Tag Archives: Calendar

Monitor tasks in a calendar format

Use the Tasks (Monthly View) function to monitor and manage tasks in a calendar page layout

Lesson #161
Calendar – Tasks (Monthly View) function

Similar to Jobs (Monthly View), in Tasks (Monthly View) you can view tasks as items on an interactive calendar page. The other view, Tasks (List View), displays tasks in a grid. You can use either Tasks function to monitor and manage tasks.

Monitor tasks

See if tasks have been designated, assigned, and acknowledged. Monthly View displays jobs with tasks in a calendar page format so you can see your work schedule at a glance. If your browser window isn’t large enough to display the whole month, the calendar will scroll so the current week is visible as the default view.

Monthly View only displays jobs that have tasks. Due to size constraints Monthly View displays limited information about the jobs on the calendar page. You choose in System Preferences which information you want to see (either job number or task/job start time and either resource assigned or task name) and how many tasks per day (up to 10) are listed in each day’s square.

Jobs listed are color coded by job status and canceled jobs are also designated with a strikethrough. RB comes with default sets of job statuses and task types, which you can customize by adding, editing, and deleting entries. You can also choose which colors represent different job statuses, including different colors for light or dark mode displays, in System Preferences.

The default calendar displays the current month by default. You can page back and forth to other months or jump to any month using the navigation bar.

Monthly View resizes dynamically to your browser window size but if the window is too small vertically for the minimum size calendar page, the calendar page will scroll so the current week is visible as the default view. You can scroll the page and the top navigation bar will always remain accessible so you know which month you are in and can navigate to other months or back to today’s date.

Use search criteria to change the jobs shown. Search criteria in Monthly View includes:

  • Job date or order date
  • Task status and type
  • Assigned resource
  • Job’s priority level
  • Type of resource required
  • Job status and type
  • Your company’s business unit
  • Related case
  • Include canceled tasks or not

Rolling over a job number in the calendar pops up basic information about the task, job, and case. Clicking the bar in a day’s box displays all tasks for that day in a list similar to List View.

Manage tasks

Clicking a hyperlink in Monthly View opens the job detail screen with the View Task panel already open so you can see complete task details and edit if needed. You can do everything from Monthly View as you can from List View:

  • Add an overlooked task to a job.
  • Enter start and end times for a task that are different from its related job.
  • Assign a resource to a task which RB records in the task’s Notes Log. If the scheduling client has preferred resources they appear at the top of the resource list. If the scheduling client has a list of blocked resources RB will alert you if you attempt to assign one and not allow the assignment. When a resource is assigned any warning about them appears beneath their name in the Task panel.
  • Notify resources when they are assigned.
  • Remind resources of assignments by resending notifications.
  • Automatically record the current date and time when a task was acknowledged by a resource.
  • Remove a task’s acknowledged date and time with one click if a mistake was made.
  • Update the related job’s information including notes, contact information, location, and parties.
  • Remove a resource from a task which RB records in the task’s Notes Log.
  • Upload task-related files to a task’s repository for assigned resources to download.
  • Update a task, such as setting resource acknowledgements’ date and time manually or entering page estimates. If you change a task’s start or end time RB will record the details in the related job’s Notes Log.
  • Delete a task if no resource has been assigned.
  • Cancel a task if a resource has been assigned.
  • Reactive a canceled task and assign a new resource (you can cancel and reactive a task in one click if you are reassigning resources).
  • Begin production turn-in.

When you cancel a task the assigned resource is automatically added back to your available resources list for new assignments and RB prompts you to alert the resource of the cancellation. In addition RB keeps track of when tasks were canceled. This will be helpful in cases where there is a cost incurred in late cancellations such as a hotel’s conference room: You will have a paper trail to back up any cancellation fees charged to your client.

TL;DR: Use the Tasks (Monthly View) function to monitor and manage tasks in a calendar page layout.

RB concepts in this lesson

Blocked Resource: Resource that a particular firm or contact does not want assigned to tasks on jobs they schedule or order from you.

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately, such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Job Status: Stage a job is in, e.g., New or Cancelled. You can designate your own job statuses in RB.

Job Type: Categories of jobs requested by clients, such as Deposition or Real-Time.

Notes Logs: Un-editable internal-use only notes entered either by a user or automatically by RB appear in chronological logs in the database record where they occurred, such as a case, job, invoice, or entity. More >

Preferred Resource: Resource that a particular firm or contact wants you to assign to tasks on jobs they schedule or order from you.

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service, such as reporters, videographers, interpreters, scopists, account executives, other agencies that cover jobs for you, or a conference room.

