Tag Archives: email second round

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.

Lesson #11

Calendar – Send Assignment Notifications/Cancellations function

Instead of notifying resources of assignments as soon as you enter them in RB, do a day’s worth all at the same time. This will save your time if you have a lot of notices to send on a daily basis. Or maybe you prefer to wait to notify resources until after setting all assignments.

You can also notify resources of cancellations the same way but most likely you will do those individually as they occur to let your resources know ASAP that their jobs have been canceled.

Notifications are sent via email or text — or both. You can also print out notifications to hand out or fax.

Automatic attachments

Assignment notification emails automatically include the reporter worksheet for the task. You can customize the default worksheet — for example you can add the scheduling client’s email address — and create additional ones in Form Templates.

Before sending notifications use System Preferences to customize the subject line, the message. and whether the worksheet is included in the body of the email, as an attachment, or both. You can include any text you wish, embed contextual RB data fields such as job location and witness name, add images, and style the text with fonts, text treatments, sizes, and colors. You can also customize the subject line and contents of text messages with your own text and contextual data fields.

Emailed assignment notifications can automatically include other attachments such as the relevant job notice or a shared word list. You can also attach files individually as you are sending an email (but RB will not send files over 20MB). In addition to setting up which file types will be attached (in System Preferences) you can also designate which types of tasks will receive these automatic attachments (in Lists). For example you probably don’t need to send word lists to resources handling your conference room.

You can also automatically include an iCalendar file with emailed assignment notifications that the resource can import into their own calendar. You can customize its subject line and description.

You can do the same customizations for assignment cancellations with the exceptions of no file attachments beyond the notice and no iCalendar file.

Emailing notifications

In Send Assignment Notifications/Cancellations you can email assignments by day scheduled or job date (if you assign jobs the day before they should occur). Cancellation confirmations are selected and sent by cancelled date. If desired you can refine your notification list to:

• A specific date or date range (maximum range is 30days)
• A single job number
• One or more job types
• One or more tasks
• One or more resource types
• One or more business units

The notification list displays each job’s:

• Number
• Date
• Task
• Start time
• Status
• Witness
• Resource
• Notified date
• Acknowledged date
• Ordering client
• Business unit
• Type
• Location

Canceled assignments results also list the date each job was canceled.

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.

When sending notifications you have the option to attach additional files from either your desktop or RB’s Job-level Repository.

RB records emails sent in the Email Log function in Tools (RB9 only), so you can refer back to them later.

TL;DR: Instead of notifying resources one at a time, save time by emailing or texting a day’s worth of notifications at once.

RB9 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 Status: Stage a job is in, e.g., New or Cancelled.

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

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.

Resource Type: Profession — such as Scopist, Proofreader, or Interpreter — and other categories of resources.

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

Lesson #9

Calendar – Quick Assignments function

If there are too many jobs or too many changes in a day to assign tasks one at a time within each job, save time by printing out your upcoming calendar, writing your resources on your calendar, then using Quick Assignments to:

• Apply your assignments to your job calendar in RB9.
• Send resources notifications of their assignments.

Even if you don’t have so many assignments but just prefer to assign all of a day’s resources at one time, use Quick Assignments after confirming tomorrow’s jobs to drag and drop resources to related tasks — or select someone from a list of resources that have previously worked on jobs for the same case.

You can also use Quick Assignments to easily enter assignments made on past jobs that you didn’t get a chance to enter into RB9 before the job occurred.

Assign then notify in one function

Quick Assignments defaults to tomorrow’s tasks when you open the function so you can immediately start assigning resources and checking who has already been assigned. You can change the date to view, narrow the list to one or more tasks and/or business unit (BU), and assign resources to a different date.

In addition to dragging and dropping resources, there are 2 shortcut methods: Previous resources and preferred resources.

As the name implies, previous resources are any resources that were assigned to tasks in jobs on the same case. You can assign a resource from a list of previous resources with a click instead of searching for a resource to drag and drop.

If you maintain preferred/blocked resources lists for firms and contacts you can view those lists in Quick Assignments, so you can:

• Avoid assigning a blocked resource.
• Assign an ordering firm’s or ordering contact’s preferred resource to a task with a click.

Whether you select a previous resource/preferred resource from a list or drag and drop a resource to a task RB9 records it in the related job’s Notes Log and asks if you want to notify the resource. (If you try to assign a blocked resource to a task, RB will alert you and not allow the assignment.) You can send the notification by either email or text message or both without leaving the function — or you can wait to send all of the day’s notifications in a batch using the Send Assignment Notifications/Cancellations function.

Notifications can be sent via text or email or both. Notification emails automatically include the reporter worksheet for the task. You can customize both the message and whether the worksheet is included in the body of the email, as an attachment, or both. You can include other attachments as you are sending the email. You can also send an iCalendar file that the resource can import into their own calendar.

