Tag: Tips & Tricks

Whether you want to use TimeNet Law with a team, or simply access it remotely from your laptop when not in the office, TimeNet Law offers a very simple and powerful cloud syncing mode that leverages the advantages of cloud software:

• Work in the office, from home, or while traveling
• Use multiple computers seamlessly
• Work with multiple people at the same time
• Keep data in sync and see changes as they happen

Cloud software also has some significant disadvantages. TimeNet Law eliminates all of them:

• You can only work when online
• If the server/company holding your data has issues, you can’t access your data
• Working in non-native (web, Electron, etc.) environments is slow and clunky
• As soon as you stop paying your “rent” for the software, your data becomes locked away from you

The TimeNet Law Solution

By providing you with a native application that lives on your Mac, your data is stored on your device and always accessible to you. Whether online or not, you can always access your data, and we can never lock you out of it — nor would we want to.

Using Dropbox or iCloud to sync your data, you have offsite cloud backup of your entire database, and all of your data is seamlessly synced across all devices in your firm and fully encrypted.

Learn more about data security here.

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How to Use Dropbox or iCloud

First, you’ll need to decide whether you want to use Dropbox or iCloud Drive. Both are free and provide plenty of space for TimeNet Law’s data.

Dropbox provides more robust undelete and recovery options, but iCloud Drive is built-in to your Mac. You can create a free Dropbox account here or learn more about iCloud Drive here.

Once you’ve chosen a syncing provider and set it up on your computer, you just need to tell TimeNet Law where to store your data.

1. Open TimeNet Law on your first computer (the one that shows all of your TimeNet Law data)
2. Select File > Configure Network from the menubar
3. Choose the Dropbox/iCloud option and click Next
4. By default, TimeNet Law offers to store your data in the root of your Dropbox folder. If using Dropbox, click Finish
5. If using iCloud Drive, or you want to store TimeNet Law’s data in a separate folder inside of the Dropbox folder, click Choose Another Location, select your iCloud Drive folder or any other folder in Dropbox or iCloud Drive, and click Finish

You’re All Set!

It’s as simple as that. Now, TimeNet Law will store your data in Dropbox or iCloud Drive. To access that data from other computers, simply open TimeNet Law and repeat the steps above to select the same “TimeNet Law Data” in Dropbox or iCloud Drive.

If the other computers aren’t signed into the same Dropbox or iCloud account, then you just need to share the “TimeNet Law Data” folder inside your Dropbox or iCloud Drive folder before they complete the steps above. Right-click the folder and select Share (use the second Share option with the Dropbox icon if using Dropbox) and enter the other user’s email address(es).

Now you can work from anywhere, with anyone, and rest easy knowing your data is securely stored with encryption on your computer, and backed up offsite.

What do you do if your client requests a LEDES file? What is a LEDES file? How do you make one? What do you do with it after you’ve made it?

Understanding LEDES

LEDES, sometimes called “E-Billing”, stands for Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard. It was designed as a standardized format for legal bills to be submitted to LEDES processors. In theory, it’s a way to streamline the billing process.

The file itself is a simple text file. It is formatted as a series of data fields separated by pipes (the “|” character) — such as “Description”, “Timekeeper ID”, “Time Spent”, etc.

What Are All These IDs?

The first thing you must do to get a LEDES file just right — and you must, or the LEDES processor will reject the file — is assign all of the required ID numbers. Your client, your timekeepers, the matter, and even your law firm itself all have to have unique ID numbers.

There’s nothing special about these numbers. They can be simply made up by you and assigned to each client, timekeeper, and your law firm. Usually, a client will already have their own ID, which they will provide to you to use for their LEDES invoices. You do not need to assign an ID to every client — only the clients that require LEDES invoicing.

Also note — when entering your Timekeeper IDs, you’ll need to assign each one of them a Position, such as Partner, Associate, or Legal Assistant. LEDES invoices require all Timekeepers to be classified by position.

UTBMS

No, I didn’t just sneeze. UTBMS stands for Uniform Task-Based Management System. And LEDES requires that all entries be in this format. What that means is that all tasks and expenses you bill to your client must be chosen from a pre-designed list of “coded” (numbered) options.

Your billing software should have an option to use UTBMS (often called Task Codes). Look for an option called LEDES or Task Code Billing in the Matter Settings. Once you’ve enabled this, entering tasks will require you to select from a list of categorized entries.

How Do I Make a LEDES File?

