Tag Archives: Job Printout

View your job calendar as a report

Job Printout is a report with several uses, including as your future calendar and as a worksheet for assigning resources

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 RB 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
  • Show/hide Tasks
  • Show/hide Scheduling Notes
  • Show/hide Confirmation Notes
  • Show/hide 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 in the job, along with any resources already assigned and their contact information.
  • Information you need for assigning the right resource 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, 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. 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.

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

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Drag and drop to assign work quickly

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

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 attempting to assign 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/type/status/date/time/location, task times (if different from job times), assigned resource, client, witness, BU, and 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 >

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Calendar

Calendar is one of the largest functions in RB with many features to speed up scheduling while minimizing errors

Lesson #2
Most important module in RB?

Maybe the most important module in RB is the Calendar. It is where you schedule and manage jobs (e.g., depos), set up and manage cases, assign tasks to reporters and other resources, and manage assignments.

It is one of the largest modules with 16 functions, all related to your job calendar. What you can do with those functions includes:

  • Start a job with as little information as ordering client, date, and time.
  • Start a new job by copying an existing job and updating it.
  • Automatically import job information clients include in job requests made via RB Connect.
  • Include jobs in cases so they automatically share case parties and information.
  • Use the job wizard to set up multiple related jobs including their shared information at once.
  • Create linked jobs that share information but can be billed separately and canceled independently of each other.
  • Include complete information about cases and individual jobs, including parties, requirements, location, and LEDES e-billing information.
  • Grant parties access to jobs and related files online through RB Connect.
  • View jobs as a list, a monthly calendar, or week by week.
  • Search jobs by multiple criteria including job location, client, and witness.
  • Update, confirm, reschedule, and cancel jobs.
  • Notify clients when their requests for services are received.
  • Send clients their upcoming job calendars.
  • Email clients job confirmations as you set jobs or send a batch at a time.
  • View tasks as a list or a monthly calendar.
  • Assign, notify, and confirm reporters and other resources to job tasks.
  • Assign resources to job tasks before or after job confirmations.
  • Assign resources on the fly or print out your job calendar to make your list, then assign and notify resources in batches.
  • Include worksheets and other files in assignment notifications.
  • Send assignments via email, text, or printout.
  • Send email and text blasts to resources about last-minute jobs.
  • Update, confirm, and cancel job tasks.
  • Schedule conference rooms.
  • Log resources’ acknowledgements.
  • Audit new and canceled jobs for errors.
  • Analyze jobs by client to see how many jobs they are ordering.
  • Analyze jobs by resource so you can distribute work better.
  • View and update outstanding tasks as they progress.
  • Give resources To-Do lists.
  • Initiate a job’s turn-in.
  • Award redeemable points to contacts.
  • Upload case-, job-, and task-level files, such as notices, to the repository.
  • Maintain log of job milestones and client interactions.
  • Make hard copies of your future calendar.
  • Update and track resource’s time off.

Calendar functions by name

Calendar functions are where you will probably first see how RB’s automated processes save time and reduce errors:

  • Information entered anywhere in the system whether by your staff entering job information in RB, a client requesting a depo through RB Connect or RB Connect Mobile, or a reporter acknowledging a job online  automatically flows to where it’s needed. No re-keying.
  • Information and processes are easier to access than in previous versions. For example, instead of remembering shortcut keystrokes or dealing with drop-down menus, there is a New Job button in Calendar. In addition, the New Job window opens with a fly-out panel for selecting the Ordering Firm. Not a single click required to get to the first thing you will probably know when contacted about a job. Enter a few keystrokes to find the firm or add a new firm right there in the job.
  • Enter a job location’s zip code, and RB will automatically populate the city and state fields correctly.
  • RB prompts you to do certain tasks, like send notifications after scheduling a job, so nothing gets overlooked. And if you prefer, it also offers batch options for things like notifications, so you can do a day’s worth at once.
  • RB automatically enters log entries for certain activities to help you maintain a paper trail, so you know who did what when in RB9. Sometimes, it includes other information too, such as when you send a job confirmation email, RB makes an entry that includes the receiver’s email address.

TL;DR: If you schedule depos or other services, you can maintain complete details about everything in your RB calendar easily and error-free.

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 >

Linked Jobs: Jobs, such as video done by a third party of a depo, that are listed separately on the calendar and billed separately, but because they are tied together, you will be notified when one is canceled that there is a linked job, so you can cancel that job too and notify the resource.

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 one-touch job acknowledgements, online turn-in, and downloadable pay statements for resources.

RB Connect Mobile: Clients and resources can access your RB Connect on their smart phones and tablets in an interface optimized for mobile devices.

Repository: RB has 9 repositories where you store files for safekeeping and quick retrieval. When you store files in a case, they are in R9’s Case Repository; when you store files in a job, they are in RB’s Job Repository; etc.

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.

Tasks: Service requested with a job, such as reporting, interpreting, or video.

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