Tag Archives: email second round

Lesson #171

Help – Suggest Ideas function

When you get an idea for improving RB9, you can ensure your idea has the best chance of being implemented by getting it discussed and voted for in this online forum. All RB users can participate in improving RB9 by using this function. Submit your suggestions, respond to other users’ ideas, and vote for those you would like to see incorporated in RB9. OMTI’s development team monitors this forum (previously called Idea Collaborator) and considers these suggestions when developing new RB features and functionality.

Suggest Ideas strategy

Because ideas with the highest scores are more likely to be implemented, it’s best to check the forum first for ideas like your own before submitting your idea. That is because having similar ideas in the forum runs the risk of diluting each idea’s score. So always look at what other RB users are suggesting first. You can add your input to these ideas — for example if an idea is similar but not exactly like your idea then add your unique aspects in a comment on the idea — and vote for the ones you would like to see implemented.

If you can’t find an idea like yours, then submit it to the forum — follow the guidelines to increase its likelihood of success, such as only one idea per request — and monitor how it does. You can see what other users say about your idea and respond — plus answer any questions the development team has about your idea. You can also check your idea’s status to find out if it is accepted, in development, implemented, or rejected.

Review existing ideas

The default view in Suggest Ideas is all ideas that have been submitted by any user — except those that have been implemented or rejected by OMTI’s development team. You can sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Use the search filters to find specific ideas. You can search by:

• Who suggested an idea: Everyone, just yourself, or just your company
• Where the idea is in the development process — for example: new ideas, implemented ideas, rejected ideas, and ideas the development team is considering, is implementing in a future version, or that they have questions about.
• All modules or a specific module.
• All functions, all functions in a specific module, a specific function in a module, or a new function for the selected module.
• Idea number
• Idea title

The list of ideas includes each idea’s title and description, category, current status, how many votes it has gotten, and when it was last commented on.

Comment & vote on existing ideas

You can view, comment on, and vote for any ideas listed in this function. When you view an idea’s details you can see a thread of comments by other users and the development team. If you enter a contribution to the discussion you can format the text of your comment, add URLs, and include screenshots and other images. If you like an idea, be sure to leave a comment on it and vote for it.

When you submit a comment, it appears in the suggestion’s threads and RB9 sends you an email acknowledging your comment. If you voted, your vote is added to the Votes/Score counts in the suggestion. Votes and scores are different categories: Votes are the total of all users who voted for an idea. Score counts unique agency votes. So the 1st person from an agency to vote for an idea gives the idea 1 Vote point and 1 Score point. If another user from the same agency votes for that same idea it gives the idea another vote, but doesn’t increase the score.

Votes help OMTI keep tabs on how many people overall view, respond, and like ideas. Score tells OMTI how many agencies like an idea, which is one of the metrics used in considering which ideas to research and develop.

Submit your own ideas

If you don’t find an existing idea like yours, use this function to submit your idea directly to OMTI’s development team from within RB. You will have a record of your suggestion, its development status, and other users’ comments and votes. Plus you can have a dialog with the development team about your idea if they reach out to you.

When submitting an idea, start by selecting the RB module that your idea applies to, then the specific function that your idea applies to. If you want to suggest adding a function instead of improving an existing function, you can indicate that instead.

When you select those options, ideas submitted previously for the same function appear. This gives you one more chance to check that your idea isn’t a duplicate. If you do find a similar idea, you can comment and vote on the existing idea instead of adding a new suggestion.

If you do not find a similar idea to piggyback on, then enter your new idea following the guidelines on the screen to increase the likelihood of your idea’s success. Your idea will be posted in the forum with a status of New.

TL;DR: Submit your ideas for improving RB. View, comment on, and vote for others’ ideas. Ideas with the most community approval are more likely to be incorporated into future versions of RB9.

RB concepts in this lesson

Module: Group of related work functions.

Lesson #170

Help – Report Issues function

Ask questions and make requests online with support tickets that maintain a paper trail of your issues and RB support responses. After making an inquiry, you can track its progress and continue the discussion with us online. When the issue has been resolved, close the ticket. You can re-open closed tickets to resume the conversation whenever you want.

