Managing Matters
- Create a Matter
- Copy a Matter
- Delete/Inactivate a Matter
- Matter Originators
- Matter Budget
- Matter Assignments
- Manage Active Matters
- Manage Non-billable Matters
- Custom Fields
Create a Matter
Click under Clients>Clients & Matters>New Matter.
The client must have already been created in order to store the matter under it.
Specify:
Client name – type or double-click in the field for a drop-down list of all your Clients.
Matter name – must be a unique name.
Matter ID – will auto-populate to the following sequential number. This number can be customized. By default, TimeSolv starts ID numbers with ‘101’.
Responsible Professional – useful for commissions
Note: If you are connected to NetDocuments and receive an internal server error message when trying to save a new matter/project, please reconfigure your NetDocuments settings before proceeding.
Name – will appear on invoices, correspondence, and reports.
Matter ID – will auto-populate to the following sequential number. This number can be customized. By default, TimeSolv starts ID numbers with ‘101’.
Note: You cannot change Matter ID if configuration issues with NetDocuments exist. Please reconfigure NetDocuments settings before proceeding if you encounter an error message.
Responsible Professional – useful for commissions
Active – will not be displayed on the Time and Expense entries screen if not enabled.
Billable – check this box if you want this Matter to be a billable Matter.
Hold Billing – if you have several matters with time entered that you do not want to bill and would like cleared, they stop showing up in draft invoices.
Billing Code – used when generating the Time Entries report in CSV. Billing code can be imported and exported from the Matter CSV.
Rate By –
Timekeeper Default is the preselected default rate applied in the timekeeper’s individual settings for their typical rate. When no alternative is specified, this default rate will always be applied.
Task then Timekeeper Default – selecting this option means Timekeeper Default will be the standard rate applied unless the task code chosen for the entry has its own specified rate. The task code rate will then override any Timekeeper Default rate.
Global Rate – global rates are the customized rates saved under Global Rates section. Assigning a global rate to a client means that you have the benefit, for example, of giving the client a discounted rate of x% for all their time and expense entries. Or, for example, an ongoing case spanning over numerous years can have a ‘2015 rate’ applied to it.
Task then Global Rate – selecting this option means Global Rate will be the standard rate applied unless the task code chosen for the entry has its own specified rate. The task code rate will then override any Timekeeper Default rate.
Matter Rate – Matter rates are applied at the matter level. So if an individual matter needs a specific rate applied to it, then under Clients>Clients & Matters>[matter name], you would select Matter Rate under the ‘Rate By‘ field. You will then need to Save this selection to activate the grey Edit Rates button below the Rate By field and specify the matter rate.
Matter then Global Rate – If the Matter Rate is unavailable, then ‘Global Rate‘ is specified against the Matter is used.
Task then Matter Rate – selecting this option means Matter Rate will be the standard rate applied unless the task code chosen for the entry has its own specified rate. The task code rate will then override any Timekeeper Default rate.
Start Date – the activating date. It can be viewed on reports.
Estimated End Date – optionally, enter an estimated End Date for this project.
Purchase Order Number – enter the alpha-numeric sequence used in your Purchase Orders.
Task Code Option –
Not Displayed – will not show up as a field on the Time Entry page when this specific Matter is selected.
Required – will show up as a field on the Time Entry page and will be a mandatory field when this specific Matter is selected.
Optional – will appear as a field on the Time Entry page, but it will be optional when this specific Matter is selected.
Sub-Task Code Option – has the same options to select from as the Task Code Option and becomes available if the Task Code Option is either set to Required or Optional. If the Task Code Option is set to ‘Not Displayed,’ the Sub-Task Code dropdown appears greyed out.
Expense Code Option –
Not Displayed – will not show up as a field on the Expense Entry page when this specific Matter is selected.
Required – will show up as a field on the Expense Entry page and will be a mandatory field when this specific Matter is selected.
Optional – will appear as a field on the Expense Entry page, but it will be optional when this specific Matter is selected.
Invoice Account Group – clients and matters can be classified into various account groups. Set these up under Clients>Settings>Account Groups. The payment and account groups are only used for syncing with Account Edge.
Payment Account Group – clients and matters can be classified into various account groups. Set these up under Clients>Settings>Account Groups. The payment and account groups are only used for syncing with Account Edge.
Category – to help keep your matters organized, you can group them into categories and sub-categories. These categories can also be selected when generating reports. Set these up under Clients>Settings>Categories.
Sub-Category – to help keep your matters organized, you can group them into different categories and sub-categories. These categories can also be selected when generating reports. Set these up under Clients>Settings>Categories.
