2011 practice management annual conference time matters/pclaw link in-depth review mark mccray,...

2011 Practice Management Annual Conference

Time Matters/PCLaw Link In-depth Review

Mark McCray, LexisNexis

September 23, 2011

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Agenda

Introduction

Concepts

Technical Discussion

Troubleshooting

Upcoming Enhancements

Questions

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Introduction

Mark McCrayConsulting Software Engineer

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Introduction

Mark McCrayConsulting Software Engineer

•Lead Developer/Architect/????? For Time Matters and Billing Matters

•Started in April of 1999 •Recent projects include

− Mobility− Exchange Synchronization Rewrite− Upcoming PCLaw enhancements

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Concepts

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Concepts

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Concepts

The primary goal of the PCLaw link is to end the duplication of entries inherent in using separate Billing and Calendar/ Matter Management.

•TM and PCLaw are designed to operate as two systems− Time Matters Sends and Gets information to PCLaw− PCLaw tells Time Matters if something has changed

•Time Matters is the primary Contact (Client) and Matter System− You must decide which system controls matter/contact numbering− We recommend you use PCLaw for numbering

•PCLaw is the primary Billing system− Initial Time and Expense information is sent from TM− Billing (Rates, Discounts, A/R, A/P) is handled by PCLaw

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Concepts

What is linked?

Time Matters   PCLaw

Matter Matter

Contact Client

Billing Item (Time) Time

Billing Item (Expense) Expense

Billing Item (Matter Payable) Accounts Payable

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Concepts

Basic Setup Process

1. Setup the Linka) Turn it on! (Both user and program level)b) Connect to the set of PCLaw booksc) Set Optionsd) Match Codese) Setup Matching Templates

2. Run a first time synchronization3. Cleanup the startup data if needed

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Concepts

Required Contact Mapping

PCLaw Time Matters

First Name First Name

Last Name Last Name

Client Number Area 5, Field 1

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Concepts

Required Matter Mapping

PCLaw Time Matters

Responsible Lawyer Staff or Selected

Type of Law Class Code or Selected

Date Opened Selected (Not kept in TM)

Default Rate Selected (Not kept in TM)

Client Number Area 5, Field 1 of the Contact in Regarding Line

Matter Number Area 5, Field 1

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Concepts

PCLaw Time Matters

Date Billing Date

Matter Matched Matter [ext_con]

Lawyer Matched Lawyer [ext_staff]

Task Code Matched Task [ext_ccode]

Hours Hours [bil_dur]

Rate Price [price] (unless def checked)

Amount Amount [gross]

Description Description [desc] and/or Memo [memo]

Activity Code Activity Code [reference]

Use Defaults Checkbox [ext_default]

Time Entry Mapping

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Concepts

PCLaw Time Matters

Date Billing Date

Matter Matched Matter [ext_con]

Lawyer Matched Lawyer [ext_staff]

Explanation Code Matched Code [ext_ccode]

Quantity Hours [bil_dur]

Rate Price [price] (unless def checked)

Amount Amount [gross]

Description Description [desc] and/or Memo [memo]

Vendor Vendor [reference]

Use Defaults Checkbox [ext_default]

Expense Entry Mapping

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Technical Discussion

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Basic Architecture

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PCLaw Link Major Services

•PLSVCLnk.exe Link Server; essentially the PCLaw link•PLSVCLog.exe Logging Server •PLDocLnk.exe Log maintenance and debug tracing

enabler•PLSvcTM.exe Time Matters interface to PLSVCLnk

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High Level Sync Flow

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Other Tables

PCMATTER•Used to quickly determine if a PCLaw Client/Matter is linked to a PCLaw Record. This file should never be modified outside of Time Matters. If this file gets corrupted, rebuilding the link will attempt to reconstruct it.

PLCACHE•This table is used to cache values from PCLaw and reduce the number of times they must be retrieved from PCLaw

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Troubleshooting

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Troubleshooting

PCLaw changes not going to Time Matters

•PCLaw must know where the location of the TM Program Directory

•This is currently obtained by reading the TMW.INI file for the necessary information

•But wait! These settings are really in the registry!•TM9 introduced INI Redirection. A windows feature that would

redirect any writes to TMW.INI to the following registry entry:HKLM\Software\LexisNexis\Time Matters 9

•PCLaw still relies on this key

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Troubleshooting

Registry Keys - Today

•HKLM\Software\LexisNexis\Time Matters 9\BackOffice− LastActive

• Enterprise or Professional. Should now be only “E”

− ProgDir_E• Time Matters Program Directory containing TMWE.EXE

− TM10Linked• Should be “YES” if PCLaw should send information to Time Matters

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Troubleshooting

Registry Keys – PCLaw SP2•We are creating a common registry key for PCLaw and future

applications to use•HKCU\Software\LexisNexis\PMCommon\TimeMatters\LastRun

− Will be updated each time TM is run, if values have changed− Use caution when running multiple versions of TM (not

recommended)•Values will be

− ProgDir: Location of Time Matters Program Directory− Version: Last version of Time Matters run − PCLawLink: “Y” or “N” value to indicate if PCLaw link is enabled

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Troubleshooting

PLDOCLINK – Located in the PCLaw Program directory. Enables low level logging of transactions

Time Matters changes not going into PCLaw

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PCLaw Link Debug Log

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Mark.McCray@lexisnexis.comQuestions?

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Chief, I think we need the “cone of silence”

Upcoming Enhancements

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Upcoming Enhancements

The following enhancements are in the design stage, so your input is valuable. Please remember our usual caveats:

• These are targeted enhancements, not promises • We are not announcing an availability date• Since we have not made the changes, the actual result may be

different than what we show today• Please do not tweet/blog about these until we have

announced firm details

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Upcoming Enhancements

The #1 requested PCLaw Link Enhancement?

Area 5 will no longer be required!

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PCLaw New Client and Matter Wireframes

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Upcoming Enhancements

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Upcoming Enhancements

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Upcoming Enhancements

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Upcoming Enhancements

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Upcoming Enhancements

•Redesigned Setup Screens•New Field Matching Wizard

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Mark.McCray@lexisnexis.comQuestions?