Perfect Practice

Perfect Practice Case Management integrated with Time and Billing provides your firm a solid foundation for your entire practice or business management needs. You can customize the solution as you evolve, giving your firm one solution to handle all your case management needs.

Their flagship solution Total Access is a fully integrated case management, time and billing, document management and document generation solution offering a total approach to practice or business automation including:

• Full featured case management
• Comprehensive billing and accounting
• Document Management & Document Assembly
• Scheduler (a firm wide fully integrated calendaring solution)
• Perfect Practice Notify another Perfect Practice innovation

Accounts Payable

Record invoices from vendors as they come in. Cut one check per vendor for approved invoices or individual checks for each invoice if you wish. Perfect Practice ^® handles payables for the operating, cost advance and trust accounts. You can even send an invoice for billing before you cut the check. Automatic entry of recurring items such as rent, lease payments, etc.

Features:

• Invoice Consolidation
• Operating, Cost Advance or Trust Invoices
• Recurring Expenses
• Automatic but flexible General Ledger allocations
• Unlimited Matter allocations

Accounts Receivable

See who hasn’t paid! Open item accounting with individual receivable detail by client, by matter, by aging days, by minimum amount to show or any combination of these options. Select your own criteria. Complete billing/payment history also available by client or matter.

Features:

• Interest on overdue balances
• Reminder statements on overdue balances
• Report by Aging
• Report by Client
• Report by Matter Report by Responsible Staff Member
• Numerous Reports and Graphs for Executive Overview

Bank Reconciliation

Reconcile an unlimited number of cash accounts. First you mark the cleared checks and deposits so you and the bank agree. Then, the system cross checks against the Book Balance and the General Ledger account balance. When everything agrees, you are reconciled.

Features:

• Easily reconcile cash accounts with bank statements
• Reconcile trust account balances with both client/matter ledgers and bank statements
• Sort items by date, amount or check/reference number
• Automatically generate reports detailing cleared or uncleared items
• Security allows users to reconcile reports without granting access to change data or breach confidentiality

Billing

Bill by client, by matter or by batch. Accommodates flat fee, hourly or contingency fees and cost advances. Flexible billing formats allow you to match the look and feel of the bill to the client. Alternate billing addresses allow distribution of bills to all recipients designated by the client. Not only does Perfect Practice track the time, but a library of standard reports gives productivity by staff member, client or matter. Best of all, if you need a custom bill or report, Perfect Practice uses the Crystal Reports® report writer.

Features:

• Create unlimited numbers of custom formats based on your preferences as to which elements are to appear on the invoice
• Generate bills or prebills on demand
• Bill by client/matter, responsible producer, type of law or by billing cycle
• Create reusable batches for billing multiple matters with no other common factor
• Edit prebills on screen or provide paper prebills to attorneys for edit
• Track “actual” versus “bill as” values for time and dollars recorded
• Choose who can access/modify bill data
• Allows for paper, PDF/email or electronic billing
• Accommodates LEDES and other pre-defined billing codes and formats
• One click allows you to hold a single transaction or an entire invoice for billing at a later date
• Write-up/Write-off feature allows you to adjust fee transaction values
• Courtesy discounts allow you to show discounts on the invoice, which are then allocated on a pro rata basis among all producers on the invoice
• Contingency, flat-fee and task-based billing is fully supported and integrated with Perfect Practice® Case Management
• You have the option to include or exclude expenses for which checks have not yet been issued * They accommodate taxable transactions for multiple taxing jurisdictions, including Canadian

Budgeting

Where did all the money go? Don’t get caught short, budget by month or by year. See how you’re really doing versus your forecast. You can also have custom processes to budget by fee approval or phase of a project or case.

