Welcome and Happy Holidays from Orion President and CEO, Paul Yelton
Greetings to all of you! I know that December means “year-end mode” for most of you as you wind up 2012 and shoulder the demands of your law firm during the holiday season. I hope that 2012 has been a good year for your firm and you look forward to a successful 2013.
Here at Orion, 2012 has been a great year for us. We have seen many, many new Orion software installations, several new product releases and a 25% increase in staff! While other software companies are being consolidated and discontinuing their products, Orion continues to grow and expand its product offerings and services. We are 25 years strong and counting!
At Orion we are excited about this coming year. Here are just a few things to keep on your radar:
New Software Enhancements: Working Timekeeper Payment Calendar, integrated Credit Card Processing with PayPros® Legal, New Calendar/Task Views and much, much more. All available at no charge as part of your Software Maintenance.
New Product Announcements: iOrion, the solution for the iOS environment (iPad and iPhone) for Fee/Time Entry, Smart Timers, Client & Matter Status and Client Contacts will be available in early 2013. In addition, Orion will be releasing a new Staff Expense Reimbursement Manager, so stay tuned for more details.
Business Services: Did you know that Orion can provide temporary or full-time business services (billing, AR, Accounts Payable and General Ledger) for your firm? We already do this for about 50 law firms. We can help you as well.
Consulting Services: Need help with a compensation plan? Want an outside source to help you to develop best practices? We can help with that.
Our number one goal it to provide you with the very best software tools and services so you can be more productive.
We will do our best to keep you up-to-date with what you need to know. We’ll continue to publish this newsletter every month. We also will be planning a steady stream of webinars to showcase our products, tips and tricks and other topics designed help your firm.
For 25 years it has been our pleasure to work with the very best clients. My promise to you is that we will never take you for granted. As always, let me know what’s on your mind. Feel free to contact me directly with your thoughts and ideas of Orion.
Orion Holiday Schedule
Christmas/New Year’s Schedule:
December 21 – Office Closes at 2:00 pm
December 24-25 – Office Closed
December 28 – Office Closes at 2:00 pm
December 31 – January 1 – Office Closed
January 2 – Office Reopens
Are You in Violation of State Trust Accounts Requirements?
by: Jeffrey Dorman, Paypros Chief Legal Counsel
We know each state has guidelines and opinions regarding the establishment of trust accounts. As licensed attorneys, we are probably more sensitive to trust accounting issues than other accounting systems associated with our practices. Yet, it is a virtual certainty that if you accept credit card payments for your services – and this is particularly true for trust accounts – you are in breach of your state’s requirements.
Why You Are in Breach
Consult the “cross-default” or “cross collateralization” provisions found in the terms and conditions of your merchant processing agreement. There, you will find that the processor, its sponsor bank (be it Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America, etc.) and their wise counsel have secured your obligations to all your accounts. So, in the event of breach of any of those obligations, such as late payment for a line of credit, they have the right (without notice) to transfer funds from existing accounts to fund the monies then owed. If that transfer happens to come from your credit card trust account, you have unknowingly violated your ethical opinions or guidelines established by the state bar or your supreme court. Moreover, according to your state bar, you are responsible for the wrongful and unlawful invasion of your trust account by the bank. You may be subject to review and possible discipline should an audit be conducted or the violation reported by a client or someone in your firm.
Banks Have No Concept of How a Law Firm Operates
Did your bank inform of you of this critical business issue? Probably not. Congratulations; you have just graduated from credit card processing 101, courtesy of PayPros, the experts in accepting credit card payments for legal practitioners. Such respected legal practice management solutions as Abacus Law and LexisNexis PCLaw work with PayPros, exclusively, to handle their software’s credit card processing functions – and for good reason. We understand your practice needs and offer a business solution, not just a terminal or bank business card referring you to an outsourced customer service center with no understanding of law practice operations.
No Monthly Fees
PayPros differs from other providers in that we charge no monthly statement fees, no setup fees for operating accounts and trust accounts, and require no monthly minimum processing volume. If you do not process, you do not pay; it’s that simple.
