When it is time for a client to replenish a trust account, use the new Request Trust Deposit feature! Enter the amount requested and select the corresponding IOLTA account. Tabs3 Billing then creates an email message with an embedded payment button. Review the message and send it to your client.
Your client receives the message, clicks the Make Trust Payment button, and funds the trust account by ACH bank transfer or credit/debit card.
Request Trust Deposit is powered by Tabs3Pay, the secure online payments platform built into Tabs3 Billing and Trust Accounting.
Note: The Trust Request feature requires Tabs3 Billing and Trust Accounting Version 2022 (Build 22.2.3) and later. Including a Make a Trust Payment button in a trust request requires a Tabs3Pay merchant account configured in Tabs3 Billing and Trust Accounting. For additional information, see KB Articles R11869, “Configuring Tabs3Pay,” and R11905, “Requesting and Importing Tabs3Pay Online Payments and Trust Deposits.”
Depending on the level of PracticeMaster you have, there may be additional features we have to offer. If you want a quick list of which levels include which features, look no further!
There are four levels of PracticeMaster available. Each of these levels have basic features included; however, more features are included with each level. The following levels of PracticeMaster are available:
Knowledge Base Article R11548, “PracticeMaster Feature Comparison,” provides a table of PracticeMaster features available, broken down by each level of PracticeMaster.
Take a look at your current license of PracticeMaster to see what features you might be missing out on!
Our Knowledge Base can be accessed at support.Tabs3.com. You can also access our Knowledge Base in the Quick Launch by searching for and selecting “Knowledge Base.”
When was the last time you backed up your Tabs3 Software data and tested the viability of your backup? If your firm was required to restore from a backup right now, how much data would be lost?
Regular backups are critical to the safety of your data. Tabs3 Software automatically prompts you to run a backup when a function cannot be easily reversed or when interruption of a process can cause errors in the data. When prompted to make a backup, review the date and time of the last backup shown on the prompt, and ask yourself how much data will need to be reentered if a restore is required. If you are not comfortable with the amount of work required after restoring, then you should back up your data before going any further. If you regularly find yourself skipping backups because it’s difficult to get every user to exit the software, consider the Platinum edition of Tabs3 Software. The HotBackup feature allows you to make backups while other users are still working in the software and Tabs3 Platinum Software can automatically recover from interruptions to many functions, including Update Statements.
Tabs3 Software provides the ability to back up and restore data from within the software. If you are using the non-Platinum edition of the software, you can keep up to three internal backups with a size limit of 2GB each. If you are using the Platinum edition of the software, backups are practically unlimited! You can keep up to 198 user-defined HotBackups, each limited in size only by the available hard drive space.
But is that enough? Backups made via the Tabs3 Software are considered temporary backups and only include your data files. These backups do not include executable files to run the programs, nor is every file in the Tabs3 Current Working Directory included. We recommend making regular backups of the entire Tabs3 Current Working Directory via a third-party backup program for purposes of recovering from a catastrophic failure, such as flood, theft, server hard drive failure, etc. If you already have a third-party backup in place, make sure that it is periodically tested to verify it is working correctly.
Now may be the perfect time to take a closer look at your current backup strategy and to verify the procedures you have in place. If you cannot take the time to review procedures now, add a reminder to your calendar to review them as soon as possible. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security; backups that don’t restore correctly, or not having a backup, can cost you a great deal in both time and data loss.
For a list of resources on backing your data up and restoring, visit Knowledge Base Article R11524, “Backup/Restore Information Resources.”
Network and hardware failure can cause data corruption in any firm, regardless of preventative measures. Auto-Recovery helps provide peace of mind when faced with these issues.
For example, if you are updating statements and you lose network connectivity in the middle of the update, without Platinum you would have to restore your data and potentially lose many hours of work. Not so with Auto-Recovery! Auto-Recovery monitors the software. When it recognizes a transaction has not completed properly, it rolls back the database to its previous state before the database transaction began.
In the case of Update Statements being interrupted, Auto-Recovery means that if the interruption occurs during the update to client 1240.00’s statement, then all statements prior to client 1240.00 will remain updated, while client 1240.00 will be “rolled back” to the state before you started Update Statements. You will simply receive a message indicating that Update Statements needs to be run again.
This is a powerful feature that can save your firm time and money. Power failures, computer crashes, and network failures can occur on even the best networks. Auto-Recovery helps greatly reduce the impact of these issues.
For more information about Platinum features, see Knowledge Base Article R11379, “Platinum Overview.” If you have any questions regarding Platinum features, contact your local consultant, or call Technical Support at (402) 419-2210.
Finding that perfect report can be so satisfying! When it comes to tracking your clients’ billing and payment history, the Client Ledger Report has it all!
Check out the Client Ledger Report video to see how you can easily view detailed information about statements, payments, and write offs for your clients, all in one place. This report also includes drill-down capabilities, which makes it easy to view an updated statement or to find out more about how a payment was allocated.
Watch this three-minute video here:
Training Videos can be accessed at Tabs3.com/videos. You can also access the videos in the Quick Launch by searching for and selecting “Training Videos.”
Did you know that there are several files throughout the software in which you can mark people or accounts as inactive? Selecting the Inactive check box provides the ability to keep the associated history, but removes the ability to accidentally add associated records. You can also typically choose whether or not you want to include inactive people or accounts on lookup windows and reports.
Records in the following files can be marked as inactive:
For more information on marking files inactive, press F1 to open the Help, enter “inactive” on the Index tab, and select the desired topic.
You can filter clients in Tabs3 Billing to only show clients with the Task Based Billing check box selected.
To filter clients for Task Based Billing matters
You can use the Merge Contacts function to combine the contacts, selecting which information to keep from each record.
To merge two contacts
For more information on the Merge Contact utility refer to the Knowledge Base Article R11396, “Merge Contacts Program Simplifies Contact Cleanup.”
The Renumber Trust Account utility can be used to change the bank account associated with a trust account.
To change the bank account associated with a trust account
Note: You cannot renumber a trust account with reconciled or combined transactions to use a different bank account. Additionally, the Trust ID and Bank number you are renumbering the account to cannot already exist.
By default, aging periods are set to 30-day intervals, but these can be changed as necessary via Customization.
To change the aging periods
The next time you run the Aged Unpaid Invoices Report, the new aging periods you defined will be used.
Note: Aging periods must be defined in descending order.
General Ledger allows you to specify the starting month of your fiscal year. This option is reflected in reports and Account Information windows, and can be changed at any time.
To specify a new Beginning Fiscal Month