Lesson #149
Connect – Connect Preferences function
Contact side preferences
Your RB Connect consists of 2 URLs: one for your contacts and the other for your resources. Customize these preferences for information and feature options on the Contact side of your RB Connect.
Announcements
Enter and format text for your contacts’ home page. You can further customize the appearance of the text with colors, images, hyperlinks, and tables. Edit Announcements in the default WYSIWYG word processor environment or as HTML markup.
Accessibility
Designate which areas of RB Connect contacts can access. The default is full accessibility but you can turn accessibility on or off for any area at any time. You can export this list of functions as an Excel or CSV file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.
Calendar
Preferences for new job requests, job cancellations, and change job requests:
General
Set cutoffs for how many days in advance clients can request jobs, cancel jobs, or change jobs online. (Weekends are not included in deadline calculations.) You can set zero limits or a specific number of days; they can be different for each of these 3 types of requests. You can also allow contacts to request a new job for today.
Users to notify
Designate which staff members are alerted when a contact requests a job, cancels a job, or changes a job. You can have any number of RB9 users alerted, and add or delete users at any time. You can export this list of users like the Contact-Accessibility list.
New Job
Designate which of your company’s business units new jobs requested through RB Connect will be associated with and select which fields contacts can see and use when requesting new jobs via RB Connect. Fields you can include:
- Deposed witness’s name
- Whether the witness was summoned to appear
- Witness’s expertise (types of witness expertise are set in Lists > Jobs)
- Category of job requested such as Deposition or Real-Time (set in Lists > Jobs)
- Name used in RB9 to identify case
- Case number
- Specific expertise/skills required for job
- Additional services requested for a case or job that are not included in the contact’s standing requests
- Direct Billing Notes – If the Bill To client will be different from the Sold To client, this information appears on the invoice
- Client Matter No. – A number designating a client combined with a number designating a case that will be printed on the invoice and is required for electronic billing in RB9
- Insurance claim number
- Insured individual’s name
- Date of incident
Custom Section in New Job
Get additional information from contacts when they submit new job requests via RB Connect by adding custom data fields. You can:
- Add text, number, Yes/No, list, date, and time fields.
- Require users to enter/select something in a field before their request can be processed.
- Update lists in list fields.
- Set which item is the default in Yes/No options and lists.
- Include brief instructions for any field.
Add as many custom data fields as you like, change the order of their appearance in the screen, and edit or remove any data field at any time. You can export the list of fields like the Contact-Accessibility list.
New Job/Request Confirm Job/Request Cancel Job Notifications
You can have RB9 automatically send clients emails that acknowledge these 3 types of requests.
You can change the default text of the Subject and Message of these emails. You can automatically insert relevant RB Connect data into the Subject and Message of each of these email types with contextual data fields. You can customize the appearance of the email messages with the same options as the Contact-Announcements section.
Order Transcript
Set preferences for contacts ordering transcripts on previously billed jobs:
Users to notify
You have the same options here for staff alerts as under Contact-Calendar.
Custom Section
Get additional information from contacts when they submit requests via RB Connect by adding custom data fields to transcript orders. You have the same options for creating and using custom fields in Order Transcript as in Contact-Calendar > Custom Section in New Job.
Account Activity
Set preferences for online invoice access and payment:
Options
For orders that have different Bill To and Sold To parties the default is only the Bill To party can view and pay the invoice. You can choose to allow both parties access to the invoice and/or allow both parties to pay the invoice.
You can show beginning and ending page numbers of billed transcripts in addition to total number of pages in the Witness line on invoices in RB Connect.
Online Payment
For e-commerce RB Connect integrates with several online payment processing services including PayPal, Authorize.net, First Data, Square, and Stripe. If you want to offer online payment of invoices including COD invoices through RB Connect, you must set up an account with one of these services and enter your credentials here.
Users to notify for Online Payment
You have the same options here for staff alerts as under Contact-Calendar.
Payment Receipt Email
You can customize the emails that RB9 automatically sends to clients that notify them when you have received their online payment. You have the same customization options for payment receipt emails as for automatic email notifications in Contact-Calendar.
Transcript Packages
Set preferences for Transcript Packages and notifications:
Select a transcript profile from the PDF Transcript Preferences you have set up that will automatically dictate the appearance and other options of transcripts contacts export from their Transcript Packages. Your clients can override any of these default RB-PDF Transcript settings when exporting a transcript.
You can have RB9 automatically email clients so they know when they have a Transcript Package waiting in RB Connect. You have the same customization options for Transcript Package email alerts as for automatic email notifications in Contact-Calendar.
Repository
Set preferences for contacts’ repository access and notifications:
Email notifications
You can customize the emails that RB9 automatically sends to clients that notify them when you have uploaded files to their case, job, witness, or invoice repositories. You have the same customization options for repository upload emails as for automatic email notifications in Contact-Calendar.
Users to notify
You have the same options here for staff alerts as under Contact-Calendar.
Others
You can choose to allow clients to downloads files:
- As soon as they are available, or
- Only when the original invoice tied to the files is paid in full, and/or
- When the copy invoice tied to the files is paid in full.
Reward Points
If you offer reward points, designate which staff members are alerted when a contact requests reward point redemptions online. You have the same options here for staff alerts as under Contact-Calendar.
Support Tickets
Set preferences for contact support ticket notifications:
Ticket Notification
RB9 automatically emails clients when there is a response to their support ticket in RB Connect. You can change the default text of the Subject and Message of these emails. You can automatically insert relevant RB Connect data into the Subject and Message with contextual data fields. For example, you can automatically include the text of the latest reply so the contact does not have to go to RB Connect to see your reply.
You can customize the appearance of the email messages with the same options as the Contact-Announcements section.
Users to notify
You have the same options here for staff alerts as under Contact-Calendar.
Other Connect Preferences sections
- Basics (both sides of your RB Connect)
- Resource side
NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.
TL;DR: Set preferences for features on the Contact side of your RB Connect.
RB concepts in this lesson
Award Points: Used to encourage clients to book with your agency by rewarding them with points for different services. If you have RB Connect, you can allow contacts to request point redemptions online.
Bill To Contact: The contact responsible for paying the invoice for a job. This contact could be the same as the Sold To Contact, but also could be a different person at the same firm or a person at a third-party firm that is paying the invoice such as an insurance agency.
Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.
Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with.
Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >
RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources. More >
RB-PDF Transcript: PDF version of a transcript with built-in transcript-specific features and containing case and depo information from your RB database.
Repository: RB has 9 repositories where you store files for safekeeping and quick retrieval. If you have RB Connect, you can give clients and/or resources access to specific repository files.
Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service such as reporters.
Sold To Contact: Contact that ordered the services on the invoice.
Transcript Package: Bundle containing interactive transcripts with all of their related files to be viewed in a browser through RB Connect and RB Connect Mobile. More >
Users: You and your staff who directly access RB.