A Final Consideration
If you were a general practitioner and had a client who needed a specialist in an area of law in which you did not practice, what would you do? You would refer them to the specialist, naturally. So, why would you trust your bank to handle credit card and eCheck processing, rather than trust the industry specialist in legal practice management solutions?
http://orionlaw.com/lib/fn/StateTrustAccountRequirements.pdf
Kevin Harris of Orion and Walt Romney Jr. of Clyde Snow Publish “IT and the Business of Billable Time” in this Month’s Peer to Peer Issue from ILTA
In both proactive and reactive ways, IT professionals play a central role in billing at a law firm, and their contributions are instrumental to the success of the firm. They are in a position to streamline and increase billings by providing excellent support and software. Their ability to solve technology problems as they arise ensures lawyers and paralegals have a clear path to meeting their hourly targets each day. The more IT cooperates and collaborates with lawyers and staff to create a functional workflow, the more profitable the firm will be and the better morale will be.
To read more click on the following link.
http://orionlaw.com/lib/fn/Business_of_Billable_Time.pdf
Upcoming Webinars
Make sure to attend the upcoming 1099 Reporting webinars first webinar is tomorrow 12/19!
December 19 at 2pm EST
“Getting Ready for IRS Form 1099 Reporting” hosted by Mike Marget, Senior Managing Director and CEO, and Heather Tang, Managing Director and Chief Law Firm Accounting Officer of 4L.
The learning objectives of this 45-minute webinar include:
- How and when to obtain TINs from payees
- Maintaining TINs in the Orion accounting software
- Recognizing which 2012 disbursements must be reported
- Recognizing which bank accounts are covered by the regulations
- Special rules applicable to payments to other lawyers and their clients
This webinar will take place on Wednesday, December 19th at 2pm (EST). You can register for the webinar by clicking here.
January Webinar
January 16 at 2pm EST
“Are You Ready for the January 31 1099 Deadline?” Hosted by Mike Marget Senior Managing Director and CEO, and Heather Tang, Managing Director and Chief Law Firm Accounting Officer of 4L
The learning objectives of this 45-minute webinar include:
Collecting Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) from payees
Extracting data from the Orion accounting software for 1099 reporting purposes
Recognizing which 2012 disbursements must be reported.
Reporting to vendors
Reporting to the IRS
This webinar will be held on Wednesday, January 16th 2013 at 2pm (EST). Click here to register.
Please contact us with any questions you may have.
Support Corner FAQ
Updating Your 1099 and 1096 Forms in Orion for 2012
Although the IRS may not change the layout or format of the 1099-MISC Form or the Form 1096 every year, there can be slight alignment changes needed due to the change in printing presses from year to year. If there are any changes needed on the forms, not only are they compiled into our program but we also provide the revised form styles on our FTP site and will let you know of this (and the appropriate link) so you can download the revised styles.
To learn more about the 1099 and 1096 forms be sure to attend the upcoming December and January webinars and in the meantime check out the Updating Your 1099 article.
http://orionlaw.com/lib/fn/Support_Center_FAQ_December_2012.pdf
Tech Tips
Windows 8 Compatability
Steve Best, Affinity Consulting
If your plan is to install a shiny new operating system on your Windows PC this holiday season, we suggest you hold off – at least until you check with us. Many of the mission-critical law office applications we support are not yet certified by their respective vendors to work with Windows 8. The last thing you need at year-end are glitches in your time/billing/accounting or practice management software due to a premature operating system upgrade.
By most accounts, Windows 8 is notable technological achievement. Our consultants testing Windows 8 agree that it boots more quickly and runs faster than Windows 7 on the same hardware. However, it looks and works in ways that even Windows 7 “experts” are not able to immediately grasp. Most importantly, complex law office software depends on certain code in the operating system. If that operating system code changes, the software may not work properly. There will be a time when we can recommend Windows 8 for your law firm, but we are not there yet.
