GetApp’s Category Leader Time & Expense Tracking Q4 – 2017

November 8, 2017 By Bill4Time Staff 1 Comment

Bill4Time is humbled and honored that it’s time tracking and billing software has been ranked a Time & Expense Tracking software category leader by users on GetApp, the most trusted review site for business software. GetApp’s Category Leader rankings highlight the top 25 cloud-based business applications for every essential business operation, including timekeeping and billing. The ranking uses five unique data points to assess apps, giving software buyers a shortlist of some of the top cloud-based solutions for their growing business.

“We are extremely excited to be recognized by GetApp. Our team has worked tirelessly over many years to produce the highest quality product for our customers. As always, we would like to thank our customers for helping us achieve this recognition.”
– Steve Reardon, CEO Bill4Time

GetApp ranks apps for Category Leaders based on user reviews, integrations, mobile platforms. media presence and security. The scoring system ensures that the ranking is completely independent of any commercial relationship that GetApp has with software vendors. High user opinion, the ability to function well with other software solutions, availability on mobile, a strong online presence, and a high level of security reflect applications that are reliable and well-respected in the market. Companies can use this list as a point of reference in their decision making process so that they can choose the best software for their particular requirements.
Bill4Time is a leading time tracking and invoicing software that is integrated with QuickBooks, LayPay, PayPal, and Stripe. It is easy to use with comprehensive features and ideal for small to big companies. The exceptional customer service as well as the many customer benefits make Bill4Time the perfect choice for companies who need a convenient and cost-effective time tracking and billing solution. For more information, please visit https://www.Bill4Time.com/.

Release Notes: November 2017

November 2, 2017 By Bill4Time Staff 4 Comments

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 November:

Updated 11/30/2017

Editing Internal Time – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug where Internal Time entries cannot be edited, only when opened from the Time & Expenses screen. As a temporary workaround, users were able to access these entries from other areas of the program – like within reports. However, this issue is now fully resolved for all users and all accounts.

Updated 11/22/2017

Trust Deposit Void Display – Our developers have identified and resolved a display-only bug where the ‘Void’ box appeared to be checked when the deposit was not voided. This is now resolved in all instances, and again it was a display-only bug, meaning that all trust transactions are being tracked correctly.

Receipt Attachment Page Format – We’ve updated the receipt attachment display so that each separate attachment appears on its own page without any overlapping or sharing with a separate expense receipt attachment.

Flat Billing Method Defaults – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug where when a non-billable entry was duplicated – changing the Activity Type would cause the Flat Fee billable default selection to become overridden on the new entry. This is now resolved, and the Billable box will remain checked when selecting a new activity on a duplicated entry.

Time and Expense View Unit Prices – We have removed a subtotal from the Unit Price column within Time and Expenses. This metric was found by our users to not be a useful or insightful metric. We’ve removed this in an effort to improve clarity when reviewing subtotals within Time and Expenses.

Updated 11/17/2017

Task Summary Report – NEW! We have just released the new Task Summary report (available for our Legal Plan subscribers). Filtering, sorting, and sub-totaling by Task Code are now available on the new Task Summary report. This report will be shown under the Summary tab as long whenever ABA Codes are used in Bill4Time.

Updated 11/9/2017

Invoice Expense Attachments – We’ve updated how the system handles full-page PDF expense receipt attachments on invoices. Previously, when the template was setup in a way to allot space for a page header/footer, a full-size PDF attachment would break onto a second page. We’ve updated how the system generates these attachments so that the image is scaled down slightly, in an effort to keep everything to a single page — and prevent a second nearly-blank page from being included in the invoice document.

Select-All Clients in Statements – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug in Statements what was preventing all clients from being selected at-once after previously deselecting all clients from the list. We’ve updated the functionality so that whenever this box is checked all clients become selected or deselected, as would be expected.

Billing Rates Tab Format – No functionality change, but we’ve updated the Billing Rates tab at the Client and Project levels to better format and display the ‘For All Users’ billing rates data entry fields.

