Tag Archives: emailed lesson

Manage billing sheets

If you have resources turn in jobs via RB Connect, view details about their billing sheets and download the billing sheets

Lesson #165
Connect – Billing Sheets function

Search for billing sheets that resources turned in using RB Connect. Then view details and download the billing sheets.

The default search is for all tasks turned in today. You can change your results using the Billing Sheet search filters:

  • Task Turn-In date range
  • Job number
  • One or more task categories
  • Resource
  • One or more business units

The results returned display the:

  • Job number
  • Job date
  • Resource
  • Task
  • Turned-in date
  • If it’s a rush job
  • Ordering client
  • Case
  • Business unit

Find rush jobs fast

Rush jobs are highlighted in red. Sort the results grid by rush to see which are your time-critical jobs. You can also sort the results by one or more of the other columns in ascending or descending order. (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, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Click a hyperlinked job number to view details about the billing sheet and download it. Billing sheets include both the Ordering Client and Scheduled By Contact so you know who should receive copies of the invoice and transcript.

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

TL;DR: If you have resources turn in jobs via RB Connect, view details about their billing sheets and download the billing sheets. 

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.

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

RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources including online turn-in, one-touch job acknowledgements, and downloadable pay statements for resources. RB Connect is an optional plug-in to RB9.

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

Scheduled By: Contact who initiates a jobs with your company. This scheduling contact can be different from the Ordering Contact.

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

Listed under Connect, Function, Lesson | Tagged , , ,

Audit resource pay overrides

Search historical data about Override Resource Pay payments separately from the resource pay total

Lesson #164
Inquiry – Override Resource Pay Inquiry function

Audit payments made using the Override Resource Pay function separately from the resource pay total for a specific time period, a single resource, a single job, and/or a single invoice.

With this Inquiry function you can search historical data about Override Resource Pay payments separately from the resource pay total by:

  • Date the override was entered in RB9
  • Invoice date
  • Job date
  • Pay date

In addition to the date type, you can use one or more of these filters to search for invoices that include pay overrides:

  • Date range
  • Resource
  • Invoice number
  • Job number

The results returned display:

  • Resource
  • Pay date
  • Service item
  • Units
  • Pay amount
  • Date the overpayment was entered
  • Who on your staff entered the overpayment
  • Related invoice number
  • Invoice date
  • Witness

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

Find invoice/job details & files

Click an invoice number in the results to view or update invoice details and upload/download invoice related files. Click the job number in the invoice to view or update the associated job’s details and upload/download job files. Not all details are editable in either the invoice or job.

TL;DR: Search historical data about Override Resource Pay payments separately from the resource pay total.

RB concepts in this lesson

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

Service items: Regular charges that you bill to your clients.

Listed under Function, Inquiry, Lesson | Tagged , , , ,

Send clients & reporters invitations to your RB Connect

After entering contacts or resources into RB9, simplify everyone’s lives by emailing them invitations to RB Connect that automatically includes their login credentials and onboarding info

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

Listings in the results include the entity’s name, city, state, email address, login name, and the 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 edit an email’s subject line and message, change the recipient and sender, add Cc’s and Bcc’s, and attach files before sending the email.

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

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

Listed under Connect, Function, Lesson | Tagged , , ,

Email clients automatic payment receipts

Quickly acknowledge client payments with automated receipts

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

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

RB 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

Listed under Function, Lesson, Receivables | Tagged , , , ,

Monitor tasks in a calendar format

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

Lesson #161
Calendar – Tasks (Monthly View) function

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

Monitor tasks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Manage tasks

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

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

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

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

RB concepts in this lesson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Add boilerplate text to notes without typing

Eliminate redundant typing by creating templates of boilerplate text for job and case notes

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.

Listed under Function, Lesson, Tools | Tagged , , ,

What is RB Lite?

RB Lite is a smaller version of RB9 containing essential functions only

Concept #8
RB Lite overview

RB Lite is the smaller version of RB9 online application for managing court reporting agencies and other legal support businesses. RB Lite contains essential functions to meet the unique scheduling and billing needs of legal support businesses.

