Bill4Time Staff

Your smartphone can do more than just receive calls, answer emails or keep you up-to-date with friends on Facebook. It can help you better manage time, respond to clients, share work related documents, manage projects and more. The Bill4Time Mobile App was built with your business in mind! The latest version of the app has taken mobile time-tracking to a new level by introducing some great new features as well as improving on the actions you take most when you do your everyday tracking.

 

New Features:

• Mobile Login Tracking^beta – We’ve enabled login-tracking for mobile app users. Whenever a user makes a login attempt via mobile app, this attempt is recorded under the Login History tab within your account settings.
• Expense Unit Quantity – We have implemented a new functionality that allows the user to define the number of units used to calculate the price of an Expense. This feature would allow you to easily track, for example, the number of miles traveled or the number of photocopies made against the Unit Rate (see below).
• Expense Unit Rate – This feature observes the default Unit Price configured for each Expense Type, or allows the user to define a one-off per-unit price. This feature allows you to quickly enter just the number of miles traveled or photocopies made and then calculates the default Unit Price against the Unit Quantity. This is really handy for standardized expenses like a court filing fee, daily parking rate, mileage rates, photocopies, and more!

Improved Features:

•  ABA Codes – We’ve enabled the ABA code-set to appear for Clients with this setting configuration. This will allow you to track your time and expense entries and include an ABA code directly via mobile.
• Enhanced Image Upload – We have implemented a new protocol for uploading images to the Bill4Time Mobile App. All images now upload in their original size and resolution, resolving a previous issue where in some instances image quality and size may have been scaled down.
• Third-party PDF Viewer – Based on user feedback, we’ve implemented changes to improve the process for opening an invoice PDF using a third-party app.

 

Bill4Time has you and your business covered on-and-offline. Bill4Time mobile works even when you’re offline and automatically syncs once an internet connection is available. Leverage your iPad, iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry device anytime. Whether you’re in the office or on the go, Bill4Time keeps you connected!

 

The Bill4Time product team releases new and enhanced features, system improvements, and bug fixes several times per week. Organized by month, the Release Notes blog series will highlight all the changes we’ve implemented, so you can easily stay up-to-date on what’s new. If you have a question, feedback, or an idea – please leave a comment below!

 

Take a look at what we’ve released this July:

 

Updated 7/27/2017

Invoice Batch Description – We’ve resolved a bug where the Batch Description field was not automatically populating when the select-all clients box was checked off.

Receive Payment Defaults – We have resolved a bug where the Project was not automatically populating in the New Payment window when creating the payment from within the project. This form is now properly populating with the client and project when creating the payment entry from within those pages.

Conflict Checker – We have implemented an additional field search for the Conflict Checker feature. This search will now scan through project-level addresses for possible matches.

Payment Pop-up (FireFox only) – We have implemented changes to the format and size of the payment pop-up window for FireFox users (other browsers were not affected). This pop-up should now open fully, with the section for applied in full view towards the bottom.

Balance Adjustment Pop-up (Chrome only) – We have implemented changes to how the Balance Adjustment pop-up window opens for Chrome users (other browsers were not affected). This window has been restored and should now open as an actual pop-up, instead of a new full page tab.

 

Updated 7/25/2017

Batch Invoice Numbers – When creating or editing an invoice batch, the batch will no longer overwrite the current invoice number of each invoice within the batch – unless a Starting Number is set or updated.

Conflict Checker – We have implemented an additional field search for the Conflict Checker feature. This search will now scan through client-level addresses for possible matches.

 

Updated 7/20/2017

Trust Balance Summary – We have updated the formatting for negative trust balances. Although in a practical sense these trust balances do not normally become negative, we’ve updated the formatting to better reflect a debit v. credit trust balance to clarify the running totals and bring this formatting into alignment with the operating accounting summary pages.

Updated Mobile Apps – The Bill4Time team is thrilled to announce a major enhancements to our iOS and Android apps. The latest version of the app has taken mobile time-tracking to a new level by introducing some great new features as well as improving on the actions you take most when you do your everyday tracking.  Full Post Here

 

 

The Bill4Time product team releases new and enhanced features, system improvements, and bug fixes several times per week. Organized by month, the Release Notes blog series will highlight all the changes we’ve implemented, so you can easily stay up-to-date on what’s new. If you have a question, feedback, or an idea – please leave a comment below!

