Law Office Technology

How Fee Allocations Work in PCLaw

System Settings à Data Entry

Most of our clients always leave this to the default. This way disbursements are credited first and then PCLaw takes whatever is left over and applies it to attorney’s fees.

Let’s use an example where we send a client a bill for $1,250. On this bill Robert (RSB) had $375 in fees and Victor (VCM) had $875.

The Client only pays you $1000.

We go to Receive Payment and enter the amount and the invoice. So the big question is how PCLaw splits the allocations between the two attorneys. Let’s run a Fee Allocation Summary. (Reports à Productivity)

Looking at the report above RSB collected $300 and VCM collected $700. That is 80% of each attorney’s fees on the bill. Since the client only paid 80% of the bill, PCLaw credited each attorney 80% of their fees.

If you were to click on the Details… button in the Receive Payment window you can override PCLaw’ s fee allocation and enter in your own allocation.

Billing Thresholds

There are 3 places you can configure this:

System Settings

Matter Manager Billing Settings

 

At Billing  --> Options

 

System settings default to all matters.  Matter Manager Billing Settings will allow you to override the system settings and the billing settings will allow you to override the system and matter manager settings. 

Example

Now lets look at the client ledger of one of our matters.  The matter below has fees of $300 and disbursements of $100.000

Fees Less Than: $500.00

The matter will not show up in a mass billing because it does not meet the requirement of having $500 or more in fees.  Note that even though we had over 0.01 in disbursements, we needed to meet both the fee and disbursement criteria for a bill to show up.

Fees Less Than: $100.00

The Matter WILL be billed because the Fees are greater than $100.00

Charges Less Than $1000.000

In this is situation,  PCLaw will combined the Fees and Disbursements.  However since we only have total fees and disbursements of $400 dollars the matter will not be billed.

All Settings to 0.00

If we were to change our settings to:

PCLaw will bill ever Matter, even if there is a zero balance.  This is very annoying because you will get a whole bunch of blank bills. 

Best Practice

In System Settings, set everything to 0.01

When doing billing, go to the options tab and check Include if A/R balance at Least 0.01

 

This will include every bill that has a Fee, Disbursement, or A/R Balance over 1 cent. 

How should you discount time in PCLaw

 

1. Time Reduction Task Code

To really use Time Reduction,  you need to go into Options –> System Settings  --> Data Entry and check Auto Track Time Reduction

Lets create an entry

Now lets go into the entry and reduce it by .50

As you see from above, when your change the entry to 0.50,  PCLaw automatically creates another entry right below it with the Task Code of TR.  If we were to run a time listing report

We now see how much time we have reduced.  If we create a bill

we only see the 0.50, no indication of the 0.50 we reduced.  Therefore,  your clients won’t see and that does not sit to well with me.  I want clients to be able to see the time I reduced for them. 

 

What happens if we try to change the the Hold Status to No Hold for the time entry

It then bills the client for the full amount moving us back to square one. 

2. Negative Fee Entry

 

 

 

 

3. Change \ Write Off Bill

Make sure you include Fees in the Time Entry

PCLaw Patch 10.04 Released

PCLaw Patch 10.04 Released

PCLaw Version 10.04 has been released.  For a full list of fixes and enhancements, visit this page.   Usually we recommend that clients wait a month after release before installing a software patch.  However if you have PCLaw linked with Amicus Attorney we recommend that you apply this patch immediately.  There was a bug in the Amicus PCLaw Link that caused PCLaw to skip Matters in Mass Billing if the matter was created in Amicus.  This update fixes that issue.  We saw this with Clients that had PCLaw Versions 9 and 10 and Amicus Versions 2008, 2009 and 2010.  We are not sure if this affected any other versions.  If you feel uncomfortable installing this update, we would be happy to do it for you.  Also,  our company created this White Paper and Video for LexisNexis on how to upgrade to PCLaw Version 10.  You should take the same precautions when applying  the patch.

TIP:  At Law Office Technology, we highly recommend that you run a Reports -- Client -- Work In Progress and a Billing -- Skipped Matter List after every mass billing to catch any matters that PCLaw might have overlooked. .

How to Control which Program Over Writes Addresses

When you setup the Amicus PCLaw link you control which program will overwrite the other one if the information is in both places. (Office -->  Firm  -->  Accounting,  Step 2, Link Preferences) So if Use Amicus is checked as seen in the picture above,  if you change an address in Amicus,  it will change it in PCLaw.  If Use PCLaw is Checked, and you change the address in Amicus,  the address in PCLaw will overwrite it, preventing the change. 

PCLaw Webinar on why / how to Upgrade to Version 10

I was in Cary, NC at LexisNexis this Tuesday.  While there I gave a webinar on why / how you should upgrade to version 10. Here is the link to that webinar.  I also created this White Paper which goes along with the webinar.

PCLaw Webinar on Upgrading Tips and Tricks

I will be at Lexis Headquarters in Cary, NC on February 23rd 1:00PM – 2:00PM Eastern to give a webinar on how to upgrade your PCLaw to Version 10.