Features:

• Budget selected accounts
• Budget Income, Expense or Capital Investment
• Annual amount split by month or individual monthly budget
• Actual vs. Budget for any time frame

Calendaring/Scheduling

Tired of trying to figure out who’s where, when? Their shared calendaring system has a two way synchronization with Microsoft Outlook®, but also allows you to show groups of people. If you have the rights, you can quickly reassign tasks and appointments to different staff members. Many features are above and beyond those of a standard calendaring system. For example, they know what a case is! If you settle a case, you can go directly to the case and cancel all appointments and tasks from one place. That will take care of all staff members’ calendars automatically. You can also search for open time slots for specific users or groups of users to schedule meetings.

Features:

• Make or view appointments for one or several individuals using either pre-set groups or on-the-fly selections
• Choose to view one day, five-day (week), or thirty-day period
• Search for free (available) time periods for multiple individuals to meet
• View on-screen deadlines sorted by due date, case, priority or producer
• Link entries to cases or parties
• Link to location codes
• Privacy feature for sensitive/personal appointments
• Choose from five priority levels
• Allows for recurring (repeating) reminders or appointments
• Spell check/Thesaurus
• Security permits assigning/limiting access
• Bi-directional Synchronization with Outlook

Checkwriter/Remote Request

Check-writer allows for electronic check requests by authorized staff members. Request and Print Operating checks, Cost Advance Checks and Trust Checks, all from the same program. Review all check requests in the queue and approve the ones you wish to authorize. If a trusted employee is printing the checks, you can have the checks digitally signed, based on the checking account, dollar amount, vendor and even the time of day. Simply use the check-writer to write your checks and your client/matter ledgers are updated with cost advances, your General Ledger is updated with the accounting entries, your Bank Reconciliation is ready to go and of course, the physical check is printed.

• You choose who can initiate a check request electronically
• You choose who can create or edit payees (vendors)
• Standard reports allow you to view pending check requests
• You can grant different levels of access to view or edit requests, view or edit G/L allocations, client/matter allocations, and amounts
• Choose who has authority/permission to approve and/or print checks
• You have the option to automate check signing by account, amount or time period.

Contact Management

Share all your work contacts with your fellow staff members! Perfect Practice® maintains a complete database of all contacts, whether they are associated with a case or not. Each contact can be assigned a “Role” or contact type. All the features available for cases are also available for contacts, even custom fields to track their CV if you wish. Update a contact in one place and change for all cases.

Features:

• Complete sortable contact database
• Outlook Import/Export
• Custom fields per contact type
• Cross reference of every person or case associated with a contact
• Notes, Appointments, Todo’s and other transaction types for any contacts
• Send mass emails
• Prepare mailing lists

Document Assembly

Create perfect documents every time! Docutrac® takes the information entered on the data sheets and puts that information directly into your documents. Intelligent document merging allows the program to make decisions based on the content of the data sheets. This allows conditional merging of different paragraphs dependant on any data field. For example, if you get a judge that requires specific language, the program can change the language anytime it sees that judge on a case. Merge data can come from the case or any of the persons associated with the case.

This feature lowers the knowledge level required of the operator. If the correct information has been entered, the document will be properly prepared. Pleadings, contracts and letters can all be selected with one mouse click. Letters can automatically have the envelopes prepared. Automatic time entries, notes and followups can also be attached to each document. You have to see it to believe it!

Features:

• Merge with Microsoft Word® or WordPerfect®
• Merge any information in the Case Management program
• Decisions made based on the data entered
• Decisions made on which documents to prepare based on who is associated with the case
• Automatic transactions such as Notes, Tasks & Time entry
• Preparation of envelopes with letters
• Integration with Walz® for certified mailing

Document Management

Document Management takes advantage of the shared folders on your network. All documents on a case are organized into a document list ordered by date or code. To access the document a simple right click allows you to retrieve the document. Scan documents directly to the folder selected for each case with a Fujitsu ScanSnap® scanner. Newly scanned documents will be added to the list and can also trigger time entries and followup tasks if you wish. Staff members can automatically be alerted that there is new mail on their cases! You can even scan in on location and the document can automatically be saved on your main server.

