Once a timesheet has been sent for approval, it s up to the matter’s manager or a LawRD administrator, the needed approval. Only then, the tasks that such timesheet refers to, will be available to be included into the billing sheet.

To take this action, click the Approve Timesheets option:

LawRD will display a list with timesheets from all lawyers. That list Timesheet Overview, contains all timesheets chronologically sorted, from the most recent downwards:

On the first column, the timesheet’s status appears. The status can be one of the following:

• No tasks: timesheet open with no tasks yet submitted
• Clear: timesheet with tasks logged in but not yet sent for approval
• To approve: this timesheet is already sent for approval, but not fully approved. A single task with pending approval is enough for the whole timesheet to keep its To approve status.
• Closed: timesheet fully approved.

Matter managers should keep special focus on To approve status timesheets:

On the second column, the Timesheet Overview shows who submitted the timesheet user’s ID. On the present example, hoovering the mouse over CB we are informed that it was Charles Bartholomew who submitted the timesheet:

The third column shows the week that the timesheet refers to. The previous example depicts the one sent for approval by the resource CB, which reflects the 45th week of the year, spanning from November 2 until November 8:

The fourth and fifth columns report the amount of tasks on approval (7 in this case) and the total time spent on those tasks (18h25m on this example).

When approving a specific timesheet, just click on See Details, Weekly View or on Approve Now.

By clicking on See Detaills, LawRD opens up a window wherein tasks are sorted by client and, on this last category, by matter:

This screen is where the manager must select which tasks to approve and send for billing. To approve a task, the box on the approval: column must be ticked.

For an approved task to be billed to the client, the box on the bill: column has to be checked.

By default, LawRD considers as billable all tasks but the ones submitted to the General Internal Matter (this matter is automatically added by the system, wherein internal tasks not assignable to clients, are accounted for).

In case of an approved task, if the box on the column bill: is altered to unchecked, it won´t be billed to the client, though it will afect that matter’s profitability. On the depiction, if the task ”Meeting with the Head of Human Resources” is not to be billed, that will increase the cost of that matter on 1h20m x the lawyer hourly cost rate.

At any given moment, a manager can partially approve a timesheet by clicking on Save Current Selection. From that moment on, the selected approved tasks are available to be billed.

Please keep in mind that, it takes just one task to have its approval pending for a timesheet to keep its To approve status.

The button Approve and Bill all will set all tasks in the timesheet as approved and available for immediate billing to their matters. This is the best option for a quicker timesheet approval.

When a manager does not agree with one or more tasks, he/she must click on Reject, having the choice to inform who submitted that timesheet on the grounds for the rejection.

A task rejection will afect all other tasks within that timesheet:

• Tasks not yet approved can be changed by the user that submitted them;
• Approved but not yet billed tasks, can be changed by the user that submitted them;
• Approved and billed tasks can no longer be changed.

Upon rejection, a timesheet will remain in the Clear status, being the user that submitted it for approval, informed of the changes to be performed, so that timesheet can be sent again for approval.

Timesheet approval can also be done clicking on Weekly View:

The picture depicts a matrix identical to the one for submitting tasks:

Days (columns) and matters (rows) can be swiftly approved by clicking on Approve », thus being instantly available to be billed.

Approved days and matters are shown in green:

As it happens with the See Details view, the Approve and Bill all and Reject are available.

Click on Open details + to see tasks within a matter:

Here, as described in the View Details view, each task can be approved and/or tagged as billable. Click Save List to approve the selection.

Finally, quickly approve timesheets clicking on Approve Now turning the tasks immediately available for billing:

The tasks submitted into the timesheets must be approved by the matters managers. Upon such an approval, managers will examin and validate data remaining available for future billing sheets.

To do that, just select the day(s) to be sent for approval. The user below chose only November 9 to be sent:

LawRD lets you select a complete week to be sent for approval, in a single click. Just go to that week’s tasks total amount (in this example the box underneath 6h21m was ticked). Thus, the totality of tasks on the days in that week is automatically selected:

Once the days are selected, the user will click on send for approval to get to the ….