What if you need a new computer NOW and Windows 8 is the standard operating system offered on every desktop or notebook PC you find on the shelf at Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, etc.? There is no reason to buy “off-the-shelf” computers for your law firm. Pre-configured computers at big box stores are not usually the best choice for the tasks you need your computer to perform in a law office setting. For example, few will have the “Professional” version of Windows with networking and security features needed by any business operation. A custom-configured PC can be ordered from several major computer makers with Windows 7 Professional pre-installed along with the right to upgrade to Windows 8 when you are ready.
OVERVIEW
Orion Law Management Systems,, Inc. has successfully tested and verified that Orion 4.4 software and Pervasive 11
products run on the Windows 8 operating system. Tests were performed with Orion software installed on a clean installation of the operating system in different environment. The contents of this report will define the specific level of compatibility available with Windows 8 and explain the issues and potential problems that may be encountered.
BACKGROUND
Windows 8 differs from previous Windows versions with its unique touch screens and app handling. Windows 8 introduces significant changes to the operating system’s platform, primarily focused towards improving its user experience on mobile
devices such as tablets to rival other mobile operating systems like Android and iOS. As with all software, there can be compatibility issues to worry about… some compatibility breaks are inevitable due to innovations, security tightening, and increased reliability.
DISCLAIMERS
Be aware that Orion applications were developed and released prior to the introduction of Windows 8 and may not function
properly in conjunction with new technologies included with this operating system. This is also true of companion software and most integrated software products used with Orion. However, Orion is committed to offering software solutions that function in current and future Windows environments and will provide updates, patches, work-arounds, and technical recommendations needed to accomplish this goal.
Be advised the level of compatibility will vary between versions of Orion, the various products packaged with Orion, as well as the products integrated with Orion. The specific compatibility issues will depend on a wide variety of factors which are typically beyond Orion’s ability to control. The infinite number of possible configurations combined with the independent actions of operating system producers and other software producers, prevent Orion from guaranteeing successful implementations in every situation. We encourage you to ask us to prequalify any environment prior to deploying a Windows 8 environment.
WINDOWS 8 EDITIONS
Orion will provide technical supportfor the following Windows 8 editions:
Windows 8 Pro
Windows 8 Enterprise
Orion software is not intended for use on typical home user based systems and no support recommendations or work-arounds will be provided for such configurations.
PERVASIVEDATABASESOFTWARE
Orion software is supported on Windows 8 when running Pervasive PSQL v11 client database software. There are no reported issues when running Windows 7 and PSQL v11 client software.
Wireless Network Cards
Current Windows 8 tablets have wireless NIC cards..
Be aware, Orion does not support
communication over a wireless NIC card and requires a 100 mb. connection as a minimum.
3RD PARTY SOFTWARE INTEGRATIONS
Compatibility testing of 3rd Party Software integrations is still ongoing. Check back with this document often to get the latest information regarding supported 3rd party applications.
MICROSOFTOFFICE
Orion software integrations are supported with Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 32 bit exclusively when installed on Windows 7 or Windows XP. Installation of any other Microsoft Office version on another operating system is not recommended or supported.
Worldox GX3
Worldox does not yet recommend Windows 8. Until they do so, Orion does not yet support the Orion integration with
Worldox in this type of environment.
OTHER INTEGRATIONS
Orion did not test other 3rd party software integrations such as WordPerfect and GroupWise, and therefore cannot recommend their use.
CONCLUSIONS
Windows 8 and Orion Financial & Practice Management software provide a user experience very different from previous versions of Windows. With some exceptions, most users will not encounter problems with Orion directly but may with the operating system in general.
Adopting Windows 8 should require additional research and consideration in your business. The primary purpose of the operating system is designed for home and personal use, and not for most businesses.
In conjunction with this report, Orion recommends that users research the various Microsoft and independent web sites to learn more about Windows 8. While we have provided some background, it is important for the reader to do additional research to ensure they understand the changes in Windows 8 that may affect users, applications, and security requirements.
http://orionlaw.com/lib/fn/Windows_8_Compatibility_Statement.pdf