 

Take a look at what we’ve released this June:

 

Updated 6/29/2017

Payments Applied Report – We’ve implemented a new toggle option that will exclude Balance Adjustment – Credit transactions from the report output.

iOS Mobile App Update – A new version of the Bill4Time mobile app was released today.

(v 2.3.19)

• Image Uploads from the Photo Gallery – We have resolved an issue where images uploaded to the B4T app from the Photo Gallery were being cropped. The full size images are now being attached and synced to the system.
• Expense Quantity Calculation – We’ve implemented a feature for mobile expense entries where users can define a Quantity of units (like the number of miles traveled, or the number of pages photocopied). This functionality parallels that which is found on the website.
• Expense Type Unit Price Defaults – We’ve Implemented a new Unit Price feature for mobile expense entries where users can define a Unit Price per unit (like the price per mile, or cost per photocopied page). This functionality observes the defaults setup within the Custom Expense Types list, yet can be overridden to make a one-off expense entry.
• Project Creation – We have resolved a bug affecting a small number of users where Projects could not be created from within the mobile app. This is now resolved for all users and all devices.
• ABA Activity, Task, and Expense Codes – We’ve updated the ABA code defaults within the mobile app so that Clients using ABA codes do not allow for the selection of a non-ABA code type to be saved to an entry. Previously, users could override the ABA codes with a standard code type.
• Flat Fee Rate Display – We have resolved a display-only issue where only the first number of a flat fee rate amount would display. The app will now display the full integer in all scenarios.

 

Updated 6/27/2017

New Public API ^beta Integration – Bill4Time has released the API ^beta feature that supports get/read operations from Bill4Time to other applications. The largest benefit of implementing an API to organizations is the significant decrease in internal costs by eliminating the need for employees to re-enter data that is already captured by Bill4Time. Simply put, this interface allows programmers to develop applications that communicate with an existing application or service to automate the flow of data and manual data entry.

Click Here for documentation and instructions!

 

Invoice Report with Expenses Report Update – We have implemented a new ‘Group By’ filter within this report, and added an option for per-client groupings. This report also now includes a new option for showing totals for each grouping.

Verify Entries Before Billing – No core functionality change, but we have streamlined this process and implemented improvements to the code in an effort to improve the user experience with this feature (and hopefully cut down on extra clicks!).

 

Updated 6/22/2017

Custom Invoice Numbers by Batch – We’ve implemented a change to how invoice numbers are customized when the External Accounting setting is enabled. You may now update the invoice numbers of an entire batch, at once, directly from the Invoice Batch screen. This change only affects accounts with the External Accounting setting enabled.

Deleting Expense Attachments – We have resolved a bug where an attachment to an expense entry could not be deleted when the Quantity field was utilized. One is now able to freely delete attachments without making an adjustment to other fields on the entry form.

Account Data Export – We’ve updated the data export feature to include greater detail. We’ve implemented new columns on multiple tables for the internal ID numbers of Clients, Projects, and Invoices.

 

Updated 6/20/2017

General Styling Changes – We have added some polish to the look and feel of the Bill4time System. No major functionality changes, but we have updated the layout of various forms and buttons to make them easier to read and access.

Opening Stored Files – We’ve resolved a bug affecting a small number of users where files uploaded to the program could not be opened due to brackets ‘[,]’ appearing  in the filename. This issue is now resolved for all users and all files; brackets are permitted characters in filenames.

 

Updated 6/15/2017

Activity Type Report Group by Task or Activity – We have implemented a new grouping option in this report that allows you to toggle between grouping by Activity Code or Task Code.

Opening Client from within Project – We have updated the client-name link within the Project Details tab so that it opens to the Client’s details when directly clicking the link and when opening it in a new tab or window.

 

Updated 6/13/2017

Expense Report Group by Date – Recently, we updated the Expense Report to include a new ‘Group by Date’ feature. Now, when the “Show & Order by Created Date” option is enabled, the by-date groupings will be by the Created Date instead of the Expense Date.

Collections Report Excel Format Export – We’ve resolved a bug where running the report by Account Manager and exporting to Excel was causing display-only formatting issues within this report.

Invoice Email Custom Sender Address – We have restored a functionality that allows for a custom ‘From’ address when sending Invoice Emails out of the program. Users are now able to type in a custom sender address when preparing their Invoice Emails.