Your billing software should offer an option to create a LEDES file. Simply enter your time and build your invoice as you always would, and then when it comes time to create the invoice, look for an option to create a LEDES file. Sometimes it will say “1998B.”

A good billing system will also warn you if there are issues with the LEDES file — missing ID numbers, incompatible characters used, etc. Once the LEDES file has passed verification in your billing system, it will be generated as a simple text file in the LEDES format.

I Have a LEDES File. What Now?

Usually, your client will request that the LEDES file be submitted to a website that will process the LEDES file. They act as a kind of intermediary between you and the client. The LEDES processing service will verify that the invoice is correctly formatted and all required information is included, and then it will forward the invoice details to your client so that they can then pay their bill.

This Seems Like a Lot…

It’s a bit of a hassle at first — mainly getting familiar with the UTBMS and knowing which item to select for the task performed.

After a few minutes of initial setup, creating LEDES invoices will become very simple. Learning how to use the LEDES processor website might also take a few minutes. But once you configure your LEDES ID numbers in your billing software, start using the UTBMS list, and know where to upload the LEDES file, it should only take an extra minute or so for each invoice.

The Final Checklist

Before submitting your LEDES file, be sure you’ve completed all the required steps:

1. Create and enter a Law Firm ID in your billing software.
2. Create and enter IDs for each of your Timekeepers and assign them each a Position in your billing software.
3. Enter the Client ID into the Client Settings of your billing software (this ID is usually given to you by your client).
4. Enter the two Matter IDs in your billing software’s Matter Settings.
5. Make sure your matter entries are created from the UTBMS list.

Over time, your law practice may change. Clients and timekeepers come and go, and matters eventually get finished and (hopefully) paid. TimeNet Law makes it simple to keep things tidy, while still retaining all of your historical data.

Making Clients Inactive

If you’ve completed all work for a client, and they’ve settled their accounts with you, it’s no longer necessary to see their name in your system all the time. By making a client Inactive, they will be hidden from windows and reports, but you can still easily look at their data, or make them active again later.

1. Edit a client by right-clicking their name in the main window and selecting Edit Client, or hold Option on your keyboard and double-click the client.
2. Select Inactive from the Status popup under the Name field.

Once a client is inactive, it will be hidden from the main window and excluded from reports. You can include inactive clients in reports by checking the Include Inactive Clients checkbox.

Viewing and Re-Activating Inactive Clients

Once you’ve made clients Inactive, they no longer appear in the main window. To view them, select View > Show Inactive Clients from the menubar, or click the gearwheel button at the top of the client list and select Inactive Clients under the Show section of the popup menu.

When inactive clients are visible, you can repeat the steps above to edit the inactive client and change their Status to Active.

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Making Matters Inactive

Once you’ve completed a matter, you can make it inactive so it no longer appears in the matter list under that client. It will also be excluded from reports unless you check the Include Inactive Matters checkbox.

1. Open the matter you wish to make inactive.
2. Select Matter > Make Matter Inactive from the menubar.

Viewing and Re-Activating Inactive Matters

Once you’ve made matters Inactive, they no longer appear in the main window. To view them, select View > Show Inactive Matters from the menubar, or click the gearwheel button at the top of the client list and select Inactive Matters under the Show section of the popup menu.

When inactive natters are visible, you can open the inactive matter and select Matter > Make Matter Active to re-activate it.

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Making Timekeepers Inactive

If a timekeeper leaves your law firm, do not delete them from the Timekeepers list. You’ll want to keep them in the system for historical purposes. Instead, make them inactive.

1. Open the main Preferences and click the Timekeepers pane in the toolbar.
2. Double-click the timekeeper you wish to make inactive.
3. Select Inactive from the Status popup under the Position field.

Re-Activating Inactive Timekeepers

Inactive timekeepers will always appear in the Timekeeper list in the Preferences window. Double-click them and change their Status back to Active.

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By making clients, matters and timekeepers inactive in TimeNet Law, your software will remain uncluttered and be much easier to navigate. Hidden away but easy to access, your historical data will remain intact and your software will be more focused.

TimeNet Law has a lot of options and settings. You can learn about them using QuickHelp. It is available anywhere in the program, and can easily be turned on or off by clicking the blue circular ? icon in any window, or by selecting Help > Show/Hide QuickHelp Guide from the menubar.

When QuickHelp is on, a small floating window will appear and give you details about whatever button, text field, or control your mouse cursor is hovering over. It’s a great way to learn about new options quickly.

