A billable entry for each document can be created as well, and Rocket Matter features an unlimited number of fields for matter and client information.

Assuming you have already created your necessary custom fields and populated them with the appropriate data, getting started using our document assembly feature is easier than you think.

If your firm generates a lot of similar documents, across a number of different matters, you just may find yourself wondering how you ever worked without this capability. Begin with the following steps:

1. Begin by creating a new template with the content you’ll need. Typically templated items include form letters, subpoenas, hearing notices, etc. Templates can be created in Word 2003, 2007 or 2010. Under the Document Template section of your Admin page, you will find 3 commonly used sample templates and a list of Merge Fields that you can apply to the new or existing document.

2. In order to incorporate or edit one of your desired fields into the document, go to the area you’d like to place the field in Word and select Insert, Mail Merge, Merge Field. In the open field below, enter the desired merge description from the list. Carefully copy that information and enter it after the word MERGEFIELD, then hit OK. This will tell the template to pull data from the corresponding field in Rocket Matter. Save this new document to your PC or Mac.

3. Returning to Rocket Matter, go to your Admin section, click Document Templates and hit Add a Template. Here you will be saving the actual document, with all the necessary data fields, you just created.

4. You’ll be prompted to choose a file from your PC or Mac. You must name the document template before you proceed. It’s also helpful to use our robust tagging system to tag and identify the corresponding matters or clients your new document applies to, then click Next.

5. Review your new templated document. On the right, you will notice the Merge Fields section. The data fields will be visible in this section and will be green when the document is validated. If you see any red fields, you will also notice that the document is not validated in Rocket Matter. This means that you must then return to the field(s) in question and re-enter the appropriate merge field in the document or edit the details of the corresponding custom field.

Your new document can be tied to any open matter. Document Assembly with Rocket Matter is a great time-saving feature. You can literally generate documents that may have taken hours before, within minutes, using a document template and data you already have stored in Rocket Matter. Stay tuned for more on using your Document Assembly feature in Rocket Matter. We will examine maximizing the benefits of Document Assembly and Custom Fields in the coming weeks.

Our 2.0 release is a major step forward for cloud legal software. The document assembly and custom field combination offers incredible power while adhering to our well-known ease-of-use philosophy. Creating a new document with existing matter and client information literally takes the click of a mouse.

NEW HOME PAGE
To coincide with our new release, we upgraded the Rocket Matter home page and much of the site. We also added a brand new explainer video that answers the question, What is Rocket Matter?, in a fun and informative way. Please take a look and let us know what you think.

ON THE BLOGS
After a banner 2011, the Legal Productivity Blog got some aesthetic love. Though not a major facelift, we added a few widgets and navigation tools for a more pleasant and useful user experience. Stop by and check out our top recent posts:

5 Helpful Blogs About Blogging For Lawyers
How To Increase Your Blogging Productivity With Evernote
Why Lawyers Should Run A Triathlon (Or 5k) In 2012
The Best Donuts Are At The (Software) Bakery
Thriving Lawyers: It’s Not About More Money
Top 5 Reasons To Automate Legal Document Creation

From our ever-expanding Company Blog check out what’s happening on a regular basis with Rocket Matter!

WEDNESDAY WISDOM
Thanks for your feedback, Rocket Matter users! We use the information to create our weekly Wednesday Wisdom posts.

Adding and Editing the Information in Your Specific Custom Fields
Adding, Deleting and Managing Global Custom Fields
Keeping Tabs on Your Tags in Rocket Matter
Including Flat Fee Matters in Your Batch Billing

ROCKET MATTER CASE STUDY
Thanks for using our product and evangelizing about how you use it. Here’s the lastest case study from Jeff Lewis of Broedlow Lewis. If you’d like to be featured, please let us know.

Case Study: How Jeff Lewis and Broedlow Lewis LLP Compete Using Rocket Matter

I’m blown away by Rocket Matter. It’s polished and organized and saves my back.

My only regret is not signing up sooner. I cringe to think about the lost time and the lost productivity for the first few years of my practice.

Thanks, Jeff!

ROCKET MATTER LIVE AND IN-PERSON
We’re presenting and exhibiting at the Association for Continuing Legal Education’s Mid-Year Meeting in New Orleans on Saturday, January 28th and then right on to Legal Tech in New York City starting Monday, January 30th. If you’re in the area, please stop by!

