Managing Matter Plans
- Create a Matter Plan
- Assign Plan Tasks to Timekeepers
- Create a Matter Plan Template & Assign Template
- Make Tasks a Required Field on Time & Expense Entry Screens
- Matter Plan Settings
Create a Matter Plan
Click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[matter name]>Matter Plan tab.
Click on the New Phase button.
Drag and drop Phases / Tasks to rearrange them.
Create a Matter Plan Milestone
Click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[matter name]>Matter Plan tab.
Click on the New Milestone button.
Red Star – means it’s a Standalone Milestone. This is a phase-specific achievement and is billed collectively when the Matter Plan Task is billed out.
Green Star – means it’s a Billable Milestone. This is billed out upon completion of the Milestone itself, regardless of the progress of the rest of the Matter Plan.
Create a Matter Plan Task
Click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[matter name]>Matter Plan tab.
Click on New Plan Task button.
Tasks To-Do
If you actively use Tasks, there is a main To-Do tab at the top of the TimeSolv application for you to get quick access to creating and editing Tasks. TimeSolv allows its users to create Tasks for themselves or for other Timekeepers without the need to have a Matter Plan in place, but if you do wish to create a proper Matter Plan with Phases for your Tasks, you can do this under Clients>Clients&Matters>[matter name]>Matter Plan.
Note: Users can also create new Tasks directly under each Matter. These will auto-populate the Matter and Client details on the Tasks. The benefit of using the To-Do main tab (explained here in detail) is that you can view a full list of all your Tasks To-Do across a variety of different Matters.
To learn more about this feature, click here on To-Do>Plan Tasks To-Do.
Create a Plan Budget
Click on Clients>Clients&Matters>[matter name]>Matter Plan.
Budgets are set under specific Tasks. Click on the Task to set a budget against.
Click on Budgets & Actuals tab to create or edit the budget for the Matter Plan Task.
Budget – Set budgets for Hours, Fees, and Expenses under this Task. You can also view the ‘Actual‘ amount of these three already accumulated, the number of allocated resources left from the budget (‘Remaining‘ column), and a checkbox to ‘Prevent Exceeding‘ the budget, which will lock out any additional Hours, Fees, and Expenses entered after the budget has reached the max allocation.
Professional Detail – will be displayed towards the bottom of the screen. You can view the Professional Cost against the original firm-level settings for the Professional Rate. The chart will allow you to compare the ‘budgeted’ and ‘actuals’ for Professional assignments on this task in detail.
Note: When you fill in Budgeted Hours field, the system will automatically pull the Budgeted Cost and calculated the Budgeted Expenses based on Timekeeper rates setup in Account Settings.
Assign Plan Tasks to Timekeeper
Note: If under Clients>Clients & Matters>[Matter name]>Matter Plan the Professional Assignment Required checkbox is enabled, users will not be able to create Time/Expense Entries against the Matter Plan Tasks unless they have been assigned to them. This checkbox is useful for assigning specific Tasks to specific users. If it is not enabled, any user that has access to the Matter may enter Time/Expense entries against the Matter Plan.
There are two ways to assign Matter Plan Tasks to users:
1. Under the Matter Plan screen
Click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[Matter name]>Matter Plan.
A team icon appears next to the Matter Plan Tasks. Click on the icon to add or remove users from the Task assignment.
2. Under the Matter Team screen
Click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[Matter name]>Team.
Assign – means the user will be assigned to the Matter.
Bypass Matter Approvals – the user will not need to have their Time/Expense Entries approved by a superior.
Plan Tasks Access – the user can view and edit Matter Plan Task details.
Budget Access – the user can view and edit the Matter budget.
Assign Plan Tasks – opens a link with a list of Matter Plan Tasks, select which ones to assign to the user.
Create a Matter Plan Template & Assign Template
To copy an existing Matter Plan as a Template, click under Clients>Clients & Matters>[Matter name]>Matter Plan. Click on the Save as Template button.
The Template will be accessible under To-Do>Settings>Plan Task Templates.
Create new Template – click under To-Do>Settings>Plan Task Templates and click on New Plan Task Template.
Edit Template – click on a Template to make edits or view details.
Assign Template – to create a Matter Plan from a Template, click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[Matter name]>Matter Plan>Create from Template.
Make Tasks a Required Field on Time & Expense Entry Screens
When creating Matter Plans you can make Tasks a required field so that users must only work on the pending Matter Plan Tasks for Matters that need those assigned Tasks to be completed on priority. This helps you ensure your users are prioritizing their work efficiently.
To enable this, click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[Matter name]>Matter Plan.
Enable ‘Plan Tasks required on Time and Expense Entry‘.
Matter Plan Settings
Click on To-Do>Settings.
Plan Phase label – how the term ‘Phase’ appears in the TimeSolv app. You can view the term so it is specific to your business type. The options for customizing this terminology are:
Job
Phase
Segment
Stage
Plan Task To-Do label – how the term ‘Task’ appears in the TimeSolv app. You can view the term so it is specific to your business type. The options for customizing this terminology are:
Action Item
Activity
Item
Task
Milestone label – how the term ‘Milestone’ appears in the TimeSolv app. You can view the term so it is specific to your business type. The options for customizing this terminology are:
Deliverable
Event
Milestone
Occurrence
Automatic Plan Task Assignment – assigns the users that are already assigned against the Matter to the Matter Plan Tasks.