Tag Archives: RB Lite

Lesson #122

Setup – Invoice Headers function

Invoices in RB include a short descriptive title called the invoice header. Standard invoice headers are automatically generated based on the service items you select for each witness listed on an invoice. If the standard headers aren’t accurate enough to cover your billing requirements, you can create your own invoice headers.

You can enter your own headers on the fly as you generate invoices. Or if you think you will be reusing the same headers, set them up in the Invoice Headers function. Then you can quickly select the correct header for a witness from a drop-down when generating invoices, saving time and reducing errors.

Create & organize headers

Create as many invoice headers as you need to cover all of your business’s different billing circumstances. If you have multiple custom headers, organize them into Header Groups. Header Groups are categories of invoice headers, and are set up in Lists. By organizing your custom headers into header groups, you will save time locating one when billing.

Creating new headers is easy. They only require the header content and header group. The header group defaults to the system default (selected in Lists), so you might only need to enter the content.

If you are creating multiple headers in one sitting, use the Save & New option to stay in the new header window, eliminating extra clicks to get back into the window. It will also keep the same header group you used in the last invoice header saved rather than resetting to the default, so that could also save you time.

You can add, edit or delete invoice headers at any time. Headers are stored in the Invoice Header function, and the default lists all of your stored headers by Invoice Header Group. You can also view the list for a single group or multiple selected groups. Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

You can update the header content and/or header group for any custom invoice header. Or delete it if you don’t need it anymore.

Using custom invoice headers

After entering billing information to invoices in Turn In is when you would add custom invoice headers. You can apply the same custom header to multiple invoices at once. And use the Save and New feature to apply different invoice headers to different invoices without leaving the Set Invoice Headers panel in Turn In. Custom headers are listed in the drop-down by their invoice group, so you can quickly find the correct header by looking within its group only.

TL;DR: If RB’s default invoice headers are not enough, create and save your own custom headers to apply during Turn In.

RB concepts in this lesson

Header Group: Parent structure that contains related invoice headers as its children.

Lesson #121

Setup – Pay Dates function

When setting up your RB system and then at the beginning of each year, set up the year’s pay dates and their corresponding cutoff dates (last date for invoices to be included in pay) for each time period you use to pay resources (e.g., monthly, weekly, etc.). By setting up pay dates in advance, you can reduce the number of payroll errors caused by entering the wrong date when running payroll.

View existing pay dates

The Pay Dates function defaults to all pay dates entered this year. Each pay date listing shows the its date, Pay Group (different time periods you use to pay resources, e.g., monthly, weekly, etc.), cut-off date, and the date the payroll was closed.You can either add dates to the current year or change the year, if you want to enter next year’s pay dates for example.

When viewing the list of pay dates, 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.

Pay dates & cutoff dates

When you enter a new pay date, you also enter the last date for invoices to be included in pay, i.e., the cutoff date. RB calculates resource payment cutoff dates using invoice dates by default. But you can also use the date invoices are paid as the cutoff date for specific resources or all resources paid for jobs tied to one or more of your company’s business units (BUs). This preference is set in individual resource listings (under Original Term and Copy Term) and your BU listings.

You further define pay dates by selecting which Pay Group you are paying and which BUs’ jobs are included. You can include a description of the pay date listing and other notes.

Designate responsible business unit

If you have multiple BUs, you can also designate which BU will be responsible for issuing 1099s for this pay date. Instead of having to create pay date listings for each of your BUs, you can include multiple BUs in one pay date listing, and designate one BU to be responsible for issuing all related 1099s. It doesn’t have to be the BU tied to the jobs being paid for, and the default is your main office.

You can have multiple pay date listings on the same calendar date, or if every Pay Group will have the same cutoff date and BU(s), you can set one pay date for all groups.

Correcting errors

If you made a mistake setting up a pay date, you can delete it if payroll for that date has not been closed yet. Otherwise, you can make a note in the pay date’s Remarks field for future reference.

TL;DR: Set up pay dates for different pay periods (and different business units in your company, if desired).

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.

Cutoff Date: Last date for invoices to be included in a pay date. Default is the date of the invoice, but you can use the date invoices were paid for a single resource or all resources tied to a business unit/multiple BUs in your company.

Pay Groups: Categories of time periods your company uses to pay resources, e.g., Monthly, Weekly, On Demand. Group resources according to their pay period (frequency) to reduce errors when running payroll.

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

Lesson #120

Setup – Billing Sets function

Group service items into sets to speed up billable services selection because you only have to choose the set, not each of the items individually.

