I’ve mentioned here before that I am capturing far more time than before I switched.  TimeSolv is multi-user, multi-platform because it’s a web application.  Fees can be different for each timekeeper and/or each client.  Highly customizable.  The invoices are detailed and professional, and automatically include past invoices, payment history and trust fund payments.  No need for statements with this level of detail.  The company is willing to hear from its customers re future improvements.

Mika

In the current business landscape the focus is on cutting costs while operating at maximum efficiency. Outsourcing has become a viable solution for most businesses and law firms are no exception.

Many firms have opted to fully outsource their billing functions to legal cost consultants in an effort to cut costs while gaining access to the knowledge and expertise that they offer. Some smaller law firms don’t have the manpower and resources larger firms enjoy. This is where legal billing software can provide an answer.

There was a time when legal professionals had no choice but to draft their own bills of cost. Paper work, filing and spreadsheet programs were the order of the day. For a law firm the preparation and taxation of bills was a time consuming and tedious task. Thankfully, technological developments have helped to simplify the process.

Why use legal billing software?

Monitoring and capturing billable hours are a significant part of the legal profession. The competitive nature of the industry means that lawyers don’t have enough time to produce invoices and capture billable hours. Legal billing software is designed to solve these problems. Here are some benefits that legal billing programs offer:

1.)    It allows you to create client and contact lists. This makes it easy for you to keep track of time spent on individual clients and tasks and generate bills accordingly.

2.)    Secure online access means you can update records from any computer with an internet connection.

3.)    It’s user friendly. Proficiently designed legal billing software is easy to set up and requires limited training to use.

4.)    Data can be retrieved instantly. Paper work filing used to be the order of the day. This system worked but documents would often be misplaced and information lost. Legal billing software solves this by maintaining electronic records of your client’s information. These programs also have search capabilities that helps you access information faster by typing in keywords.

5.)    Legal billing software has sophisticated password protection measures in place to ensure that personal and financial details are kept safe. Billing software also provides a backup system in the event that data is corrupted or lost.

6.)    Billing multiple clients becomes easy. Storing and keeping track of information using spreadsheet and office packages will become more challenging as your client base increases. Billing software solves this problem by making it easier to keep records of financial details and bills can be generated at the touch of a button.

7.)    One of the key advantages of legal billing software is automation. If you’re providing legal services to the same clients each month the software can be set up to automatically generate invoices for those clients. If one attorney at you firm charges a different fee to the next or if certain tasks carry a different fee, the software can be adjusted to automatically reflect the different rates when bills are generated.

Probably the most significant benefit of legal billing software is the amount of time and resources you’ll save that would normally be spent on drafting bills. Although correct interpretation of the data will depend on the accuracy of the data entered by the person, actual calculation and production of the invoices is done by the program. This reduces the likelihood of billing errors. This means shorter turnaround time for collections and increased productivity.

TimeSolv allows for multiple timekeepers; detailed, lengthy descriptions of services; multiple billing rates (per client, per timekeeper, per service, or any combination); unlimited timers; professional-looking invoices and statements; integrated trust accounting; integrated client costs billing; multiple platforms (PC, Mac, etc.); works perfectly with my iPad.

Learning curve is not bad at all. TimeSolv staff trains each new customer individually and is readily available for questions and guidance. There is extensive on-line help.

Cost is per user, per month, though non-lawyer staff does not cost more. I paid for two years at one time and negotiated a nice discount. One month free trial.

We capture so much more time that TimeSolv has more than paid for itself already, and we’ve only been using if for five months.

Ref: http://lawyernomics.avvo.com/2012/01/client-friendly-billing-time-entries/#comment-7296
Marilynn Mika Spencer

The Spencer Law Firm, www.spencerlawoffice.com

2727 Camino del Rio South, Suite 140, San Diego, CA  92108, (619) 233-1313

Posted by: “Marilynn Mika Spencer” mikaspencer@labornet.org mikaspencer

Mon Jan 16, 2012 2:25 pm (PST)

I used Quickbooks Pro from about 1993 to 2011. I was a Beta tester for about seven or eight of those years, maybe more. For all those years, I wanted a slew of features QBP didn’t offer. I must have sent in over 20 separate requests for a timer, the option to charge different clients different hourly fees, charge different timekeepers at different rates, a way to show trust activity on statements, have multiple timekeepers, and more. Sometimes I was told these were “great ideas” or “in development.” In 2011, I switched to Quickbooks Online. This was after several in-depth phone calls with customer service from which I understood some of the features I wanted would be available. Wrong! After 18 years, QB was just as featureless, inelegant and clunky as it was in 1993. I finally decided to dump Quickbooks altogether.

Late last year, I tested a number of billing programs. I decided to try Timesolv after testing it for about a month. www.TimeSolv.com. What a fabulous improvement! All the features I lusted after are there. It’s an on-line program, which I had been resistant to for security reasons . . . evidently I’ve gotten used to the idea of it. With the on-line availability, my bookkeeper can access whatever I’ve given her access to and generate invoices and statements from home. She can troubleshoot without having to traipse over to my office, which makes the turnaround timemuch shorter.

