TechnoLawyer: Accounting/Billing/Time Capture

Coming November 10, 2006 to Fat Friday:  John Starkweather explains how he has embraced branding and technology at his small firm, James Zuffoletto discusses the "unhappy lawyer" phenomenon, Diane Hopkins shares a real-life client story involving Tabs3 that teaches an important technology lesson, Arshia Javaherian reviews Sonnet's PodFreq FM Transmitter for the iPod, and Aaron Morris discusses his unique multiple monitor setup. Don't miss this issue.

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Coming October 20, 2006 to Fat Friday: Mark Lieb discusses how a firm's litigation support department should operate, John Dorst reviews Sonnet's PodFreq FM transmitter for the iPod, Douglas Simpson reviews his experience using Copernic Desktop Search over the past year, Thomas Shigo chimes in on the DIY v. hire a consultant debate, and Jeff Wyatt reviews the Brother HL-5250DN laser printer. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming October 19, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Bill Baldwin adds his two cents to the Word v. WordPerfect debate, Larry Lockwood explains how, with a little programming, you can use MS Access to manage your discovery documents, and David Ventker reviews his 4 years using PCLaw in a small firm. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

TechnoLawyer member Dana Yaffee writes:
"I bought PCLaw to go with Amicus Attorney and think it is more sophisticated than what is necessary for a solo practitioner. I have been looking for something less complex and the consensus from colleagues is that Quickbooks integrates pretty well with most of the case management software programs. Many bookkeepers are familiar with Quickbooks and Timeslips, if you are planning to farm out your billing activities."

Kent L. Davis responded:
"I agree with TechnoLawyer member Dana Yaffee regarding the depth of features available in PCLaw may be disadvantageous to some firms. I also wish to confirm that QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier do an adequate job of time and billing and accounting functions.... Unfortunately, some tasks, such as trust accounting and client cost allocation are a bit awkward and require some expertise to configure the "QuickBooks" way to make everything work...."

Stephen P. Wing wrote:
"I am a long time user of PCLaw, but I recently had an opportunity to load and try out the network version of QuickBooks Enterprise. Although I have serious complaints about the immutable and non-modifiable accounting rules built into PCLaw, I still find it much easier to use and more functional than QuickBooks...."

I have used both programs at two different firms within the past two years. I agree with earlier posts — unless you are an expert in QuickBooks (which I quickly became) and know how to run customized reports, the escrow feature was very difficult to use.  Reports on attorney time and profits were also difficult to run without including attorney initials in the client's name, and many times I still ran many reports with my good old calculator.

My current firm uses PCLaw only for bookkeeping and billing, and it has made the process much simpler.  I can assign attorneys to files and run reports on hours and/or disbursements without customizing a report.  I can make a payment from the escrow account to the general account in a few simple mouse clicks.  What used to be very difficult, has become much easier using PCLaw.

I must also say that I did like QuickBooks Payroll Service very much, but I cannot compare that to PCLaw as this firm uses a payroll service. QuickBooks updated tax charts in a timely fashion and I was able to run many reports on employee hours and salaries (again, by maniuplating the customized reports).

Cathy Furlani
Law Offices of Steinberg & Symer, LLP

[Publisher's Note: Learn more about PCLaw and QuickBooks. — Sara Skiff]

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Coming October 12, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Rhett Franklin reviews the Konica Minolta Bizhub C250 and C450, Carol Bratt offers up detailed instructions for customizing the shortcut menu in Word, and Harry Steinmetz reviews Legal Billing from Chaos Software for the basic needs of a solo practitioner. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming October 6, 2006 to Fat Friday: Mark Lieb discusses the increasingly important role that Litigation Support Professionals play in today's law firms and shares some recruiting tips, Cathy Furlani reviews her experience using both PCLaw and QuickBooks (at two different law firms respectively) for legal accounting and time-billing, Mike Hoffer suggests another technique for creating memorable but secure passwords, and Kevin E. Rockitter shares the best piece of career advice he received as a young lawyer (and how it has held up over the past 20 years). Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming October 5, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Paul Hager offers up some tips for using Timeslips remotely, David Blair discusses his experience as a long-time WordPerfect user forced to use Word, Larry Southerland reviews PaperPort for document management and a database program called Alpha Five, Celine Rivet suggests some printer purchasing tips (and so do we), and Nina Yablok reviews QuickBooks for small law firm accounting and billing. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's special edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers three unique time-billing solutions that take a new approach to this age old activity. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Track Your Activities and the Time Will Follow
By Dennis Kennedy
Why do so many lawyers still track their time on paper? PensEra set out to answer this question, and found that most time-billing software takes more time to use than a pen and paper. Using a pen and paper is also less distracting.