Task: Service requested with a job, such as reporting, interpreting, or video, that require a separate resource (person, company, thing) to accomplish. More >

Listed under Calendar, Function, Lesson | Tagged , , , ,

View your calendar a week at a time

See your current week’s job settings without having to set search criteria

Lesson #159
Calendar – Jobs (Weekly View) function

Weekly View displays a week’s worth of jobs at once in a week-by-week format. Similar to the Monthly View calendar, Weekly View is a visual calendar format displaying a week at a time.

Weekly View defaults to all jobs for the current week — grouped by day (including Saturday and Sunday) so you can quickly access the week ahead. Each day’s header includes:

  • Date
  • Day of the week
  • Total number of jobs scheduled and canceled for that day

Each day’s list of jobs scheduled/canceled appears in chronological order by start time. In addition to the start time each listing shows the job number and a third option of your choice — ordering firm, case, or witness. Listings are color coded based on their job status.

Rolling over any entry pops up details about the job. Clicking an entry opens the job’s detail window.You can page back and forth through weeks — or jump to a particular week by entering a date.

If the row of 3 elements in a job listing is longer than the width of its day’s space, it will be cut off (there is no word wrapping) — but details are easily visible if the user rolls over the listing. If there are more jobs scheduled for a day than fit vertically, the day’s space will include a scroll bar so you can access the jobs that are not visible at first. If the whole week is not visible, you can use your screen’s scroll bars to view hidden sections.

You can restrict the listings to jobs for:
  • A single ordering firm
  • An ordering contact
  • A scheduling contact
  • One or more job statuses
  • One or more job types
  • One or more of your business units
  • One of your sales reps
  • A case
  • One or more case types
  • A parent firm
  • A job location
  • A job location city
  • One or more job location states

From the calendar you can add a new job, or view/update/turn in/cancel/reschedule existing jobs.

Weekly View customization

Each Weekly View job listing shows its start time and job number. Those are fixed data and cannot be changed but you can select the third type of information that appears in job listings to identify jobs in System Preferences.

You can also set the height of the weekday boxes in rows from 5 to 15. Each row lists one job. The weekly calendar will display each weekday with enough space vertically for the number of rows you set (Saturday and Sunday will be half the height set). If there are more jobs scheduled for a day than the maximum you set, the day’s space will include a scroll bar.

NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

TL;DR: Use Weekly View to see a week’s worth of jobs at a time with brief descriptors of the jobs. 

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Case Type: Categories of cases by work type, e.g., Civil or Personal Injury.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources, such as realtime, videoconferencing, or read & sign. More >

Job Status: Stage the job is in, e.g., New or Cancelled.

Job Type: Category of jobs requested by clients, such as Deposition or Real-Time.

Ordering Firm: Firm that is responsible for a job with your company.

Ordering Contact: Contact at the firm that is responsible for a job with your company.

Scheduled By: Contact who initiates a jobs with your company. Can be different from the Ordering Contact.

Listed under Calendar, Function, Lesson | Tagged , , , ,

Set calendar module preferences

Set preferences for job calendar functions and options

Lesson #131
Setup – System Preferences function

Calendar system preferences

The largest module in RB has the most customization options.

Assignment Cancellation

When you cancel a job, RB will ask if you want to notify the assigned resource of the canceled assignment. You can send Assignment Cancellations via text, email, and/or print. While the actual Assignment Cancellation form comes from the Form Templates function (where you can customize it and create additional ones to cover different situations), the accompanying email and text messages are customized in System Preferences.

You have 3 options for including the Assignment Cancellation form in the email. The recommended method is to embed the form in the email body and also attach a PDF version. That way the email’s body will contain the actual cancellation form. And if the resource needs a printable copy, they have the same form attached as a PDF. You can also just embed the form in the email body or attach it as a PDF file.

You can customize the default header and body of the email and the SMS (text) message. You can change the default text in the fields and insert contextual data fields, meaning that only data fields relevant to the cancellation are listed. Adding these fields allows real data from the job to merge into the email, so you don’t have enter any information as you send them. RB will merge the data from the job automatically.

If you are not embedding the form in the email body, you can also customize the appearance of the body of Assignment Cancellation emails with text formatting, colors, images, hyperlinks, and tables. You can edit your email contents in the default WYSIWYG word processor environment or as HTML markup. (This only works if you are attaching the Assignment Cancellation as a PDF. If you embed the form in the email, it replaces any text in the Message field.)

You can override these defaults in any Assignment Cancellation emails sent from RB.

Assignment Notification

Typically, after you confirm your calendar for tomorrow’s jobs, you will email worksheets to assigned resources for tomorrow’s jobs. You can also send these Assignment Notifications via text and print. Plus you can include iCalendar entries and additional automatic file attachments, such as notices, in emailed notifications.

