Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers practice management software (see article below), a Web-based scanning service, an online group password management service, and two iPad apps to help you with jury selection. Don't miss the next issue.
Capture All Your Billable Time in Less Time
Each new year brings well-intentioned resolutions. But most resolutions go unfulfilled. While software can't drag you out of bed and take you to your local gym, it can help you achieve resolutions in other areas of your life — like ensuring that you bill all the hours you work. One company that helps law firms achieve such resolutions seems to have a resolution of its own that it always fufills — a new version every January.
Amicus Attorney 2011 Premium Edition … in One Sentence
Amicus Attorney 2011 Premium Edition is practice management software designed to help law firms improve their efficiency and profitability.
The Killer Feature
Jim Croce wanted to save time in a bottle so he could spend eternity with his significant other. Lawyers would settle for recording all their billable time so they can get paid for all their work — emphasis on "all."
Amicus Attorney 2011 Premium Edition's new Time Entry Assistant is designed to help you prevent billable hours from slip sliding away. For example, Time Entry Assistant displays a single list of all your activities that might need a time entry — appointments, documents, email, notes, tasks, telephone calls, etc. — anything completed that does not yet have a matching time entry.
You can filter the list by date range as well as sort by date, client, matter, and type of activity. With one click, you can transform an activity into a time entry. You can also remove non-billable activities so they will not reappear. As a result, you'll spend less time capturing more of your billable time.
Amicus Attorney also supports bulk time entries via its new Time Saver technology. For example, at the end of the day you can select all your billable email messages and with one click create a time entry for each of them. You can also enter time on behalf of others.
Other Notable Features
Amicus Attorney doesn't just want to help you capture all your time, but use it more productively. As an example, you'll find the Amicus Tasks toolbar in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat. With this toolbar, you can link PDF documents to clients, matters, and library pages in Amicus Attorney, send them to your Amicus Attorney contacts, and check them in and out when collaborating with colleagues.
Because the new version of Amicus Attorney resides atop a robust SQL database, reports now update in real-time and provide direct access from report line items to underlying data in Amicus Attorney. Thus, if you run a report and then change the parameters, the report will instantly update. There's no need to run it again.
Other new features include more flexibility when configuring client and matter fields for integration with Worldox, the ability to globally synchronize Amicus Attorney with your accounting system at a specified time, and an enhanced Accounting Profile Wizard that includes more options for defining custom time entry export formats.
What Else Should You Know?
Gavel & Gown also offers Amicus Attorney 2011 Small Firm Edition — a less expensive version for solo practitioners and small law firms with more modest needs. Learn more about
Amicus Attorney 2011 Premium Edition.
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So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
