Lesson #150
Connect – Connect Preferences function
Resource 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 Resource side of your RB Connect.
Announcements
Enter and format text for your resource’s 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 resources 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.
Firms
You can choose to allow resources to see firms’ COD status in their profiles in RB Connect.
Jobs
Set preferences for worksheet forms, global options for accessible job information, and who to notify of Client Of assignment requests:
General
Select job calendar options including:
- Which form is used for assignment notifications that are exportable/printable from the Jobs calendar.
- Allow resources to see their future tasks as soon as they are assigned, or hide them until you have sent them an assignment notification.
- Allow resources to see who was assigned to other jobs related to the same case they are assigned to when they access a job through their job calendar.
- Allow resources to download additional files related to a case when they access a job through their job calendar or the repository.
Users to notify
If you reward resources with commissions on job from clients they bring to your business or from specific cases, they can see jobs on their calendars that are scheduled by their clients/from their cases to track their commissionable work and also to get first dibs on those jobs.
Designate which staff members are alerted when resources request job assignments coming from their clients/cases. 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 Resource-Accessibility list.
Master Word List
Select a transcript profile from the PDF Transcript Preferences you have set up that will automatically dictate the appearance and other options of Master Word Lists compiled by resources. Resources can override any of these default RB-PDF Transcript settings when exporting a Master Word List.
Turn In
Set preferences for resources turning in jobs online, such as what options they have and who is notified when they turn in a job:
General
You can turn on or off access to some Turn In functions. Options you can let resources handle:
- Correcting case names and other case details.
- If Read & Sign applies to a witness being deposed, the resource can indicate they have completed the requirement and can enter the date.
- Entering firm and contact information for attending and ordering clients into your RB9 database.
- Adding parties already in your RB9 database from the job, case, or previous turn-ins, instead of manually entering information.
- Entering names and other details about parties who attended the deposition but did not order copies of transcripts at the time.
These are optional because the information resources enter here is entered directly into RB9 — and you might not want resources to enter information into your RB9 system because they might duplicate existing firms or contacts for instance, or otherwise enter errors into your database. However we do recommend allowing and encouraging your resources to add attending parties to their turned-in jobs. Then you can contact these non-ordering parties later to see if they would like to order copies — and provide them their own RB Connect IDs and passwords so they can purchase copies online.
Users to notify
You have the same options here for staff alerts as under Resource-Jobs. Plus if different users should be notified when tasks are turned in depending on the type of task (e.g., specific production staff should be notified about transcript turn in but other staff should be notified when video is turned in), you can select users to be notified per Task Type. If no task is specified for a user listed, they will receive notifications for all Task Types.
Options
Turn on these options to:
- Allow resources to add automatically numbered stamps to PDF exhibits when turning in jobs online.
- Have RB9 send the designated user(s) a notification when a resource adds a new firm or contact during Turn In.
Custom Sections in Job/Witness
Get additional information from resources about the job and/or witness when they turn in jobs via RB Connect by adding custom data fields to Turn In. You can:
- Add text, number, Yes/No, list, date, and time fields.
- Require users to enter something in specific fields/select something in a list 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 this list like the Resource-Accessibility list.
Repository
You have the same options here for staff alerts when resources upload files to the repository as under Resource-Jobs.
Availability
Set preferences for resources’ time-off requests:
General
Set a cutoff for the minimum number of days in advance resources can request time off online. (Weekends are not included in deadline calculations.) You can set no limits or a specific number of days.
Users to notify
You have the same options here for staff alerts as under Resource-Jobs.
Approval/Denial Notifications
You can customize the emails that RB9 automatically sends to resources to notify them that their time off has been approved or denied.
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. You can customize the appearance of the email messages with the same options as the Resource-Announcements section.
Support Tickets
Set preferences for resource support ticket notifications:
Ticket Notification
RB9 automatically emails resources 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 resource 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 Resource-Announcements section.
Users to notify
You have the same options here for staff alerts as under Resource-Jobs.
Other Connect Preferences sections
- Basics (both sides of your RB Connect)
- Contact side
NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.
TL;DR: Set preferences for features on the Resource side of your RB Connect.
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.
Client Of: Resource that receives a commission for jobs their clients scheduled or that are part of a case the resource was designated as the Client Of resource. You can also give reporters right of first refusal on their clients/cases’ jobs by displaying unassigned jobs from their clients/cases in Resource-side online calendars in RB Connect.
Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with.
Firm: Company 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 >
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.
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.