Like Assignment Cancellations, the Assignment Notification form comes from the Form Templates function, and System Preferences is where you set up the communications you use to send the form to your resources.

For emails and text messages notifying resources of assignments, you have the same options as for Assignment Cancellations. You can also include custom iCalendar entries using contextual data fields like the email and SMS options. If you choose to include iCalendar, RB will attach an .ics file to the email. When the assigned resource opens the file, they can save the job setting to their personal calendar.

If you have RB Connect, you can insert a special URL data field in emails, text messages, iCalendar entries — even the embedded worksheet form — so your resources can acknowledge jobs with one click. When resources click the link, it connects to your RB Calendar through your RB Connect to automatically set the task’s Acknowledged Date to the current date.

Attach repository files automatically

Assignment Notification emails can automatically include file attachments from the relevant firm, job, task, and case repositories, as well as the All-Resources repository. In System Preferences, you select which file types you want to include from these repositories. (File types are set up in Lists.) Then if any files matching these file types are uploaded to one of the repositories in the job being assigned, they will automatically attach to the Assignment Notification emails.

The All-Resources repository works a little differently from the other repositories. This is where you can upload files that you want all of your resources to have for their jobs — files like copy order forms, instructions, and blank billing sheets. Instead of uploading these generic files to every job in order for the resources to receive them when you send Assignment Notifications, upload them to the All-Resource Level Repository and set their file type to one that you select here in System Preferences so they are automatically included.

With each Assignment Notification email, you can automatically include all of the job files that your assigned resource will need for the job without having to individually attach specific files each time. And if you don’t want to include certain files on an assignment notification, you can delete those files before sending the email from the Mail Composer in RB.

Default Job Status

After you set up job status categories and select a default status in Lists, use this function to choose which statuses will be included as default Job Status search criteria for searching the job calendar in List ViewMonthly View, and Weekly View. You can export this list as an Excel or CSV file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

Future Calendar

You can email clients a Future Calendar report when they request a copy of their upcoming schedule with you. The automatically generated PDF report will be attached to an email that you can customize like Assignment Notifications and Cancellations.

You can change the default text in the Subject and Message fields and insert contextual data fields so that real data from RB9 related to the client and job dates merge into the email automatically. You can also customize the appearance of the body of the emails with text formatting, colors, images, hyperlinks, and tables. You can edit your email contents in the default WYSIWYG word processor environment or as HTML markup.

You can override these defaults in any Future Calendar emails sent from RB9.

NOTE: Send Future Calendar is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

Holidays

RB includes a list of all the major holidays observed in the U.S. You select the holidays your office observes and closes for on this list so those days are not calculated in the due days for your reporters to turn in their jobs. You can export this list as an Excel or CSV file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

Job Cancellation

When a client lets you know that a job is cancelled, you cancel it in RB and email a Job Cancellation notice to the ordering client confirming they cancelled a job on the calendar.

Like Assignment Cancellations, the Job Cancellation form comes from the Form Templates function, and System Preferences is where you set up the email you use to send the form to your contacts.

You have the same send methods for the Job Cancellation form: embedding the form in the email body, attaching it as a PDF file, or the recommended method (embedding the form in the email body and also attaching a PDF version). Likewise, you have the same formatting options as for Assignment Cancellations, and the ability to insert text and contextual data fields in the header and body of emails (except if you embed the Job Cancellation form in the email, it replaces any text in the Message field).

Job Confirmation

When a client schedules a job with you, you can send them a confirmation that you added the job to your calendar. Or maybe you wait and send out confirmations the day before a job to confirm tomorrow’s calendar. Either way you can customize the emails and optional iCalendar messages you send with the Job Confirmations. (You customize the Job Confirmation form and create alternative ones in the Form Templates function.)

Job Confirmation options are the same as Assignment Confirmation options except they are for email and iCalendar only. You choose how you want the Job Confirmation form included, add text and contextual data fields to headers and bodies of both emails and iCalendar entries, and format the appearance of the email body (if you do not embed the Job Confirmation in the email).

Similar to Assignment Confirmations, if you have RB Connect, you can insert a special URL data field in emails, iCalendar entries — even the embedded form — so your clients can go directly to the related Job detail screen when they click the link.

Job Status Automation

Job Status (e.g., New, In Progress, Billed) can update automatically when:

You can select which Job Status each of these events will trigger. You can export this list of events as an Excel or CSV file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

Job Status Color

Jobs in RB main function screens like the Job Calendar or Turn In are color coded by Job Status. This way, at a quick glance, you can tell the current Job Status of a job without having to read its Job Status. You can customize the Job Status colors for both light/default mode (dark text on white background) and dark/reverse mode to suit your company.