Start a new ticket

When starting a new ticket, you just need to enter its topic and details. You want to give it a descriptive title so it will be easier to find when you have multiple inquiries. Write a detailed description too which will help us understand your inquiry and resolve it sooner. You can format your description, add hyperlinks, and include screenshots or other images to help communicate your issue.

When you submit your ticket, it is issued a number and placed in your queue.

Quickly follow up on existing issues

The default view in Report Issues is a list of any unresolved inquiries so you can immediately see the status of an issue and follow up. Each ticket listed shows its ticket number, topic, current status, when it was issued, and when it was last acted upon. If you cannot find the ticket you want, you can search your tickets by:

• Whether it is open or closed (resolved).
• The date or date range when it was issued.
• Its topic — you only have to search for part of the title.

Report Issues will display all of your tickets that meet the search requirements. Sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. You can export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Review any ticket’s details and respond/add more information. Each ticket has a conversation thread that includes all responses with their date, time, and responder’s name so you can easily follow the discussion. When commenting you can format the text, add hyperlinks, and include screenshots or other images just like when you entered the initial description.

When an issue has been resolved or you no longer need it to be an active inquiry, you can close its ticket and include the reason. You can always re-open the ticket at a later date if you want to continue the conversation.

TL;DR: Find step-by-step tutorials for many functions as well as solutions to error messages and other problems.

Lesson #169

Help – FAQ/KnowledgeBase function

Find answers to common questions about RB9, RB Lite, and RB Connect. Step-by-step tutorials for many RB functions as well as solutions to error messages and other problems are some of the articles you can find here.

The FAQ/KnowledgeBase function groups all of its articles by RB module, plug-in, or other category so you can search for information by general topic area. The list of these subdivisions includes how many articles are in each of them.

Selecting one of these areas reveals a list of all the related KnowledgeBase articles. Each article in the list includes an excerpt to help you located the information you are looking for. You can sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. You can also export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Some articles — such as tutorials — include screenshots and other images to make the contents more understandable. You can read any article within this function or send  articles to yourself and others via email directly from within RB. You can include other files in your RB repository as attachments to the email if desired.

TL;DR: Find step-by-step tutorials for many functions as well as solutions to error messages and other problems.

RB concepts in this lesson

Module: Group of related work functions.

Lesson #168

Tools – RB Networks function

If you would like to share work with other agencies and related businesses that use RB, this function (formerly RBXchange) lists contact information for all of the RB users who have agreed to join this roster. Find full contact information including the primary contact’s name, preferred phone number, driving directions to their offices, and their email address. If you want to email them, you can do it directly from within RB.

Find a member

Search for all of the registered RB users in a state or narrow your search further to a particular city. Search results include:

• Name of the agency
• City and state they are located in
• Physical area they cover

RB lists the users in alphabetical order but you can sort the order of this list by clicking one of the results headers — for example group by city so you can quickly scan for all users in adjacent cities. You can export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Contact a member

Click an agency’s name in the list to view their details and contact them. Contact information includes their:

• Physical address with links to their location in Google Maps, MapQuest Maps, and Bing Maps so you can view their location on a map and get directions.
• Primary contact’s name
• Phone and fax numbers
• Email address that links to RB’s mail composer so you can send them an email directly without leaving RB.
• Company URL
• Coverage area

To be able to have other users exchange work with you through RB Network, you must first sign up and enter your contact information in System Preferences.

TL;DR: Look up contact information of other RB users to share work with and network.

RB concepts in this lesson

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

Lesson #167

Tools – Signature Proxy Usage function

When you apply reporters’ digital signatures to RB-PDF Transcripts as their proxy, RB9 records the application in this log. You can access these records for any time period. Each reporter can access the log of your application of their signature to their own transcripts on ReporterBase.com.

Get basic information quickly

In this function you can view your signature proxy usage in a monthly overview that lists the number of instances in each month and year by reporter with grand totals for each reporter, month, year, and overall for the date range you searched. The default is all instances you applied a signature to a transcript this month, but you can search any date range. If you search a long time period, you can “collapse” the view to see only year and grand totals.

You can also choose to view instances based on the date of the job the transcript covers instead of the date you applied the signature.