So, you just got yourself a fancy new computer and you want to move TimeNet Law from your previous workhorse to the new one. Good news! It’s very simple. Just follow the steps outlined below.

1. Open TimeNet Law on the old computer and select File > Backup Data from the menubar. When prompted, save it to a new folder on your desktop. Quit TimeNet Law on the old computer.
2. Copy this folder from your desktop onto the new computer using file sharing or AirDrop.
3. Download TimeNet Law on the new computer by visiting https://www.timenetlaw.com/download.html on the new computer.
4. Move TimeNet Law from the Downloads folder into your Applications folder on the new computer and open it.
5. Exit out of the Setup Assistant and select File > Restore Data from the menubar. When prompted, select the TimeNet Law Data folder you copied over in step 2.

That’s it! Now you should see all of your data in TimeNet Law on your new computer. Be sure to enter your license information into TimeNet Law on the new computer by selecting TimeNet Law > License from the menubar.

As a lawyer serving many different legal clients, it’s important to offer flexibility in how you bill all of them. We get asked a lot about how to charge different hourly rates for different clients. Luckily, TimeNet Law has you covered, no matter how you need to bill. Whether it’s a discounted rate, pro bono work, or an expedited case that requires special handling and extra work. Let’s go over the different ways to customize your rates.

Client-Specific Billing Rates

The first option is to simply set a custom rate for a client. This is a good option if you want to charge that client the same hourly rate regardless of who is performing the work:

Keep in mind that setting a client’s custom rate will override all other timekeeper rate settings. New entries will default to the Client Rate, but can be changed manually.

Timekeeper-Specific Billing Rates

Often, you’ll want to offer different hourly rates for every timekeeper in your office. TimeNet Law lets you assign hourly billing rates to each timekeeper, and timekeepers can have as many as they need:

1. Go to Preferences > Timekeepers, and then double-click a timekeeper to edit their rates.
2. From here, you can select one of their rates and click Set Selected Rate as Default to set this rate as the default for all clients and matters. Only do this if you want to use the selected rate for every client and matter.

But what if you want to charge different rates for different clients? No problem. After you’ve created billing rates for your timekeepers, you can assign those rates to specific clients or matters as well:

1. Edit a client, or open a specific matter and click the Matter Settings button in the toolbar, then click Timekeeper Settings.
2. From here, you can choose a default billing rate for each timekeeper individually. After that, any new entry for that timekeeper will default to the chosen rate, either for that specific matter, or for any matter under the entire client.

Now you can offer flexible billing rates for all of your clients, and all types of work. Just set up and assign your billing rates once, and TimeNet Law handles everything for you.

Contingency Billing

You can also offer your clients contingency billing. Simply set a matter to use Contingency Billing under Matter Settings, and TimeNet Law will take care of the rest.

1. Open a matter and click the Matter Settings button in the toolbar.
2. Click the Billing tab and enable the Contingency Fee Billing option.
3. Enter the percentage of the earnings/recovery you will charge your client, and then enter the recovery amount. If you do not know the recovery amount yet, you can come back here and add it when the case is finished.
4. If you want to charge normally (full price) for specific entries, such as expenses, you can set that as well.
5. Choose whether to calculate your fee based off of the full recovery amount, or the recovery amount less the entries you already charged the client for.

Split Billing

Sometimes you may wish to split a client’s bill between two or more parties. TimeNet Law makes this easy.

1. Open a matter and click the Matter Settings button in the toolbar.
2. Click the Parties tab and add each party that will be responsible for paying the invoice.
3. Set each party’s percentage responsible.

Now when you create invoices from this matter, TimeNet Law will automatically create multiple invoices addressed to each party, showing their individual balance due. Payments can be applied and assigned to each party (using the From field in Payment Center).

TimeNet Law also handles evergreen retainers, automatic payments, late fees, automated invoice emailing, automated payment reminders, and much more.

It’s the end of a long week. You’re ready to go home and relax — but you haven’t entered your time for the week yet. Maybe you have a notepad or a spreadsheet where you’ve entered some tasks throughout the week. Or, even worse, maybe you scribble out your tasks right then and try to remember how much time you spent on them. Does this sound familiar?

The Ugly Truth

Time tracking is a frustrating chore — one that is often neglected. Attorneys dislike doing it because it is tedious, the technology available is difficult or cumbersome, and often they have to double or even triple-enter their work across multiple applications: task managers, time trackers, invoicing systems, etc.