… Description box wherein, data that the managers may find relevant is to be displayed. The Approve now box will automatic approve the timesheet, when the user is also that matter’s manager. For instance, in case the user is also the manager of the D015 matter, the 2h21m task will be immediately approved.

To finish off just click Send it.

LawRD issues reports on demand on 6 entities: Clients, Matters, Rainmakers, Managers, Lawyers and overall firm performance.

For that purpose it is necessary that time spent and expenses on matters are inserted in LawRD. Thus, such data must be input in a quick, simple and swift way.

These were the guidelines presiding the development of LawRD’s user interface, and so making it user friendly for lawyers.

There are 3 ways to input time spent and are found in the Timesheet tab:

• The Timesheet matrix: by clicking on the cell found on the junction of the client/matter line with the date column,  users insert  the time spent that day and on that matter:
  
  In case the matter is not yet available, it can be added using the -Add Matter- field.

• The quick insert box. This box enables an easy way to insert time spent  when the matrix is busy with lots of lines. LawRD, by default, shows the present date as the one in which the matter is being input with the time spent:
  

• The Timer:
  

Expenses are inputted in the My Expenses tab, and once data is written just click on Create Expense for it to be included in its due matter:

LawRD will display a list of expenses already inserted and their status (approved or not approved):

With this entry the Quick Guide is updated once the matters feature had a big improvement, as referred in New Features- Summer 2009 Collection.

One of the new features matter type categorization aims at two goals: sorting matters by type and allowing Flat Fee billing.

One acesses to the matter’s  type configuration by clicking Configuration when the Matters tab is selected:

Within the Types of Matters option an array of types is defined to which a matter can be assigned to, when it is added later. Such types have to be sorted before adding a new matter:

Types of Matters can also be used to set the flat fee value which is a new way of defining fees. For instance, if the firm has a standard pricing or has a specific one for a client, these are to be inserted in the Amount field and it should mention wether or not in that amount are included expenses, checking the Expenses Included box.

The second big update deals with billing methods. Now it is possilbe to:

• Bill matters by the hourly rates of each intervening lawyer or by the value specified to that particular matter. Billing by the standard pricing of the firm or by a client’s specific amount, still remains. It is also possible to bill a success-fee which will be settled when a new matter is added, being it adjusted by the time of issuing the billing sheet:
  
• Flat-fee. This option has a pre-defined by the lawyer database with services which relates to a payment plan, as said before:
  
  Configuring payment plans happens in the Configuration menu, when the Matters tab is selected and whithin Payment Plans a calendar for issuing the billing sheets is set:
  
  With this billing method, the matter’s manager is able to check its profitability and keeping up with issuing of billing sheets. In the following example, an installment is overdue and this matter’s networth is negative - the light green column on the chart on the left - the total time spent times the hourly rate of the employee assigned to the matter is superior to the amount already billed:
  
• Contingency fee. A percentage of the recovery amount can now be charged (it can be adjusted when issuing the billing sheet):
  
  Profitability check keeps on being available to the matter’s manager and the contingency is a quick glance away:
  

Finally, there is a new help  Wizard when adding new matters.  These can be added by the following modes: Quick Add and Advanced.

In Quick Add mode the new matter is billed by the hour (be it the standard firm pricing or a specific one for that client) wherein the employee assigned is its manager.

The Advanced mode enables all the possible options for a matter (team assignement and other contacts related to the matter) and is also the way to change or complete the settings of a matter added in Quick Mode:

A handy feature is the name suggestion that can be selected when the client´s name is being inserted in (it works on both modes):

If contacts are the starting point for LawRD, matters are the roads where data runs through. It is because a matter is related with a client that lawyers spend working hours and make expenses which later, may or may not be billed to the client.

LawRD has implemented this data register environment, to the purpose of outputing reports that answer to simple questions such as to determine whether a matter is profitable or not. LawRD - Reports on Demand, says it all!

The picture below depicts a screenshot of Matters:

LawRD presents to the user all matters wherein he/she intervenes either as manager (user’s initials show up in a red circle) or a resource (initials shown in a blue rectangle).

