Tag Archives: Service Item Subgroups

Organize billable services into logical groups

Instead of having to scroll through 100s of billable services when invoicing, use Service Item Subgroups to organize service items into smaller, related groups of services to speed up billing

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.

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Setup

Contains functions for customizing RB

Lesson #110
Customize your RB setup

You can run your business using the setup defaults that RB includes. Or use this module to edit them, delete any you don’t need, and add your own options to tailor RB to your work processes. You can update any Setup function at any time. In this module, you can:

  • Customize lists by adding, editing, merging, and deleting list entries. Set the default entry that appears in any field tied to a list.
  • Set up users, store work-related and personal information about them, and give them user names and passwords to access RB. Group them according to their access levels and job functions, so they can perform their jobs and receive internal messages. 
  • Customize the default Chart of Accounts to match your general ledger or accounting software.
  • Set up service items and 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.
  • Enter billing, pay, and rush rates for services, including e-billing information.
  • Set up billing rate groups for different categories of clients so you don’t have to scroll through all of your billing rate tables each time you invoice a client. Set up pay rate groups for resources too.
  • Group service items into billing sets to speed up billable services selection because you only have to choose the set, not each of the items individually.
  • Set the year’s pay dates and their corresponding cutoff dates for each pay period. 
  • Create your own invoice headers and messages for different circumstances.
  • Set up tracking items to match your production workflow, then define the steps each item goes through in your process.
  • Define preferences for how your RB-PDF transcripts will appear and what options they will include. Create multiple transcript preference profiles to cover different transcript requirements.
  • Create stamps like “Original” or ”Certified Copy” to apply to transcripts.
  • If exhibit file names and exhibit references in transcripts follow a pattern, for example they are numbered consecutively, save production time by setting up those patterns before producing hyperlinked transcripts.
  • Set up exhibit stamp templates that will automatically include RB job information and number PDF exhibits sequentially.
  • Set global preferences for difference features in RB.

Setup functions by name

TL;DR: Customize RB to match your business better.

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-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.

Service items: Regular charges that you bill to your clients are called service items in RB.

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