A Billing Set is a predetermined group of service items that are typically billed together. By configuring these sets, you can add service items en masse to an invoice to streamline the billing process. This eliminates the need to add service items one-by-one, as well as reduces the possibility of overlooking any service items when billing.

There is no limit to the number of service items you can add to a set, and it’s not a requirement to bill for each service item in a set. The purpose of a Billing Set is to select multiple service items to add at once to an invoice from a concise selection pool, rather than having to scroll through your entire service item list to pick each one individually.

Create as many sets as you need

Set up multiple Billing Sets to further streamline your billing process because you can group service items based on what the job is asking for, and you won’t have to deal with service items you may not need. For example, you can make a Billing Set for standard court reporting jobs, one for video depositions, and another one for video conferences. This way, you can pull up the set that’s specifically tailored to your job type and not have to deal with any unnecessary service items.

Other common Billing Sets you might want would be a list of services commonly included when clients order an O&1 package, and another set for copy clients. You can have as many Billing Sets as you like and choose one to be the default option when generating invoices. You can include descriptions and other notes in your Billing Sets to help you keep them organized.

Add all related services to a set

You can add any of your service items to a Billing Set and set a default number of units for each service item. Put all of the possible service items that could apply to a particular set in the set because it is easier to uncheck the ones you don’t need for a specific order so they are not added to the invoice at that time, than it is to not have enough service items in the Billing Set and have to add service items to an order one at a time. Even adding just one or two service items to an invoice individually will slow you down.

For example, include all of your delivery options in your O&1 Billing Set. Then simply uncheck the ones you won’t be using for a particular order when generating its invoice.

Using Billing Sets at Turn In

When adding services to invoices in Turn In, use the Prefill Service option to access your Billing Sets. It will also show any of the contact’s/firm’s Preferred Services, so you can select all the ordered services and update the number of units ordered for each service in one screen. Once you have added billable services to an invoice, you can edit each service item as needed and arrange their order of appearance on the invoice.

If you have RB Connect, you can give your resources access to any of your Billing Sets so they can also save time during Turn In by adding multiple service items at a time, instead of one by one.

Manage sets

You can update any information in a Billing Set at any time or delete it if you don’t need it. The default view of Billing Sets lists all of your sets and shows which is the default and which ones are accessible to your resources through RB Connect. If your list is too long to easily find a particular set, 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) or search for the Billing Set by name.

You can export your Billing Set list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications  You can also sort and export an individual Billing Set’s list of service items.

TL;DR: Instead of adding service items one at a time to invoices, set up groups of related services so you can add multiple items at once.

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.

Firm: Company you do business with. They schedule depositions with you, e.g., a law firm, or they are a third party that pays you, e.g., an insurance company.

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.

Lesson #119

Setup – Pay Rates function

Pay Rates are the amounts you pay resources for services. These rates are organized into tables, so you can easily pay different resources different amounts for the same services by applying different pay rate tables instead of entering pay amounts manually.

Before using pay rate tables, group them for easier searching. By organizing pay rate tables into groups of similar tables, you can search through a subset of your pay rate tables instead of the whole long list of tables each time you invoice a client. These groups are called Pay Rate Groups. Set up the groups for different categories of resources first, then your pay rate tables.

Set up Pay Rate Groups first

Similar to Billing Rate Groups, it is important to set up Pay Rate Groups prior to creating any pay rate tables, otherwise you will encounter organization issues. Pay Rate Groups categorize resources, such as by experience levels, percentage, or affiliates, and will allow you to create the umbrella structure to categorize your pay rates under. Pay Rate Groups are set up in the Lists function.

For each Pay Rate Group, set up as many pay rate tables as you need.

Add as many pay rates as you need

After setting up Pay Rate Groups, use this function to enter your pay rate tables in the appropriate group. Then, when billing, you only have to scroll through the rate tables in one of these smaller groups, instead of your entire list of rate tables.

You can set up pay rate tables in 2 ways: From scratch or from an existing table. Copying and updating an existing table is a quicker way to create a new table because the existing table’s rates and details are duplicated in the new table for you to update.

Pay Rates contain the earning amounts for all of your service items. Agencies often have multiple pay rates set up to accommodate specific needs. Pay rates can be based on negotiations with resources, networking rates with other agencies, rates based on the difficulty of jobs, etc.

Every pay rate table you create in RB will automatically inherit all service items set up in the Service Item Master. Before setting up your pay rate tables, complete the Service Item Master setup first. The Service Item Master is where all of the service items are stored, along with their default pay rates and other preliminary settings, which are automatically inherited by any new pay rate table, when created from scratch.