Invoice Order when Applying Payments – We have restored the order in which outstanding invoices appear when applying payments and credits. These invoices will now appear chronologically instead of by ID number.

 

Updated 6/8/2017

Activity Type Report Update – We have implemented two new optional columns within this report that detail the ABA Task and Activity codes used with your work entries. These columns can be enabled by checking off the boxes found under the Advanced Filters.

Billing Contact Fields Update – We have increased the character limit on the Billing Contact field as to accommodate multiple email addresses.

Custom Sender Address on Invoice Emails – Based on the feedback of our users, we have restored a functionality that allows for a custom sender address when emailing invoices out of the program.

 

Updated 6/6/2017

Client Project Creation Report Update – We have made a change to this report to include a new grouping option. You may now group Clients and Projects that were created within the same month. Updated 6/20/17 – When grouping by month, this report now subtotals the clients/projects created that month in the section heading!

Payments Applied Report Update – We have implemented a new filter within this report that allows you to filter by Payment Method. This change allows you to better realize how different methods of payment are applied to billed balances.

Payments Received Report Update – We have implemented new optional column that allows you to display if a payment is currently applied to any invoices. This checkbox option can be enabled from within the Advanced Filters of this report.

Preview Invoice Template – We are thrilled to announce some much desired changes to the Invoice Template Preview feature. This tab will now more closely match your specific content selections and the design layout as well.

Applying Payments Bug Fix – We have resolved an issue, which was affecting a small number of users, where payments were unable to be applied without saving the transaction first. This is now resolved for all users

Client IDs within Statements – We have updated the column for Client ID within Statements. Users with custom alphanumeric Client IDs will now see these custom ID numbers in the appropriate column when generating statements.

 

 

Updated 6/2/2017

New Expense Deletion Icon – We have implemented a small change the Expense Entry form. Now, when deleting an expense attachment, instead of clicking the work ‘delete’ the user would click the “X” icon. There is no functionality change here, just bring the styling into alignment with the rest of the system.

Flat Fee Projects with Billable Hours – Users are now able to add billable hourly entries to their Flat Fee – One Time projects, by simply checking the box for billable when they go to create this entry.

Applying Adjustments to Invoices – We have resolved a bug affecting a small number of users that prevented them from successfully applying adjustments to their invoices.

Custom Lists Popup Formatting – We’ve implemented a change to the Custom Lists popups to make them bigger, more easily navigable, and to show more information on screen without having to scroll down the page.

Client Project Creation Report Update – We have made a change to this report so that Clients and Projects with custom IDs will now have that custom ID displayed within the report.

 

 

Question or comment about a change we’ve made?
Please contact Bill4Time Support by Email or phone: 877-245-5484

 

This post will be periodically updated throughout the month to reflect new releases.

Click here to view May’s Release Notes

 

 

Not tracking a brief 2-minute task today doesn’t feel like it makes much of a difference. But not tracking for those same two minutes day after day, bill after bill…it really adds up! Sure, tracking minimum billing increments may not seem worth the hassle – but those lost minutes chip away at your bottom line. When you don’t track those extra minutes spent on a quick call or email, your client has no idea how much work your results actually take – and your invoices undervalue the ‘big picture’ of your professional service.

For convenience, most Bill4Time users track their time using a standard increment of time, commonly six minutes (0.1 hours), ten minutes ( 0.17 hours) or fifteen minutes ( 0.25 hours). This means that if your client calls you for a 5-minute status update, you’d bill them for the full increment of six, ten, or fifteen minutes. You can see in the table below how different minimum billing increments can affect the final billable value of hours worked for a client.

What we want to know is which increment your practice uses, and how you determined that amount of time was right for your clients? Has a client ever questioned it? Have you ever changed your minimum billing increment, and did you notice it had any effect on your practice in terms of client-relations and revenue generation?

 

Comments entered at the bottom of this post may be featured as a use-example for your minimum billing increment. So please feel free to share any experience or insight you may have! Users with the best comments may be contacted by Bill4Time to receive a special consideration for providing valuable input.

The Bill4Time product team releases new and enhanced features, system improvements, and bug fixes several times per week. Organized by month, the Release Notes blog series will highlight all the changes we’ve implemented, so you can easily stay up-to-date on what’s new. If you have a question, feedback, or an idea – please leave a comment below!

