Tag Archives: email second round

Lesson #21

Production – Tracking function

Track items as they move through your production workflow and into storage — including the location of physical media such as DVDs. You can also use the Tracking function to track products you are entrusted with — such as videos and exhibits.

If you have different people handling a service item from start to finish — and/or many service items to produce — use Tracking to ensure nothing slips through the cracks and you always know where something is and its current status.

Tracking is optional and independent from other modules in RB9; i.e., item tracking is not initiated from jobs or Turn In. You set up Tracking to match your production workflow so you can track items as they move through the process.

Track what you want how you want

First define item types to be tracked. You can track electronic and physical files — such as finished transcripts, exhibits, video, and archived files — and processes — such as editing, scanning, and synching.

After setting up item types to be tracked, create steps that each kind of item goes through in your production workflow. If an item passes through different departments or staffers as it is produced and completed, you can add alerts to specific steps to automatically notify people when the item is their responsibility. And when you move an item to the last step in the workflow RB9 will automatically change its status from “In Progress” to “Completed.”

After defining item types and creating tracking steps specify codes for different areas in tracking:

• Archival Status: Current stored status of original media — such as video tapes. Some typical designations are Archived Here, Originals Destroyed, and Originals Sent To.
• Media Classification: Specifies who has rights to view/handle the media. Designations might include Attorney’s Eyes Only, Confidential, and Under Protective Order.
• Media Format: Types of media you produce — such as Audio Tape, CD, DV-CAM, and DVD-R.
• Priority: Specifies order of importance or urgency — such as High, Normal, and Urgent.

As with all lists in RB these come with a set of defaults so you don’t have to start from scratch. You can customize RB lists by editing the defaults, deleting defaults, and adding your own list options.

Tracking can be initiated as soon as a job is created (scheduled). Or use the Production Sheet as a guide for which service items to track through production. Then keep the status of items being tracked current by updating tracking information as the items move through production and into storage.

Customize how you view tracking lists

The grid in which you view tracked items 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 Tracking results grid you can view and update any listed task’s details, start new trackings, and export the grid 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: Keep track of where items are in your production cycle and physically in your office.

Related RB concepts

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, videographers, interpreters, scopists, account executives, other agencies that cover jobs for you, or a conference room.

Lesson #20

Production – Turn In function

RB Turn In is a 2-part process. First, production staff compiles invoices for all parties ordering services on a job. Then billing staff fills in the financials and finalizes the invoices.

In Turn-in, you:

• Enter information about witnesses (witness records), attending parties, firms to bill, and services ordered. If resources submit billing sheets through RB Connect this information is entered into RB9 automatically. You can have multiple witnesses on the same invoice.
• Upload files, such as exhibits, to the repository. When uploading exhibits you can have RB automatically number them with stamps that include RB job information. (You create your own exhibit stamp templates.) If you have RB Connect resources can upload files to the repository  — and stamp exhibits too — and clients can download them.
• Generate RB-PDF Transcripts. (You can also generate transcripts in the PDF Transcripts function.)
• Grant clients and resources access to transcripts, related files (like exhibits), and invoices online through RB Connect. You can control which contact can access which file. Send contacts email alerts that files are ready for download. RB9 records the emails sent in the Email Log in Tools, so you can refer back to them later.
• Access the Shipping function to generate FedEx & UPS labels, then track shipments.
• Add explanations about specific services that will appear on the related invoice.
• Correspond with witnesses. Email transcripts and related files to witnesses and attorneys. Apply Read & Sign requirements to transcripts. Attach affidavits and errata sheets. Track original transcript location.
• Generate invoices with custom headers and messages you select from a list or create on the fly.
• After your production staff produces all service items requested, finalize invoices by applying billing rates, pay rates, and rush charges. Then calculate and post invoices.

While turn in is a complex process RB makes it easy with powerful search tools, guided turn-in, and other time-saving features.

Powerful search tools

There is no default search in Turn In. You choose your search criteria including:

• Job number
• Job date or date range
• One or more job statuses
• A single case
• A single resource
• One or more of your business units

Search results are color coded by job status and display their information that matches the search categories (except resource). They also show the job type, date and time the job status changed, and ordering client to help you identify the correct job to turn in. 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.

Guided turn-in

After selecting a job in the results grid the turn-in process starts with the essentials, then reveals additional steps as you progress. This means:

• Less errors: You won’t overlook important steps in turn-in due to information overload.
• Quicker turn-in: Less second-guessing the process since you are lead through it automatically.
• Easier training: Process is easy to understand and master.

Time-saving features

In addition to guiding you through the turn-in process RB Turn In includes other features to make it more convenient and faster.

