Tag Archives: RB Connect

Lesson #138

Manage your RB Connect online offices

If you have the RB Connect plug-in and maybe the RB Connect Mobile plug-in, this is the module you use to manage your RB Connect online & mobile offices. In this module, you can:

• Invite contacts and resources to use your RB Connect.
• Process and monitor the progress of transcript back orders received through RB Connect.
• Allow COD clients to pay for and download transcripts online.
• Fulfill online reward point requests.
• Create transcripts to be viewed in browsers and on mobile devices with hyperlinked exhibits and related files bundled together.
• Create indexed files contacts can search for specific words in their RB Connect repositories.
• Manage resources’ time-off requests made through RB Connect.
• Manage billing sheets turned in through RB Connect.
• See who is using your RB Connect and how often they access it.
• Manage users’ questions and problems and maintain a paper trail of their resolution.
• Customize the experience for contacts and resources by setting function preferences.

Connect functions by name

• Send Invitations – RB9-only function
• Transcript Ordered – RB9-only function
• Publish COD Invoice – RB9-only function
• Fulfill Points Redemption Orders – RB9-only function
• Transcript Packages – RB9-only function
• Create Full-Text Search – RB9-only function
• Approve Time-Off – RB9-only function
• Billing Sheets – RB9-only function
• Activity Log – RB9-only function
• Support Tickets – RB9-only function
• Connect Preferences – RB9-only function

TL;DR: Used for providing services through the RB Connect and RB Connect Mobile plug-ins.

RB concepts in this lesson

Award Points: Used to encourage clients to book with your agency by rewarding them with points for different services.

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

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

Lesson #29

Production – Create Master Word List function

A word list shows the words appearing in a transcript and the number of times they appear. A Master Word List compiles word lists from multiple transcripts belonging to a case into a single word list.

Use this function to compile word lists from multiple jobs on an on-going case into one master list to give to reporters for related jobs, instead of access to all of the previous transcripts, for their preparation.

You can:

• Select which transcripts to include.
• Edit the master list’s default file name.
• Choose which file the master word list will use for its properties (such as its title).
• Customize the document’s appearance including # of columns per page, border treatments, and font specifications.
• Set its file type.
• Designate who can access the master list online.
• Add a description to help users select the correct master word list in RB Connect.
• Download a copy for yourself or to share with others.

(You can also allow reporters to create their own word lists in RB Connect. Instead of full access to previous transcripts in an on-going case, they can only select transcripts, then RB Connect assembles the master word list for them.)

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

TL;DR: Compile word lists from multiple jobs on a case into one master list to give to reporters working on related 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 >

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

Concept #5

Prefill

When you prefill a job, case, or invoice, RB automatically adds related parties and/or service items — saving time and reducing the chance of incomplete invoices.

Without prefill, you have to enter parties and services one at a time every time. With prefill, you check first for previously entered choices — such as parties to a case or a client’s standing orders — and add some or all of them at once. Prefilling saves time and reduces the chance of overlooking something by automatically including related parties and/or services.

Standing orders

If your clients have certain services they always want — for example the original ASCII file and a condensed transcript — you can enter these standing orders in their profile. Both firms and contacts can have standing orders — which can be different if contacts at a firm have their own service requirements in addition to or in place of the firm’s requirements. You can add these standing orders when prefilling parties.

Prefill parties

Parties and their requested services can be entered at any time:

• In a case starting in the pre-trial discovery phase where you can prefill services from firms’ and contacts’ standing orders.
• To a job where you can prefill from a case.
• In Turn In when creating invoices where you can prefill from the job, case, and recent related turn-ins.
• If you have RB Connect, resources enter parties and services when turning in jobs online. You can give them the option to prefill parties from the job, case, or previous turn-ins.

The Recent Turn-ins option when creating invoices is useful because when parties are added to a case during pre-trial discovery, it’s usually so they can access the case calendar and repository files through RB Connect. They might not have any preferred services. However it’s highly likely that parties to a case that have ordered services on previous jobs in the case will order the same services for similar jobs on the same case, which would be included in Recent Turn-ins so you can easily add them to an invoice.

Prefill services

When you prefill parties in Turn In who have standing orders or previously ordered services, RB creates invoices that automatically include those service items. You can save time entering other service items in batches using Prefill Services.

Use Prefill Orders & Services to include service requests from:

• Billing Sets: Like a fast food combo meal, you can select a preset list of services commonly ordered together.
• Firm’s and/or contact’s preferred services: If you didn’t include them when prefilling parties, you can add them when prefilling services.
• Case’s preferred services: If the party to the case requested services for all jobs on a case.
• Job’s preferred services: If the party to the job requested services when scheduling the job.

These readymade lists might include services that were not ordered for the job being billed. That’s okay: After prefilling you can remove any services not ordered for this invoice.

TL;DR: Instead of entering parties and services one at a time every time, use Prefill to automatically add parties and/or services to a job, case, or invoice.

Related RB concepts

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

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, such as realtime, videoconferencing, or read & sign. More >

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.

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 function 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, not type 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 also “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.

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.

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 #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 includes:

• 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 job number, job date, job status, task status, turned in date, how many days old, estimated pages, estimated delivery date, 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.
• Begin to 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 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.

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:

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.