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TimeNet Law: A Labor of Love

This jam-packed update is insanely great, but it’s not coming along easy! Apologies for the delay.


TL/DR:

TimeNet Law is facing financial difficulties due to Google’s algorithm changes and the consolidation of competing billing software systems. Despite receiving offers to sell, I’ve decided to continue developing TimeNet Law, which will receive a major update, TimeNet Law 5, later this month. TimeNet Law 5 will be a fully universal application, and includes a re-written reporting and data engine for faster performance, a new invoice theming system, and many other great improvements.


Let’s dive in.

Sadly, TimeNet Law is no longer making a profit. More than 90% of our traffic disappeared when Google changed their algorithm to overly promote their own AdWords customers, and push organic results to the lower pages of their search results.

In an attempt to eliminate competition, a few prominent legal finance companies have acquired and consolidated almost every legal billing software system over the past few years.

Candidly, I’ve received numerous offers to purchase the business, but I’ve decided not to sell.

Because many legal billing applications have been abandoned or conglomerated into a few, I am unable to compete with their multi million dollar ad budgets. TimeNet Law gets buried in the search results, and any ads I do buy are A) exorbitantly expensive, and B) still effectively useless, because my competitors have such deep pockets.

I see this conglomeration of billing software as a bad thing. It never benefits users/customers when companies merge and choice is lost.

New users cannot find TimeNet Law. And nothing I’ve done has put a dent in that problem. But TimeNet Law is a labor of love, and I will never sell it, and I will never stop working on new versions.

Unfortunately, after more than 20 years, it just isn’t able to pay my bills any longer. This means any major development initiatives are put on hold while I work other jobs to make enough to survive.


What’s Next for TimeNet Law?

TimeNet Law will continue to be updated and supported. However, free technical support will be limited to email only. Phone and screen sharing support will still be provided with the purchase of a TimeNet Law Support Ticket.

A big update is coming later this month! TimeNet Law 5 focuses on three big improvements.

TimeNet Law 5 is a fully universal application, running natively on both Intel Macs and the shiny new Apple Silicon Macs (and holy moly, do they scream with TimeNet Law!)

Eliminating legacy code and technical debt was a massive undertaking, but boy was it worth it. This new update improves speed, reliability, compatibility, and settles TimeNet Law into a comfortable, modern codebase to take it into the next 20 years!

The new update includes a fully re-written reporting and data engine, focusing on blazing fast speeds. The results are almost unbelievable. Large databases will experience massive performance gains in loading, invoicing, and running reports.

For example, opening TimeNet Law, running a client report, one click billing, and then applying bulk payments used to take around 12-15 minutes in TimeNet Law 4. In TimeNet Law 5, the same tasks on that same large database took less than 4 minutes!

TimeNet Law 5 also adds a brand new invoice theming system! Format entries with color, bold and more so it stands out. And our new preset Invoice Themes let you quickly choose a color palette that looks great with one click! Use it as is or customize it further.

TimeNet Law 5 includes tons more new features and fixes, including the all new Magic Menu (more on that later), new client types like Potential and Archived, new client onboarding features, and tons more. You won’t want to miss it!


A heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s been patient with support and updates. We also thank you for supporting TimeNet Law all these years. You’ve helped solidify TimeNet Law’s reputation as a unique, Mac-exclusive application obsessed with providing the best experience for lawyers.

Here’s to the next 20 years! 🥂

"I used to work for a law firm, where they kept timesheets to charge clients, and they told the story of a lawyer who died and went to hell. While processing, the devil says that he expected the lawyer to arrive many years earlier, but the lawyer says he is only 40. The devil exclaims that according to the lawyer’s timesheets, he must be over 200 years old!

Don't go to hell. Use TimeNet Law."
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Important Dropbox Info

Dropbox has made some new changes recently, and they’ve been causing issues. If you are using Dropbox to share your TimeNet Law Data, it is very important that you check your Dropbox configuration and make sure it is properly setup.

How to Check Your Dropbox Configuration

Please follow the steps below to make sure Dropbox is configured correctly:


1. Click the Dropbox icon in your menubar, click the colored circular icon in the top-right of the Dropbox window, and select Preferences.