For each pay rate table, you must name it and assign it to a Pay Rate Group. You designate a default Pay Rate Group in the Lists function, but you can select a different group here if the new pay rate table should be in a different category.

Give each table a clearly specific name, something you will recognize and know what it pertains to. The name is what you are going to see when you are selecting a rate:

• As your default pay rate for a specific resource.
• During the Turn In/Billing process for a specific invoice.

So the name is important because it will help you and your billing staff decide when to use this pay rate table.

When you set up a new pay rate table, either from scratch or copied from another table, all of the service items will appear in the table. You can customize the pay rate and other pay information for any of the service items. If there are service items that the resource should not get paid for, simply set the pay rate to $0.

In addition to each service item’s pay rate, you can also customize:

• The minimum amount you pay resources for this item.
• Whether you pay your resources for the service item using a flat rate ($) scale or percentage (%).
•  If the pay amount for this service item will have the Expedite (Rush) amount added to it.

Set up rush rates before billing & pay rate tables

If you set up your Rush Type Master before setting up individual billing and pay rate tables, your default rush rates from this master template will automatically fill in when you create an individual rate table. Setting up rush rates as an add-on to billing and pay rates reduces the number of billing and pay rate tables you need to have.

You can override rush defaults in individual rate tables, if needed, such as the Rush Type’s name, whether you pay it using a flat rate ($) scale or percentage (%), and the amount. The amount will be in addition to the base pay rate of the transcript. You can also include any relevant notes or comments in a pay rate table.

Managing pay rate tables

You can update any information in a pay rate table at any time, except its Pay Rate Group. You can delete any pay rate table that hasn’t been used. If you can’t delete a table that you no longer use, you can de-activate it so it does not appear in lists. And you can update rates in multiple pay rate tables at once in the Service Item Master.

To find a pay rate table to copy, update, delete, or de-activate, you can search your entire set of pay rate tables, or narrow your search to a specific Pay Rate Group and/or pay rate table name. You can also choose to search all tables or only active tables. RB lists the results by Pay Rate Group, and includes each table’s name and its Active status.

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 also export the service item and rush type lists in each pay rate table.

Using pay rates

You can include default pay rates and options in your billing rate tables, then set up pay rate tables for all of your other pay rate situations, such as for resources who earn higher amounts for the same jobs. The pay rates in your billing rate tables will be automatically applied to invoices unless you also designate a pay rate table for an invoice, which will then supersede your default pay rate settings.

If a resource is always paid at the same pay rate for all the jobs they take, select that pay rate table in their individual entity listing. Setting the default pay rate for a resource will make it so that RB will generate that resource’s pay for every job using the same rate. The default pay rate can be overridden at the time of billing.

When finalizing invoices, you apply pay rates after you apply billing rates. If you have default pay rates included in your billing rates, you might not have to apply the separate pay rate tables if the pay rates in your billing rates are accurate for the job being billed.

When generating invoices for multiple parties on a single job, you can apply pay rates individually or in batches to the invoices.

If you apply the wrong pay rate on an invoice, you can correct the resource’s pay using the Override Resource Pay function if you haven’t paid the resource yet.

If you made a mistake setting up pay rate tables or there is a change in pay rates, you can update rates and/or options in multiple pay rate tables at once in the Service Item Master.

TL;DR: Easily pay different resources different amounts for the same services by assigning them to different pay rate tables. Apply the appropriate pay rate tables to invoices. You can override specific pay rates in any invoice.

RB concepts in this lesson

Billing Rate Groups: Umbrella structures aimed at categorizing your billing rates. Instead of one long list of billing rates, Billing Rate Groups create a series of shorter lists to search through when invoicing clients.

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

Pay Rate Groups: Umbrella structures aimed at categorizing the rates you pay resources, such as by experience levels, percentage paid on services, or affiliates. Instead of one long list of pay rates, Pay Rate Groups create a series of shorter lists to search through when invoicing clients.

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

Lesson #118

Setup – Billing Rates function

Billing rates are the amounts you charge for services. These rates are organized into tables, so you can charge different clients different amounts for the same service items by applying different billing rate tables instead of having to enter rates each time you bill someone. You might charge different billing rates for the same service items based on negotiations with clients, networking rates with other agencies, or rates requested by an insurance company. Your multiple billing rate tables can contain the prices for all of your service items, so you can easily apply the correct prices when invoicing specific firms by selecting the appropriate table.