Features:

• Chronological list of Documents
• Instant access to documents from a case with the right mouse click
• Automatic notification of new documents for the responsible staff member
• Scan directly to a file
• Remote scanning via Microsoft Terminal Server

Email Integration

The Perfect Practice® email client can talk to any imap email server. If you have Microsoft’s Exchange®, it can easily be configured as imap or pop3. The email client talks directly to your email server, so you can continue to use your current email client AND also the Perfect Practice® email client. You’ll see the same email with each email client.

Why would you want to use both? Well, Perfect Practice® knows what a case is. You can drag and drop case related emails to the case so all your users will have access to them. That’s the other problem with typical email, it’s can’t be read by anyone other than the person to whom it was sent. This makes sharing email a pain! Emails sent directly from Perfect Practice® will be put directly on the appropriate case. A side benefit is the ability to set up email groups and send blasts to a designated group as well as individual emails.

Features:

• Store emails on cases or contacts
• Send emails from Perfect Practice®
• Create automatic time entries from emails
• Create manual followups from email
• Send emails to groups of people
• Continue to use your current email client

General Ledger

Designed like an Accountant’s Client Writeup system, but virtually no data entry required. The General Ledger allows you to break down Income and Expenses into unlimited accounts. Best of all, once you configure your system, the Perfect Practice® suite of programs, automatically make the appropriate entries. At the end of the year, send the standard reports a CPA would expect to your financial expert, or do everything in-house. Working Trial Balance, Income Statement, Comparative Income Statement, General Ledger Detail, Journal Detail and more.

Features:

• Accommodates cash basis, modified cash or full accrual accounting at all levels * Easily clone a chart of accounts to permit creation of multiple divisions or departments. Reports can consolidate multiple divisions or departments or be filtered for single unit reporting
• Permits as many as five characters for any division, department, account or sub-account element
• Chart of accounts can be easily modified to adapt as your practice grows or evolves
• Standard reports on demand include balance sheet, (comparative) income statement, supporting statements and working trial balance. You define the period (date range) and filter (select) the range of accounts to be included

Imaging

Organize your images! Each image you load can be annotated and cataloged for later use. Double click on an image and mark it up as an exhibit. Most standard “image” formats supported, JPG, BMP, TIF, etc. Thumbnails are available. Images can come from your digital camera, scanner, the internet or any other source. Sometimes an image really is worth a thousand words.

Once your image has been annotated, you can save it as a new image, or print it to the actual image size or to the paper size.

Notes and Transaction Tracking

Notes and other transactions can be tracked on all cases and parties or persons. If you like an automatic timer can start the moment you select a new note. If you get another call, stop one timer and start a new one on the next call! Notes can be “cloned” to other transaction types, such as Time or Tasks (ToDos). Preset codes can automatically trigger other transaction codes. User defined rules allow you to determine what items are triggered for specific types of note or transaction entry. You can even customize you entry screen.

Features

• Virtually unlimited description
• Preset transaction codes and shorthand codes
• Codes can be restricted by case type or client (Code Groups)
• Clone transactions to other types of transactions
• Automatic Timer available
• Spell Check available
• Thesaurus available
• Workflow triggers

Notify

Perfect Practice® Notify is a proprietary, secure, fully integrated instant messaging system for your firm’s staff. Perfect Practice® Notify is the perfect solution that balances today’s instant communication needs with uncompromising network security. Messages can be generated by other users or by pre-designated types of activities. For example, any time an appointment on your calendar is entered or modified, you will be alerted instantly or the very next time you log in should you be out of the office.

Features:

• Maintains a Database of all messages
• Retains messages if a user is not logged in
• Configurable triggers can send messages automatically
• Shows who is currently logged on to your network

Payroll

You can define your own deduction and transaction codes. Complete control over how individual deductions or transactions affect FICA, Withholding, Medicare and anything else you wish to track. Perfect Practice will print W2’s, 940 and 941 reports to use when preparing the FUTA & SUTA taxes.

