Does It Compute?

Using Major Clients in PCLaw

I have never had much of a need to use the “Major Clients” feature in PCLaw. Most firms find a client/matter (2-tier) structure adequate for their needs.  However, I recently came across a firm that needed a 3-tier structure. This is where the Major Client comes in. It is important to understand that “Major Client” does not mean “very important client” (although it could be that too), but rather represents a third level of organization.

In this case, the firm represented a number of Real Estate Management companies. Each management company managed a number of buildings (“clients”) and in each building there were dealings with tenants (“matters”). So by making the Management Company a “Major Client” it was possible to generate bills and reports for the management company that encompassed all the buildings it managed without having to do it manually.

It takes a little doing to set up and manipulate, but to this sort of firm it can be very useful.

PCLaw Report Groups

A PCLaw feature that is probably underused is Report Groups. If you have a series of reports that you typically run on a regular or frequent basis, it can be a bit overwhelming to have to recreate them every time you want to run them.

Fortunately there is a way to save multiple reports and then re-run them whenever you want: it is called Report Group. If you go into Reports, the Report Group appears at the bottom.

You can create and save multiple reports to a Group.  Thus, for example, firms might have several Weekly Financial reports, or Weekly Billings reports which analyze the information from slightly different perspectives.  Similarly, Month End reports.  And many custom reports you may create for specific purposes.

Definitely a feature that is worth checking out.

Lexis Nexis Strikes Again

I have been implementing PCLaw in a Terminal Services configuration.  Everything seemed to be fine, UNTIL we tried to print reports.  The left 4-5 characters on reports are truncated, so that you can’t for example tell which client the report is referring to.

Several calls to tech support.  It turns out that PCLaw supports “core functions” via terminal services. But guess what?  Printing, exporting, emailing, etc. are not considered a “core function.”  Go figure.

The only workaround is to export reports to a text format, open them in Wordpad, change the font to 7 points and the document to landscape, and print them that way.

Running PCLaw 7 under Windows 7

I recently had someone call me who had PCLaw 7 and had bought a new Windows 7 64 bit PC. They wanted to run PCLaw 7 under Windows 7. Not supported, and as usual LexisNexis wanted an arm and a leg to upgrade and pay the punitive reinstatement fees. Could it be done anyway?

Turns out, it can.  There are a couple of tricks. 

As always with Windows 7, I recommend turning off the User Access Controls – really annoying and the utility is marginal. This will make it a lot easier to install and customize programs.

First of all, old Windows Help files will not run under Windows 7. So you have to download winhlp32.exe from the Microsoft site. You can find instructions here.

If you don’t do this you will get really annoying messages that the help file cannot be opened. The messages won’t go away and you have to manually dismiss the program, so do this first.

We copied the old data to an external hard drive, reinstalled the program on the Windows 7 and then linked up to the data. When you install the program, you want to right-click on the autorun or setup file and select Compatibility.  Set the executable to run as if it were Windows XP SP3, disable the fancy screen fonts for Windows 7, and set the program to run with Administrative rights. Do this to the PCLaw executable as well.

With those two things done, everything went very well. PCLaw is up and running under Windows 7.

The same approach may work for other legacy programs as well. As usual, your mileage may vary.

PCLaw Link to Time Matters

The PCLaw link to Time Matters generally works pretty well. However, in instances where you need to run maintenance on PCLaw that requires all users to be out of the program it creates a bottleneck. PCLaw believes that the link is a “user” and won’t proceed.  This can happen if you are running a backup, or the “Verify Data Integrity” function and in some other instances.

There is no way to “close” this “user” from within PCLaw. The only workaround I have been able to find is simply to do a Ctrl-Alt-Del and shut down the process called “PLSVCLNK.exe.”  That is the link itself. You may have to shut down two other monitoring processes (in PCLaw 10), PLSRVSCH.exe and PLXVCLOG.exe. Do NOT close the main program, PCLAW32.exe. When you are done, exit PCLaw and open it again to restart the ancillary processes.