 

Take a look at what we’ve released this May:

 

Updated 5/31/17

Trust Account Check Numbers – In a follow up to last week’s Receive Payment popup update – we have also included the ‘Check #’ field when the Trust Account payment method is used.

Convert Timer Popup – We have implemented a change to the system that causes a notification to appear whenever the Convert To Time Entry popup window is blocked by the browser.

Conflict Checker Queries – We’ve resolved a bug that caused an error to appear when running a second Conflict Check in the same window after downloading a PDF of the first set of results.

 

Updated 5/25/17

Create a Project from within an Expense – We have updated the Expense Entry form so that you may now create a new project right from within the entry itself. This functionality is similar to that which appears on the Time Entry form.

Conflict Checker Save To PDF – You are now able to download and save the results of a Conflict Check as a PDF. This is a much-requested feature that we are thrilled to finally bring online. To download the results of your query as a PDF, simply click the ‘PDF’ button after completing your search.

Flat Fee Billable Hours Override – We’ve implemented a change to our Flat Fee billing method that would allow a user to override the default settings and create hourly billable entries that are in addition to the Flat Fee Rate.

 

Updated 5/23/17

Expense Report Grouping – We have implemented two new grouping options within the Expense Report. First, we have Group By Date, which groups and subtotals entries that share the same Expense Date. Second, we have added a No Grouping option, which formats the data in simple chronological format without any subgroupings.

Footer Placement when Hiding the Trust Summary – We have resolved a bug, affecting a small number of users, that was misprinting the footer text whenever the Trust Account Summary invoice add-on was being hidden from view. The Footers are formatting correctly now at the bottom of the page.

Money Order Check Numbers – In a follow up to last week’s Receive Payment popup update – we have also included the ‘Check #’ field when the Money Order payment method is used.

Transaction Types under the Payments Tab – We have improved the display of transaction types under the Payments tab within an invoice. Previously, Balance Adjustments had their type appearing as blank. The system now displays these transactions with the type ‘Adjustment’ to help clarify the data table.

‘Add New’ Menu Follows Mnemonics – We have updated the text under the ‘Add New’ menu so that it observes the Project Mnemonic as setup within your account.

WIP Summary Report Update – We have updated the WIP Summary report to include a new option that summarizes the line items into simple totals. This new checkbox option is found at the bottom of the blue box for report filters.

 

Updated 5/22/17

Account Data Export – We’ve updated the data export feature to include greater detail. The Trust Account table now includes check numbers. There is a new Payments Applied table that outlines how payments are matched to invoices. Additionally, there are now User Client Rate and User Project Rate tables included in the data export.

 

Updated 5/18/17

Batch Time Entry – We have resolved a bug that was preventing the Batch Time Entry form from observing defaults for the Exclude from Invoice setting. This setting, once enabled, will now be observed on each subsequent line.

Payment Check Numbers – We have made a change to the Receive Payment popup so the field for ‘Check #’ will only appear when the payment method for Check is used.

 

Updated 5/16/17

Labor Mnemonic Character Limit – The character limit for the Project Mnemonic has been increased to 25 characters throughout the system. This allows for longer mnemonics like ‘Professional Services’ or other longer phrases.

Save & Duplicate – We have resolved a bug affecting the Save & Duplicate feature on Time Entries and Payments,which resulted in an error, that was affecting a small number of users. This Save & Duplicate functionality has been restored.

Trust Account Summary Start Date – The Trust Account Summary Add-on now observes the Billing Date Start selection when defining the date range of trust account data to display in the summary.

Trust Account Summary Date Format – We have implemented an update to the Trust Account Summary Add-On that now allows for European Date Format to be observed in this section.

Payments Received Report Update – We’ve updated the Payments Received report to allow for a new grouping option. You are now able to run this report and group by Account Manager.

Minimum Trust Balance – We have resolved a small bug, which affected very few users, that occurred when a currency symbol was used in the minimum trust balance field within a project.

Invoice Batch ZIP File Creation – We have implemented a new page that appears when creating a ZIP file of an invoice batch. Upon clicking the ‘Create ZIP’ button, a new tab will open that initiates the file download.

 

Updated 5/11/17

Client Portal Settings Relocation – We have moved the Client Portal Settings to its own tab within your account settings. From here, you can establish preferences for your client’s portal access and permissions.

 

Updated 5/4/17

Extended View for Long Project Names – Just a small change here, we’ve increased the character threshold for Project Names, which allows an extraordinarily long name to display when viewing the project.

