I like to keep this blog only about Time Matters but ITP provies a range of services.  One of which is online marketing.  I am also the lead SEO evangelist at ITP and continue to shift my role into more and more online marketing for attorneys.  We are running a seminar remotely or live in Milwaukee, WI Dec 8th.  Register here: www.itprosusa.com/seminar  or watch a short preview I gave recently to 150 people at HTHH below:

Just a reminder as we roll out the TM 10.0 upgrades that if you are running SQL 2000 that is a no go.  You need SQL 2005 or higher, yes it works with SQL 2008.  It does include SQL 2005 express which works fine but note the 4GB database limit.  Firms who are about 20 people or more should seriously consider purchasing regular SQL.  Contact us today with questions.

In addition Time Matters 10.0 will also require .NET Framework 3.5 and the latest windows service packs.  We are seeing workstations that are behind in Windows updates and/or Office (Outlook) updates are having Time Matters crashing issues.

Have a failed Time Matters 10.0 upgrade?  Please contact us we are helping many people through the transition to a more stable TM 10.0

Daylight savings time should not be a scary time for your Time Matters installation but remember that most issues with event dates/times come from syncing issues.  DST is the time to remind all your staff with mobile devices which sync manually with TM that BEFORE you sync for the 1st time after DST to check that the phone, the computer and Time Matters all agree as to the time.  We have seen clients with phones that have not updated shift times in Time Matters.  For our very paranoid clients we take an extra backup of their calendar using export/dump to excel or outlook to pst.  If you want to join in their paranoia go for it.

We really encourage clients to seek the help of an experienced CIC when performing the upgrade from time mattes 9 to time matters 10.  Especially, if you are coming from time matters professional and coming to time matters 10 which is now all on the enterprise or SQL platform. Your professional database must be 100% free of errors before the transition or your Time Matters 10 will not run properly.

Another quick note Time Matters 10 minimum requirements now drops support for SQL 2000.  You must be using SQL 2005 or SQL 2008.  The “Express” or free versions are fine as long as your database fits comfortably below 4GB which most firms with 20 or less people will not have a problem doing.

Just a heads up to all our Billing Matter clients.  If you get a transaction of of balance error in Time Matters 9 after applying 2 partial payments to the same invoice you will have to remove the invoice as well as save and copy each billing entry to recreate the bill properly.  Often transaction out of balance issues can be resolved by deleting payments and deposits and then the offending invoice sometimes you have to go a step further.  Lexis has resolved this issue in TM 10 so a reason to upgrade if you get lots of partial payments.

Time Matters 10.0 is here.  We were not the first to break it because we were waiting for Lexis to roll out everyone’s keys not everyone got them at the same time.  Officially at ITP we are holding off client upgrades until our version can be further tested.  On clean installs it works great but we need to see it with existing migrations.  Certainly the installer is much improved with the inclusion of SQL Express install built in as well as using the customer key for the SA password-  a clear response to the common problem of losing the SA or tm9user password being a major problem for people.

If you are already an ITP client we have a few installs scheduled for those people who want to be bleeding edge.  We will use those experiences to help everyone.  If you are not a client and having issues please ping us so we can help.  Keep in mind CIC’s have a special call in number to get to tier 2 support faster so if your having issues often CIC’s can help.

Hoping for a good release and to log any issues so we can pass them along for the first SR.

For those who also got the message about Billing Matters being phased out hopefully your CIC’s gave you the heads up.  ITP is certified in PCLaw and Time Matters/Billing Matters so if you need to know the differences and want to stay ahead of that curve give us a ring we are happy to discuss it.

Time Matters 10 release date is still unknown.  It is in 2nd round of beta and we are told it will be coming soon.  For those on maintenance obviously you will get Time Matters 10.0 keys emailed to you when it is available.  For those still on the fence about the upgrade or purchasing support give our office a call and we can go through the benefits for your environment specifically.  If you are coming from Time Matters Professional going to Time Matters 10 it is important to discuss an experienced Time Matters consultant and IT firm (or the combination like us) to review and determine whether your environment is ready for Microsoft SQL which will be required as a part of Time Matters 10.  The free SQL Express version comes bundled with the new installer.  As always use a good consultant to ensure your data makes a healthy transition.

