and more time enjoying the summer weather!

Towards that end, we’ve once again released an update to TurboLaw Time and Billing, Version 1.18!

This new version includes updates to our template editor, some minor improvements to our “dashboard” home page view, and improvements to our license activation system which will ensure that you can always access your data, no matter what.

Remember – we welcome your feedback as well, so don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any thoughts or comments about the program.

We hope you enjoy both this latest version of TurboLaw Time and Billing, and this wonderful summer weather!

TurboLaw Time and Billing 1.17 Released

We are very excited to announce the release of TurboLaw Time and Billing Version 1.17. As always, we are committed to bringing you the easiest to use billing software possible, and this new version is no exception.

This new version brings with it an improved template editor, which makes editing your bill and statement templates even easier.

Above: the new template editor (click for larger version)

Also new in this version is the addition of a “matter” column when viewing a bill, so that you can see whether the items you have entered on your bill are associated with a matter, and if so, which one.

Above: the “edit bill” window showing the new “matter” column (click for larger version)

Another big new feature for this version is the ability to import and export templates. This feature makes it even easier to share your custom bill and statement templates with other users of the program in your office, so that anyone can print our bills and statements using your “official” template.

In addition to importing and exporting, you can also now rename your templates right from the “Choose Template” window, as well as delete templates you don’t want anymore.

Above: you can now import, export, rename, and delete templates (click for larger version)

As an added bonus, we also added the “terms” field to the list of available fields that you can place in your bill templates. This means that you can now add the “terms” field to your bill template, which will show up in printed bills with the “terms” for that particular client, so that your clients know what their terms are and when the bill is due.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to remind you that TurboLaw Time and Billing is compatible with Windows 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit editions. (Click here to see other Windows versions which TurboLaw Time and Billing is compatible with.)

This message lets you know a new update is available.

Remember – we welcome your feedback as well, so don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any thoughts or comments about the program.

We hope you enjoy this latest version of TurboLaw Time and Billing!

TurboLaw Time and Billing 1.16 Released

It may not have a big red bow tied around it, but the latest release of TurboLaw Time and Billing – Version 1.16 – could be considered our “early Christmas present” to all of our users.

The biggest change in this new version is undoubtedly the incredible variety of new bill templates we’ve added.

These new templates not only give you the ability to create fantastic-looking bills, they also show just how much you can do with TurboLaw Time and Billing’s template system and a little bit of creativity.

Here is a preview of all the new bill templates (click on any image to see a larger version):

: “Atlantis”

: “Boston”

: “Woodstock”

: “Phoenix”

: “Manhattan”

: “Papyrus”

We hope you enjoy these new themes – and remember, you can always pick one of these themes and customize it further to suit your taste.

This message lets you know a new update is available.

Remember – we welcome your feedback as well, so don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any thoughts or comments about the program.

We hope you enjoy this latest version of TurboLaw Time and Billing!

Time and Billing Reports: “Aging Report”

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

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.

Time and Billing Reports: MTD or YTD billed by client or time keeper

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!

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Posts tagged ‘time and billing’

TurboLaw Time and Billing 1.21 Released