Set up Billing Rate Groups first

Before you start creating billing rate tables, set up Billing Rate Groups in the Lists function. Billing Rate Groups are groups of similar tables, so when billing you can search through a subset of your billing rate tables instead of the whole long list of tables each time you invoice a client. Set up basic categories (groups), such as Standard, Preferred, and for specific cases. You can also designate which Billing Rate Group is your default group that will appear when setting up new billing rate tables, new firms, new contacts, etc.

After setting up groups, use the Billing Rates function to add your billing rate tables within the groups. You can set up as many billing rate tables as you need in each group.

Add as many billing rates as you need

You can set up billing rate tables in 2 ways: From scratch or from an existing table. Copying and updating an existing table is a quicker way to create a new table because the existing table’s rates and details are duplicated in the new table for you to update.

Another way to save time is to set default billing/pay rates and options for service items in the Service Item Master, then change them for specific situations by creating different rate tables with custom rates for the service items.  Every billing rate table you create in RB will automatically inherit all service items set up in the Service Item Master, including all default rates and options for each item as well. So if you set up defaults in the Service Item Master, then you only have to update them as needed in individual rate tables.

Give each billing rate table you create a clearly specific name so your billing staff can easily understand when it should be used. Some examples would be Standard Rates, Preferred Rates, Medical-Technical, and Rates for ABC Law Firm. You can further segment your market by state and/or city if you charge different rates by location.

Add as many billing rates as you need

In each billing rate table, you can customize the billing rate for each item. If there are service items that do not pertain to this billing rate, leave their billing rate at $0 and RB won’t bill for them when this billing rate table is used.

In addition to each service item’s billing rate, you can also customize:

• The minimum invoice amount for the service item.
• The pay rate for resources, the minimum amount you pay resources for this item, and whether you pay your resources for the service item using a flat rate ($) scale or percentage (%). If you have service items that resources do not get paid on, leave them set at $0, and RB will not calculate pay for them. (You do not have to include pay rate information in your billing rate tables. You can use the Pay Rates function to set up separate pay rate tables, which you can select when billing.)
•  If the billing amount and pay amount for this service item will have the Expedite (Rush) amount added to it.
• Whether the item is court taxable and/or sales taxable.
• If you offer discounts on this particular service item. The percentage of discount that a client will receive on the service item is entered in their Firms setup.
• If you use the Reward Points System, and the service item should be included in the revenue calculation to accumulate points.
• If you pay commissions on the service item to resources that bring in clients (Client Of) and/or account managers (Sales Reps).
• If you want the service item name and billing amount to appear on invoices. (If you set a firm to always print details on invoices in their Firm setup, then their invoices will be fully itemized, displaying all service items and billing amounts overriding whatever is specified here.)
• If you have the RB Connect plug-in, you can allow clients to request the service item when submitting an online job request and/or allow resources to select this service item during turn-in.
• If the service item needs your production department’s involvement, you can have it appear on Production Sheets, which show them on a job-by-job basis, who’s ordering and what they’re ordering that needs to be produced.
• LEDES codes required by clients for e-billing.

In addition to customizing the billing rates, you can also make adjustments to each Rush Type in the table if needed. All Rush Types are automatically inherited from the Rush Type Master. You can also include any relevant notes or comments in a rate table.

Manage billing rates

You can update any information in a billing rate table at any time, except its Billing Rate Group. You can delete any billing rate table that hasn’t been used. If you can’t delete a table, you can de-activate it so it does not appear in lists. And you can update rates in multiple billing rate tables at once in the Service Item Master.

To find a billing rate table to copy, update, delete, or de-activate, you can search your entire set of billing rate tables, or narrow your search to a specific Billing Rate Group, state, city, and/or billing rate table name. You can also choose to search all tables or only active tables. RB lists the results by Billing Rate Group, and includes each table’s name, its state and/or city (if applicable), and its Active status.

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 your search results as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications. You can also sort and export the service item and rush type lists in each billing rate table.

Attach billing rates to entities

After setting up Billing Rate Groups and billing rate tables, attach entities to the rate tables. You connect billing rates to firms, contacts, and parties to a case/job. You can do this when you set them up or at any time afterwards. Contacts inherit billing rate tables from their firms, but you can select different tables for contacts from their firm’s. Parties will default to the billing rate tables in their contact profile. You can override the default when adding parties to cases/jobs or when turning in jobs.

Apply billing rates

When creating an invoice in Turn In, RB will select the billing rate table connected to the designated Bill To contact. You can select a different rate table for this invoice, and you can override any charge on individual invoices.