Tasks listed in Quick Assignments include information such as:

• Job number
• Job type
• Job status
• Job date
• Job time
• Job location
• Task times (if different from job times)
• Assigned resource
• Client
• Witness
• BU
• Any notes you’ve made about the task

If you use the Notation field in jobs for your own custom codes to describe jobs (such as “RT” for Real Time), these codes appear here too to help you choose appropriate resources.

Tasks are color coded by job status so if any job hasn’t been confirmed yet it’s easy to see and follow up with the client. And the list makes it easy to see all unassigned tasks at a glance so you won’t overlook any when applying resources to assignments.

Customize how you view assignment lists

The grid in which you view assignment lists 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.

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

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

TL;DR: In Quick Assignments you can quickly assign resources to tomorrow’s jobs and see if any of those jobs are not confirmed yet so you can follow up with the client.

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.

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

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.

Notation: Short codes (up to 24 characters) you create yourself to give key information about a job (such as “V” for video, “RT” for realtime, “1 of 2,” or “Daily”) in a results grid so you don’t have to click into a job’s detail window.

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 #8

Calendar – Resource Availability function

When a resource wants to take a vacation or a personal day — or if they want to pick up extra hours of work outside their normal schedule — use Resource Availability to view their schedule, then quickly add or remove time for specific days.

The default view in Resource Availability is all resources’ work schedules for today. (Resources’ regular work schedules are set up in their individual listings.) Work schedules are color coded so you can track resources’ schedules in a glance by assigned periods, available/unavailable times, and time off.

Search for a resource

Use any of the search criteria to narrow your search to find a particular resource/resources:

• Date range
• A resource’s name
• One or more Priority Levels
• One or more Resource Types
• One or more Specialties
• Text in time-off notes/comments

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 to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Include notes about time off

When granting time off you can include reasons for it and any notes or comments about it for your records. Resource Availability will display this information in the search results.

Quickly change a resource’s schedule

Use the Change Availability option to add time to resources’ schedules when they are willing to work extra hours for a month — or quickly block out time off for a resource if you do not need to keep track of the reason.

During a resource’s scheduled time off — whether it’s their regularly scheduled time off or time off added here — the resource’s name will not appear in the list of available resources when assigning tasks. If you try to assign a resource in Quick Assignments who is not available, it will alert you so you can pick a different resource or override the resource’s time off.

TL;DR: Set up resources’ regular work schedules in their individual records in RB, then use Resource Availability for one-off changes — such as vacations or availability outside of their normal working hours.

RB concepts in this lesson

Priority Level: Order of selection preference for resources. For example resources on staff vs. affiliates.

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.

Resource Type: Professions and other categories of resources.

Specialty: Skill or specific expertise required for some jobs. — such as medical reporting, Spanish, or realtime.

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

Lesson #3

Calendar – Cases function

Case-based means information entered under a case — such as the parties involved and the services each party requests — automatically fills into the relevant fields in jobs linked to that case (usually depositions).

RB9 concepts in this lesson

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.

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

Case Status: Stage the case is in, e.g., In Progress or Settled.

Case Type: Category by work type, e.g., Civil or Personal Injury.

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

Concept #1

Job

A job in RB is usually the reporting of a deposition. But it can be any kind of service you provide with your resources — such as realtime, videoconferencing, or read & sign. You might also have further distinctions — such as conference room or document production only — to categorize jobs. A default list of job types is included in RB that you can customize to fit your business.

You do not have to set up separate jobs if a client has requested multiple services for the same time and place — such as a court reporter and an interpreter for a single depo. You can designate the services as separate tasks in one job and bill them on a single invoice.

Jobs can be set up as:

• Single events — including Zoom meetings as stand alone events or as hybrid meetings with some attendees in person and others remote
• Linked jobs — commonly used for videotaped depositions where you want to bill the video separately
• Series of jobs at once
• Part of an ongoing case so they share case information

If you have RB Connect, your clients can send you job requests for a single event or a series of jobs that import directly into RB9. Clients can include detailed information about the job — even upload related files — and it all imports into RB9 with no re-keying on your part.

When setting up a job RB provides alerts and guides. For example if a client’s invoices are past due, you can have RB pop up an alert with the total overdue amount and days past due so you can address it immediately. Another example is when scheduling Zoom meetings if the host account has a scheduling conflict between an existing Zoom meeting and the one you are scheduling, RB will alert you.

Job information in RB

When setting up a job the minimum amount of information needed is who is ordering the job, job date, and time (including time zone). However there is a great deal more information that can be included in any job.

Information about each job is organized into 10 sections.

