Tag Archives: Tracking

See how well your company is hitting productivity goals

Analyze productivity by item, step, manager, or resource if you use RB9 tracking

Lesson #92
Reports – Tracking Productivity Analysis function

Do you want to find out how many items have been finished on time? Analyze productivity by different tracking metrics in this interactive report if you use RB9’s Tracking function to monitor service item production and management.

View items you are tracking in RB9 that have reached a milestone during a specific time period by item, step, manager, or resource in an interactive report that lets you see total entries in the selected category at a glance. Drill down to see quarterly and monthly milestone achievements and how many milestones were achieved on time, late, with no due date, or were canceled.

The default Tracking Productivity Analysis report lists all tracked items that finished a tracking step in the current month to date alphabetically. You can expand the view of a single item or the whole list to see the breakdown of milestones, so you can quickly gauge how well your staff hit productivity goals this month.

You can change the report to analyze milestones by tracking step, by managers (grouped by manager), or by resources (grouped by resource).

You can also change the report to:

  • View longer/different time periods.
  • Include quarterly breakdowns.
  • View milestones for one or more of your company’s business units.

Like other interactive reports in RB9, you can quickly switch between detailed and summary views of the report. The initial results in the report are displayed as yearly totals by tracked item. You can “expand” the view to see the monthly (and quarterly, if desired) subtotals for all entries, and toggle between summary and monthly (and quarterly) views for individual years/quarters, or “collapse” all to the initial yearly view again.

You can also expand and collapse the tracked items to see breakdowns by timeliness (on time, late, etc.). You can toggle individual items between the collapsed/summary view and the breakdown-by-timeliness view.

If viewing the report by step, all items listed expand to display steps and their status. If searched by manager, all managers listed expand to display items and their status. If searched by resource, all resources listed expand to display items, steps and their status.

You can export the report in Excel format to save, share, use in other applications, or print.

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

TL;DR: See how many tracking items have been finished on time, by item, by step, by manager, or by resource.

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.

Manager: Used with the Tracking function, RB user responsible for overseeing a tracked item through the system.

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

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Monitor items in your production flow & beyond

Keep track of where items are in your production cycle and physically in your office

Lesson #21
Production – Tracking function

Track items as they move through your production workflow and into storage, including the location of physical media, such as DVDs. You can also use the Tracking function to track products you are entrusted with, such as videos and exhibits.

If you have different people handling a service item from start to finish and/or many service items to produce, use Tracking to ensure nothing slips through the cracks and you always know where something is and its current status.

Tracking is optional and independent from other modules in RB9; i.e., item tracking is not initiated from jobs or Turn In. You set up Tracking to match your production workflow so you can track items as they move through the process.

Track what you want how you want

First define item types to be tracked, You can track electronic and physical files, such as finished transcripts, exhibits, video, and archived files, and processes, such as editing, scanning, and synching.

After setting up item types to be tracked, create steps that each kind of item goes through in your production workflow. If an item passes through different departments or staffers as it is produced and completed, you can add alerts to specific steps to automatically notify people when the item is their responsibility. And when you move an item to the last step in the workflow, RB9 will automatically change its status from “In Progress” to “Completed.”

After defining item types and creating tracking steps, specify codes for different areas in tracking:

  • Archival Status: Current stored status of original media, such as video tapes. Some typical designations are Archived Here, Originals Destroyed, and Originals Sent To.
  • Media Classification: Specifies who has rights to view/handle the media. Designations might include Attorney’s Eyes Only, Confidential, and Under Protective Order.
  • Media Format: Types of media you produce, such as Audio Tape, CD, DV-CAM, and DVD-R.
  • Priority: Specifies order of importance or urgency such as High, Normal, and Urgent.

As with all lists in RB, these come with a set of defaults so you don’t have to start from scratch. You can customize RB lists by editing the defaults, deleting defaults, and adding your own list options.

Tracking can be initiated as soon as a job is created (scheduled). Or use the Production Sheet as a guide for which service items to track through production. Then keep the status of items being tracked current by updating tracking information as the items move through production and into storage.

Customize how you view tracking lists

The grid in which you view tracked items 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.

From the Tracking results grid, you can view and update any listed task’s details, start new trackings, and export the grid as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV(comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

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

TL;DR: Keep track of where items are in your production cycle and physically in your office.

Related RB concepts

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

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

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Production

Production is where you turn in jobs, fulfill client requests, prepare invoices, ship products, and correspond with clients and others

Lesson #19
Producing transcripts & more

In the Production module, you turn in jobs, prepare transcripts and invoices, send out and track your products, and correspond with depo parties, witnesses, and 3rd parties.

Production is where you:

  • Turn in jobs: Enter information about witnesses, attending parties, firms to bill, and services ordered. If your resources turn in jobs online through RB Connect, this information is already entered.
  • Create invoices and apply billing rates, pay rates, and rush charges, then calculate and post invoices.
  • Fulfill client requests.
  • Create PDF transcripts (including condensed versions) & apply digital signatures.
  • Create Master Word Lists for multiple jobs on a case.
  • Ship out produced service items. Track UPS & FedEx shipments.
  • Upload finished transcripts and related files, like exhibits, to the repository.
  • Alert clients to files uploaded to their repository on RB Connect.
  • Restrict individual parties from accessing specific files in their online repository in RB Connect.
  • Generate production sheets to tell staff what service items are needed and how many units to produce.
  • Email transcripts to witnesses and attorneys. Apply Read & Sign requirements to transcripts. Attach affidavits and errata sheets. Track original transcript location.
  • Track production items as they progress through your company. Track electronic and physical files. Track finished transcripts, exhibits, video, and archived files as they move through your production workflow, so you always know their location and current status. Produce tracking reports.
  • Produce labels, envelopes, and form letters with information from your RB database automatically merged in.
  • Archive and manage files in the central repository.

Production functions by name

TL;DR: Production is where you turn in jobs, fulfill client requests, prepare invoices, ship products, and correspond with clients and others.

RB concepts in this lesson

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

RB-PDF Transcript: Customizable PDF version of a transcript with built-in transcript-specific features.

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What is a Notes Log?

Notes Logs contain notes related to the record in which they are entered by a user or the system and are unalterable

Concept #3
Notes Log

Log notes entered either by a user or automatically by RB appear in a chronological log in the database record where they occurred, such as a case, job, invoice, or entity. Log entries are your internal paper trail because every entry is stored and listed separately — and they cannot be edited nor deleted. Entries can only be canceled but remain in the log as a canceled entry.

Notes Logs are included in:

  • Entities (Firms, Contacts, Resources, and Locations)
  • Cases
  • Jobs
  • Witnesses
  • Invoices
  • Tracking
  • Collections

Notes Logs are private

Notes Logs are for internal use only, and log notes are not published on RB Connect or in any correspondence with clients or resources. Notes to be shared with clients and resources — or internal notes that require high visibility such as information the production or billing staff need to know about a particular job — should be entered in other fields in RB dedicated to those purposes. However only notes in Notes Logs are unalterable.

You can set a date and time on any note in a Notes Log to have the system send you or another staff member a reminder about the note.

TL;DR: Notes Logs contain notes related to the record in which they are entered by a user or the system and are unalterable. They are for internal use only and are not shared by the system with clients or resources.

Related RB concepts

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. Jobs can be linked to cases, linked to other jobs, or stand alone. More >

Location: Place where jobs occur, such as court rooms, hospitals, schools, doctors’ offices, or private residences.

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