TL;DR: Set up multiple billing rate tables so you can automatically charge different amounts to different clients for the same service items based on prices you negotiate with clients.

RB concepts in this lesson

Billing Rate Groups: Umbrella structures aimed at categorizing your billing rates. Instead of one long list of billing rates, Billing Rate Groups create a series of shorter lists to search through.

Bill To Contact: The contact responsible for paying the invoice for a job.

Client Of: Resource that receives a commission for jobs their clients scheduled or that are part of a case the resource was designated as the Client Of resource. You can also give reporters right of first refusal on their clients/cases’ jobs by displaying unassigned jobs from their clients/cases in Resource-side online calendars in RB Connect.

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with, such as attorneys.

Firm: Company you do business with. They schedule depositions with you, e.g., a law firm, or they are a third party that pays you, e.g., an insurance company.

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 >

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

Lesson #117

Setup – Rush Type Master function

If you charge clients rush fees for expedited services, and/or pay resources more for expedited work, set up your rush fees in RB’s Rush Type Master. Do this before setting up billing rate tables and instead of setting up billing rate tables for rush charge choices. All of the rush types you create will automatically be inherited by the billing and pay rates you create, reducing the total number of rate tables you need to create.

Use the Rush Type Master to set increases of your base rates for different turnaround times. Store all of your expedite (rush) delivery types and set their default billing and pay information in the Rush Type Master. Rush types increase your base billing and pay rates by a flat fee or a percentage. Rush types and amounts for billing clients can be different from those for paying resources in the same rush table.

Rate tables inherit default rush rates

When creating billing and pay rate tables later, all of your rush rates will automatically fill in the tables. You can override your rush defaults in individual rate tables to accommodate any special pricing or pay arrangements that should be included in that particular table.

RB comes with a default list of rush charge types that you can edit, delete, merge, de-activate, and add new. The default view of the Rush Type Master lists all of your active rush types and displays all of their information, such as if they are by percentage or flat rate, the amount, and how they appear on invoices, so you do not have to drill down to see any details.

You can narrow down the list to a single rush type or group of types that are similarly named. You can also view all rush rates, including those you have de-activated but not deleted or merged. (Deactivated rush rates do not appear as a choice when billing or in the default view of the list here.)

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.

Information included in rush rates

There are 3 required fields in the Rush Type Master:

• Rush Type is the name your biller will see when they are choosing which expedite they want to use for an invoice.
• Bill Rush Name is the description your clients will see on their invoices when an expedite is billed.
• Pay Rush Name is the description your resources will see on their detailed pay statements when payroll is run.

All of these names can be the same or different, but it’s recommended to keep them the same for consistency and ease of use purposes.

For each rush type, you also designate flat rate or percentage for how you calculate rush charges on invoices and pay statements. You can have mixed calculation methods in the same rush type.

Along with the calculation method is the default amount the rush adds to the base billing/pay rate of the transcript (which can be zero if it varies for each billing/pay rate). For example, if you bill using a flat rate, do not include the total cost of the transcript + rush per page in the rush type, just include the expedite portion. When billing, RB calculates the rush charge amount by adding the expedite amount to the O&1 base rate.

You can also set preferences for how the rush charge will appear on invoices.

TL;DR: Reduce the number of billing and pay rate tables you need, plus save time when creating them by setting up a list of expedite/rush charges first. Rush charges can be by % or flat rate and include other default information that can be overridden in individual rate tables.

RB concepts in this lesson

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

Lesson #116

Setup – Service Item Master function

Regular charges that you bill to your clients are called service items in RB. Service items are listed on your invoices to provide itemized details for your clients and third-party payers. In-house they provide information to help you analyze your revenue streams.

You store and organize all the service items you bill to clients in the Service Item Master. Then during Turn In you select services from lists instead of entering items by hand. If you have RB Connect your clients and resources also select services from lists, eliminating longhand requests from clients and an assortment of descriptions in turned-in jobs. Instead service item descriptions are consistent throughout your system.

Service Item Master set-up

There are 9 main categories in the Service Items Master List, called Service Groups, which represent the most commonly used billable items for court reporters. These main categories are preset by the system and cannot be modified by the user.

Within these main groups are subgroups that further organize your services so you do not have to scroll through your entire list of billable items to find a service to add to an invoice.  You can add/edit/remove subgroups that organize your miscellaneous services in the Service Item Subgroups function. After setting up your subgroups enter your company’s billable services with their details into these subgroups in the Service Item Master. You will use these items for setting billing rates.