Updated 11/2/2017

Web Content Accessibility: Screen Reader – Inspired by feedback from visually-impaired users, we’re working to improve web content accessibility throughout the Bill4Time system. In this update, our developers have implemented a change to our Reports that enable the use of the multi-select combo boxes designed for selecting the parameters when running a report, for users assisted in accessing Bill4Time through a screen-reading software.

Firm Address on Statements – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug where Statements could be generated with the Firm’s header address displayed when the corresponding setting was disabled. This issue is now resolved for all users and all browser types.

Firm Settings: Country Added – We’ve added Kosovo to the list of available countries to select from when setting up the details of your firm’s address.

Click here to view October’s Release Notes

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

5 Ways to Make the Payment Process Easy for Online Customers

October 29, 2017 By Bill4Time Staff 2 Comments

Accepting payments online hasn’t just become a standard business practice – it already is one. And many business owners seek a simple method for accepting online payments without giving much thought into how their online payment portal can help their firm grow. Simply processing credit cards is one basic method to taking payment – but both the needs of you and your customers are much more complex. As your business develops and grows over time, you’ll need a more comprehensive tool than a simple credit card payment form. With Bill4Time, you can build upon the basics – and expand your online payments gateway in keeping with the progressive needs of your current and future clients – leaving you with more time to grow your business.

1. Payment Method Options

When it comes to accepting payments online, if your site can match the preferred payment method of your customer – the more likely it is that they will complete the transaction. Integrating with the online payment methods your customers are most familiar with will demonstrate the convenience of using your online portal and help your clients feel more comfortable and secure during checkout. While it’s impractical to offer every conceivable method of online payment, you can informally survey your clients to see which methods they’d most like to use and implement those options. Allowing your customers to complete the transaction using their PayPal account or via ACH transfer, in additional to a traditional card payment, can streamline their process and mitigate delays in timely payment.

2. Allow Guest Access and Payments

No one wants to create yet another set of login credentials when completing an online transaction, unless there’s a clear benefit to doing so. The goal here is to make it as easy as possible for you to get paid, and quickly. With Bill4Time, you have the option to enable Guest Access in your Client Portal, which allows your clients can view and pay their bills online – without ever signing up! Instead of forcing an account on a customer, allow them to complete their transaction without interrupting the payment process.

3. Make Errors Clear and Easily Fixable

Typos happen. Assume your clients will make a mistake when entering their payment details – maybe the expiration date of their card is formatted incorrectly or maybe the card number is invalid. In any event, your online payments gateway needs to clearly convey the error in a way that allows folks to resolve the issue and complete their transaction. The Bill4Time Client Portal is setup so that if a typo is made, the page will alert the customer to the specific fields that need to be updated – without clearing out the form and forcing your customer to completely re-enter all their payment details again. To go a step further, the Bill4Time Client Portal can store the payment details your clients submit so that when they go to pay their next invoice – they don’t have to reenter these details or even reach for their wallets!

4. Straightforward and Secured Payment Entry

Your customer doesn’t want to fill out lots of information within the online payment portal, and the last thing you want is for them to feel overwhelmed or frustrated – and abandon the transaction altogether. The key here is to keep it simple and only present those data fields which are required in order to complete the transaction. In addition to a bare-essentials payment entry form, you want to reassure your customers that you take their privacy and security seriously as they complete this transaction. Sensitive payment details like credit card numbers should always be encrypted when passed to the server. In the Bill4Time Client Portal we use SSL/TLS (https) so that the customer’s details are secured; assume customers will be on the lookout for a lock symbol in the address bar to know the page is secure.

5. Familiarize and Performance Test

After completing the setup of your online payment portal, you will want to familiarize yourself with the client-side user experience. Armed with this familiarity, you won’t be caught flat-footed when answering a client’s question about how to make a payment online. In addition to familiarizing yourself with the process, you’ll want to test the entire portal setup to simulate an end-to-end transaction. Primarily, you’ll want to complete a couple test payments to verify that transactions are being processed and tracked successfully, both on-screen for the client to see – and on your end in your accounting system or bank account.