The learning curve isn’t steep, and the company is highly responsive, patient, and genuinely interested in helping it’s customers get the most from the application. Maintenance and tech support is included in the monthly price. I paid for two years in advance to get a better price, My QBP customers, balances, accounts, etc. uploaded seamlessly into TimeSolv. I’m still stuck with QB for general ledger, and Timesolv downloads into QB without trouble.

The multiple timers is a great feature and it helps me track not just my billable time, but also administration, bar association activity, etc. And my villa les have increased by about 25 per cent — no kidding. I had no idea how much time I was failing to capture without timers.

I’m a happy camper.

Marilynn Mika Spencer
2727 Camino del Rio South, Suite 140
San Diego, CA 91942
(619) 233-11313

To learn more about TimeSolv solutions, please visit http://www.timesolv.com/

It may be that Intuit is discontinuing Time Tracker and QuickBooks Time & Billing after receiving unfavorable feedback from the customer base or they are consolidating their product line.

Ref:  http://http-download.intuit.com/http.intuit/CMO/SAASHelp/timebilling/sunset/disco.html

Work Time Discontinuation Notice

• Firms need to know how much a client owes include unbilled time and expenses.  Now you have the option to include WIP in the Accounts receivables report.

Smarter Bill Deliver Method – Only show email option if there is an email address on the draft invoice

• Billing admins were frustrated to see that an invoice cannot be emailed after they tried to send a batch of bills. They had to click on the draft invoice to find that the client contact on the draft invoice is missing email address.  Now, if the email address is missing, delivery by email is not visible.  This enables the users to fix the draft if they decide to send it by email.

Invoices – not show credit as negative balance due

• Based on customer feedback, instead of showing credit as a new balance due, it now shows as a positive number as Credit Due to Client.

Payment allocation to matter only

• TimeSolv allows for payments or trust deposits available for one matter to be allocated to another matter.  Now you have the option to allocate payments to only the same matter that was selected to deposit the payment.

Invoices – show blanks instead of zeros for hours and rates

• To make the invoices easier to read, now zero rates and hours are shown as blanks.

For example, you have three types of clients or matters, Divorce, Wills, and Child Custody.  You can create client or matter categories under Advanced Setup and apply the categories to clients and matters.

Benefit

Create reports for specific group of clients, matters, or timekeepers.

How to apply categories to Clients and Matters

1-      Go to Administration, Advanced Setup tab, Client and Matter Categories.

2-      Enter Category Title, Practice Area, and save.

3-      Enter Category Names, Divorce, same in Description, and save.  Repeat for other categories.

4-      Click on Clients and Matters; check off Bulk Edit Mode, select category for each client and matter.  Note that client category would be inherited automatically by new matters.  For existing matters, you will have to select a category manually.

How to use Client and Matter categories to filter reports

Go to reports, select any report that has a client or matter as data filter.  For example on time cards report, select the Practice Area as Divorce to filter time cards for matters categorized as Divorce.

How to apply categories to timekeepers

1-      Go to Administration, Advanced Setup tab, Timekeeper Categories.

2-      Enter Category Title, Specialization, and save.

3-      Enter Category Names, Litigator, same in Description, and save.  Repeat for other categories.

4-      If needed, you can also enter a second custom category.  For example you can enter second category to be Timekeeper Type.

5-      Enter Category Names, Partner, same in Description, and save.  Repeat for other categories such as Associate, Paralegal, etc.

How to use Timekeeper categories to filter reports

Go to reports, select any report that has a timekeeper as data filter.  For example on time cards report, select the Specialization as Litigator and Timekeeper Type as Partner to filter time cards.

• A convenient option to know how much needs to be transferred to the operating account
  • An Allocate link has been added next to the balances in trust account.  Allocate link only shows up if there are invoices to be paid from available funds in a trust account.  Please note that previously users had to transfer and allocate one payment at a time and not the total balance in trust.  Allocate is same as moving funds from trust account to operating account.

• Easy to see balances available by client
  • Two options are now added:  1- “Balances Only” to quickly Allocate funds from trust account to invoices.  2- “Grouped by Client” to see transactions by client with their Balances.

• Not allow for negative balances
  • Any transactions that cause the balance to go negative when fund are transferred out of the trust account are not allowed.

• View trust transactions in Client Transaction Log report
  • An option to include trust transactions is added on client transaction report.

What’s coming next

• An option to just see Allocateable payments.

Please contact TimeSolv support at support@timesolv.com if you need help.  We are happy to provide you the new updates to allow you to quickly allocate funds to invoices.

Take a look at what can be synced!

TimeSolv QuickBooks Sync

To learn more about TimeSolv QB Sync, please see the instructional videos http://timesolv.com/billing-knowledge-manager/questions/8/TimeSolv+QB+Sync

Please contact support@timesolv.com if you have any questions or need further information.