The first step — adding witnesses — includes these time-saving features:

• You don’t have to be in Turn In to start turn-in: If you handle both job scheduling and turn in you can turn in a job from its job window in Calendar functions.
• You don’t have to know the job number to start turn-in: You can search Turn In by job date(s), job status, associated case, resource turning in the job, and/or the associated business unit(s).
• Jobs are color coded by status: When searching for jobs, results are color coded so you can quickly see which jobs in the list have already been turned in, billed, shipped, canceled, etc. You can export the list if desired as an Excel or CSV file to save, share, print, or use in other applications.
• Case & job information accessible in screen: If you want to view or edit the related case or job information it is all accessible from the Turn In window. You do not have to go into separate functions to look up or update related info. Similarly Remarks are included in the Witness grid so you do not have to go into a witness record to see notes about the witness.
• Witness email field: You do not have to go into a separate function to send witnesses their transcripts to read and sign.
• Create RB-PDF Transcripts: After uploading an ASCII file of a transcript to the Witness repository in Turn In you can generate a PDF transcript without having to go to the separate PDF Transcripts function.
• Look up resources by task: One job can have multiple tasks with different resources. You can easily find assigned resources for all the parts of a job tied to a single witness — for example reporter, videographer, and scopist — within the witness.
• Enter attorneys and services with one click: Instead of adding attorneys or services one at a time to invoices, add an entire group at once with RB’s Prefill concept. Ordering parties can be added from the case, job, or recent turn-ins. When prefilling parties you can have the services they ordered previously included too. Additionally services can be added from clients’ standing orders, case or job requests, or set menus of frequently billed together items (Billing Sets). When prefilling you can also choose to consolidate invoices for the parties so that each firm’s orders on a job will be billed on a single invoice.
• Remove tasks from To-Do lists: When you create an invoice RB will prompt you to check off which tasks have been completed and it will update the Tasks in Progress list for you.
• Uniform list of services customizable to your unique business offerings: Clients’ online requests, reporters’ job turn-ins (both through RB Connect), and in-house production and billing are all consistent because users choose items from lists instead of typing in information.
• Customizable witness list: If you have multiple witnesses/tasks for a job you can enter the information in any order that’s convenient. Then you can easily shuffle the order of the witness list to change how it will appear on the invoice. You can export the witness list if desired as an Excel or CSV file to save, share, print, or use in other applications.
• Other invoice options: You can create multiple invoice messages in addition to a default message to select from for different occasions such as a holiday greeting. You can edit the chosen message on individual invoices and write something from scratch too. You can also have additional information appear on invoices to third party payers — such as insurance companies — that will appear along with the claim number, name of insured, and date of loss. The contents of both the invoice message and additional billing information can be as long as you want and you can style the texts’ appearance.

The next step — calculating invoices — speeds up your work process even more:

• Set rates directly: Within an invoice you can select billing and pay rates plus select rush types in a fly-out panel — instead of opening additional windows on top of the invoice that obscure the invoice’s details. And if you already defined billing rates for your clients in their accounts RB will select those for you.
• Customizable service list: Just like with the witness list, if you have multiple service items for a job you can enter them in any order, then shuffle their order to appear differently on the invoice. You can also provide explanations on invoices about specific service items if you think something requires more detail.
• Locate invoices in a job easily: It is not uncommon to have multiple invoices for the same job (original and copy clients). Since each invoice listed also lists the services being billed, the background color for the invoice line is yellow while witness and service line items have white backgrounds so it is easier to scroll to each invoice. (You can “collapse” an invoice to hide the services so the list is shorter.) Also the invoice line text color indicates invoice status: black for invoices in progress, green for posted invoices, and red for voided invoices to quickly differentiate them from each other. You can export the invoice list if desired as an Excel or CSV file to save, share, print, or use in other applications.
• Adjust pay on invoices: You can add pay for miscellaneous charges you are not billing to the client but want tied to an invoice — such as the resource’s mileage or parking fees — and add pay for other resources for miscellaneous charges you are not billing to the client without going to the separate Override Resource Pay function.
• Send invoices immediately: When posting invoices from Turn In RB will ask if you want to send the invoices to the clients now. If you do, RB will open the Send Invoices function with the posted invoices already selected so you only have to choose whether to email from within RB or print them out for regular mail. If emailing you can also attach other related files from your Repository.

TL;DR:  A 2-part process where your production staff compiles invoices for all parties ordering services on a job. Then after producing service items ordered, billing staff fills in the financials and finalizes the invoices.

RB concepts in this lesson

Billing Sets: Like a fast food combo meal, RB9 Billing Sets are preset groups of service items. Selecting billable services by set, instead of individually, speeds up the billing process. More >

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

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.

Prefill: Save time when invoicing by having RB enter parties to a job and entering services billed from set menus of frequently billed together items.

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-PDF Transcript: PDF version of a transcript with built-in transcript-specific features like hyperlinked exhibits, word lists/indexes, errata sheets, and enhanced headers/footers containing case and depo information. 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 >

Witness Record: Deponent, proceeding, conference, or video/audio recording. Each witness record is associated with a task and the resource who performed the task.

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.

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 >

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 >

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.

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 RB9 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

You can also include or exclude some job information on the report:

• Tasks
• Scheduling Notes
• Confirmation Notes
• 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 within the job — along with any resources already assigned and their contact information.
• Information you need for assigning the right resources 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.

Confirmation Notes: Remarks about a job that will appear in job confirmation emails to the client.

Firm: Business you provide services to — usually law firms.

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.

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

Resource Notification Notes: Any remarks about a job or instructions for the resource(s) assigned to the job.

Scheduling Notes: Remarks about a scheduled job that are for internal use only.

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

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.

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 #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 >