It has about half of the functions that RB9 has and costs less. Functions in RB Lite work the same way as they do in RB9. In addition to scheduling and billing, it includes some RB9 production, receivables, payables, and client management functions needed for running a legal support business.

It also includes a few RB9 tools to make using RB Lite easier, such as Bulk Import, which gives you the ability to import your existing clients and resources instead of having to enter them manually. See the comparison chart below for the complete list of RB9 functions included in RB Lite.

Who is RB Lite is for?

  • People just starting out in business. RB Lite clients can move up to RB9 anytime, seamlessly.
  • People who hesitate to make a big commitment. Like RB9, RB Lite is month to month, cancel anytime.
  • People with cyclical or seasonal business income. RB clients can switch between RB Lite and RB9 as needed, with no loss of data.
  • People on a tight budget. RB Lite costs less than RB9.
  • People who already have apps for creating transcripts, shipping products, marketing their business, etc. RB Lite doesn’t include those functions.
  • People at the end of their career who don’t need everything RB9 offers anymore. When an RB9 client is scaling back services, RB Lite only includes the essentials.
  • People who provide legal support services, but not court reporting. Businesses like interpreting agencies or legal videographers don’t produce transcripts, and don’t need to ship, share, or track them either.

What functions are in RB Lite?

This chart lists all RB9 functions and indicated which ones are also in RB Lite.

O = included X = not included

Function RB Lite RB9
Personal options
Notifications and Messages O O
Change Password O O
Locked Data O O
User Preferences O O
Close All Tabs O O
Log Out O O
Calendar module
Cases O O
Jobs (List View) O O
Jobs (Monthly View) O O
Jobs (Weekly View) X O
Send Job Confirmations/Cancellations O O
Tasks (List View) O O
Tasks (Monthly View) O O
Resource Availability O O
Quick Assignments X O
Resource Blast X O
Send Assignment Notifications/Cancellations O O
Daily Calendar Audit O O
Send Future Calendar X O
Job Printout O O
Job Analysis X O
Tasks in Progress O O
Send Overdue Tasks Report O O
Assignment Analysis X O
Production module
Turn In O O
Tracking X O
Production Sheets O O
Envelopes and Labels X O
Shipping X O
Letters X O
Send Originals Out X O
Repository O O
PDF Transcripts X O
Create Master Word List X O
Link Exhibits X O
Billing module
Post Invoices O O
COD Invoices O O
Send Invoices O O
Transfer Invoices O O
Export Invoices X O
Inquiry module
Invoice Inquiry O O
Client Activity O O
Client Analysis X O
Resource Activity O O
Resource Analysis X O
Witness Inquiry O O
Receivable Transaction Inquiry O O
Override Resource Pay Inquiry O O
Anniversary Inquiry X O
Marketing Inquiry X O
Receivables module
Receive Payments O O
Enter Other Transactions O O
Send Payment Receipts O O
Resource Billings Report X O
Daily Register O O
Daily Balance Log X O
Finance Charges O O
Monthly Journals O O
Aged A/R O O
Send Statements O O
Client Account Activity X O
Paid Invoices X O
Voided Invoices X O
Collection Letters X O
Collection Follow-up X O
Collection Forecast X O
Payables module
Override Resource Pay O O
Pay Adjustments O O
Pay Resources O O
Send Resource Pay Statements O O
Print Checks X O
1099 Pay Detail X O
Print 1099 Forms X O
Sales Commission Report X O
Override Sales Commission X O
Additional Resource Production Report X O
Total Payable Report O O
Sales Tax X O
Liability Balance Log X O
Reward Points Summary X O
Reward Points History X O
Reward Points Analysis X O
Reports module
Business Analysis X O
Gross Profit X O
Misc. Sales X O
Client Rating Report X O
Insurance Billing X O
Resource Production X O
Original Page Production X O
Task Turnaround Analysis X O
Daily Tracking Summary X O
Tracking Productivity Analysis X O
Tools module
Bulk Import O O
Bulk Update O O
Tag Manager X O
Form Templates O O
Label Templates X O
Notes Templates X O
Notes Finder X O
Repository Download Log X O
Download Backup File X O
Email Log X O
Query Maker X O
QuickBooks Integrator X O
Entities module
Firms O O
Contacts O O
Resources O O
Locations O O
Business Units O O
Setup module
Lists O O
Users and Groups O O
Chart of Accounts O O
Service Item Subgroups O O
Service Item Master O O
Rush Type Master O O
Billing Rates O O
Pay Rates O O
Billing Sets O O
Pay Dates O O
Invoice Headers O O
Invoice Messages O O
Tracking Steps X O
PDF Transcript Preferences X O
PDF Transcript Stamps X O
Link Exhibits Patterns X O
Exhibit Stamps X O
System Preferences O O
Connect module
Send Invitations X O
Transcript Ordered X O
Publish COD Invoices X O
Fulfill Points Redemption Orders X O
Transcript Packages X O
Create Full-Text Search X O
Approve Time-off X O
Billing Sheets X O
Activity Log X O
Support Tickets X O
Connect Preferences X O
Help module
User Guide O O
Online Training O O
Update History O O
Online Support: Team Viewer O O
Live Chat O O
Send Feedback O O
About O O