Customize the defaults

The Service Item Master comes with a set of default service items already organized into subgroups. You can:

• Add/edit/merge/delete/de-activate service items in Misc. Charge subgroups.
• Edit the name of service items in the Attendance Service Group.
• Set default billing and pay information for all individual service items.
• If you have clients who require that invoices be submitted electronically, you can enter LEDES codes in your service items.

Once you have set up your service items with their defaults, you can set up multiple billing rate and pay rate tables with custom rates for service items to cover different invoicing and resource pay scenarios. The options that you set in each service item copy to the billing and pay rates tables you create, saving time because you only have to update the defaults that need changing.

At any time, you can update service item rates and options. The default view in the Service Item Master lists all active service items within their service groups and subgroups to make it easy to locate an item. You can restrict the view to a single service group, a single subgroup, or service item name. You can also view all items, not only active items, that fit your search criteria.

You can:

• Add new service items
• Delete service items that are not needed.
• Merge service items into other service items.
• If you do not want to delete or merge an item you can de-activate it. (Deactivated service items do not appear as a choice when billing.)
• If you have multiple billing or pay rate tables that need the same rate or option changed (including LEDES codes), you can update them all at once within Service Item Master with the Mass Update feature.

Information you can include in each service item:

• Service item Subgroup
• Service item name (the only required field). The name is important because it is how the service will appear in Turn-In, on invoices, and in RB Connect.
• Unit type, such as pages, miles, or hours. RB prints the unit type on detailed invoices next to the number of units so your clients have a better idea of what they are being billed for. You can set up your own unit types in Lists.
• Account number of the related revenue account. You can customize your accounts in Chart of Accounts.
• Whether the item is active (will appear as an option when billing) or not
• Default billing rate (amount you charge per unit for the service item) and minimum billing amount, if applicable
• Whether you pay resources a flat amount ($) or a percentage of what’s billed (%) for this service item
• Default pay rate (amount/percentage you pay per unit) and minimum pay amount, if applicable
• If the billing rate or pay rate increases when an order containing this service item is expedited
• If the service item is a taxable court cost or sales taxable
• If the service item is discountable (if you offer a negotiated discount on a firms’ invoices, what’s discountable is specified at the service item level, and the discount percentage the client will receive is entered in their Firms setup.)
• If you award clients points for ordering services, and the service item should be included in the revenue calculation to accumulate points
• If you have sales representatives or pay incentive commissions to resources who bring in their own clients, and the service item should be included in the calculation of commissions
• If you want to include the service item name and/or amount when an invoice is printed with “no details”
• If you want to make the service item available for clients to request when they are scheduling online, or for resources to select when they are turning in jobs online using RB Connect
• If you want to include the service item on production sheets
• If you want RB to calculate charges for this service item based on the number of pages in the transcript and pages to deduct like Original/Copy service items do
• UTBMS codes (if you want invoices to be LEDES compliant). If an insurance company requires different codes than the standard, you can update their billing rate tables only without modifying the service item master list.

The list of service items in the Service Item Master displays all of this information for each item listed, so you can see it upfront. You do not need to go into individual service items unless you want to edit/delete/merge/mass update rate tables. 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: Set up service items, including default billing and pay info. Group related service items so you can locate them quickly in their subgroups when billing, instead of scrolling through a long, undifferentiated list of all miscellaneous service items. If you have RB Connect, your clients and resources will be able to select service items the same way.

RB concepts in this lesson

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

Firm: Companies you do business with.

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

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

Lesson #115

Setup – Service Item Subgroups function

Any billable services that you include on invoices must be set up as Service Items in RB. You could have over a hundred service items to cover all the types of billable services you provide. To make it easier to add billable services to invoices, they are broken down into 9 basic service groups: Original, Copy w/ Original, Copy, Additional Copy, Rush, Exhibit, Mileage, Attendance, and Misc. Charge.

However since you can still have potentially a hundred or more miscellaneous charges to bill, RB breaks down service groups further into Service Item Subgroups. This way, you can locate individual service items quickly when billing based on their subgroup instead of searching through a long uncategorized list of service items.

RB includes some default subgroups and you can add/edit/delete subgroups in the Misc. Charge group to better fit your company. Since the idea with subgroups is to make billing easier by limiting the amount of time it takes to find an individual service item, take some time upfront to consider what would be logical groupings of your billable services and make Service Item Subgroups for each of those categories.