So did PensEra abandon all hope? Not quite. Instead, the company developed its TimeKM family of products, which include TimeKM Time and TimeKM Mobile. This software resides in just one location — on a server at your firm. Lawyers and their assistants access it via Web services. PensEra claims that TimeKM usually requires less than 15 minutes of training.

TimeKM provides lawyers with a variety of ways to capture time. Each method is designed to integrate into a lawyer's workflow. For example, at the office, after working in a Word file, just drag the file onto the TimeKM Time icon in the Windows Deskband. TimeKM will capture the name and date of the document, and enable you to enter the time spent. The idea is to quickly capture time now (thus creating a placeholder) and worry about the details later. Similarly, when you compose an e-mail message, you can cc TimeKM or forward the message to TimeKM to capture that activity.

TimeKM Mobile, used on your BlackBerry, Good device, or Treo, works similarly. You can use the "jot-it-down" tool for activities that cannot be tracked (such as your time in court) and the "tag-and-send" tool for activities that can be tracked (such as telephone calls). You can even set up reminders with the "Remind Me" feature. Making entries is quick and easy thanks to programmable codes. For example, type "mwc" and "Meeting with Client" appears on your screen.

At the end of the day, week, month, etc., you or your assistant can flesh out these "placeholders" and transform them into full-fledged time entries. You can then send these time entries to your accounting or billing system. Speaking of which, TimeKM integrates with just about any accounting or billing software, including Elite, Juris, QuickBooks, Timeslips, SAP, etc.

Pricing for TimeKM Time starts at $249/user. Pricing for TimeKM Mobile starts at $139/user. PensEra offers volume discounts. Learn more about TimeKM.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a new time-billing and accounting package with a user-friendly interface, a service that enables you to add search capabilities to your Web site, and a Web-based suite of collaboration and project management tools. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Your New Friend in Accounting
By Dennis Kennedy
Lawyers live in the front office. Most don't like to deal with back office issues. They often feel that operating the business of a law practice gets in the way of practicing law. From handling trust accounts to editing pre-bills, lawyers dread nearly every back office operation.

Help is on the way. Gavel & Gown, the company behind the ever-popular Amicus Attorney, now offers Amicus Accounting, a time-billing and accounting package designed specifically for law firms. Amicus Accounting builds on the reputation of Amicus Attorney for simplicity and ease of use.

For example, Amicus Accounting enables you to handle time-billing and accounting in a single package. When used with Amicus Attorney, you benefit from a truly integrated front and back office — the so-called holy grail of law office technology.

Amicus Accounting uses the familiar graphical interface of Amicus Attorney 7, which emphasizes common workflows. It handles all of the back office chores in a law office: timekeeping, expenses, bill generation, receivables management, payables, check writing, general ledger, trust accounting, report creation, and a variety of client matter details and inquiries, including the ability to track transactions by client and matter.

With Amicus Accounting, you can track billable and non-billable hours with multiple rates per timekeeper, issue checks and allocate expenses to matters in one step, prevent trust account overdrafts, process hourly, split and flat fee billing, implement UTBMS task-based billing codes, customize billing templates, process 1099s, support three accounting methods (cash, modified cash and accrual), generate more than 50 reports, access all client data and account information in one location (you can even drill down for more granular information), and much more.

Amicus Accounting sells for $249 per user. Learn more about Amicus Accounting.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming September 21, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Katrina Curfiss explores whether your firm should build its own software (for litigation support, document management, practice management, etc.) or buy off the shelf, Pam Rolph shares some quick fixes for Amicus Attorney scheduling problems, Allen Hardon offers a word of caution to those looking to fix Timeslips issues on their own, Mike Savory, Senior Product Manager for Sage Software, responds to Timeslips criticism, and Kurt Schoettler explains how to use Acrobat 7 for OCR batch processing. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.