Older versions of Timeslips also kept log files. Here are some examples of log files:

• BillAud.log:  If your firm uses electronic billing, this log file reports the errors (and successes) when exporting files to the electronic bill house
• Emaillog.txt:  This log file provides a report of all bills and statements sent via email.
• Dberrlog.txt:  Have you ever run data verification and forgotten to save the results, only to have to re-run it?  This log file contains the result of the most recently run data verification
• Convstatuslog.txt:  When Timeslips was upgraded, a conversion report is prepared and saved as convstatuslog.txt
• DocAccess.txt:  Bills and statements printed to file are documented in this report

These same logs are available in prior versions of Timeslips.  They are saved in the local workstation copy of Timeslips (usually c:\program files\timeslips).

Another little “Timeslips tidbit” for you!

It is my opinion that there are two types of people (in the world of data entry):

Mouse People vs. Keyboard People

In the process of writing this, I found a great blog discussing which is better (http://gigaom.com/collaboration/mouse-vs-keyboard-the-great-divide/).

For those of us who are keyboard people, Timeslips has some wonderful shortcuts to speed up data entry.   Here are a few of my favorites:

How can you find keyboard shortcuts?

1. From the HELP … ONLINE USERS GUIDE search “Keyboard”
2. Right-click on a slip list or transactions list or client list

For all of us who prefer the keyboard, I hope you learned something in this post.

This is one of those little known “tricks” to Timeslips.  There is a way to move the cursor to a specific field using the “Jump To” setup in slip preferences.

There are 2 types of data entry people:  Mouse and Keyboard.  Most people prefer one or the other.  This post has some extra special hints for those of us who are “Keyboard” people.

“Mouse ” people click in a field, enter their information, and then click the next field.  Keyboard people, on the other hand, press the “TAB” key to move to the next field.  Timeslips has the ability to move through the fields in a specific order.  It also has the ability to JUMP to a specific field by pressing F7 on the keyboard.

From the top menu click SETUP … PREFERENCES and highlight the “Movement Rules” on the Slips tab.  From there, it is possible to move the fields up or down in the order in which a user would “Tab” through the fields.

JUMP gives the user the ability to press F7 while in a slip, to jump to the next field with the check-mark in the “Jump” box.

Slip Movement Rules

It is also possible to assign “Hot Keys”.  For example, pressing Control and the letter “D” moves the cursor to the Description box.

When finished defining your own personal preferences, remember to click the “Save As…” button at the bottom (probably a safer bet to use your mouse for this… not the keyboard).  Everyone should have their own preference file either saved with their own initials, or saved on their local “C” drive.

Firms typically use sequential invoice numbers for the entire bill run.  In other words, if the first invoice number for the month is 1001, the 12th invoice number will be 1012.  In Timeslips, this is known as GLOBAL INVOICE NUMBERS.  Occasionally, certain clients will require that their invoices be numbered sequentially instead of with the firm’s “general” numbers.  For example, if the client is ABC Company, they want their January invoice to be #1, February invoice to be #2, etc.  This is called CLIENT-SPECIFIC INVOICE NUMBERS.  A 3rd type of invoice number is called an INTERNAL INVOICE NUMBER  which is assigned ff the system is set to not print invoice numbers on bills without activity, those invoices will be assigned an “Internal” number.

Invoice numbers display a preceding letter indicating whether it is a G: (global), C: (client) or I: (internal) invoice number.

GLOBAL INVOICE NUMBERS:

• Specify which bills show an invoice number:  All bills, bills with new charges, bills with any activity
• Specify the next global  invoice number for your firm
• Indicate whether to reuse an invoice number of a cleared bill, or assign a new number to the next bill for that client (this check box applies to client specific invoice numbers as well)

Bills section of General Settings

CLIENT-SPECIFIC INVOICE NUMBERS:

Client-specific invoice numbers are assigned on the “Accounts Receivable” page of “Client Information”.  Enter the client’s next invoice number in the “Next invoice number” box.  Optionally, enter a specific characters in the “Format on bill” field using the # to substitute for the invoice number.  The example below will print INV-1001 on the invoice.

Accounts Receivable Tab (Client Information)

Remember:  Invoice numbers are assigned when a bill is either placed in proof stage or approved.   If you print a bill run and “cancel”, the next bill run will re-use those numbers.