It would be nice if PCLaw could “suspend” the link when a dedicated procedure is required so that someone in Time Matters does not enter time, create a new matter, etc. that would write to PCLaw in the middle of the dedicated procedure.

Custom Sort Order in PCLaw 10

PCLaw has always had an option to sort the items on your bill by date, attorney or task.
In PCLaw 10, it is now possible to have a totally custom order, although it takes some doing and can only be done one bill at a time.

To do this, first select the matter to be billed. Then, in the Register, at the lower left corner check the “Set Entry Order for Bills” box. Then move the time entries up or down to the desired order. Click “Save & Close” at the top right of the button bar otherwise this order will not be remembered.

When you run the bill, click in the “Fees” tab and set it to sort by by Entry Number first (otherwise it will not work). Then, on the Options tab, check “Select Charges.  When you actually run the bill (or pre-bill), a screen will pop up with the entries to be billed. Check the “Set Entry Order for Bills” box at the lower left, then check the entries to be billed (the check box is at the left of the entry)  and if necessary move them up or down.

As you can see, this is a fairly complex process and not one that you would likely want to use on a regular basis. However, if you want to put a writeoff entry in a particular position or if a specific client has unusual demands, it could be useful.

PCLaw 10 Released

PCLaw 10 was officially released at the end of July. There have been several quick patches, so it now stands at 10.01b.  Is it worth upgrading?

First, if you are using PCLaw in conjunction with Amicus Attorney or Time Matters, you should hold off. There are problems with the link with Amicus, and Time Matters 10 is not out yet (and apparently having problems). PCLaw should not be upgraded until any links you are using have been tested.

Aside from that, PCLaw 10 is a minor, incremental release. However, it may well be that one of the “minor” improvements is something you have been wanting for years.

For example, you can now change the font size in the screen displays of data. With larger monitors and higher resolutions, a number of clients have been clamoring for this ability. If this is you (and there are no other issues, such as links to Amicus or Time Matters), by all means upgrade.

Perhaps typical of the “if you need it, fine,” character of the new features is the ability to display time by hours and minutes rather than in tenths of an hour. For most firms, this is probably irrelevant: but for those who want it, it may have been a long-standing aggravation and therefore reason to upgrade.

Also, PCLaw will now automate backups every day, which is very convenient. On the other hand, as with some other new features, it is not very well implemented. You can back up every day, but there is no way to specify rolling backups, so that you only keep data for x number of days. So your backups will grow and grow and grow until you manually delete older ones.

Another minor, but nice, feature is the ability to pay off previous balances from a trust account at the time of billing. This simplifies the process considerably.

Supposedly you also have the ability to prioritize time entries on the bills so that, for example, time entries could be sorted in a custom order. However, the process involves so many undocumented settings and is so cumbersome as to be almost useless.

In a similar vein, although PCLaw claims that new tokens and capabilities have been added to the template editor, some users report that in fact some key tokens (in particular for income reports) and billing template features are missing.

If you are using Credit Card processing, you will also have to upgrade that due to changes in Federal regulations concerning credit cards.

You should take a look at the “New Features” list at http://support.pclaw.com/techdownload/plnew1001.pdf to see whether any of the new features are of interest to your firm.

PCLaw v. Time Matters: Can PCLaw Do It All?

There seems to have been a recent uptick in inquiries along the line "Do I really need Time Matters?" Can't I do everything I do with TM just with PCLaw? (Manifestly, this corresponds to increased dissatisfaction with Time Matters and LexisNexis).

The generic answer is pretty simple: If you have an extensively customized Time Matters setup (for example, do you have custom fields on the "Additional" tab?), and make substantial use of chains and triggers, then the answer is "No, you would not be happy with PCLaw." However, if you use TM mainly as a calendar and rolodex for contacts and matters, then PCLaw may be able to do what you need. As usual, the devil is in the details.

Calendar and Chains (Linked Events).  PCLaw has an excellent calendar, on a par with Time Matters. And while TM can be customized almost any way you want, PCLaw has a built-in "location" category (where is the appointment taking place), and is much more geared to billing time than TM is. PCLaw will let you create and store "linked events" (what TM calls "chains"), and notify someone of an appointment.