Every single how-to article and “case study” about attorneys and time tracking says the same thing: the best way to take notes or record events is contemporaneously. As a lawyer, you already know this.

Reconstructive time entry is a recipe for disaster. It is dangerously easy to under-bill or over-bill your client. Both can harm your law firm.

Imagine a Better Way

What if your task manager was your time tracker and your invoicing system? Imagine sitting down at your desk, seeing all of your tasks and events laid out in front of you, and as you progress through them, your time is automatically tracked and assigned to your client, ready to bill. Now it’s Friday afternoon, and it’s already done.

You need a system that integrates everything. You already have to manage deadlines, events, and tasks for your clients. Why shouldn’t that system also track your time, and automatically bill that time to your clients? And why shouldn’t that system easily create invoices from your schedule? Suddenly, time tracking becomes a handy side-effect of simply managing your calendar and to-do list.

The One True Time Tracking Hack

There’s really only one way to truly boost time tracking:

Remove Friction.

Implement a system in your law firm that integrates your task management, scheduling, time tracking, and invoicing all in one.

One system that does this is TimeNet Law. Built from the ground up for attorneys, TimeNet Law will help you bill more accurately — guaranteed. We made time tracking so good, you’ll actually use it.

Giving a discount to your client can go a long way towards boosting client satisfaction and ensuring repeat business. It’s a small gesture that can have a big impact, both for your law firm and for your client.

TimeNet Law offers several ways to provide a discount to your client. Take a couple minutes to learn about them, and be sure to use them to increase client satisfaction at your law firm.

Discount vs. Markdown vs. Write-off: What’s the difference?

They all achieve the same end result — your client gets a discount. The difference is on the accounting side. If you’re not familiar with these terms, it can be confusing, but it all boils down to this:

• A discount is applied to the total fees and/or expenses before invoicing.
• A markdown is applied to a specific task before invoicing.
• A write-off is applied to an invoice’s balance after invoicing.

If you want to give your client a 10% discount on their next invoice, use a discount. If you want to give your client a $50 discount on one specific task, use a markdown. If you want to give your client a $100 discount on a balance they already owe, use a write-off.

Using “No Charge” Tasks

One of the simplest ways to provide a discount is to set one or more tasks to No Charge before invoicing. This will show the task on the invoice, along with the normal billing rate, but show that this task was performed free of charge.

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Remember — dealing with the legal system can be a very scary and stressful time for your client. Giving them a discount is a powerful way to build trust and client satisfaction for your law firm.

2020 has been extremely disruptive and stressful for many people, and that includes attorneys.

Offices and courthouses have had to close, court proceedings placed on hold, and even taking a meeting in person with your client can be a logistical nightmare.

Some law firms have struggled to evolve in this rapidly changing world. Others still have flourished, by either implementing or relying on a previously implemented virtual office strategy.

Now is the time to focus on ensuring your law firm remains relevant and successful during the pandemic era and beyond.

Why you need to consider transitioning to a virtual law office

The pandemic of 2020 has forced an evolutionary change on business. But even after the pandemic is over, the overall trend of business is shifting toward working from home and virtual offices. Already, many companies are saying that work from home options will remain in place long term, even after things get back to normal.

The truth is, you need to be able to deliver every service and interaction that you typically offer your clients in your office – remotely.

Whether you are a larger law firm or a solo practitioner, it doesn’t matter. You need to be able to conduct business and run your firm from the office, from home, and anywhere else you happen to be.

How to transition to a virtual law office

In this section, we’ll cover:

• How to make your documents and billing data remotely accessible
• How to make sure your data is secure and private
• Pros and cons of cloud-based software
• A better, safer option than storing your data solely in the cloud

How to make your documents and billing data remotely accessible

It’s actually much easier than you might imagine to begin transitioning right now. Chances are, you’re already sharing files at your office. Any simple shared folder setup can be adapted to allow remote access. This is typically handled through a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

You may also be using a cloud storage service, such as Dropbox or iCloud Drive, to sync files between your devices already.

If you’re doing one of these two things, you’ve already set yourself up to operate as a virtual law office. If not, its as simple as creating folder in your iCloud Drive folder, signing up for a free Dropbox account, or setting up a shared folder on your hard drive using Apple’s System Preferences > Sharing preference pane. Just turn on File Sharing, and drag a folder you want to share into the Shared Folders list.