You can define status colors by picking from a chart of pre-defined colors, entering a hexadecimal code, or selecting a hue on a rainbow scale and adjusting its lightness/darkness visually. You can export the list of default Job Status colors as an Excel or CSV file to save, print, or use in other applications.

Jobs (Monthly View)

You can customize what information appears in month-at-a-glance job calendars. Each job listed is identified by 2 pieces of job data, and you can select which types of job data are displayed. “Start Time” and “Firm Name” are recommended, but you can also choose to display by job number and witness name, or several other options.

If multiple jobs are scheduled on the same day, the month-at-a-glance calendar can list up to 10 a day. You can choose a different maximum number to appear in each day’s box on the calendar, from 3 to 10. (If more jobs are scheduled for a day than your maximum, they are included in the number in the bar at the bottom of the day’s box and are accessible by clicking the bar.)

Jobs (Weekly View)

You can set one of the job parameters that display in week-by-week job calendar listings. “Start Time” and “Job No.” are fixed data in weekly calendar entries and cannot be changed; but you can select the third type of information to appear on the weekly calendar to identify jobs.

You can also specify how many listings can appear in each workday’s space. If any day contains more listings than your specification, it will include a scroll bar so you can access the hidden jobs.

NOTE: Weekly View is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

New Job

By default, every new job saved in RB automatically includes a task of your default task type. (Default task type is set in Lists.) If you do not want RB to create a task automatically every time you save a job, you can disable this option.

If you want to reset your job numbering system from now on, you can designate the next job number RB will use when it creates a new job.

You can have RB display a warning when you create a new job for a firm that has overdue invoices. You select how many days past due and the minimum dollar amount past due for when the flag appears.

You can also set the default End Time for new jobs, which can you can change if needed when entering a job in the job calendar.

Overdue Tasks Report

You can email resources a report of their overdue tasks. The automatically generated PDF report will be attached to an email that you can customize like Assignment Notifications and Cancellations.

You can change the default text in the Subject and Message fields and insert contextual data fields in the email body, so that real data from the RB related to the resource and tasks merge into the email automatically. You can also customize the appearance of the body of the emails with text formatting, colors, images, hyperlinks, and tables. You can edit your email contents in the default WYSIWYG word processor environment or as HTML markup.

You can override these defaults in any Overdue Tasks Report emails sent from RB.

Resource Blast

If you use Resource Blast to send out bulk emails and text messages to alert resources of immediate job opportunities like last-minute depos, you can customize the communications. Like Assignment Cancellations, you can insert text and contextual data fields in the header and body of emails and SMS messages, and format the text in the body of emails. You can override these defaults when sending any Resource Blast emails and text messages.

You can also designate the maximum number of resource email addresses to “blast” at a time, balancing your speed requirements with the security precautions of your resources’ mail servers. (Some servers perceive higher numbers sent at once as spam mail.)

NOTE: Resource Blast is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

Tasks (Monthly View)

You can customize what information appears in month-at-a-glance Task Calendars. Each job listed is identified by 2 pieces of data, and you can select which types of data are displayed — either “Job Number” or “Start Time” and either “Resource Assigned” or “Task Name.”

If multiple jobs have tasks that are scheduled on the same day, the month-at-a-glance calendar can list up to 10 a day. You can choose a different maximum number (3–10) to appear in each day’s box on the calendar. (If more jobs with tasks are scheduled for a day than your maximum, they are included in the number in the bar at the bottom of the day’s box and are accessible by clicking the bar.)

Time Zone

Select which time zones appear in Time Zone drop-downs in RB. Users select which time zone is their personal default in User Preferences from the list you create here. You can export this list as an Excel or CSV file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

Zoom

You can use RB to set up and host Zoom meetings. Set up a Zoom developer account, then enter your credentials here. Include your Zoom account settings and preferences, and customize your Zoom meeting invitation email so you can save time setting up Zoom when your job location is online. You can override any defaults when scheduling a Zoom meeting.

TL;DR: Set preferences for job calendar functions in Calendar preferences. Some preferences can be overridden by individual users in User Preferences.

RB concepts in this lesson

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 >

Job Status: Stage a job is in, e.g., New or Cancelled.

Mail Composer: RB’s included email app for emailing contacts, resources, locations, and other RB users from within RB. You can customize the email contents and include attachments. You can send individual emails or send emails in batches.

RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources, including interactive transcripts, downloadable invoices and e-commerce for clients, and online turn-in, one-touch job acknowledgements, and downloadable pay statements for resources. More >

Repository: RB has 9 repositories where you store files for safekeeping and quick retrieval. When you store files in a case, they are in RB’s Case Repository; when you store files in a job, they are in RB’s Job Repository; etc. 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, videographers, or conference rooms.

Task: Service requested with a job, such as reporting, interpreting, or video, that require a separate resource (person, company, thing) to accomplish. More >

Users: You and your staff who directly access RB. Contacts and resources are entities — not users in RB — and access RB9 through RB Connect or RB Connect Mobile.

Listed under Function, Lesson, Setup | Tagged , , , , ,

Analyze job assignments by resource

Use the Assignment Analysis report to see how often each resource has been assigned and balance out the workload in future assignments

Lesson #18
Calendar – Assignment Analysis function

Do you have resources who are complaining about not getting enough good assignments? If you have a big case with many daily copies, how do you evenly distribute the lucrative work among your reporters? Use the Assignment Analysis report to see how often each resource has been assigned.

View assignment info in 2 different formats

Static reports

You can generate static Assignment Analysis reports that display the total amounts of assigned, canceled, and net jobs by resource for a defined time period. You can generate similar static reports that further break down each resource’s assignments by case.

Static reports can be sorted alphabetically by resource or in descending order of net assignments. You can use search criteria to narrow your results.

You can search for a word or phrase in the static report and RB9 will highlight all instances of your searched word/phrase in the report plus list them in a scroll box along with the page number where they occur.

Interactive reports

Generate an interactive report that displays the same information overall by resource but which you can drill down into by month-, quarter- and year-to-date totals.

Refine your report

The default static report lists assignments ordered in the past month sorted in order from the most assigned resource to the least. You can sort the list by resource name instead, group each resource’s assignments by case, switch to the interactive report,  and/or use different search criteria to view assignments:

  • Job Date or Order Date range — Order Date includes assignments for write-ups ordered for previously billed non-transcribed jobs.
  • All, some, or one Job Type
  • A single resource
  • A single case
  • All, some, or one Business Unit

The static Assignment Analysis report’s footer will display which search criteria you used to generate the particular report with the exception of blank search fields, ALL list selections, or a selected resource. If you select two or more items in a list the report will display that as “(multiple values selected).”

The default interactive report uses the same search criteria and displays the same information broken down by year which you can drill down into to see each year’s monthly totals. You can choose to also include quarterly totals if you are viewing a long date range to make it easier to analyze your data.

Using the report

To figure out how to distribute job assignments more evenly on a case that your resources are asking for, run the Assignment Analysis report to see who has been given jobs on that case and how many times they’ve been assigned to it over a specific period. You will be able to see at a glance how evenly the workload is distributed between your resources and be able to make any adjustments necessary in future assignments.

You can export the static report in a variety of formats or print it from RB9. You can export the interactive report in Excel format to save, share, use in other applications, or print.

NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

TL;DR: Use the Assignment Analysis report to see how often each resource has been assigned and balance out the workload in future assignments.

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately — such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Job Type: Categories of jobs requested by clients such as Deposition or Real-Time.

Order Date: Instead of a job’s scheduled date, this category also includes assignments for write-ups ordered for previously billed non-transcribed jobs.

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service — such as reporters, videographers, interpreters, scopists, account executives, other agencies that cover jobs for you, or a conference room.

Listed under Calendar, Function, Lesson | Tagged , , , ,

Notify resources their work is overdue

Email your resources their own prioritized To-Do list of outstanding tasks

Lesson #17
Calendar – Send Overdue Tasks Report function

In addition to monitoring the tasks resources are working on with the Tasks in Progress function, you can give each resource their own prioritized To-Do list of outstanding tasks with the Send Overdue Tasks Report. This static report lists the tasks for which each resource has missed their deadlines in chronological order — and you can email any resource their list of overdue tasks directly from this function.

Get an overview of overdue tasks

Generate a list of all resources with outstanding jobs with one click then email everyone their To-Do lists with a couple of clicks more. Or use the search filters to narrow the list to a single resource’s workload, jobs outstanding on a case, or other criteria. Search criteria include:

  • Resource
  • Job Type
  • Task
  • Case
  • Task Due Date range
  • Business Units

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order but when you exit the function, RB will revert back to the default order. Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

You can view and update any resource’s details from the list and preview their overdue tasks report. RB generates the resource’s report in chronological order, oldest task first.

Hide tasks that don’t need turning in

Some parts to a job that require separate resources — such as a conference room or catering — don’t need a turn-in deadline. If you designate these kinds of tasks as “No Turn-in” when setting them up, they will not appear in your Tasks in Progress or Send Overdue Tasks Report results.