Require Approval For – if approvals are set up for time and expense entries, specify if this matter will need entry approvals. If no active approver is specified for this matter, newly created time/expense entries are automatically approved. To set up approvers, click under Account>Professionals>[name]>General>Approver For.
Copy a Matter
When you repeatedly work for a Client, you’re often working on the same type of Matters. As such, the same Tasks Codes are needed, the same Timekeepers are assigned, duplicate Contacts, the same Billing, etc. Rather than re-enter all those setup details – TimeSolv allows you to clone an existing Matter so that all the details connected to that Matter are created automatically in the new Matter. These can be edited as needed.
You can copy a Matter to the same Client or to another Client.
To get started, click under Clients>Clients & Matters>Matter you want to clone.
- All
- General
- Originators
- Contacts
- Invoice Settings
- Team
- Matter Plan
- Budget
- Relationships
- Notes
- Custom Field Groups
- Custom Field Values
- Approver
Note: We do not currently allow you to copy any Credit Card information held under the Matter.
Delete/Inactivate a Matter
Delete
Note: Matters cannot be deleted unless all linked transactions have been deleted.
Click under Clients>Clients & Matters>[matter name]>Delete This Matter.
Inactivate
Click under Clients>Clients & Mattters>[matter name]>General.
Disable the ‘Active?‘ field.
A notification appears at the top of the screen, and the user is notified if there are any Unallocated Credits, Trust Balances, Unbilled Time/Expense Entries, and Unpaid Invoices.
If the user still wants to go ahead and make the Matter inactive, click on the Save button to save the changes.
Matter Originators
TimeSolv allows users to add as many originating attorneys as needed against a matter so that commissions can be distributed accordingly.
These can be set up under Clients>Clients & Matters>[matter name]>Originators.
The Origination Credit field specifies how the revenue against a Matter is split as per the percentage defined in the field against the originators. The total percentage for the Origination Credit for all the Originating Timekeepers associated should not exceed 100%. If the percentage exceeds 100%, the amount turns red to indicate that the percentage for the Timekeepers needs to be adjusted to split the revenue according to the percentage distribution.
Users will be able to see the commissions for each originating attorney at the reporting level. The reports that run originating attorneys are:
- Invoices and WIP Aging report
- Payment History report
- Revenue and Commission report
Matter Budget
Businesses can contain costs while focusing on strategic roles to transform the budget into an investment through a good budgeting tool. Budgeting also means you can make a risk assessment for individual Matters/Projects.
In matter budgets, users can view and set hours, fees, expenses, and invoices, limiting them from exceeding.
Users can also set budgets at a granular level for specific Timekeepers, Task Codes, Expense Codes, Tasks, and Task Assignments by Timekeeper.
Click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[matter name]>Budget.
Budgets can be entered for Matter, Professional, Task Code, Expense Code, Plan Task, and Professional/Plan Task.
Prevent Exceeding – will cap budgeted amounts.
Budgeted amounts can be viewed against the Actual amount.
The remaining difference in the above amounts is represented by a green progress bar that will show if you are within budget limits; otherwise, the progress bar will turn red upon exceeding.
Budgets can also be exported to Excel by clicking the Export to Excel link.
Matter Assignments
Administrators can assign Timekeepers to specific Matters so they cannot see all the other Matters for your firm.
This can be set up under Account>Professionals>[name]>Permissions>Access to assigned matters only.
To assign matters, click on the Account>Professionals>[name]>Matters tab.
Select all the matters to assign to the user.
Manage Active Matters
Users can sift through all the active and inactive Matters to keep the business organized.
Pull up a list of all those Matters that have not had any activity entered against them past a specified date, which means you can also inactivate those Matters/Projects to help clean up.
Click on Clients>Settings>Active Matter Admin.
No Time/Expense Entries Since – specify a date since no entries have been made to whittle down to the redundant matters.
Include Matters with a balance due – if this is not enabled, only matters without any due balance will be displayed.
To inactivate matters in bulk, checkmark the relevant matters and click Inactivate.
Manage Non-billable Matters
This allows users to close or delete time and expense entries for non-billable projects.
Custom Fields
Note: Matter custom fields are included as named columns in the Matter Export file so that users can do a lookup to append the custom field values to the Invoice Summary Report
These are user-defined fields allowing you to be as creative and intuitive as needed when storing information under clients, matters, contacts, and matters groups.
To set up custom fields, click on Clients>Settings>Custom Fields.
See the table below for selecting the different options to affect the value field for your specific needs.
In an example we selected, you can see now that the Default Value field shows a date-specific format since we chose the ‘Type‘ as ‘Date. ‘
Note: Custom Fields cannot be deleted if they have already been used under a Client/Matter/Matter Project/Contact. Users may instead inactivate by clicking on the Edit link.
