Did you have wonder how many slips you have or how many clients are listed on your active client list? There's an easy way to find out. For a total count of your clients, open your Client List. Place your mouse cursor at the top of the client list title bar and right click. Select the option "record count".
To see a total number of slips, go the the Slip List. View by ID. Right click on the ID titlebar and select "record count".
If you are one of the many Timeslips users that has set up their clients using the "Reference" field to identify Matters or Projects, you are probably aware that this list can grow to be quite large and unmanageable. With Timeslips 2009, there is a way to make these References Inactive. It works very much like the Client Classification feature that allows you to change your clients from Open to Inactive. You can always change the Reference status back to Active if it is required in the future.
The steps are simple:
Sage has just started mailing and emailing to current Timeslips users. Just in case you are not one of the lucky recipients, I thought you might like to know that Sage is offering 30 days of free support with your upgrade to Timeslips 2009. It's a limited-time offer, however, I don't know when it will expire. I believe the support will be limited to questions about installation and new product features. If you're having a complex problem, not related to installation or new features, it will still require paid support.
One of the other things that I really like is the email address for product suggestions: TimeslipsUserSuggestions@sage.com. I know so many of you have some great ideas on what you would like to see in Timeslips. Now is you chance to let Sage know. Future product improvements and new features will be developed from the suggestions you make. What a great idea!
Another email address to keep handy is customer.loyalty@sage.com. Let them know if you are having issues with services provided by Sage Software or your Certified Consultant.
I'm happy to see the move toward a more customer-centric focus and look forward to seeing positive results. But, it all depends on the Timeslips users. Don't be shy...let them know what you need in a time and billing program.
For the past couple of months, I've been gathering information for my August trip to the Pacific Northwest. There's a big, fat folder on my desk that holds information on airline confirmations; hotel reservations; rental car reservations; maps; area restaurants; places of interest, etc. Normally, I would stuff all this paper in a huge, carry-on tote bag or in my luggage. As the trip progresses, a few of these papers usually fall into that great unknown void, known as the "bottom of the bag", never to be seen again. There should be a better way to handle this.
I just found the answer: TripIt. All you need to do is forward all your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com. You can send almost any kind of booking confirmation email, including travel agencies, cruise lines and restaurant reservations from OpenTable. From that point on, it's like magic. Everything is combined into a single master itinerary. They also include related information like weather; maps; driving instructions, city guides and more. You'll receive an email when your itinerary is ready.
You can access all your travel plans from your mobile device or sync it to your personal calendar.
It's great for business travel arrangers. They can coordinate travelers plans and stay up-to-date with change. It's easy to track multiple trvelers on a combined trip calendar.
Here's a sample itinerary.
And, best of all, it's FREE. Happy traveling!
As we all know, Timeslips is a very feature-rich program, which is great. However, some of these features are not used by the majority of Timeslips user. Perfect examples are the "Start Date" and "End Date" as well as the "Time Estimated" fields found on the slip entry screen. If you need the information in these fields, then by all means leave it alone.
But, if you are like most users, these fields just slow down the data entry process, at best. At it's worst, different dates in the Start Date and End Date fields can cause unusual results on slip reports that involve date range criteria and leave you scratching your head trying to figure out what went wrong. If you want to disable the Start Date or End Date, we recommend, disabling the Start Date, since the End Date is used in some reports.
It's a fairly simple process to disable these features, which will remove them from the slip entry screen. Later on, if you decide that you want them back, just follow the same process to enable the feature and bring it back. If you would like to try it, just download the document with the link shown below.
Even though Timeslips 2009 was thoroughly beta tested (I was one of the participants), there are always a few issues that no one notices until the software is being used by a wide variety of end users in ways that sometimes we can't even imagine.
Following is a brief outline of what has been reported so far. None of the issues seems to be serious enough to stop you from working, however, you might find them annoying, at best. The majority of Timeslips users may never encounter these problems at all. If you have come across something that doesn't seem to work quite right, you might want to check the Knowledgebase as discussed in my June 26, 2008 post.