Here is what will be covered:

-          The steps you need to take to prepare for your upgrade

-          How to verify your data integrity

-          What software updates are needed for your workstations

-          What backup systems you need to have in place

-          What you should do after you r upgrade is complete

-          Why you should upgrade now rather than waiting

o   Integrated case management tools

o   Physical closed files and document tracking in safe custody

o   Expanded rate exceptions, free adjustments and courtesy discounts

o   Scheduled data back up

Here is a copy of the whitepaper I created to go along with this: http://support.lexisnexis.com/lndownload/software/cic/PCLaw10_Upgrade_Checklist.pdf

All About Time and Fees in PCLaw

Quick Timer

The Quick Timer can also be accessed from the windows menu. You can open up the quick timer without opening PCLaw, but you still have to log in. To be honest the Quick Timer is quite pointless, and we usual deleting it from the menu. It is the same as the Time Sheet, except harder to use, you can only see one entry at a time and cannot easily jump back and forth between entries.

If you Delay Post in the Quick Timer:

It will show up in the Time Sheets as delayed post

It you have your Time Sheet opened when you delay post, you will have delay post your Time Sheet to see that entry.

Fee Sheet

Fee Sheets are just like the Time Sheet, except there is no place for Hours. There for, the Fee Sheet is perfect for contingency cases and anything with a fixed fee.

Time Sheet is one of the best features of PCLaw. You can use the Timer, to record the exact time of each entry or you can manually override them. When you click ok, the Time Entries are posted to the matter and ledger. You can edit and find your time entries by either going to the Matter Manager and clicking on the Time Tab or going to the Register and clicking on the Time Tab.

Delay Post

You might not be ready to post all your time entries yet. Delay Post, saves the Time Sheet so when you open it again, all the time entries are still there.

Time Sheet Settings

System Settings

· Options –>  System Settings –>  Data Entry will give you options to set the firm wide minimum time entry. You can override this by typing your entry in. It will also give you the option to save time in minutes instead of 10ths of the hour.

· Options –> System Settings –>  Data Entry will also allow you to Hold Charges. If you check this off, the next time you log into pclaw, your will have this at the end of your time sheets:

Work Station Settings

Default to will allow us to choose what Lawyer to automatically always default to. If we uncheck Allow only one timer. We can run multiple time entries in PCLaw. That may be a bad idea.

Uncheck Carry Matter Nickname Forward on Time Sheet is a good policy to set. When you create your next time Entry, the Matter Knick Name will be blank instead of being filled out.

Spell Check

If you check Automatic on OK then when you attempt to Post your time entries, PCLaw will spell check them. I would have this checked for all my users.

Lagniappe

Calendar

Even if you are not using PCLaw for Practice Management, you still want to enable the Calendar. On TimeSheets, at the bottom, you click on Calendar.

Look at all the information you get

· Running Talley of Billable Work with a $ Value for the month

· Running Talley of Non Billable Work

· Days with no Time Highlighted in Red

· Easy way to see all the Time Entries

Automatic Matter Numbering in PCLaw

PCLaw lets you automatically number Matters by Client or by Firm. 

Automatic Matter Numbering By Client

In the Example above we assigned the Client a Number of 0001 and the Matter a number of 0001-001.   The Next Matter shown below will have a Client ID of 0002 and a Matter ID of 0002-001.  PCLaw increased the Client ID by 1 increment and also increased the Matter ID by 1 increment. 

,

Now what happens if we leave automatic numbering by client on but introduce Alpha Characters instead of just Numeric. 

We will leave the Client ID as 0001 but we will put in BayerCraig as the Matter ID.  The next Client ID is 0002, which is an increase of 1 and the Matter ID is still 0002-001.  As show in the image below, PCLaw completely ignored the previous Matter ID.  Therefore, if you want to use Alpha characters as the Matter ID,  PCLaw will ignore them and replace the next matter id with numeric characters.  This can be problematic when linking to a practice management software like Amicus Attorney, because the Matter ID will be grayed out with a numeric number already in place and you will not have the option to replace it.  To fix this, change PCLaw Automatic Numbering to By Matter.  It will still increase the Client ID while leaving the Matter ID Blank. 

 

Automatic Numbering by Matter

In the Matter above, we used 09-0001 as the Matter ID and 001 as the Client ID.  The next Matter we create, as seen in the example below, will have the Matter ID of 09-0002, an increase as 1 and the Client ID of 002, an increase of 1.

Now, lets look at the same example, but lets introduce Alpha Characters.  In the example below we will use the Matter ID of 09-0001 but the Client ID of BayCra. 

When we go to create the next Matter,  PCLaw will increase the Matter ID by 1 and will leave the Client ID  blank. 

 

In our experience, it seems that firms have more success when they set PCLaw to Automatic Numbering by Matter.  For the Client they use Alpha Characters and for the Matter they just use a sequential number.  For 2008,  there first matter would be 08-0001 and at the start of 2009 they would start all over again to 09-0001.

Automatically Create Disbursements at Billing

PCLaw allows you to automatically create a disbursement at billing.  If you want to charge a client a one time File Setup Fee, this would be a great place to do it.

In the Matter Manager, Go to the Billing Tab

Your Options are to Create this one time, Every time you create a bill, or a percent of Fees.  Most Firms use a One Time Amount.

What G/L Account to Use?

G/L Account for Cash:  5010 Client Disb Expense

GL Account for Modified Cash / Accrual: 5210 Client Disb Clearing

Now you could also create your own expense account to track this separately