View more details

If the overview doesn’t give you enough information, you can generate a detailed report which lists every instance you applied reporters’ signatures. For each instance it lists:

• Date the signature was applied
• Job number and date
• Case
• Witness
• Resource

You can sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. And export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

View the details of any job listed by clicking its job number. When viewing a job, you can also edit its details.

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

TL;DR: Track how many times you applied each reporter’s digital signature to RB-PDF Transcripts in any time period.

RB concepts in this lesson

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition. More >

RB-PDF Transcript: PDF version of a transcript with built-in transcript-specific features and customization options. More >

ReporterBase Digital Signature Proxy (RB-DSP): Free digital signatures for reporters and agencies that agencies apply to RB-PDF Transcripts. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service — such as reporters.

Lesson #166

Tools – Send Invitations for Signature Proxy function

ReporterBase Digital Signature Proxy (RB-DSP) is the way to apply reporters’ digital signatures to their RB-PDF Transcripts through the normal production process while maintaining the integrity of the signature. Before you can apply reporters’ digital signatures to RB-PDF Transcripts, reporters must grant you permission. Invite reporters to sign up for free digital signatures and grant you proxy to use their digital signatures.

For their part, reporters must:

1. Sign up on ReporterBase.com.
2. Generate a digital certificate.
3. Upload a file of their “wet” signature.
4. Grant you permission to use their signature.

They can then monitor your use of their signature and rescind proxy or cancel their account at any time.

Find reporters to invite

To find the reporter(s) in your RB database you want to invite, use the search criteria, singly or in combination:

• Full Name, First Name, Last Name, or a/k/a (their preferred nickname or business name if they are independent contractors)
• City
• State (single, several, or all)
• Resource Type (single, several, or all)
• Priority Level (single, several, or all)
• Resource number
• Active resources only or all

Send invitations

In the list of reporters your search returned, you can select one, several, or all to send email invitations to. If you are unable to select a reporter in the list, they either already granted you signature proxy or they do not have an email address in your RB database. You can sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. And export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Send reporters your standard invitation — which you set up previously in System Preferences — or you can customize it by editing the contents, writing something different, uploading attachments from your RB repository, selecting a different From address, and/or including Cc and Bcc addresses.

When you send a reporter an invitation, RB9 records the date the invitation was sent.

Monitor proxy designations

You can use this function to see if the reporter(s) you invited to join have granted you proxy yet. Search for reporters by the date or range of dates you sent invitations — or any of the other search criteria. In the results returned any reporters who have granted you proxy will have a checkmark in the Signature Proxy column so you can see at a glance who has responded and who you need to follow up with.

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

TL;DR: Invite reporters to share their digital signatures with you so you can apply them to their RB-PDF Transcripts.

RB concepts in this lesson

RB-PDF Transcript: PDF version of a transcript with built-in transcript-specific features and customization options. More >

ReporterBase Digital Signature Proxy (RB-DSP): Free digital signatures for reporters and agencies that agencies apply to RB-PDF Transcripts. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service — such as reporters.

Lesson #163

Connect – Send Invitations function

Use Send Invitations to invite contacts and resources to your RB Connect by emailing them customized letters that include their user name and other pertinent information. Send different emails to contacts and resources to give them targeted information for using your RB Connect. Customize the invitation forms with your own content, RB9 data fields, text formatting, and images. 

Setting up invitations

Increase the likelihood and success of people using your RB Connect by including important information in your invitations such as how to set their password. You can also customize the email to include other information like a site orientation. Include your company logo and other branding too. You can also customize the default subject lines to include your company name and/or the name of your RB Connect if you call it something else.

After customizing your invitation templates, use Send Invitations when you have new contacts or resources to give them access to your RB Connect without waiting until you have business to conduct with them online.

The default list in Send Invitations is all contacts entered today. You can use search filters to find:

• A single contact
• Contacts at a single firm
• A single resource
• All resources

You can also choose to search by different dates or a date range.

Listings in the results include the entity’s:

• Name
• City
• State
• Email address
• Login name
• Date they were entered into RB

If you are looking for contacts, the results also include the name of the firm where they work.

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).

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

Sending invitations

You select who to invite by checking their box(es) in the list or checking the box in the header to select them all. (If there is no box next to an entity’s name, that means the entity is missing contact information in their profile. Click the hyperlinked entity to add their contact information to their profile.)