Next post will discuss using Time Matters while out of the office.

Sorry for not hearing from us we are very busy around the office lately.

Just a reminder to all our clients and listeners using Time Matters 9.0 or higher meaning this will apply to Time Matters version 10.0 as well that use Time Matters on Terminal Server:  Time Matters 9.0 and high will NOT work in Terminal Services when you have set the resolution to less than 32bit.  Often times when connecting to servers in order to decrease the bandwith needed other IT firms or staff will try connecting in a lower “bit” or with less colors.  This also applies to the TM exchange sync application.  The problem will show itself in TM randomly crashing during the start up phase.  The system log will indicate a general fault exception and close.  This is not a well document issue I ran into again lately with a client and wanted to make sure it got on the web.

The other day one of our clients was interested in displaying the “Done/Not Done” information for to-do records under the Related tab of a Matter form.  While there is a button to set Related Records Options above the related records list in a Matter form, adding fields (and therefore columns) to this view only works if the customized data type is the only one being displayed.  If all related record types are being displayed (e.g. Contacts, To-Do’s, Events, Notes, etc.), Time Matters will use the default column headers.

Our client did not want to filter the related records within a matter to only display To-Do’s.  There are a couple solutions for those wishing to view custom field information for related To-Do’s and Events:

I. Create a custom PowerView that displays the desired information.  This works well, but can be a little time consuming and complicated for those not wishing to jump into Html programming.

II. Create a custom List Data Area on the Matter form that contains To-Do’s and/or Events.  This is a great option for those that have not fully customized their Secondary and Additional tabs of their Matter forms.  To customize an area go into File, Setup, Template, Form Styles.  Select Matter, then the desired Form Style to customize.  You may right-click on an area, select Customize Area, then set the Area Type to List Data.

If you decide to do this be extremely careful as changes to Form Styles will affect all users.  And there is no “Undo” feature.

III. Finally – and I would recommend this one above the first two – you may customize your Matter Forms to display a To-Do tab containing the desired related To-Do information.  To do so follow the steps below:

1. Go into File, Setup, Templates, Form Tabs.  This will display the “Form Tabs” screen.

2. Under “Record Type” near the top select “Matter”

3. Click the “Add” button.

4. Under “Form Tab” select “To-Do” (leave Tab Label set to &To-Do’s)

5. Near the bottom select “Classification Codes” instead of “Quick Tabs”

6. Click OK – it will take you back to the “Form Tabs” screen.

7. Select To-Do (it will be near the bottom of the list), then click on the Up arrow near the top to move it near the center of the list.  Just below “Related Records” would be fine.

8. Click on the Close button.

When you open a Matter now you will see a tab for “To-Do.”  Click on the To-Do tab and you will see a list of all To-Do’s related to the matter you have open.

If you wish to customize the columns that appear (if “Done” is not listed, for example), open any Matter, select the new “To-Do” tab and click on the “Properties” button on the toolbar just above the To-Do list (near the middle of the screen).  Click on the “List” tab, then the “Edit List Layout” button.  You can select the “Done” field in the left column, then click “Add” to move it to the right column.  Click OK, then close the Matter and re-open it.  You should now see the “Done” column for all matters.

I ran into an interesting Time Matters problem for a client the other day.  The symptoms were that Time Matters would load, you would get the alert screen and then it would halt.  You could look at menus but not get anywhere.

Time Matters is a heavily SQL driven program in the enterprise version and it can prove to be the canary in the coalmine for network issues.  It immediately felt like a network issue to me.  I checked the usual troubleshooting items for TM network issues.

1)  Firewall off

2)  Antivirus off

3)  Permissions

4)  Network Card has power saving mode turned on

Upon further inspection I noticed that in the network connections the machine felt that it had 2 active network connections.  One, the correct normal internal network card.  The second, was a firewire port (used for extenal hard drives but technically could be used for networking) thought it was on and active.

After disabling the firewire adapter and restarting the machine Time Matters loaded fast and happy.