More ways RB Lite is like RB9

Function in RB Lite come with built-in defaults so you don’t have to start from scratch defining common items. And you can customize RB Lite to meet your unique business needs.

Like RB9, RB Lite runs on any computer or tablet with internet access. Nothing to install. No other software or hardware need to run the system. And no maintenance or backup responsibilities.

RB Lite is available by subscription only, month-to-month contracts, no long-term obligations, cancel anytime.

TL;DR: RB Lite is a smaller version of RB9 containing essential functions only. Visit omti.com/rb for complete details, including pricing.

RB concepts in this lesson

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service.

Listed under Basic info, Concept, Featured | Tagged , ,

Clear out your screen immediately

Clear your window by closing all tabs at once

Lesson #157
Personal – Close All Tabs function

Every time you log out of RB, RB automatically closes all open tabs (RB functions). However, while working in RB, all functions you open stay open unless you specifically close them.

You can close individual tabs one at a time; or if you have too many tabs open, you can close them all at once with this function to clear your window while staying in RB.

(The opposite function of Close All Tabs in RB would be Startup Functions in User Preferences. With this feature you can specify up to 5 functions you want to open automatically every time you sign into RB. )

Listed under Function, Personal | Tagged , , , ,

Set up your RB the way you want

Before using RB9/RB Lite, you must set 2 personal defaults; but there are a lot of other options you can set to customize your RB experience

Lesson #156
Personal – User Preferences function

In addition to system-wide preferences that are the same for all users of your RB system, you can set your own user preferences that customize your experience in RB9/RB Lite.

When you log into RB for the first time, the User Preferences function will automatically appear because there are a couple of defaults that you must set before using the system. You can also customize what your RB windows and emails look like and set other defaults and preferences. Some preferences entered here override global system preferences but for your account only — they won’t affect other users. You can update your user preferences at any time.

My Profile

The first default you must set before using RB is how you want your name to appear in RB. You can update it at any time. Enter your first name, last name, and optionally your middle name or initial, then choose from the various combinations — such as last name first — how you want your name displayed inside RB.

You can also enter your default personal email address for sending emails from within RB. You can update it at any time.

General

The other default you must set before using RB is which business unit (BU) you plan to use most often when setting new jobs and billing jobs.

The other 2 general options are already set but you can change them. The default row count for results grids is 50 rows per page. You can choose from 20, 50, 75, or 100 rows to display in result grids. Higher row counts take longer loading results and require more scrolling; lower row counts will load faster but require more page flipping.