General

Section fields include:

• Job number, date, and times — also zone and daylight savings adjustment
• Job Status
• Business Unit
• Witness — and whether subpoenaed, expert, and what kind
• Job Type
• Case and any case warning  —includes link to complete case information

Client

Section fields include:

• Scheduling Firm and Contact — includes links to complete firm and contact information
• Ordering Firm and Contact — includes links to complete firm and contact information
• Firm and Contact warnings
• Firm and Contact calendar notes

Job Location

Section fields include:

• Location Type (the ordering firm’s location, a different firm location, a location from your database, one of your company’s locations; a resource location — such as your conference room, or a one-off address you enter manually)
• Location name, address, and phone — includes links to complete location information and map
• Directions
• URL ( (if the job is an online or hybrid meeting, your Zoom meeting preferences are automatically included — which you can override as needed)
• Notes and warnings about the location (if the job is a Zoom/hybrid meeting, the Notes field for remote locations will automatically include the meeting ID, passcode, and dial-in phone numbers)

Additional

Section fields include miscellaneous info like:

• Your own codes for jobs
• If the job was rescheduled, the date of the original job — includes link to previous job’s information
• If the job is linked, the job it is linked to — includes link to linked job’s information
• Sales Representative — includes link to sales rep’s information
• How you got the job — referral, repeat client, etc.
• Unlimited notes about the job — includingscheduling, confirmation, resource notification, production/billing that are automatically shared with the appropriate people

Parties

Section fields include each party’s:

• Company information
• Role — including which side and attendance
• Access to job information
• Billing information — including 3rd party details plus insurance information and e-billing
• Requested services

Specialties

Section lists any specific expertise required for the job.

Award Points

Section is a sub-function in jobs for allotting reward points to the job parties.

Tasks

Section lists any parts of the job that require a separate resource and includes:

• Resource assigned
• Dates task was assigned, when it’s due, when the resource was notified, when acknowledged by the resource, current status, when the resource checked in at the job location, if canceled when, and when it was completed.

Repository

Section includes any files uploaded to the job. (You can also upload files to individual tasks in the job.)

Notes Log

Section includes internal notes and reminders about the job added by you, your staff, and automatically by RB.

Find jobs in your RB database

You can look up existing jobs several ways:

• Use search parameters to display a list of jobs.
• Page through a monthly calendar using optional search parameters to limit the jobs displayed.
• Page through a weekly calendar using optional search parameters to limit the jobs displayed.
• View the jobs tied to a case in a list.
• Outside of the calendar you can use search parameters that are relevant to the function you are in to look up jobs. For example in Turn In you can search for jobs by number, date(s), status(es), case, resource, and/or business unit(s).

Actions within a job

Within a job, you can:

• Update information in any section.
• Upload files to the job and its related tasks.
• Confirm the job with the client.
• Reschedule or cancel the job. RB will prompt you to notify the ordering party and any assigned resources. If the job is a Zoom meeting, the Zoom info (like ID and passcode) will remain the same for rescheduled jobs. If it is canceled, the Zoom meeting is automatically deleted by RB.
• Copy the job to create a new one with all of the same information except the date.
• When creating a new job set up multiple jobs at once for different days — or even multiple times in the same day(s).
• Add the job to a case and have it inherit case information like parties to the case.
• Create a linked job that includes all of the job information to use for a service you will bill separately (such as video of a depo). When confirming or canceling a job, it will alert you if there is a linked job so you can update that one too.
• Add tasks, set task deadlines (you can override the default due dates set from the ordering firm’s preferences or your BU’s preferences), assign resources to tasks, and manage tasks.
• Change the job’s status using shortcuts or automatic updates for some statuses.
• Manage job parties’ access to job information and files on RB Connect.
• Add third-party and insurance billing information for job parties.
• Include any party’s service requests for the job.
• Find information about the contact, firm, resource, and job location — including contact information and driving directions.
• Begin production turn-in.
• Export job data for other uses. You can export the information displayed in the Parties, Specialties, Award Points, Tasks, Repository, and Notes Log panes as Excel spreadsheets or CSV(comma-separated values) files to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

TL;DR: RB jobs are depos or other services you provide that require separate resources — such as court reporters. They can be attached to a case to share information or stand alone.

Related RB concepts

Award Points: Used to encourage clients to book with your agency by rewarding them with points for different services. If you have RB Connect, you can allow contacts to request point redemptions online.

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 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.

Linked Jobs: For services you will bill separately — such as video done by a third party of a depo — set up a linked job instead of a task. Linked jobs are separate jobs on the calendar, but because they are tied together you will be notified when a depo is confirmed that there is a linked video job, so you can confirm the linked job. Or if the depo is canceled you can cancel the video job too and notify the videographer.

Location: Place where jobs occur — such as court rooms, hospitals, schools, doctors’ offices, or private residences.

Location Type: Categories of locations — such as doctor’s office or private residence.

Notes Logs: 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.

Ordering Contact: Contact at the firm that is responsible for a job with your company. Can be different from the scheduling contact (Scheduled By).

Ordering Firm: Firm that is responsible for a job with your company. Can be different from the Scheduling Firm.

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 job, they are in RB’s Job Repository. 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, interpreters, scopists, account executives, other agencies that cover jobs for you, or a conference room.

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

Scheduling Firm: Firm that initiates a jobs with your company. Can be different from the Ordering Firm.

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