Removing a Bank Account from Trust – When deleting a Bank Account from your trust accounts, we’ve implemented an additional step that requires the user to confirm that they’d like to delete this bank account. We have setup this feature as to prevent the deletion of any bank account that has activity associated with that bank.

Invoice Batch Create ZIP – We have enhanced the performance of the ‘Create ZIP’ button when downloading invoices. Batches with over 100 invoices should especially notice an improvement in the amount of time needed to download this ZIP file.

Receive Payment Popup Formatting – No functionality change here, but we have updated the Receive Payment popup to streamline data entry and bring more fields into view. We’ve also updated the size so when opened it will autosize correctly.

Time Entry Report Update – We have updated the filter options for this report, you are now able to Group By: Client when running this report.

Expense Report Sorting Bug Fix – We’ve resolved a bug within the Expense Report that relates to how the data was sorted chronologically. The option for “Show & Order by Created Date” will now do exactly that. Previously, this option was displaying the ‘Created Date’ column data, but the report was still ordering by the expense date.

 

Updated 5/2/17

Setup Wizard Goal Tracker – We are really excited to announce a new onboarding tool – the Bill4Time Goal Tracker! When a user first registers their free trial, the system will walk the user through an initial setup of their account and the workflow for one entire billing cycle: from creating the client – to finalizing the bill.

Payment Due Upon – We have updated the ‘Project Billing Frequency” filter that appears on the New Invoice page to read “Payment Due Upon”. There is no change in functionality, we’ve simply aligned the two field so they reflect the same label.

Adding Client Types – Whenever a new Client Type is added to your custom list, the list will now automatically refresh and populate with this new type. Previously, the list had to be closed and then reopened.

 

This post will be periodically updated throughout the month to reflect new releases.

Click here to view April’s Release Notes

Bill4Time’s reports can generate comprehensive analytics for your firm. The flexible and intuitive report filters allow you to drill into your account and access detailed data. Additionally, when coupled with Custom Fields, your ability to track unique data points and draw meaningful conclusions from these reports is practically limitless. Let’s review some of the ways Bill4Time users have customized their accounts to get the most out of their reports!

 

Tracking Unique Data Points

In this example, we have a firm who needs to track a ‘Vendor Invoice Number’ along with their expenses. To track this invoice number, they’ve added a Custom Field to their Expense Entry form. Once this unique data point is being tracked, our developers created a custom version of the Expense Report that includes a column for this data point. As you can see from the snippet below, the report output now includes a Vendor Invoice Number with each expense.

Tracking a single unique data point, like a Claim No., Docket ID number, or a Service Ticket number, is relatively simple – you just create the custom field and start tracking! But, what if your firm needs a very specific output format that includes only the data you need?

 

Custom Output Format

In this example, we have a firm that requires a specific report format to clearly analyze their billable hours per project. Their preference was for a very clean output of just hours – no dollar amounts, so they’ve eliminated columns they do not need. They’ve also updated the sorting and grouping of the entries so they can better analyze their billable hours day-by-day.  As you can see from the snippet below, the report output displays only the columns needed and the updated totals calculation for the groupings.

Having a Custom Report created for your account is a great way to drill into your data without having to deal with unnecessary clutter – allowing you to analyze just the data you need. This is especially true when you plan to export Bill4Time data and import it into another program – with a Custom Report we can ensure that the data exports using the very format you need for import into a third-party system. But, what if your firm needs a very specific calculation using the data being tracked with a custom field?

 

Custom Data Calculations

In this example, this firm has designed a custom Attorney Originations Report using their own unique formula to calculate a user’s compensation. They used Custom Fields to define the originator and the split amount. This report allows the firm to track a user’s origination amount in real-time as new entries are saved to the system. 

When calculating firm compensation it is critical to be accurate. With a Custom Report through Bill4Time, you can be sure that your calculations are pulling directly from your account’s database and using the most up-to-date data available. With all your data and analytics in one place, transparently and accurately calculating compensation has never been easier!

 

Tracking the right metrics is the cornerstone of good analytics. Custom Fields and Reports are the perfect solution for more flexible content and allows you to take control over your data. With the Bill4Time Enterprise plan, customizing your account to track the data you need – and analyzing  it effectively – is as simple as contacting Support to get started! You can upgrade to the Enterprise plan under your Settings – Subscription tab to take advantage of this feature!