The default RB visual theme is dark text on light backgrounds, but you can choose to set your RB windows to reverse/light on dark mode. Be aware that when you change between these modes, your browser will refresh and you will lose any unsaved changes in other open RB tabs. So always save your data before switching modes.

New Job

Customize default settings for new jobs. Set your RB job clock to your time zone and choose whether you want RB’s job clock to change with daylight savings time (the default is to automatically change). Enter a default city and/or state where most of your jobs take place to speed up new job entries.

Report

The other default you must set before using RB is which BU you want to associate with your reports. It does not have to be the same as your default BU for jobs.

Notifications and Messages

If you would like to have messages you receive in RB’s internal message system also sent to your email address, you can turn on the option to have RB automatically forward carbon copy messages to your email. Hyperlinks in forwarded messages will not work; and reminder messages from RB are not forwarded.

Email Subscriptions

You can select which RB emails you subscribe to: newsletters, update notifications, and/or new idea notification emails.

Email

The default is to use the email address(es) that were set up in System Preferences. If you are not going to use the email address(es) the rest of the office is using, you can set up your own email address(es) and preferences.

When you do, the Email section lists any email addresses already entered with the main email address selected as the default sender address for RB email. You can:

  • Add email addresses.
  • Change the default sender address.
  • View, edit, delete, or test any listed email address.

You can export this list of email addresses as an Excel or CSV file to save, print, or use in other applications.

When entering a new email address, you can designate that it use either the standard email protocol or Microsoft 365 Office email protocol. If using the default email protocol, you must include the email server address and you can add security measures like SSL encryption of your email and SMTP authentication. If using a Microsoft 365 email account, you verify the account through RB before using it.

The rest of the email setup is the address, user name, and any Bcc email addresses to include in emails by default (if you like to keep copies your sent emails, enter your email address here). You can create a signature using formatted text, images, hyperlinks, and even tables that appends automatically to the end of your emails. Edit your signature in the default WYSIWYG word processor environment or as HTML markup.

Finally you can make this email address your primary email address for messages sent in RB. Depending on the function, you may have the option to override which email address you use when sending an individual email.

After setting up an email address, you can test it within this same function to see if you have the correct settings for sending emails within RB from this address. You can also view the sent email to see if you want to make any changes to the signature.

Whether you use the system-wide or your own personal email address(es) if you like to review your emails before sending them, turn on the “show mail composer” option. Then before you send an email from RB, the default will be to show you a preview of your email. In the preview you can check the email and its attachments — and update them if needed before sending the email. Whether you turn on this option or not, you can override the setting when sending individual emails.

Startup Functions

You can have RB9/RB Lite open specific functions when you log in. Select up to 5 functions to load by default when logging into RB. You can add and remove startup functions at any time as your needs change.

TL;DR: Set 2 required user preferences before using RB9/RB Lite, plus customize other options to work better for you.

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 >

Users: You and your staff who directly access RB.

Listed under Function, Lesson, Personal | Tagged , , , ,

Override data locks when needed

When you absolutely need to edit something that another user is currently editing, you can take this extreme measure

Lesson #155
Personal – Locked Data function

To prevent two or more people from working on the same data at the same time and overwriting each other’s work when they save, RB “locks” data when someone accesses it so that only that person can edit it until they save, cancel, or close the data window. You can use this function to release a lock to switch access from the current user to yourself.

When you attempt to access data that another user is already accessing, you can view the data but you cannot edit it. If you attempt to edit the locked data, RB displays a popup that tells you the data is currently being edited and identifies who is editing it.

If you can’t wait for the other RB user to finish — and you can’t contact them to save their work and “unlock” the data but you need immediate access — you can use this function to override a lock to access the data. We don’t recommend this except as an emergency procedure because it overrides anything the other user has entered but not saved yet.

This function displays all currently locked data showing who is using what data in which database and when they started using it. You can sort the list 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.

TL;DR: Only one person at a time can edit data in an RB function but you can use this function to switch access to yourself. 

RB concepts in this lesson

Users: You and your staff who directly access RB.

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