You can preview emails before they are sent. You can also:

• Edit an email’s subject line and message.
• Change the recipient and sender.
• Add Cc’s and Bcc’s.
• Attach files before sending the email.

After sending the email, RB9 notes the result in the Send Invitations grid, and records the email sending in the entity’s Notes Log.

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

TL;DR: After entering contacts or resources into RB9, email them targeted invitations to RB Connect that automatically includes their login credentials and onboarding info.

RB concepts in this lesson

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

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. More >

RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service — such as reporters.

Lesson #162

Receivables – Send Payment Receipts function

After posting payments for outstanding invoices, send receipts to clients. You can customize the subject line and contents of your company’s email receipt, then use this function to automatically send receipts to clients.

In Send Payment Receipts the post date defaults to today and the recipient defaults to Bill To clients (companies responsible for paying the invoices). You can select a different date to view payments for and change the recipient to Sold To clients (companies that ordered your services or are otherwise responsible for a job). You can also restrict the results to only payments posted by a specific staff member.

Payments in the results list include:

• Post date
• Payment type
• Check number
• Amount
• Who issued the check (if different from the Bill To firm)
• Who posted the payment
• When posted

With a click you can view which invoice(s) any payment in the list has been applied to — along with invoice information such as:

• Invoice amount
• Balance
• Any adjustments made
• Fees
• Additional charges
• Basic client info

Automatic email receipts

Select all the posted payments or only specific ones to send receipts for. Payment receipt emails will automatically include the payment receipt as the body of the message. RB9 comes with a default payment receipt form that you can customize. Or you can create your own. Customize the Subject line of payment receipt emails with default text and RB data fields in System Preferences. 

You can preview the emails before they are sent. In preview mode, you can:

• Edit the subject line.
• Edit the message.
• Change the recipient.
• Change the sender.
• Add Cc’s and Bcc’s.
• Attach files.

After sending the email RB9 notes the result in the Send Payment Receipts grid — and records the email in the Email Log (RB9 Standard function only) so you can refer back to it later.

TL;DR: Send clients customized receipts acknowledging posted payments.

RB9 concepts in this lesson

Bill To client: Client responsible for paying the invoice for a job.

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

Sold To client: Client responsible for a job with your company

Lesson #161

Calendar – Tasks (Monthly View) function

Similar to Jobs (Monthly View), you can view tasks as items on an interactive calendar page in this function. 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 a month’s 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. RB9 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 update if needed. You can do everything from Monthly View like you do 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 RB9 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 RB9 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 RB9 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 RB9 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 RB9 prompts you to alert the resource of the cancellation. In addition RB9 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.

RB9 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 RB9.

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 RB9 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 >

Lesson #160

Tools – Notes Templates function

Instead of typing the same notes for each case/job — or copying and pasting the info from a Word doc — create templates of boilerplate text to fill the notes fields in cases and jobs. 

With the Notes Templates function you can create templates of text for different types of notes. Create as many templates as you want for specific notes fields in cases and jobs — such as scheduling notes for different types of jobs or even for specific firms or contacts. Style the text in your templates with different font treatments (e.g., font weight, size, and typeface) and colors.

Then select the appropriate template when scheduling a job/setting up a case/etc. If needed you can edit the note to fit the case/job you applied the template to — but that will still be less typing than starting each note from scratch.

Notes templates are saved on the RB server and are available to all of your RB registered users. You can edit your saved templates to update them as needed.

Contextual notes templates

Notes templates are organized into Notes Groups so that when selecting a template in a Notes field only the relevant ones appear. For example templates saved in the Cases-Remarks Notes Group will be available to select in the Remarks field in a case listing.

Notes templates are organized into the following Notes Groups:

• Case-Remarks
• Job-Confirmation Notes
• Job-Production/Billing Notes
• Job-Resource Notification Notes
• Job-Scheduling Notes

Notes Groups are preset by RB9 — you cannot edit or add new groups. You can search for notes in a single Notes Group, several groups, or all groups at once. Export your search results as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

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

TL;DR: Save time entering notes by setting up templates of boilerplate text you can apply to notes fields in cases and jobs.

RB concepts in this lesson

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

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service — such as reporters.