An example of a Service Item Subgroup would be Exhibits. You have multiple items for exhibit billing: Color Copies, B&W Exhibits, Bates Stamping, etc., that could all be categorized as Exhibits.

You can update your subgroups at any time but you cannot delete any subgroups containing service items that you have already used on invoices.

Create your own subgroups

The default view in Service Item Subgroups is to list all subgroups, but you can narrow the view to the Misc. Charge Service Group to make it easier to see if you need to add a subgroup or update one in this group by editing its name to better fit your needs. (You can view but you cannot add subgroups to or edit the other Service Groups.)

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). It might be helpful when setting up subgroups to export the list of existing subgroups to share with others, work with in other applications, or print out.

Creating new subgroups is easy. All you do is click New, give the subgroup a name, and save. Your new subgroup will automatically be added to the Misc. Charge Service Group for you to use in other functions. Some common subgroups are Production, Exhibits, Delivery, Video, and Video Conference.

After setting up a subgroup you can then enter its related service items using the Service Item Master.

Using subgroups

Service Item Subgroups come into play when adding a client’s requested services to either a job or case party, or when adding service items to an invoice during Turn In. You can also use them to narrow the results of reports such as the Additional Resource Production Report or Misc. Sales report and to see subtotal breakdowns in interactive reports such as Client Analysis.

TL;DR: To make finding a particular service item quicker set up Service Item Subgroups, then arrange your company’s billable services into these subgroups.

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

Service Groups: The most commonly used billable items for court reporters such as Original or Copy. These main categories are preset by the system and cannot be modified by the user. The catch-all Misc. Charge Service Group is where you enter billable service items that are not a separate Service Group.

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

Lesson #114

Setup – Chart of Accounts function

Although RB is not a general accounting system, it uses account numbers to keep track of sales, cash receipts, accounts receivable, payables, and other transactions in a basic double-entry bookkeeping system. You can set up RB’s accounts to match your general ledger or accounting software.

For example, if you use QuickBooks, you can use QuickBooks Integrator to import your RB data directly into your QuickBooks. But before you can import RB invoices and payments into QuickBooks, you must set up your RB business units’ accounts to match your QuickBooks setup.

If RB’s default set of accounts is not accurate to your in-house setup, you can add, edit, and delete accounts to match RB9 to your general ledger or accounting software.

Set up account types first

The first step in matching RB to your in-house setup would be to customize your account types in the Lists function. Basic accounting rules group all finance-related things into 5 fundamental types of accounts: Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, and Expenses. RB includes these and other account types, which you can edit/delete and add your own. Entries here appear in the Account Type drop-down in individual accounts in the Chart of Accounts function.

Set up your Chart of Accounts

Each account in Chart of Accounts is tied to an Account Type, and includes an account name and reference number (account number). RB uses these accounts for different financial activities in your company’s business units.

The default view in Chart of Accounts shows all accounts in the system in numerical order by account number. It also includes the account names, their account types, and whether the account is active or not. You can restrict the view to a single account type or multiple account types.

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). You can export your Chart of Accounts as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

You can keep the default accounts set up by RB or customize the default Chart of Accounts by adding, editing, and deleting accounts. If an account is not used but you don’t want to delete it, you can make it inactive so it will not appear as a choice in account lists elsewhere in RB.

If you are going to process credit card fees in RB, you must set up two accounts in Chart of Accounts so RB will separate out those fees:

1. An Expense-type account for the fees
2. An Other Current Assets-type account for undeposited processing fee funds

Then you can assign those accounts to handle those fees in your business units.

Designate accounts to use

After you have set up your accounts, you designate which ones to use for different financial activities. Where you use accounts in RB:

• When setting up business units, you can leave the default accounts set up by RB or select which accounts handle which types of transactions for each of your company’s business units.
• When setting up billable services (called service items in RB), you select an account to associate with each service item.

TL;DR: Use RB’s default accounts as is, or customize the Chart of Accounts to match your in-house system or QuickBooks.

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.

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

Lesson #113

Setup – Users and Groups function

You can run RB as a single user, but if you have other in-house personnel who need access to your RB, set them up as users. Then give them user names and passwords to access RB, and store work-related and personal information about them. Group them according to their access levels and job functions, so they can perform their jobs and receive internal messages, but not access areas of RB you do not want them to use. 

Groups give users defined access

Users and Groups is the tool you use to manage RB users, individually and grouped according to permissions, rights, and notifications. There are 2 default groups in RB: Administrators, which grants group members full access to all areas of RB, and Users, which is the basic group every RB user is part of and grants them limited access to only essential areas of RB.