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY
Thanks for joining the conversation on our social media channels – Twitter, Facebook, andLinkedIn Group where we talk about the latest developments in the law with a focus on solo attorneys and small law firms. Our community has grown and we appreciate your engagement.

We’re now on Google Plus. Please join us as we expand the conversation to new circles.

TRAINING AND DEMOS
Rocket Demos are now available online 5 days per week!  Click here to select a time convenient for you and register. Our Rocket Demos are the best way to learn about the application, by seeing it live and in action, and learning about the features and benefits firsthand!

If you are just getting started, or have been with us for a little while and need a refresher on all of the basics of working with Rocket Matter, there is no better way then to jump onto one of our online training classes. We offer them 5 days a week.

Our dedicated support team is always available 9am-6pm EST, Monday through Friday, to answer all of your questions and concerns. You can reaach them at 888-432-1LAW(1529).

ROCKET WEBINARS
A huge thanks to Donna Seyle who presented the very popular webinar, Solos And Small Firms: Thrive In The New Legal Marketplace. Check out our list of upcoming webinars.

Boca Raton, January 25, 2012 – Rocket Matter®, the leading cloud-based legal practice management and time and billing software for small to mid-sized law firms, today announces the 2.0 release of their flagship software, including the addition of major features document assembly and custom fields.

Document assembly allows users to merge their client and matter data, already stored in Rocket Matter, with templated legal forms, creating instantaneous new legal documents. Since Rocket Matter tracks time and generates invoices, a billable entry can be automatically created as well.

In order to support the wide variety of needs from different legal practice areas, Rocket Matter now features unlimited custom fields for matters and client information.

“For the first time in the cloud and for the first time on Macs, attorneys have software that can instantly create new legal documents, store them, and bill for them,” says Larry Port, CEO of Rocket Matter.

Our 2.0 release is a major step forward for cloud legal software. The document assembly and custom field combination offers incredible power while adhering to our well-known ease-of-use philosophy. Creating a new document with existing matter and client information literally takes the click of a mouse.

Since Rocket Matter is a cloud-based legal software product that runs in a browser, users can generate documents on PC’s, Macs, even tablet computers and smartphones such as iPads®, iPhones®, and Droids®. Custom data fields can be set at a system level, available for all matters and clients, and can also be set on individual records as well.

In addition to the document assembly and custom field upgrades, Rocket Matter 2.0 features navigational enhancements to locate information more quickly. The initiative resulted in an overhaul of the marketing site, new homepage explainer video, and follows closely on the heels of Evernote® Integration, announced in November of 2011.

About Rocket Matter, LLC

Rocket Matter, LLC (URL: http://www.rocketmatter.com) provides Rocket Matter®, an online legal practice management and time tracking application for small to mid-sized law firms. The benefits of Rocket Matter®, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application, include increased security, business continuity, decreased technology infrastructure and maintenance costs, and improved return on investment for information technology expenses. Launched in February 2008, Rocket Matter’s corporate headquarters is in Boca Raton, FL.

Contact: Michael Miceli
Rocket Matter, LLC
Phone: 888-432-1529×108
Email: michael.miceli (at) rocketmatter (dot) com
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Video:

Click here to register

Solo and small firm lawyers can level the playing field with both big law and the legal services industry by expanding their legal services delivery methods while ensuring the success and sustainability of their practices. Technology enables lawyers to provide competent representation at an affordable cost to clients without sacrificing their bottom line.

Join us and learn how to use cost-effective 2.0 technology, project management principles, and alternative fee agreements to start and grow your practice with efficiency in our evolving legal marketplace.

Donna Seyle is an attorney, blogger and Founder of Law Practice Strategy, an information center dedicated to the future of law practice and legal technology, focusing on the needs of solos and small firms. Donna is a member of the ABA-LPM’s eLawyering Task Force Committee, where she works with virtual law practice thought leaders on innovative uses of cloud technology for solos and small firms, and to improve access to justice. In addition, she is a member of the State Bar of California’s Executive Committee on Law Practice Management & Technology section, where she chairs the sub-committee for the section’s bi-monthly ezine. She is author of the recently-published book, Law Practice Strategy: Creating a New Business Model for Solos and Small Firms.