2. Click Sync, and see if you have an option for “New Files Default” and make sure it is set to “Available Offline”, and not “Online Only”.
You can close that window.

3. Go to your Dropbox folder and navigate to the TimeNet Law Data folder inside. Right-click on it and select “Make Available Offline”. Wait a few minutes and make sure a green checkmark appears next to the TimeNet Law Data folder.
4. Repeat the above steps on any other computer(s) running TimeNet Law as well.



Once you’ve completed those steps, TimeNet Law will work correctly with Dropbox.

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TimeNet Law 4.7 is Available!

TimeNet Law 4 Icon

TimeNet Law 4.7 improves performance, fixes important issues, provides new features, and compatibility improvements for macOS Sonoma.

Be sure to check out the full release notes and download the update using the buttons below.

TimeNet Law 4.7

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TimeNet Law 4.6 is Available!

TimeNet Law 4 Icon

TimeNet Law 4.6 fixes bugs and makes improvements for macOS Sonoma compatibility.

Be sure to check out the full release notes and download the update using the buttons below.

TimeNet Law 4.6

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TimeNet Law 4.5 is Here!

TimeNet Law 4 Icon

TimeNet Law 4.5 adds new features, important bug fixes, UI enhancements, and compatibility improvements.

Be sure to check out the full release notes and download the update using the buttons below.

TimeNet Law 4.5

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TimeNet Law 4.4.1 is Here!

TimeNet Law 4 Icon

TimeNet Law 4.4.1 adds new features, important bug fixes, UI enhancements, and compatibility improvements.

Be sure to check out the full release notes and download the update using the buttons below.

TimeNet Law 4.4.1

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TimeNet Law 4.4 Has Arrived!

TimeNet Law 4 Icon

TimeNet Law 4.4 has arrived! This update includes a new compact view for the main window, big improvements to One Click Billing and reissued invoices, as well as important bug fixes and compatibility improvements.

Be sure to check out the full release notes and download the update using the buttons below.

New Compact View

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TimeNet Law 4.3 is Available Now!

TimeNet Law 4 Icon

TimeNet Law 4.3 is ready to go! We’ve made some big improvements to Accounting and added some other important fixes and improvements. Let’s take a look at what’s new!


Accounting Updates

Accounts

New UI

Accounting in TimeNet Law 4.3 has some big new features. First, let’s talk about the Accounts window in general. You’ll notice a refreshed UI, and a new settings option that lets you show or hide automatic accounts such as A/R and retainers.

Double Entry Bookkeeping

TimeNet Law used to allow you to link client payments in an account. These transactions appeared in the account and affected the balance, but they could not be edited or deleted.

TimeNet Law 4.3 introduces a new double entry system. Client payments will now show up as independent transactions in the account. You can edit them or delete them as you can any other transaction. Changing or deleting these transactions will not affect client payments. You will need to make those changes in the Payment Center as well.

New Ways to Double-Deposit

With the changes outlined above, we’ve made some improvements to how you can log transactions. Now, when making a payment in the Payment Center, or when creating a transaction in the Accounts window, you can automatically create a new entry in the other area.

You can also designate an account to be the default used for depositing client payments. When creating invoices, you can also have the automatic bookkeeper payments deposited into an account of your choice.

We’ve made updates to the user manual in the Payment Center and Accounting sections to reflect these changes, so be sure to take a look there to learn more.


More Improvements

TimeNet Law 4.3 also has a number of other new features, shortcuts, important bug fixes, and compatibility improvements. Check out the full release notes to learn more.

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TimeNet Law 4.2 is Here!

TimeNet Law 4 Icon

Introducing the new TimeNet Law 4.2 update — with Document Templates, support for Smart Fields in Microsoft Word, and more new features, fixes and improvements.


Document Templates

Document Templates

Now with TimeNet Law 4.2 you can create a list of Document Templates and organize them with folders and tags. Document Templates can be easily added to any matter.