The initial user of your RB system is designated as an administrator so they can enter other users and grant them permissions. They can add other users to the Administrators group, and anyone who is an administrator in RB can perform the same functions. There is no limit to how many administrators your system can have.

Security Groups

Administrators can set up Security Groups in addition to the default groups, which can have different access to RB functions. For example, you could set up a Calendar group, in which you give access to all Calendar functions in RB and maybe some select functions in other modules, such as the repository and entities.

When setting up a new group, the only required information is the Group Name. Other information you can add to a group is a group description, group members (RB users), and security permissions/function access.

There are 2 levels to security permissions: Simple access, meaning users in the group can search and view information; and more comprehensive access, meaning they can also edit and delete information. Most functions offer comprehensive access only, but in some functions you can limit access to read only. Functions that offer both access levels are generally more critical areas, such as cases, jobs, and invoices, which you might want to allow some users to view, but not change.

In addition to setting up Security Groups, administrators can:

• Add or delete users from each group (one user, several, or all users at once).
• Change which functions are accessible in a group (except the Administrators group).
• Delete groups (except the Administrators and Users groups).

Users can be members of more than one group, so you do not have to have a lot of groups to cover every option. If someone’s responsibilities overlap different areas, such as someone who oversees both calendaring and billing, administrators can give that person access to both areas through membership in multiple Security Groups.

While members of the Administrators group have all of the capabilities described by default, they can also grant members of other Security Groups the same capabilities if desired.

Message Groups

In addition to Security Groups, RB also has Message Groups, which allow you to send a message to all the members of a group simultaneously. Members of a Message Group can also send messages to the group. There are no required Message Groups, nor are users required to be a member of any Message Group to use RB.

Similarly to Security Groups, the only requirement when setting up a Message Group is a group name. Administrators can also add a group name, and add or delete members. Administrators can edit or delete existing Message Groups.

With either group, 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).

Adding users

When you open the Users and Groups function, it lists all of the users who are already entered into your RB system, along with their user name, email address, whether they are an active user, and when they last logged into the system. 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). You can also export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

Administrators can add users to RB at any time. When entering a new user, the only required information is their full name, RB login name, and password. When saving a new user, RB will prompt you to tie them to your company’s business units (BUs). You can tie them to one or more of your company’s BUs.

If you are using email addresses as user login names, you will be required to enter the user’s email address instead of a login name. We recommend this option because everyone knows their email address, so it is easier for them to remember than a unique user name for their RB user ID. The option to use email addresses for RB login is a general system preference.

General information

In addition to required information, you can store users’ contact information, such as their work email address, and other work related information, including their work phone number, start date/termination date, title and department (which you choose from lists you customized in the Lists function), the user’s supervisor, and any information you want to include that is not covered elsewhere in the user’s listing.

In addition to storing info about the user, this is also where administrators can:

• Reset the user’s password for them if they forgot their password and don’t want to change it themselves (administrators do not have a way to retrieve passwords).
• Let the user back into RB if they got locked out for making too many incorrect attempts to log in (using wrong user name and/or password). Administrators set how many tries users get to log in correctly before being locked out in System Preferences.
• Deactivate the user if they no longer work for the company or otherwise don’t need to be assigned or contacted anymore. Deactivated users can no longer log into RB, and their names will not appear in the system by default.
• Delete a user if they never did anything in the system. RB tracks and logs user interactions, so if someone has added or updated information in RB, they cannot be deleted from the system because their interactions are part of your audit trail.

Personal info

Personal information about a user includes their home address, date of birth, and personal phone numbers. When entering the user’s street address or P.O. box number, skip the other fields and enter the zip code. RB will fill in the city, state, and country for you. After entering the user’s address, you can view maps and directions to it in RB.

After saving a new user, 2 other panes appear in their listing: Groups and Business Units. Groups will have the default Users group listed, and Business Units will list any BUs you tied to the user. You can add or delete groups and business units you want to associate with the user here.

Who gets RB access?

Clients or resources who need access to their information in your system are not the same as RB users who are your staff, managers, or other company personnel who need access on a more global level. If you want to give your clients and resources access to their calendars, financial info, files, and other relevant info, add RB Connect to your RB system, where they can have their own online RB offices automatically populated with their information exclusively. Add RB Connect Mobile to give them similar access on their iPhones and other mobile devices.

TL;DR: Store work and personal information about company personnel. Give them access to specific functions in RB through Security Groups, and communicate internally with multiple users at once through Message Groups.

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.

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. More >

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