All matters are associated with contacts defined as clients. The matter General Internal Matters (depicted in a green rectangle) is the only exception. This particular matter is reserved for the office using LawRD to register time and costs which will not be billed to clients (e.g.  time spent on internal affairs).

The system will present set-by-step tips to add a new Matter:

• Go the Matter tab and click on:
  
• Choose an existing client:
  
• If that client already has matters added, LawRD will display a list for you to check whether the matter you are about to add is in the system or not:
  
  In case it isn´t, just click on ‘It’s not. Create a new one’ and proceed:
  
• Add who will be in charge of this matter (manager):
  
• Set the kick-off date:
  
• Who’s related to this matter. At this stage it is selected who will work on this matter and later register time and expenses. It’s always possible to add new users:
  
• Adding others associated to the matter. All sorts of contacts can be added to the matter. People working at a company that  is a client and who we communicate with, solicitors and other party lawyers, for instance, can be added here:
  
• Create the new matter:
   
  LawRD will display a screen with a header summing up the new matter’s data:
  

Contacts are the stepping stone to LawRD just as they are to any law firm.

The business competition dynamics, the present crisis context and the broadening profile of those who recur to law expertise, demand for a wider reception from law firms. Clients seek for more information and to stay informed. Establishing a close and trustworthy connection to one’s lawyer becomes pivotal for clients holding fidelity to a law firm.

Given that Customer Relationship Management and the web of contacts of each one and all of those looking for judicial counseling is hard work and requires organizing, LawRD aims to be the tool for Contacts Management.

LawRD hosts three types of contacts:

• Clients;
• System users (registered LawRD users);
• Other contacts.

Clients, whether companies or individual, have a matter associated to them. A team or a single element report costs and time spent working on that matter.

Keeping up with a  matter or a client is usually dependent to the management a web of contacts:  providers,  other lawyers, state offices, solicitors, instituitions, relatives, other parties, etc. For this, LawRD enables connecting contacts, clients and matters thus optimizing all contacts management .  

Users may also manage their personal contacts on LawRD (family, children’s school, gym, restaurants, insurance agents, bank account manager, etc), though they should  not  share that information.

Adding a Person or Company contact is easy:

• Go to the Contacts tab and click on:
  
• Choose whether the new contact is a Person or a Company:
  
  In this example, the new contact is a Company.

• By default, the added Company is not a client:
  
  To turn the added Company contact into a client one, check the ‘Is this a client ?’ box and fill in the company data:
  
  When contacts  are clients they are shared by all users of the system. All other contacts can be private or shared by chosen users.

• Pasting a photo to a client: this option allows for a faster identification of the contact. When the contact is a company, a logo can be used ( usually can be downloaded from the company´s site). When it is a Person, a photo can be searched in places such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

• Click on ‘Save’ and a new contact is added:

LawRD offers a fully functional free 30-day trial. Thus, all those who are interested can evaluate the application before safely subscribing it.

This is our suggestion for the most effective free-trial:

• Upload real data from the get go. Add your firm, system users, contacts and matters using real data.

• Sign up at LawRD. For this, go to LawRD website and sign up for free:

• After signing in, LawRD starts a welcome wizard. Select two or three matters in which you are currently working on. The goal is that all lawyers start to register time spent and expenses allocated to those matters in a daily basis. On step 0 (zero) you should not only choose the system language but the hourly rate you usually bill your clients as well.

• Invite users to your LawRD account. These are lawyers and other employees at your firm. Afterwards, they will receive an invitation sent by email with all the data needed for them to start using LawRD:

• Add clients. Don’t forget to check the box of the contact you are adding if it’s a client!

• Close the wizard. Click on ‘Save and Close’ to leave the wizard and proceed to add your first matter:

• Add your first matter. Follow the new matter wizard steps for adding a new matter:

• Make sure that all employees start using LawRD right away.

The procedure ends here. In 7 short steps you signed up for LawRD, set up your account and added users, clients and matters.

The next step is the systematic reporting of time spent and expenses. A good theme for the next post on the blog.