The Bottom Line

In this day and age, your customers are expecting nearly-instant everything – from the professional services your firm offers to the secure portal they use to make payments. Accepting online payments isn’t difficult at all and the Bill4Time Client Portal was designed to support your current and future needs – so you can stay focused on building your business. Our goal is to make paying bills as easy as possible for your customers, so getting paid becomes faster than ever before. Have questions or comments about how your business can accept payments online? Drop a comment in the comments section below or contact Support and we’ll get you squared away in no time.

Building Better Time Reports with Legal Billing Software

October 27, 2017 By The Bill4Time Team 4 Comments

Silver State Law is a boutique law firm representing companies and individuals in Northern Nevada. The firm is best known for its work in the construction industry, serving contractors, subcontractors, developers and homeowners in all aspects of construction law including liens, contract review, government claims, tenant improvements, easements, and legal issues concerning real property.

Jeff Spencer reno attorney — Jeff Spencer, Managing Partner, Silver State Law, LLC (Reno, NV).

Silver State recently switched to Bill4Time, after being a long-term Timeslips user. Jeff Spencer, Managing Partner, explained the decision for a cloud-based time & billing solution was to allow his associates to record time anytime, anywhere.

“We’re always on the go, often meeting clients at construction sites or remote locations,” said Spencer. “With our old billing system, we’d have to wait until we got back to the office to make time entries, which is never ideal. Bill4Time lets us record time on a mobile phone – even when there’s no cell signal. We can be sure our client time records are timely, detailed and accurate.”

He says the firm’s three associates also use the Bill4Time desktop client in addition to mobile and traditional web-based interfaces.

cloud-based law practice management — Bill4Time has firm-wide time reports which make it easier to track and manage associate productivity on a weekly basis.

According to Spencer, the biggest benefit of Bill4Time is the graphical view of firm-wide time reports with its legal billing software feature. This makes it easier to track and manage associate productivity on a weekly basis.

“We don’t have a quota for regular billable hours among our associates,” says Spencer. “So we appreciate the ability to generate a graphical report that shows billing activity versus the prior week’s or month’s billing. If we notice a drop off in time entries – or marked increase – we can investigate more easily to find out what’s going on.”

Silver State Law does not have a traditional customer relationship management (CRM) software but finds the client management functions of Bill4Time sufficient for things like account history, contacts, billing records and trust accounting.

Based on its recent successes for clients in local construction, the firm continues to expand. They recently moved to larger offices and added new practice areas. “A reality of construction and real estate is we get a lot of referral requests for collateral legal matters – divorce, estate planning, etc.,” said Spencer. “While we’re best known for construction law, we recently hired a new associate to build a family law practice. Because we take the time to become experts in our clients’ businesses, we can better counsel them on personal legal matters as well.”

How To Go Paperless

October 17, 2017 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

These days, everyone talks about having a paperless office. It’s a laudable goal. Your documents are secure, your office less cluttered, your files easier to get to, and it can really increase your productivity. However, a lot of friction can arise when you are trying to move everything to a virtual world. Here are some ways to identify—and overcome—those pain points.

How Will I Organize My Paperless Files?

Organizing your client files on your computer doesn’t have to be all that drastically different from organizing them in your office. (Note: this method presupposes that you do not have a storage software that does this for you in the background.) Instead of a filing cabinet, you can just have a computer folder with a name like Client Files. Within that folder, consider creating “groups” of clients to separate those clients that are active from those where the matter is concluded or you declined representation. Create a sub-folder for each client. You’ll want to develop a naming convention to make sure you’re consistent, but that is likely something you’ve already done with your physical files.

Once you’ve got things named the way you’d like, consider setting up a blank new folder template with all the sub-folders that you would need for each new client, such as Billing, Correspondence, and Pleadings.

What About Notetaking?

If you take a lot of notes while talking to clients, it might be hard to envision how to integrate those into your paperless workflow. One of the best ways to ensure those notes fit neatly into your new paperless ecosystem is to leverage technology that allows you to still take handwritten notes. Using an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil allows you to take notes just like you’re using a legal pad. Except, unlike a legal pad, you can use a program like GoodNotes to turn your handwriting into text, move portions of your notes around, and automatically store your notes in iCloud or Dropbox.

How Can I Fax?