Click here to register for Solos And Small Firms: Thrive In The New Legal Marketplace

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The What Users Have Billed Report breaks it all down by matter, amount and description. To start using this report, just log into your Rocket Matter account and follow these steps:

1. Click Admin.

2. Click on Billable Activity by Users.

3. Set the date range and information type(s), in the menu bar and hit Get Answer.

4. As a handy short-cut to see what you have billed so far, while you are already on your user dashboard screen, simply click on the hourly figure under You’ve Billed, in the upper right corner. This will take you directly to the same report screen, featuring your own information.

Your What Users Have Billed Report can be viewed in total, or can be broken down and sorted by matter type, item type and expenses. The information contained within the report can be customized to any date period you need and is commonly accessed on an ongoing weekly and monthly basis to track not only your own progress, but that of your staff as well. Stay tuned for more tips on using Rocket Matter in upcoming wednesday wisdoms and if you haven’t yet downloaded your free copy of our new e-book, The Law Firm of Tomorrow, just click on our ad below and get reading!

After eight years at a law firm, Jeff left in 2006 to start his own practice. A few years later, Kelly Broedlow Dunagan a former colleague, began serving as Of Counsel for the Law Office of Jeffrey Lewis. And this year, on January 1, 2012, Broedlow Lewis LLP opened its doors.

Keeping up with big firms and tech-savvy clients

Jeff’s clients tend to be high tech, and cutting-edge technology helps him stay ahead of the curve. Pulling out his iPad, powering up Rocket Matter and locating a document on the spot, and performing other powerful tasks helps to keep Jeff and his practice highly productive and as tech-savvy as any lawyer can be.

Once, when I was in federal court and the judge asked about a referenced item, I pulled up the document in Rocket Matter and found the particular note. Quick and easy. And impressive.

Jeff frequently collaborates as co-counsel with attorneys in other counties, and Rocket Matter provides the ability to share notes, calendaring, etc. remotely and instantly.

Solving problems, from conflicts checking to time and billing

One of the challenges Jeff faced was conflicts management. With Rocket Matter, as you create a matter and enter the client name, related matters for the client automatically appears. The best part is your conflicts are built up naturally: just by using Rocket Matter, you’ll build up a history. “Now, when I get a phone call, I can quickly enter names and make sure I don’t have a conflict,” says Jeff, “Real time conflicts checking — that’s huge!”

Another problem was billing. Jeff struggled with billing programs that were tied to a desktop computer. Rocket Matter makes it seamless to bill time while you go about your usual activities. Every activity you perform, whether calendaring, tasks, documents, or other, is captured via a Bill as you Work™ technology. With an iPad or smartphone, Jeff enters time anywhere, waiting in court or in between meetings, on any internet enabled device.

By capturing time through tasks, notes, and timers, I found lost time.

Mac friendly and on the go

The small and mid size law firms where Jeff worked were PC based but he went all-Mac when he branched out on his own. “It allowed me to spend less time wrestling with tech.”, says Jeff. Over the years integrated iPhones and iPads into the practice.

“Rocket Matter is a natural partner for Apple products because it shares the Apple philosophy,” says Jeff. “It just works and it’s fast.”

The ability to call up any pleading, discovery, document or note in a meeting on an iPad or laptop is invaluable.

Jeff doesn’t spend a lot of time in his office, and Rocket Matter allows him to capture time, assign tasks, calendar appointments, and bill on the go.

Seamless integration

Rocket Matter provides seamless integration with Dropbox where you can associate a matter in Rocket Matter to a folder in your Dropbox and have all the files listed in the documents section of the matter. And more recently, with Evernote, the popular cloud-based note taking and collaboration application that allows users to archive, share and organize notes, websites, voice memos and photos from any device and across platform.

Says Jeff, “I have an Evernote notebook associated with each of my cases on Rocket Matter. When researching law on the iPad, I can capture the results using Evernote and the note is then automatically available via Rocket Matter for me or other attorneys at my firm to access at a later time. Same with witness interviews. I can take notes of a witness interview on Evernote and the note automatically appears in Rocket Matter. Best of all it is all seamless, behind the scenes and just works.”

Adds Jeff about his overall experience:

I’m blown away by Rocket Matter. It’s polished and organized and saves my back.

My only regret is not signing up sooner. I cringe to think about the lost time and the lost productivity for the first few years of my practice.

