iOrion® Webinar Series
We’ve made the announcement, and iOrion® is now ready to be launched at your firm Join us for an informative webinar on the iOrion® Mobile App for iOS (iPad®, iPad® mini, and iPhone® comptible). Let us show you how this groundbreaking technology will benefit your firm by better managing timekeeping, clients and matters, and much more.
Friday, May 24th 12:00-12:30 PM EDT – This is our last webinar of the series, make sure to register today.
Orion/4L Webinar Series
Orion, in association with 4L Law Firm Services LLC, will be holding it’s next Webinar on Thursday, May 30, 2013. These monthly webinars cover a variety of law firm business topics and are intended to share insights, stimulate ideas and generate discussion of the real-world challenges faced daily by law firm managers.
We have also provided a link to our last webinar for those of you who missed it or would like to re-watch the “Client Trust Accounting – Best Practices for Law Firm Managers Webinar”, click here!
Below is a list of the remaining webinars in this series:
Monthly Accounting Close Process – May 30th Register
Monthly Production Reporting – June 27th Register
Monthly Financial Reporting – July 25th Register
Key Performance Indicators – August 29th Register
May’s Webinar Introduction:
The Monthly Accounting Close Process
Join us Thursday, May 30th at 2PM EDT
Whether your law firm is large or small, your month-end accounting procedures are complex and rely upon the cooperation of many people. Without proper planning and execution, errors will crop into the process. Correcting mistakes is time-consuming, embarrassing and may lead to billing delays and possibly lost revenue.
Client billing and financial reporting require speed and precision on a monthly basis. The faster invoices are out-the-door, the better the firm’s cash flow. Similarly, fast and accurate publishing of production statistics and financial reports leads to a better educated partnership and improved firm management.
The May 2013 Orion/4L Webinar is designed for law firm managers responsible for the monthly accounting activities which drive the firm’s collection cycle and generate the data central to informed firm management decision-making.
The webinar will focus on three simple measures which can be introduced into month-end procedures to promote fast execution of the tasks at hand and lessen the likelihood of errors creeping into billing and financial processes. Click here to register for this webinar.
ALA Annual Conference Wrap-Up
Last month, we concluded another successful ALA Annual Conference and Exposition at the Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center in Washington, DC. We were excited to share/demo iOrion®, Expense Reimbursement Manager and Orion Version 4.5 with the attendees. Thanks to all of your who stopped by the Orion booth. We enjoyed seeing clients and meeting lots of new people at this conference.
ALA Annual Conference Contest Winner
Orion would also like to congratulate Andrew Frey of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, as the winner of our iPad® mini giveaway. Thanks to everyone who participated, make sure to visit our booth at the ALA Regional conferences this fall! Also, check out the “Client Corner” section of this Happenings edition, we announce another way to get great giveaways from Orion!
Orion and PayPros Legal Integration Update
Using the combined power of Orion and PayPros, firms can be more profitable, improving and speeding up their collections and cash flow. In addition, financial tasks can be done more accurately and securely, which have both internal and external benefits for the firm.
Accepting credit/debit cards with Orion, powered by PayPros, adds a host of benefits. Here are just a few reasons why firms choose to accept credit/debit cards from their clients:
Authorization is received in seconds and the money is deposited into your bank account within 24 hours.
Elimintate reconcilliations – payments are processed directly in your Orion Financial Management System.
Accepting credit/debit cards also eliminates the hassle of dealing with bounced checks and associated bank fees.
COMING SOON! PayPros HostPay eInvoice – Now you can create a secure, professional online invoice and email it directly to your client. We will be sharing more information about the new PayPros HostPay eInvoice with you soon.
Product Review –
iOrion®: Fast, Intuitive and Straightforward Mobile Time Management
Originally published on Legal IT Professionals
Written by William J. Dunaway
Among lawyers, I was an early adopter, having used iPhones® and iPads® in my practice since the second generation. Even though I used these devices for years, I had not found the right app to enter time at the office. The iOS compatible time entry systems I tried were not intuitive; they did not work well for me and so after trying a few of them for a while, I stopped using them.
For quite a while, my remote access solution was Logmein.com. I used it to control my desktop with my iPad and that allowed me to enter in time and access data remotely. This was acceptable at a basic level, but it certainly wasn’t ideal. My goal was to open my iPad, have an app pop up prompting me to enter my time – quick in, quick out. Seems simple, doesn’t it? Well believe it or not, it took quite a while before I found what worked for me.
Keeping track of billable time is the bread and butter of a legal practice and it doesn’t have to be the guessing game it used to be. Today, mobile applications created by legal software suppliers are helping legal professionals on the go, like me, enter and keep track of their billable hours with ease.