Triggers.  PCLaw does not have triggers (where one event "triggers" another).

Customization of Matters.  While TM puts everything "up front" on three screens, PCLaw does let you create a series of "Custom Tabs" that can be associated with a matter or type of law. As you might expect from a billing and accounting program, these are heavily oriented toward billing items. However, while you do not have options such as calculated fields, phone, social security number, web or email fields, the options you do have include dates, yes/no, etc. You have lookups of PCLaw fields but not customized lookup tables as with TM. However, if you wished to set up a Custom Tab to display all the dates for particular kinds of court matter for example, you could do so easily and display it all in one place (which you cannot do in TM).

Documents.  PCLaw will let you create merge documents which are similar to TM's merge documents. In terms of usability, they are somewhere in between formattable clipboards and merge documents in TM and will also let you access fields in your Custom Tabs. They will work with WordPerfect, but must be created in Word.

Timers. If you make use (or would like to make use) of timers. PCLaw lets you start timers from Word, Excel or Internet Explorer to track and bill time spent in those applications. TM does not do this.

And of course, in terms of overall time and billing functions, PCLaw is miles ahead of TM's Billing Matters (which is in the process of being discontinued by LexisNexis).

Data Import. You may have trouble getting existing data into PCLaw. When it links with Time Matters or Amicus, it imports the clients, but not any other contacts. However, there is a little-known utility called “pclawdi.exe” which can be downloaded from the PCLaw download site (http://support.pclaw.com/techpage.asp). You may have to fight with tech support to get the product key (it is a 25-digit key which was used prior to v. 8.20c, not the current 40-digit key), but the utility itself is free. You can import basic information – contacts, clients, matters and calendar items. Not complete, but a big step along the way. You will not, however, get any custom field information in your current program (on the other hand, if you have a lot of custom field information chances are PCLaw will not do what you want).

So the answer is.... it all depends on what you are looking to do. If you make a list of the five things you wish your current system would do, but doesn't; and another of five functions you absolutely can't afford to lose, and compare the result with some of the details above, you will be in a much better position to make an informed decision.

Budgeting: Getting the Most Out of Your Software

In the midst of a severe recession (to avoid the dreaded “D” word), firms are under a lot of pressure to get more out of their software.

One way to do this is to keep better track of your cases and revenue by availing yourself of the budget features in Amicus or PCLaw. Both these programs let you set up a budget for expected billable revenue and then generate reports comparing time worked and/or billed against the budget.

In Amicus, the timesheets page lets you set up a budget for the year and for the month, and then compare what you have actually billed to the budget. While most small firms know pretty well how things are going (good month, lousy month), it will help manage your firm to be able to put numbers on this.

In PCLaw, you set up a budget per month for each timekeeper. You can then run reports on budget vs. worked, vs. billed, etc.

PCLaw 10

I recently sat in on a Webinar/user’s group for PCLaw. The difference with the Time Matters user’s group was like night and day. First of all, the presenter stated clearly that while PCLaw has some resources for end users, at a certain point they would be better off hiring a consultant, and even went so far as to show attendees how to look up and find a Lexis-certified consultant on the web site. More generally, the presenter was obviously very knowledgeable about the product.

More importantly, as the user group reviewed the new features in the upcoming PCLaw 10, two facts stood out. First, that PCLaw 10 will be an incremental release. Given the recent layoffs of programmers and support people, this is probably a wise move. Trying to do too much could result in Time Matters-type disasters.

The second interesting fact is that although the new features are minor, they are in fact responsive to things that people have been asking for for years. So the response to the traditional mantra: “don’t bother upgrading unless there is a feature that you have been dying to have for a long time” may well be that there is indeed such a feature.

Some of the new features include:

The ability to change the screen fonts in the grid displays (i.e. in the Register). I have several clients who have been complaining about this for years.

An improved way to show courtesy discounts on bills. This has also been an annoyance for many people.

The ability to pay off previous balances from the Trust account – you didn’t use to be able to do this.