To all Law Office Daylite Users: Please Help

I am one day away from buying 3 copies of Daylite for the law office i work at. I would like to know (after reading all of the posts about billings not integrating for multiple users and daylite/blackberry synch issues) what other people are using as a complete solution.

for example:

are you using Daylite for client and cases then using billings on EACH attorneys machines separately with no synching--to keep time? Are you using a different multi-user billing solution like IBiz and then havin 2 separate worlds?

Are you doing all of your contact synching through AddressBook as a middleman>

thanks for the help

Tim

I can't vouch for all law offices, but what some offices are doing is as follows:

1) Users enter their various appointments, and tasks in Daylite
2) There is only one person doing the Billing and that person uses Billings on one computer only
3) When they are doing the billings, they prepare a smart list for each user, specific category (i.e Billable) and project (in the case of appt, they specify the status as "Confirmed")
4) They then send this stuff to Billings (Actions -> Send to Billings (Working))
5) The biller then changes the category (bulk edit, "Billed") or remember the date range
6) They enter the required expenses in Billings directly (not sure how they do the paper trail on that)

As an option, you can use the same process, then use the copy/paste/export the required columns and then import into another billing application. See the KB on how export.


Yet another option is just to use Billings. Each lawyer has Billings.
1) There is only one official biller using one computer
2) Individual lawyers select their various working slips and export them in .bex format (File -> Export -> Export Slips) and email to the biller
3) Once sent, they make a fake invoice so that the "working" slips are cleared (they like this because it's a like a record of the action)
4) The biller imports all the .bex files, modifies as required, and sends the final invoice

I think I'm missing a step there - but that is the general idea. Maybe someone can chime in.

HTH

Moved post to the appropriate section.

Forgot to mention about the contacts. What happens is that biller on the billing machines makes sure that the addresses are correct for billing purposes. They do not want to sync at all. It is common that the lawyer will have the specific contact details for the individual they are working with as opposed to the specific billings address and details.

I am trying out the demo of Daylite. I was wondering if any lawyers have used the program for general docket control. Tracking clients, cases and outcomes. I would be interested in how you have adapted the groups, organizations, projects and tasks to accomplish this. Thanks.

We are calling each case a "project" with all parties involved as individual contacts that are linked to it. We are then making "tasks" that are really to-do's that we can view on the right side of the calendar view. We are using the calendar for scheduling and we are using the tasks to bill as well, using a special report we had built for us. in addition, we are using DMI to link our emails to the cases. Of course we haven't even scratched the surface.

Tim

I use the DL Projects for case management (personal injury) and integration with Mail-one of its best features. Each client becomes a project. I use GTD categories for appointments and todos. DL is very good for keeping a case history and setting SOLs, etc. I have not found DL very useful for tracking/referencing either documents or case time line. The Pipeline is cute but I have not found it useful at all for visualizing what needs to happen in a case at a particular time. I'm going to investigate the "reverse activity" feature for a tickler.

I'm using iGTD for visual time line and SOHO Notes for document reference/indexing, excellent. I use case categories for SOHO (Each Client becomes a folder and gets sub-folders for correspondence, discovery, medical scans, costs, pleadings, etc. SOHO is great because it gives you instant views of your scans. Leopard is going to integrate this inits new file view but I'm not sure if its file system will match the versitility of SOHO. It's be great if DL could integrate with SOHO notes-they both use Openbase.

iGTD is a free app that basically integrates iCal type information into a horizontal format with begin and end dates. Using the same GTD categories in iCal and DL, you can sync your activities to all three apps using sync services. Major kudos to DL for adopting this! DL has a mojor limitation (as far as I can tell) in not allowing the user to see across projects by GTD categories. iGTD allows you to see your categories for doing things which is often times more useful than just seeing a calendar or a client's file activity. For instance, in DL, if you make a task or other activity, you have to look at the individual project to see it. If you try to view in appointments or tasks (necessary for planing your week or day), everything shows as one large undistingusihed pile-not useful. The iGTD programmer says he is taking his app to a professional server level, I expect with Leopard which I believe will use that concept for iCal. What iGTD does not allow is toggling GTD sub-calendars for individual clients. All iGTD projects (if you try to create client projects to track) publish to iCal as seperate calendars and then the iCal calendar gets messy. What is needed is a master GTD calendar that allows nested GTD calendars for clients' project needs. I have not tried using iCal's grouping feature, but that may be useful. One can toggle all iCal calendars on-off, so maybe that can be used to isolate projects by GTD categories by just selecting one client's calendar. So far, no product does everything that is needed for a law office. DL, SOHO notes, and iGTD synchronize through iSync and .mac. I'm not getting sync with my Treo650 at the moment and may try missingsync.

I expect that the new templates feature in Mail (Leopard) will introduce integration of Mail with documents and then automatic syncing through .mac.

I have not found the functions in DL (if they are there) that can match FileMakerPro for indexing information. I have a very old program from Clayton Osting called MacLawyer based in FMP. Lots of screens and modules. He has switched to an annual subscriptions so watch for that. It can automatically do billing and various tallies-such as treater costs, wage losses, etc. What it cannot do as well as DL is project management by integrating contacts into projects. If one was creative, you could create look up tables for all contacts, but I just do not have time for that. Its calendering function is not useful unless you are very dedicated. Syncing is at best difficult with FMP across computers and not integrated at all with services.

I just started using Scrivener for writing as it has excellent corkboard utility-but does not sync easily. Excellent program.