Email reports to whoever needs a reminder

You can email Overdue Task Reports to all resources, a single resource, or select a set of resources manually from the list of resources with overdue work product.

The report is sent as a PDF attachment to email, and you can customize the Subject and Message from the defaults included to match your business. You can also edit the email and attach additional files on the fly when you send the report.

RB automatically logs the date, time, and number of tasks in the resource’s Notes Log. It also records the email sent in the Email Log function in Tools (RB9 only), so you can refer back to it later.

TL;DR:  Email your resources their own prioritized To-Do list of outstanding tasks.

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): Your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately, such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.

Job Type: Categories of jobs requested by clients such as Deposition or Real-Time.

Notes Logs: Un-editable internal-use only notes entered either by a user or automatically by RB appear in chronological logs in the database record where they occurred such as a case, job, invoice, or entity.

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service such as reporters, videographers, interpreters, scopists, account executives, other agencies that cover jobs for you, or a conference room.

Task: Service requested with a job such as reporting, interpreting, or video, that require a separate resource (person, company, thing) to accomplish. More >

Listed under Calendar, Function, Lesson | Tagged , , , , , ,

Analyze resources’ workloads

Monitor & manage how busy resources are

Lesson #16
Calendar – Tasks in Progress function

The interactive Tasks in Progress report lists the backlog of tasks resources are working on, in chronological order with the oldest first. You can see all resources with outstanding tasks with one click or you can use the search filters to view a single resource’s workload, tasks outstanding on a case, or other criteria.

Search criteria include:

  • Ordered date and due date ranges
  • Job type (all, some, or one)
  • Task type (all, some, or one)
  • Single resource
  • Single firm
  • Single contact
  • Single case
  • Outstanding only or include completed tasks
  • Business Units (all, some, or one)

The resulting report includes all of those criteria as column heads, plus the job number and date, the status of the job and task, turned in date, how many days old, estimated and delivery dates, and witness so you can see task information without having to click into a job.

Customize how you view tasks in progress

Tasks are grouped by resource with each resource’s tasks’ average days old and total estimated pages listed in the footer of their outstanding tasks list. You can add additional grouping categories to the results, remove any grouping category, and re-arrange the grouping order.

For example if you add grouping by case to grouping by resource, tasks will be grouped by resource and subdivided under each resource into tasks related to cases they are assigned to. If you switch the order, tasks will be grouped by case and subdivided by each resource working on the case.

You can also:

  • Re-arrange the columns so the most important information is most prominent
  • Stick up to 10 columns to the left side of the grid so they do not scroll when you have a results grid wider than your screen.
  • Stretch/shrink columns to fit the results.
  • Hide columns you don’t need to see.
  • Choose which column(s) to sort results by.
  • If you select more than one column, choose in what column order to sort the list.
  • Choose whether to sort info by ascending or descending order in each selected column.
  • Save your custom grid as your default.

You can save your personal grouping parameters and custom grid as your default. Your customizations do not affect other users, and you can restore the original RB grid layout anytime.

From the report, you can:

  • See complete job and task details for outstanding tasks.
  • Update tasks with benchmark dates and other information — such as task and job status — as they progress and are completed.
  • Turn in jobs.
  • View completed tasks along with their completion date if the job has been turned in but not invoiced yet.
  • Export the grid as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

Integrated with other functions

Tasks in Progress is a function in the Calendar module but it is a good example of RB9’s interrelated functions and modules. Some Tasks in Progress examples:

  • Before assigning a resource to a task you can check their workload without leaving the job window. The selected resource’s Tasks in Progress appear in a panel within the job and includes estimated pages for each task the resource has yet to turn in, so you can get a better idea of the resource’s workload before assigning them to a new task.
  • The Send Overdue Tasks Report emails each resource their own To-Do list from Tasks in Progress to remind them of their overdue work product.
  • If you have RB Connect (and RB Connect Mobile), resources can view their own Tasks in Progress online (or on their mobile devices) in chronological order from the oldest to today.
  • When you create an invoice in Turn In RB gives you the option to check off job-related assignments as completed. This keeps your Tasks in Progress reports accurate. (You can also update your resources’s To-Do lists manually by entering the completed dates and times in the Tasks in Progress function.)

TL;DR: Monitor & manage how busy resources are. Begin turning in jobs. View completed tasks that have not been invoiced.

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately — such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with — such as attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, legal assistants, claim adjusters, and court clerks.

Firm: Business you provide services to — usually law firms but can also be other court reporting firms, vendors, insurance companies, corporate clients, and courts.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Job Type: Categories of jobs requested by clients — such as Deposition or Real-Time.

RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources including interactive transcripts, downloadable invoices and e-commerce for clients, and online turn-in, one-touch job acknowledgements, and downloadable pay statements for resources. More >

RB Connect Mobile: Clients and resources can access your RB Connect on their smart phones and tablets in an interface optimized for mobile devices. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service — such as reporters, videographers, interpreters, scopists, account executives, other agencies that cover jobs for you, or a conference room.

Task: Service requested with a job — such as reporting, interpreting, or video, that require a separate resource (person, company, thing) to accomplish. More >

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Know where your business is coming from

See who your best clients are based on the number of jobs they order from you instead of invoice amounts which can be inaccurate due to 3rd-party billing on a lot of jobs

Lesson #15
Calendar – Job Analysis function

Job Analysis is a report that shows new and canceled jobs in the calendar by firm, broken down by contact, so you can see how many calendar settings you are getting from each client.

You can easily see who your best clients are by looking at the number of settings each contact generates. This is better for your marketing staff to know because total invoice amounts can be misleading: A lot of work is billed to third parties — such as insurance companies whom you don’t market to — and a lot of a law firm’s invoices might be copy orders on jobs they didn’t initiate.

Generate gift lists

In addition to learning which contacts at which firms are scheduling and canceling jobs, you can also use this report to come up with a meaningful holiday gift list. Generate the report sorted by the number of net jobs per firm and contact in descending order to see which clients are generating the most business for your firm and to whom you want to send gifts of appreciation.

Static or interactive reports

You can generate static Job Analysis reports that display the total amounts of scheduled, canceled, and net jobs by firm and each firm’s contacts for a specific date range. Static reports can be sorted alphabetically by firm or in descending order of net jobs.

Or generate an interactive report that displays the same information overall by firm but which you can drill down into by firm contacts and month-, quarter- and year-to-date totals.

Default reports list all clients who ordered any type of job in the past month in descending order of net jobs with grand totals of the scheduled, cancelled, and net number of jobs at the end of the report. The static report includes the net percentage of jobs too.

You can use additional search criteria to narrow your report:

  • Job Date or Entered Date (as a date range or single date)
  • One or more Job Types
  • A single firm
  • A single case
  • One or more Business Units

You can export the static report in a variety of formats or print it from RB9. You can export the interactive report in Excel format to save, share, use in other applications, or print.

NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

TL;DR:  See who your best clients are based on the number of jobs they order from you instead of invoice amounts which can be inaccurate due to 3rd-party billing on a lot of jobs.

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately — such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.

Firm: Business you provide services to, usually law firms but can also be other court reporting firms, vendors, insurance companies, corporate clients, and courts.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources such as realtime, videoconferencing, or read & sign. Jobs can be linked to cases, linked to other jobs, or stand alone. More >

Job Entered Date From/To: Date range of when a job was added to the calendar, not when the job is scheduled to occur.

Job Type: Categories of jobs requested by clients such as Deposition or Real-Time.

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View your job calendar as a report

Job Printout is a report with several uses, including as your future calendar and as a worksheet for assigning resources

Lesson #14
Calendar – Job Printout function

Use Job Printout to view your job calendar as a report. It is a static report that lists all of the jobs scheduled for a specified date range, and includes details about each job, such as the time, status, and location. Optionally, it can include task details, as well as scheduling, job confirmation, and assignment notification notes.

With this report, you can:

  • Easily see your daily job calendar.
  • Set it for a different date range (for example, if you want a copy of your future calendar).
  • Export it in a variety of formats and/or print a back-up of the job calendar for any date range.
  • See who has been assigned to each job’s tasks.
  • Search for a word or phrase in the onscreen job calendar. RB will highlight all instances of your searched word/phrase in the report and list them in a scroll box along with the page number where they occur.
  • Use the printout to assign resources to tasks by writing them on the printout, then refer to it to assign resources in RB fast using the Quick Assignments function (RB9 only).

Use the search criteria to narrow the results shown on the report:

  • Job date range
  • One or more Job Statuses
  • One or more Job Types
  • A single firm
  • A single case
  • One or more Business Units
  • Show/hide Tasks
  • Show/hide Scheduling Notes
  • Show/hide Confirmation Notes
  • Show/hide Resource Notification Notes

If you choose to show any of the optional notes, they will display with the same styling they have in the fields where they originated. For example, if a job has scheduling notes that were formatted with specific fonts, text treatments, sizes, and/or colors, the text will appear on the Job Printout with those stylings.