It seems like we should be well past the era of faxing, but some clients may still need to send or receive faxes. If you use a service like HelloFax, faxes can come right to your email box (and then, of course, easily added to your virtual files). HelloFax has a monthly fee, but it frees you up from keeping a fax machine, a fax line, and needing to file all that paper.

By making use of tools like this, you can stop telling yourself that going paperless is an impossibility.

The Florida Bar Practice Resource Institute (PRI)

Guest post by Lawyerist.com

https://pri.floridabar.org/how-to-go-paperless/

Release Notes: October 2017

October 3, 2017 By Bill4Time Staff 2 Comments

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

Updated 10/24/2017

Undefined Trust Amount – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug affecting a small subset of accounts where trust payments were displayed as ‘undefined’ when viewing an invoice batch.

Widget Project Creation – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug where the Client Contact field of a project was being automatically populated when creating the project from the desktop app, when the field value should have been blank.

Edit Batch Invoice Selections – We’ve updated the Edit Batch page to more clearly delineate between clients and projects that are selected for inclusion within a batch. This change is particularly apparent for firms using Project Accounting Isolation as now only the specific projects being billed will be highlighted in green when viewing the Edit Batch page.

Updated 10/19/2017

Invoice Batch Optimization – Our developers have revamped the Invoice Batch pages to improve load speeds and allow users to complete actions more quickly within a batch.

Statement Status Sort – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug affecting a small number of users where sorting the ‘Status’ of clients within Statements caused an error. This issue is now resolved for all users.

Statement Header Formatting – We’ve resolved a bug affecting users of FireFox v56.0 where Firm Headers were not appearing on all statements. This issue has not been resolved for all users (and all versions of FireFox).

Whole Word Search in Conflict Checker – When opening the Conflict Checker, you’ll notice a new filter option, which is enabled by default, called ‘Whole Word Search’. With this option enabled, the Conflict Checker will limit results to only those that match the term exactly and completely.

For example, previously if you were to search for the term “and” results like “Andrew” and “Brandon” would be included. But with this new filter option enabled, only results of “and” would appear – and not those results where ‘and’ matched only a portion of the term.

Updated 10/17/2017

Batch Trust Payments – We’ve updated the ordering of the Trust Payments tab to match the Invoices tab. This change was implemented in an effort to prevent confusion stemming from a different sorting method between the two pages.

Client Portal Settings – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug affecting a small number of users where they were unable to modify their Client Portal settings. This is now resolved and access for users with the appropriate permissions to edit the Client Portal has been restored.

Updated 10/13/2017

Trust Batch Client Order – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug affecting the order in which Clients were shown on the Batch Trust Payments tab.

Batch PDF Error – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug affecting a small number of users where invoice batches would show an error when exporting to PDF.

Updated 10/11/2017

Unassigned Invoice Numbers – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug affecting accounts using Internal Accounting where invoice IDs were displaying as Unassigned.

Currency Code Update – We have added the Turkish New Lira to the currency code drop down.

Updated 10/05/2017

Invoice Display Project ID and Description – Our developers have identified and resolved a bug affecting a small number of users where invoices would display the Project ID and Project Description in duplicate on the invoice. This issue is now resolved for all users.

Stripe ACH Gold – The Bill4Time Team is thrilled to announce that we’ve closed the open beta program for Stripe ACH integration and now consider this feature fully operational and released.

API Update – We’ve updated our API to expose the ‘Position’ field within each user’s profile. We’ve also updated our API Documentation to reflect this change.

View Documentation

Updated 10/03/2017

Show Payment History Toggles – We’ve updated the display of the sub-options within the Invoice Template Editor under the ‘Show Payment History’ option. Now, both options will always appear – previously we had some users report that only one of the sub-options was appearing for them.

Updated Report Permissions – Our teams are reviewing the current Report Permissions setup to enhance the availability of certain reports to users with varying levels of system access. You may notice a new report appearing that was previously unavailable to you, and while no new data is being made available the convenience of running a report and the export options are now available to more users. If you have any questions about a newly appear report – please reach out to our Support team and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Click here to view September’s Release Notes

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