Features:

• Accommodates Federal, State, City and other local taxes
• Automatic Vacation Accrual
• Automatic Sick Accrual
• Integrated with General Ledger
• Handles employee loans or advances
• Unlimited deduction capabilities
• Handles salary, hourly and overtime rates
• Allows Direct Deposit Definable work week
• Multiple pay periods
• Allows instant access to employee records

Pre-Billing

Catch the errors BEFORE you send the bill! Pre-bills can be printed to paper or reviewed on-screen. Change the wording, adjust the rate or time from the pre-bill edit screen. Perfect Practice® keeps the original time, rate and dollar extension while allowing you to adjust the values to bill. This allows for superior productivity tracking. It’s not what you work, it’s what you bill and collect.

Features:

• Hold Individual Transactions or entire Matters until a later bill
• Specify Courtesy Write-offs
• Specify Write Ups or Write-downs
• Show Trust money to apply to bills
• Show Retainer money to apply to bills
• Keep the original Time, Rate and Dollar extension when adjusting bill amounts * Review one Matter’s transactions
• Review by Billing Cycle
• Review by Responsible Staff Member
• Review by Ad Hoc Batch

Receipts

Receipts are the life blood of your practice or business! They determine compensation, tax liability and cash flow, make sure you get it right. Their open item accounting gives you the power to make sure each receipt is applied in the correct manner to the correct billed category. Your receipt audit report is your bank deposit slip. Checks and balances are built it.

Features:

• Auto allocate or manually allocate receipts
• Automatic General Ledger allocations by user defined rules
• Manual General Ledger allocations if needed
• Extensive audit trails
• Handle walk-in’s or miscellaneous receipts with Cash-In-Hand feature
• Targeted Write-offs allocated the way you want
• Almost 30 years of every imaginable collection report, by firm, by client, by matter or by staff member

Reporting

Perfect Practice® reports have been built on almost 30 years of customer input, requests and guidance. There are over 120 standard reports included with each installation.

Features:

• Supports Crystal Reports® Report Writer
• Perfect Practice® Quick Reports if you wish
• Reports menu
• 120+ standard reports, each with many selection criteria
• If you have it in the data base, you can report on it
• Export to a variety of other formats
• Add your custom report to the reports menu
• Connect with other ODBC report writers, such as Microsoft Access®

Time Entry

Enter time through Case Management or Financials! The automated work flow can automatically create fee and cost entries when appropriate, based on the client’s fee schedule. Import fees or costs from vendors or third party programs.

Features:

• Easily record billable or non-billable time entries
• Rapid entry mode and Retain screen mode
• Accept or over-ride established default values for particular clients, matters, or types of transactions
• “Actual” versus “Bill As” allows you to track both the actual time and producer as well as adjustments made prior to billing (length of time, value assigned, or even the producer) – Meet client requirements for billing protocols while preserving records of the actual investment of time and dollars
• Take advantage of short-cuts (pre-programmed phrases or words) to save time and minimize misspellings
• Configure your system to meet the specific rules for electronic billing or client protocols, such as LEDES or UTBMS
• Phase and task codes can be set to only show those specified by client
• Audit trails record all changes to recorded entries
• Automatic Timer
• Multiple time screens simultaneously
• Spell Check (Legal dictionary, Medical dictionary, foreign languages). Create your own dictionary
• Built in Thesaurus Hourly, flat fee or contingency
• No Mouse Required for data entry!

Workflow Processing

Workflow processing can help you sleep at night! Any process, procedure or checklist can be reduced to a workflow model. Each step of the way will carefully be mapped out and when an item is accomplished, it will not only trigger the next step, but show who accomplished it and when. The following movie demonstrates a workflow model for a foreclosure file, but the concept is the same. In a perfect world, each file would have at least one time in the work queue so all files are accounted for. Of course, the reports will show you orphaned files.

Features:

• Unlimited Workflow Models
• Accountability of Staff Members
• Instant Status Summary
• Built in Customized Timelines
• User defined activity and followup codes
• Same model can have different parameters by client or state