Now, that we've identified some "issues" should you order an upgrade? The answer is YES. Go ahead and place your order to take advantage of the terrific pricing that is still being offered. Even if you order the software now, you do not necessarily need to install it right away. You can hold off on the installation until the first service release. If you have questions about when you should upgrade, read my blog article posted in January, 2008 to help you with the decision-making process. Click on the link below if you would like to see the current prices:
If you have upgraded and are using Timeslips 2009, I'd like to hear what you like and don't like about the software.
You probably already know what a payroll service company can offer you. Besides saving time, they reduce your risk of payroll penalties by filing all the state and federal tax forms and making deposits on time. This is all good, but you are still left with the task of making payroll entries to your General Ledger. We all know that manual entries can be error prone.
Sage Software now offers the only full payroll service system that is completely and seamlessly integrated with Peachtree Accounting software. It couldn't be easier. No more manual payroll entries. If you are switching from ADP, they can import from the ADP output file, so you do not have to re-key that information.
If you would like more information about this service or special pricing information, call (561) 416-9288.
I just learned about a new service that will allow you to accept credit cards for payment without all the high monthly fees and charges that are normally associated with accepting credit card payments.
Unless you have a high volume of customers or clients that pay you with a credit card, it is generally too costly to accept this type of payment. I just came across a new service called, Accept-By-Phone that takes the pain and expense out of credit card processing. Unlike other traditional merchant accounts there are:
Their charges are very simple and easy to understand:
I remember when I first set up a merchant account several years ago. It took me several hours to set up a spreadsheet showing all the options and charges for each of the credit card processing companies, just so I could compare one to the other. To this day, I'm not exactly sure what some of the charges are for. I can't wait to compare my current merchant account statement to the Accept-by-Phone charges to see if it will be a cost-effective alternative for me.
The discount rate is higher than what you would pay with a traditional merchant account, but if you add up all the other charges that you are paying, it may be much higher than the total charges you will be paying to Accept-by-Phone. Unless you have a high dollar volume of credit card payments, it doesn't make much sense to maintain a traditional merchant account.
Accepting credit card payments is a nice option to give your customers and clients. Lots of clients and customer like to pay by credit card simply to increase their number of Frequent Flyer Miles. It's a low-cost benefit that you can give to your clients. Last, but not least, it will help improve your cash flow. It's a win-win for both of you....they get the Frequent Flyer miles; you get the cash deposited in your account almost immediately.
In my opinion, the cost of doing collections far outweighs the costs of credit card processing, even with the traditional merchant account. Now, with the Accept-by-phone option, there is little reason why anyone would not add credit cards to their accepted forms of payment.
I'm taking the lazy way out today and attaching an excellent article from Digital Publications on Acrobat Power Searching. If you receive a large quantity of Acrobat documents this article is for you. It's just full of information about Acrobat and how you can search almost any document. And, if all else fails, or you just have too much to do, you can hire Digital Publications to do the work for you.
If you considered using a case management system, but were put off by it's complexity, you might want to consider Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm edition. It was specifically designed for solo practitioners and firms with less than 10 users. Amicus Attorney was designed by an attorney. I think that is one of the factors that make it so intuitive. The program works the way an attorney works.
While it looks simple, Amicus Attorney has all the functions you need: calendar, document management, to do lists, contacts, email and more. What makes it powerful is the integration. Just imagine each of your cases in folder that contains everything that pertains to that case: all the documents, emails, videos, appointments, time billing entries, random notes, follow up tasks, related contacts. When you open a client folder in Amicus you see it all in front of you without searching.
One of the other features that we like is the timekeeping capability. Time tracking is very easy and most attorneys find that they are capturing 30 percent more billable time when they use Amicus Attorney. The time that you capture in Amicus can be easily integrated with Timeslips (or other time and billing packages) to generate your bills.
If you are interested in ordering this program, you can download the order form and save 15% on your order during the month of July. There is also a free trial that is available on the web site.