The report’s footer will display which search criteria you used to generate the particular report with the exception of blank search fields or ALL list selections. If you select two or more items in a list, the report will display that as “(multiple values selected).”

Information about each job on the Job Printout is arranged to be easy to read:

  • Essential job information, such as date, time, job type, and ordering client are in the header of each job, which also makes it easier to distinguish between jobs on the page.
  • You can choose to have tasks associated with each job listed in the job, along with any resources already assigned and their contact information.
  • Information you need for assigning the right resource to job tasks, such as specialties required or services requested, appear on the report.
  • If a job entry doesn’t fit at the end of a page, the entire job entry is moved to the next page so there are no entries split between pages.

TL;DR: Job Printout is a report with several uses, including as your future calendar and as a worksheet for assigning resources.

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately, such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.

Firm: Business you provide services to, usually law firms, but can also be other court reporting firms, vendors, insurance companies, corporate clients, and courts.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Job Status: Stage a job is in, e.g., New or Cancelled. You can designate your own job statuses in RB.

Job Type: Categories of jobs requested by clients, such as Deposition or Real-Time.

Task: Service requested with a job, such as reporting, interpreting, or video, that require a separate resource (person, company, thing) to accomplish. More >

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Help clients stay on top of their calendars

Send clients their upcoming jobs calendar with almost no effort on your part

Lesson #13
Calendar – Send Future Calendar function

If a client asks you for a calendar of all of the jobs they have scheduled with you through the end of the year on a particular case, you can quickly provide that information as a report with the Send Future Calendar function.

You can send the calendar to a designated contact at the firm that includes all jobs scheduled by the firm on that case — or send individual contacts calendars of only their jobs related to the case.

Send clients their calendar for any time period

Use the default settings to send calendars to all of your clients that list their jobs scheduled for the upcoming month. Or limit which calendars you send and what they include by using a combination of the function’s search criteria:

  • Job date range
  • One or more job statuses
  • Single firm
  • Single contact
  • Single case
  • One or more business units

The list of clients that matches your search criteria displays each firm’s name, address, and number of jobs scheduled in the date range searched. You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order — but when you exit the function RB9 will revert back to the default order. Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

You can preview the future calendar reports before emailing them — and look up details on the clients without leaving the function. For example the function will show you if any client is missing an email address so you can update that client’s information before attempting to send the report.

Future calendars are sent as attachments to an email. RB9 includes a default email and you can customize what that email says — even edit it on the fly when sending an email to a client. RB9 records the email sent in the Email Log function in Tools, so you can refer back to it later.

NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

TL;DR: Easily send clients their calendars of upcoming jobs they have scheduled with your agency.

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately — such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with — such as attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, legal assistants, claim adjusters, and court clerks.

Firm: Business you provide services to — usually law firms but can also be other court reporting firms, vendors, insurance companies, corporate clients, and courts.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Job Status: Stage a job is in, e.g., New or Cancelled. You can designate your own job statuses in RB.

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Review how busy your agency is

See how many jobs were set or canceled today, and review your calendar for typos, errors, and trends

Lesson #12
Calendar – Daily Calendar Audit function

Quickly see how many jobs been scheduled or canceled today, or for any date range. You can also use RB’s Daily Calendar Audit to review new entries for typos and other mistakes. View canceled jobs to look for trends and see if you can reduce cancellations.

View today’s scheduling activity or look up other results

The default view is all jobs scheduled today. You can also quickly check which jobs were canceled today instead.

For either scheduled or canceled jobs, you can search by different dates/date ranges, and refine your calendar audit list to one or more:

  • Job Types
  • Referrals for the jobs
  • Business Units

In your search results, you can view the details of any of the jobs listed and update them if needed.

Customize how you view your scheduling activity

The grid in which you view your daily calendar is customizable to your individual preference:

  • Re-arrange the columns so the most important information is most prominent
  • Stick up to 10 columns to the left side of the grid so they do not scroll when you have a results grid wider than your screen.
  • Stretch/shrink columns to fit the results.
  • Hide columns you don’t need to see.
  • Choose which column(s) to sort results by.
  • If you select more than one column, choose in what column order to sort the list.
  • Choose whether to sort info by ascending or descending order in each selected column.
  • Save your custom grid as your default.

You can save your custom grid as your default. Your customizations do not affect other users, and you can restore the original RB grid layout anytime.

From the results grid, you can view and update any listed job’s details and export the grid as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV(comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

TL;DR:  See how many jobs were set or canceled today, and review your calendar for typos, errors, and trends.

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately, such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Job Type: Categories of jobs requested by clients, such as Deposition or Real-Time.

Listed under Calendar, Function, Lesson | Tagged , , , ,