How to make sure your data is secure and private

Accessing your documents is only part of the puzzle. You’ll also need a good system in place to manage your clients, track your time, create invoices, log and track payments and retainers, and effectively search your documents and link them to clients.

Cloud-based software offers some advantages – mainly that you can access your data and enter time using a website from anywhere. However, using web-based software comes with some significant disadvantage. It is often slow and clunky, and it is unwise to store all of your data in a system that is only accessible when you have internet access, and when that system itself isn’t down or otherwise unavailable.

There are also important privacy implications to consider. With cloud-based software, all of your data is stored using their own proprietary formats and encryption, and that data can be accessed by them anytime. The risk of having very private information about your law firm and your clients sold to advertisers and other third parties, or otherwise inadvertently leaked through a security breach, is very real. It has happened many times before.

A better, safer option than storing your data solely in the cloud

A much better option is to store all of your data on your own hard drive or device, in an independently encrypted format. This way, it is always accessible, with or without internet, and all of your critical documents, client billing and accounting aren’t at risk of becoming unavailable to you in the event of a service outage. You also don’t have to worry about your data willfully or unintentionally being put into the hands of third parties.

By using a system that keeps all of your data on your own hard drive and automatically syncs it to all of your devices, you have an extremely robust solution for data management. Your data is always backed up on a cloud server in case your computer has a hardware malfunction, or becomes lost or damaged. Your data is always available on your own hard drive. And it’s encrypted and only readable by you. You can also be assured that no cloud service that stores your data also has the ability to read or decrypt it. These things are absolutely critical.

A law firm management system like TimeNet Law that has a native app for your Mac and integrates with cloud or shared folder syncing can give you all of these great benefits. But whatever system you choose, be sure that it cannot access, sell, or lock you out of your data.

Running your law firm remotely

Now that you have a good handle on storing and accessing your data, and have a good law firm management system in place, you’ve got to put it all into action.

Adapting to a Home Office and Staying On Track With Your Team

If you are aren’t a solo practitioner, make sure to schedule regular virtual meetings with your team using a service like Zoom or Skype. Just because you’re not all going to the office every day doesn’t mean you can’t see each other and communicate effectively.

Working from home is an adjustment for a lot of us, so be sure to check in with each other often and identify pain points that anyone is running into so you can address them and keep things operating smoothly.

Be sure you have a dedicated workspace if at all possible. Comfort, posture, and an environment conducive to focus are all vital. There is a mental mode shift that happens when you enter the office. It’s the same thing that happens when you go to the gym – your mind and body are ready to workout. Sitting at the kitchen table signals your mind that its time to eat. Sitting on the couch often subconsciously switches us into a mode of relaxation. Having a dedicated workspace is an extremely important key for all successful home office operations.

Interacting With Your Existing Clients

Your clients can’t simply walk into your office, so make sure they have other options for contacting you. Offer appointments on Zoom or Skype, and make sure they have all relevant phone numbers and email addresses to contact you. Make yourself available for virtual meetings and let your clients know about these new options.

Be sure to reinforce that even though the world we live in is a very different place right now, they can still expect the same level of service from your law firm. That has not changed.

New Clients

For new clients, make sure you have a simple intake form on your website so they can establish themselves with you as a lead and quickly schedule an introductory virtual meeting with you. This also allows you to quickly determine whether this is a client that you wish to take on or not.

2020 has been a year like no other in our lifetime, this much is certain. But the most successful law firms are adapting quickly, and you can too. Working from home offers many benefits, and even as things slowly return to normal, the idea of “the workplace” has forever been changed. Implementing a virtual law office strategy for your law firm right now is a fantastic option.

If the answer is anything more than “a few minutes”, you’re doing it wrong.

You don’t get paid unless the invoices go out. It has to be done every month. And the last thing you should be doing is scrambling to remember your time and update your entries on billing day, printing or emailing invoices by hand one by one, or not sending them out on a predictable schedule.

Using a time tracking and billing system like TimeNet Law makes it easy. Your time is already entered. And your time is accurate, because you’ve used a timer to track how long your tasks took. Your invoices are scheduled, automatically created in bulk, and ready for you to review and send out with one click.

We’ve been told over and over again by attorneys that billing is stressful, time consuming, and monotonous. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you have a system in place that offers One Click Billing, it can be completely handled for you.

Don’t waste hours every month on your billing. Once you see how nice it is having it handled for you automatically, you’ll never go back.