My firm has used financial and practice management software from Orion Law Management Systems, Inc. for many years, so when they recently released iOrion®, an iOS-compatible (6.x and higher) mobile application, I was intrigued. iOrion allows me to access key Client and Matter information as well as to track, enter and edit my time on my iPhone or iPad. From my standpoint, iOrion’s two most valuable functions are “Time Manager” and “Matters View.” Time Manager allows me to keep track of time and enter billable hours no matter my location and allows me to quickly review my billable hours by day or week. Since I use my time entries as a narrative of my case preparations, it is easy to track the status of cases by simply reviewing my time entries. The Matters View not only provides me access to information about my cases, but also allows me to initiate both emails and phone calls to matter related contacts with a simple touch. Best of all, iOrion then prompts me to bill for the email or call by generating a fee entry. Capturing emails and phone calls automatically is the surest way to guarantee that a busy lawyer is both capturing his/her time AND better serving his/her client.
http://www.legalitprofessionals.com/index.php/col/guest-columns/5426-product-review-iorion-fast-intuitive-and-straightforward-mobile-time-management
Orion wants to hear from you!
Orion is beginning a new contest for our clients to participate in. Do you have a question about Orion software? Or a cool tip that makes your work more efficient? Share these with our other loyal Orion users by submitting your ideas to us. If we choose your question or tip to be featured in our next newsletter, you will receive a $25 gift card!
Support Corner
Financial Management
Support Corner
Financial Management
How Do I Divide Time Between Two or More Matters?
Orion gives you the ability to handle this scenario through the Split Billing Program. The Split Billing Program accessed through Bill Preparation, assumes all fee and expense transactions are recorded to one master (source) Client-Matter number. Any or all of these transactions can be split among 20 different Matters (preferably set up under the same Client number as the source Matter). The full description will be copied to each Matter. To maintain the integrity of billable hours and dollars, the original recorded hours and dollars will be maintained under the source Client-Matter. This must be done to prevent problems which would undoubtedly occur if every transaction were split up to 20 ways…
http://orionlaw.com/lib/fn/Support_Corner_FM_May_2013
Practice Management
What is a Smart Timer and how do I use it?
Smart Timers automatically count the minutes and hours spent on tasks. You can start and stop them whenever you want, and you can create fees from them.
You can enter fee or time transactions by clicking the Smart Timers button from the Orion Desktop Program Group Task Bar. Smart Timers are an easy and powerful way to keep track of time spent performing any client-related task or activity (for example, phone calls, drafting/reviewing e-mail messages, or on- line research). The Smart Timers Manager is a floating window that organizes individual timers into a single view that is set to stay on top of other windows and applications. Smart Timers will help you capture billable time that may not have been noted otherwise…
http://orionlaw.com/lib/fn/Support_Corner_PM_May_2013
Tech Tip
Digital Signing – Improve Efficiency by Reducing Paper Copies
The digital signing of documents has quickly become more widely accepted by the legal community. This is due to many people recognizing the need for a paperless office along with multi-tiered compliance and electronic record keeping. These are the driving forces behind going digital.
Why make the switch to digital signatures? First and foremost, it leads to better organization by allowing you to get rid of paper copies. It’s not unusual for firms to have stacks of boxes filled with nothing but papers that contain important signatures. This takes up valuable real estate space and costs your firm money. More importantly, digital copies are always secure and protected in the event of an emergency.
While digital signatures can come in a wide array of offerings, this article will touch on the basics and discuss how the process works/
How it Works
Again, there are different methods that can be used to capture digital signatures, but we will discuss Adobe’s version. Adobe software is commonly found in law firms and has a strong reputation as a leader in software development. Adobe offers a free service called Adobe E-Signatures, which is quick and easy to set-up. This website can import a copy of your digital signature or help you create a new one. When working with a PDF,the software gives you the ability to easily direct the recipientto where theirsignature is necessary. Upon delivering the PDF document (available through email, or Adobe’s website), the recipients can then choose to electronically sign it. When choosing to sign the document, the recipient must enter a secure code that was created when the Adobe E-Signature account set-up. This code is then verified by encrypted channels, and compared with other important computer information (such as an IP address and other secure information)to further identify you.
After the document has been signed, all involved partiesreceive electronic confirmation of this event. A final
copy of the signed document is also sent out to the sender and receiver. These items can now be filed
electronically into a document management system and are safely preserved forever without wasting a single
sheet of paper.
Is using a Digital Signature Legal?
Before we answer this, we must stress that this is not intended as legal advice. The answer is yes, the acceptance of digital signatures was passed in 2000 and signed into federal law (E-Sign Act) and provides legal authority to digital signatures. 48 States have also ratified the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act that further cements acceptance in the legal community.