As firms try to save money and get paid more quickly, emailing invoices is becoming more common. A smooth process for emailing invoices is critical. With PCLaw v14, the process has been significantly improved, in fact this is the main focus of the new version.
PCLaw introduces an Invoice Email Queue. It is optional, but if you email invoices you definitely want to turn on this new feature. When bills are completed you are automatically shown the queue. You can review the emails, change the emails, update email addresses and of course, send one or more emails.
The invoice Email Queue shows the invoices that have been sent and those waiting to be sent. You will also be notified if there is a failure in sending an invoice. If the email address is missing or wrong, you can change it and you will be prompted as to whether you want to write the change to the matter permanently. This is a great time saver and very helpful when you have that single time an invoice needs to go to a different email address.
For most firms, this feature will be a strong reason to upgrade. And if you are on a maintenance plan, the upgrade is free.
There are other new features in PCLaw version 14 as well. These include:
– Restrict Timekeeper Access to time and fees posted by specific attorney. This provides better ability to prevent users from view time and fee information that you might not want them to see or change.
– Improvements to My Clients Dashboard to improve your ability to access the information you need. On the Matter Detail pane you can now see the Collection Memo Field. This alerts you to collection issues while you are speaking with the client or reviewing their information. To make is easier to capture phone calls a button has been added to the Matter Details pane to access the Phone Call Manager.
– New filtering options on Work-in-Progress report enable you to narrow the information more specifically for billable and non-billable time and fees, disbursements and retainers. The report can now show the information your firms wants to see.
– You can now add the phone and email information from the Matters Manager on to bill templates.
– When closing matters you can now add the Destroy Date field on to the Case Label template.
– In Contact Manager you can now sort contacts by Firm Name. Previously you could sort by Name or Contact Type. Whether you know the name of the firm but not the individual name, or want to see all the contacts in the same firm, this new sort will save time.
All PCLaw users on an annual maintenance and support plan should have received their product keys for v14. Many users like to wait for a while after the new version comes out before installing. If you haven’t received your keys, or want to discuss getting or installing the upgrade, please contact me at cschwartz@3545consulting.com.