Timeslips has 2 ways to hold slips to delay billing specific entries:

1. SLIP HOLD feature – Hold a single slip (example: an expense was not paid yet and should not yet be billed; or some of the client work will appear with another project)
2. CLIENT HOLD feature – Hold the client’s bill or just the fees or expenses until further notice

To place a hold on an individual slip, check the “HOLD” box on the slip

Hold a single slip

To place a hold on the client, open the Client Information to “Arrangement 1″ and hold either time, expenses or the entire bill.  It is possible to set a criteria such as “hold until fees reach $500 on the client setup.  In Timeslips 2012, if you place a full bill hold on the client, there will be a red “H” next to the client name in the list.

Client Hold on Slips

IMPORTANT:  REMEMBER TO RELEASE SLIPS ON HOLD!!

To report on slips on hold, there is a report (often under the “Client” tab) called “Charges on Hold”.  This will report all slip and client holds in the system.  Also, when generating Pre-Bill Worksheets, click the “OPTIONS” button and check the boxes “Release slips marked hold” and “Show bills on Full Bill Hold”.

Billing options

• Change your firm’s address
• Increase the number of characters in Nickname 1 or Nickname 2
• Define the separator used for client.matter (see Consolidated Bills blog post dated March 7, 2012 )
• Specify defaults when adding new clients, timekeepers and activities
• Turn on/off conflict checking
• Force a new invoice number for cleared proof stage bill
• Modify the default description for transactions (example: remove the words “bad debt” from Write-Off)
• Specify which types of payments your firm accepts (cash, credit cards, checks, custom)

From the main menu click SETUP then click GENERAL.  The screen will look like this (Timeslips 2012):

General Settings

Refer to the Timeslips Manual in your program for more specific information and screen shots.  Or, contact TSR Consulting Services, Inc. at 847 256 7536 (support@tsrconsult.com)

ABSOLUTE, MINIMUM, MAXIMUM FLAT FEE ARRANGEMENTS

Timeslips offers flat fee billing in 3 basic varieties:

Here are some things that many firms are not aware of:

1. Duration is used to determine when the slips are assigned a final value
2. The default duration is “PERPETUAL” which means that every time the flat fee amount will be charged every time the client is billed
3. The duration “JOB” does not calculate collections or billed amounts until the status is updated to “FINAL BILL” or “COMPLETED” and a final bill is approved
4. The value of the slips is calculated based on the contribution of each slip as it compares to the total amount billed.  Therefore, it is important to assign a rate value to each slip

Once a flat fee is completed, the Flat Fee Analysis report will break out the value of the time compared to the total amount billed.  This report is extremely helpful in calculating future flat fee agreements.

What does it mean?  Is my data lost?

The key to understanding error messages is to read the description.  The above error indicates that the problem is with the Change Log.   The change log tracks changes made to the data and if corrupt, can be easily replaced with a new, empty change log.

STEP 1:  BACK UP OR COPY YOUR DATABASE!!!! THEN, RUN DATA VERIFICATION – LOOK FOR ERRORS – Do not check the options to repair errors.

 Data Verification is run (by click FILE … DATA VERIFICATION).   The report that prints when data verification completes has very valuable information in pinpointing the cause of the error.

There are basically 3 types of errors that will appear that are easy to identify:

1. Validation Error – Means a field in the database is corrupt.  This will happen if, for example, a client’s bill was being finalized when Timeslips closed and the client’s “Bill Stage” is stuck in a state between “approved” and “proof”.  This field can be corrected with no other database affect.
2. Integrity Error – The structure of the database table is corrupt.  This sounds much worse than it usually is.  There is a utility to rebuild the structure leaving the data intact.  It requires expertise in Timeslips data repair, but it is a successful utility.
3. Index Error – The links between the various tables sometimes need to be reset.  By re-indexing the database, it is often possible to repair the index error.

Another error that is common is “System Error, Code 2″.  This particular error is more difficult to diagnose.  It sometimes has more to do with the environment than it does Timeslips.  Common causes include too many temp files (stored in the computer’s temp folder), a corrupt BDE (Borland Database Engine), or a corrupt statement or bill layout.

Database errors can be resolved.  Don’t panic … read the messages, run data verification and contact an experienced Timeslips consultant such as TSR Consulting Services for assistance.

Q: How do you get to the Data Entry Assistant?
A: From the top menu click SPECIAL … DATA ENTRY ASSISTANT 

Q: What information is available?
A: There are 4 tabs” Slips, A/R, Funds Transactions and Summary.  Set the date range at the top, click UPDATE and select the desired tab to see the data

Q:  What does the Summary tab look like?
A:  Like this:

Click on the other tabs to see the entries added during that time period.

Now that you know about it, check out Timeslips’ Data Entry Assistant feature.   A great way to evaluate your productivity, and to capture more billable time.