With more control over the types of clients and matters he works on, and the ability to work closer to home and his family, Jeff is enjoying the practice of law a lot more these days!

Sign up for a live demonstration of Rocket Matter, and make your law firm as productive as Jeff and Broedlow Lewis LLP.

To begin entering your custom data into your matters or contacts (or both), simply follow these steps:

1. Enter any matter or contact record. Your custom fields will be displayed globally on the bottom right-hand side of your matter dashboards and your contact records.

2. Click on Edit Related Contacts and Data.

3. From the edit relationships screen, you will be able to view, add, subtract or edit information with related contacts, data and labels. You will see your custom fields displayed under the Data heading.

4. Enter your data in the appropriate fields and click OK to save.

That’s all there is to it. Your customized fields will now display all the necessary data in the bottom-right corner of your matter dashboards and your contact records. Stay tuned for more great tips on categorizing and organizing your information in Rocket Matter!

Custom fields can be populated with data like date of birth, social security, or case number. These will appear globally in your contacts and matters and can be easily edited. Creating and editing your own custom fields that will appear globally in your contacts and matters is easy. Refer to these steps below to create and manage your custom fields:

1. Click on Admin and then Manage Custom Fields.

2. Click on Add Custom Field to set up a new field, or click the Red X next to an existing field to delete it globally. When setting up a new field, you can name it anything that you require.

3. To add or edit the information in the fields of your contacts, click on Edit Related Contacts and Data. This menu will enable you to populate the desired information for any or all of your contacts.

4. To add or edit the information in the fields in a matter, click on Edit Related Contacts and Data, from the matter dashboard. Again, the menu will enable you to add or change the desired information on any or all of your open matters.

Custom fields are a great way to index your information in Rocket Matter. They do not, however, translate over to your invoices. This information will appear only within your Rocket Matter software. In the coming weeks we will explore the benefits and uses of custom fields further.

2011 draws to a close as another amazing year of growth for Rocket Matter. We have a new, larger, office. We have thousands of happy people using our legal cloud computing software.

Our team has expanded and features incredible talent and fun personalities. Awesome new people joined the company to build product and spread our message. From a product perspective we rolled out customizable invoices, Evernote integration, and some exciting stuff that’s in Beta over the holidays that we’ll be announcing early January.

Our server infrastructure was overhauled to support massive scaling. Our backup system improved significantly, and our ability to process batch bills was given a major boost, like a silicon version of a “5-hour Energy Shot”. Even more importantly, we’ve set ourselves up for some real product fireworks in 2012.

Our online voice continues to grow. Legal Productivity and our Company Blog have taken a life of their own, and we’re often invited to speak at state bar conventions as featured presenters on technology, cloud computing, and other advanced legal technology topics. For the first time we’re part of state bar member services as a benefit for their attorneys.

As ethics opinions rain down in support of cloud computing for law firms provided reasonable care is taken, we believe 2012 is the year of inevitability. The slide towards the cloud will become an avalanche, so watch out!

Once again, thanks for making 2011 such a wonderful year for us.

You can manage your firm’s tags from the admin section at the top of your user dashboard, or through the Quick Admin menu at the bottom right-hand side of that screen. To access your tag manager, follow these steps:

1. Click on Admin from your user dashboard, then Rename, Add and Delete Tags. To save yourself a step, just click on Manage Tags, in your Quick Admin menu at the bottom of the screen. This will bring you directly to your tag manager.

2. To view everything associated with a particular tag, just click on the name and applicable contacts, matters, events and documents will be displayed.

3. To rename a tag, simply begin typing the name into the Original Label field which features global search technology. Enter your new name for that tag and hit Rename.

4. To add a new tag, simply enter the name into the field and hit Add.

5. Finally, and probably most importantly, when it comes time to delete a tag altogether, begin by typing in the name of the tag. Global search will autopopulate again. Hit the enter button once the name is complete. This will set and confirm the tag for deletion. Hit Delete and the tag will be purged from the system.

Tags allow you to categorize all your information and group it neatly, in a related bundle. You can have clients, matters, documents, contacts and events all related by tag. You can search for your tags easily in our global search field and they are always located in your tag manager screen. Stay tuned for more tips on maximizing your Rocket Matter experience and managing your practice better by leveraging the convenience of the cloud!