Document Templates also support Smart Fields for Microsoft Word documents. When adding a Document Template to a matter, any Smart Fields in the template will be automatically filled in with the data from that client and matter.

Adding a Document Template to a Matter

We’ve updated our Document Management Guide to include information about the new Document Templates system.


More Improvements

We’ve also added the ability to email or text a client directly from anywhere in the program that lists their contact information, made some UI improvements, and fixed some other issues. Be sure to check out the full release notes.

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Apple Silicon: Are M1 Macs Good for Lawyers?

Apple is moving full steam ahead with their transition away from Intel and onto their own custom chips: M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max. How is the transition going, and are any of these Apple Silicon Macs a good fit for your law firm?

Let’s just get this out of the way right up front: YES, the M1 Macs are a fantastic option for your law firm – with a couple of tiny caveats. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Advantages of M1 Macs

Apple moving to their own in-house chips has brought some shocking advantages. Not only are these computers blazing fast, they are also incredibly power efficient. For laptops, that means longer lasting battery life. Way longer. Like 12 or more hours of actual heavy usage. For desktops, this means lower power costs.

The MacBook Air is an insane value right now. It has unheard of battery life, it’s incredibly fast, and it doesn’t even have a fan. You’ll appreciate that if you’re in a meeting room or on a conference call. The machine is literally dead silent.

Just how fast is the M1 MacBook Air? We’ve been using it as a main development and design machine for over a year, and it feels even faster than our iMac Pros. The only time they are slower is with high-end graphics processes. But as long as you’re not editing 4K video or rendering the next Pixar animated movie, you won’t notice or care.

Can the M1 chip do everything you need for your law firm? Absolutely. It doesn’t even break a sweat with heavy email and web browsing, editing large documents, or running billing and accounting software.

What About Compatibility?

Many people are concerned about compatibility with their existing apps. They needn’t worry. M1 Macs come with a built-in “compatibility mode” called Rosetta. It lets you run Intel applications that haven’t been optimized for M1 chips yet.

Not only do all of your Intel apps work fine with Rosetta, they are often even faster than running them on actual Intel Macs. The bottom line is everything will just work, and you won’t even notice Rosetta. Things will just feel much faster.

What About Those Caveats?

M1 Macs no longer support Boot Camp – so if you’re booting into Windows for any reason, that will no longer work. You can still run Windows using other methods, such as Parallels.

You’ll also want to check with your printer and scanner manufacturer to ensure they support M1 Macs. They absolutely should — you might have more of an issue making sure they support macOS Monterey.

And finally, if you rely on any other highly specialized and possibly out-of-date hardware or software, make sure to check with them for any compatibility concerns as well.

TimeNet Law is fully compatible with macOS Monterey and all M1 Macs.

Which M1 Should I Get?

We do not recommend the 13″ M1 MacBook Pro. It offers essentially no advantages over the 13″ MacBook Air, and the Air is cheaper, has a better keyboard configuration (with actual function keys instead of the TouchBar, which is now no longer an option in new Apple laptops), and is lighter and easier to transport.

We also do not recommend the new M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pros, unless having a 14″ or 16″ screen is absolutely critical for you, or you can’t live without a built-in HDMI and/or SD Card slot. If so, then get the base M1 Pro, not the Max. The main difference there is graphics performance, so you likely won’t need it. The base M1 Pro is more than enough for all of your day-to-day tasks.

On any M1 or M1 Pro Mac, we highly recommend 32GB of RAM minimum. You may be dealing with a lot of documents and websites at once, and having the extra RAM will really make a difference. It will also help future-proof your computer, so that it remains highly usable for many years to come.

The only other thing to consider is hard drive space. 1 or 2 TB should be a great option, but you can double-check what you’re using now on your current Mac, and make sure to give yourself some extra room on top of that.

The Bottom Line

Apple’s new M1 chips are insanely great, and there’s never been a better time to switch to a Mac, or upgrade your existing Mac. The transition really is seamless. We have been incredibly impressed with performance, heat & fan noise (there’s basically none), Rosetta’s compatibility mode, and the overall quality of these new M1 Macs.

If you’re on the fence, now is the time to jump. They really are that good.