Not only is there a Reply option for email saved in PracticeMaster, but there are also options to Reply to All and Forward. These options are accessible from the Journal file or on the Journal tab of the Client file via the Take Action group of the Quick Clicks pane, the Edit | Action menu, or the Action group when right-clicking the record.
When you click Reply or Reply to All, PracticeMaster opens the default mail client with the email address from the original journaled email already in the To field.
If any attachments were included in the journal record, they will not be attached when Reply or Reply to All is clicked. If the attachment is needed in the response, use the Forward option instead. This will not prefill the email recipients, but it will include the attached file.
The Convert to Fee Settings control the default values when you convert records to a fee, and can be customized.
To change the Default Timekeeper when converting emails to fees
This can be accomplished via the Client file in PracticeMaster, using Quick Clicks.
To send an email to multiple clients at once
A new email window will open up using the default email program, with the To field populated with your client’s email addresses.
For more options to send mass emails using Tabs3 Software, see Knowledge Base Article R11845, “Exporting Email Addresses from Tabs3 Software.”
Attaching statements to emails one by one is time consuming. Save time by using the Tabs3 Email Statements program to send PDF statements without leaving the software!
With the Email Statements feature, you can automate your billing process by sending batches of statements with just a few clicks! Tabs3 will automatically generate an email message, attach the PDF statement, and send the email. There is no need to manually attach PDFs to emails and your clients will receive their statements faster, which means payments can be received faster.
Emails are streamlined and customizable. Email Templates (Statements | Statement Setup | Email Templates) can be created using a specific From Name and From Address, as well as CC and BCC Recipients. You can create custom messages that automatically include the client, balance due, a LawPay or ProPay payment link, and other information you want using a range of available fields. Simply enter the desired text and add the fields you want to populate. Once your template is set up, you can assign the template to a client’s Bill To Record, or to a group of clients through Change Client Options.
Clients can be set up to receive their statement via mail, email, or both. The option to password protect a client’s PDF file is also available to ensure that only the intended recipient can view the statement.
Once your client is set up to email statements, run your statements as you normally do. After running a final statement and printing any statements that must be sent through the mail, open the Email Statements window (Statements | Email Statements) to review all statements ready to be sent via email. All emails must be marked as Reviewed before they will be sent.
Need to add information to one client’s email for just this statement run? You can edit the email before sending the statement, without editing the template, by selecting the client in question and clicking the View/Edit Email button. When editing an email, you can also attach other files, such as reports, contracts, and other documents, to the email before it’s sent out.
Once you have reviewed emails and made any additions or changes, click the Send Reviewed button. The program will verify whether statements have been updated, and if they have not, you will be provided the option to update at this time. Once they have been updated, your emails will be sent to clients with the statement attached, followed by a confirmation window displaying how many statements were successfully sent.
Customized emails with attached statements can be sent to your clients quickly, securely, and with no additional cost to the firm. If you are not already set up for emailing statements, try it out and see how emailing statements can streamline your billing!
For more information on setting up and using the Email Statements feature, refer to Knowledge Base Article R11338, “Emailing Tabs3 Statements.”
Occasionally, it is necessary to generate a list of clients’ email addresses. This can be especially handy for mass mailings utilizing third-party communication systems.
Knowledge Base Article R11845, “Exporting Email Addresses from Tabs3 Software,” discusses options for creating a list of clients’ emails using Tabs3 or PracticeMaster. Typically these lists are exported to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or comma separated values file (.CSV). From there, you can use these lists to import your contacts into a Mail Merge in Microsoft Word or to a bulk email service such as MailChimp or Constant Contact.
Our Knowledge Base can be accessed at support.Tabs3.com. You can also access our Knowledge Base while in the software by selecting Help | Internet Resources | Knowledge Base.
You can use the Export Email as Outlook Msg option to open the Export Email Message window. This will export the selected email messages as a .MSG file to a specified location. The .MSG file will be created with all current attachments.
To export a journaled email to an .MSG file
The .msg files will be saved to the specified folder using a “yyyymmdd_subject.msg” naming method, where yyyymmdd is the date of the email and subject is the text from the subject field of the message.
An email can be automatically generated when Auto Email Notification (Calendar | Auto Email Configuration) is enabled. The email message will include the meeting information and changes, if any, and will populate the To field with all users listed in the associated calendar record. Simply click Send on the email, and attendees will be notified.
Each user who is assigned to a calendar record must have their email address entered in the User File (File | Open | Select Users) in System Configuration.
Alternatively, if you have the Platinum version of PracticeMaster, a WorkFlow can be set up to automatically send an eNote. For more information on WorkFlows, refer to Knowledge Base Article R11307, “All About WorkFlows.”
I want to send an email to all the contacts that I select on the People tab of the client file. However, when I select Send Email from the Quick Clicks pane, the email is addressed to the Client Contact instead of the Matter Contact. Is there a way to send an email to these contacts via the People tab?
Changing the name of a field in File Maintenance will change to the association of the email address virtual field.
To change the V_Email field name on the People tab to Email_Address
You will now be able to select the Contacts on the people tab and use the Send Email function to generate a mass email to those Contacts.
All the fields in the Journal window, including custom ones, can be accessible when journaling emails from Outlook by clicking the Details button in the Journal window. Alternatively, each User can specify that the Details view is the default for every email they journal.
To always show Details view when journaling emails
This can be accomplished by creating a WorkFlow that prompts the user if they’d like it to run when a Document Management record is created with a particular Document Type (e.g., “Form” or “Proposal”). Fee and email values will be entered automatically.
Once the WorkFlow completes, the document can easily be attached to the email.
To automatically create a fee and start an email every time Document Management records are added with certain Document Types
When run, this WorkFlow will start an email to which the document can be attached. To attach the document to the email, select the PracticeMaster tab of the email, click Attach PM Document, and then select the new Document Management record from the list.
Note: This WorkFlow can be created for each Document Type, as needed.
For more information on WorkFlows, refer to our PracticeMaster WorkFlows Guide at Tabs3.com/support/docs.html or Knowledge Base Article R11307, “All About WorkFlows.”
In Version 19, we added the Attach PM Document button to the PracticeMaster toolbar in Outlook. When composing an email in Outlook, this button is available on the PracticeMaster tab if the PracticeMaster toolbar is installed.
To add multiple managed documents to an outgoing email
You can now finish composing your email and send it. Keep in mind that your or the recipient’s email server may have a limit on the size of attachments that can be included with an email message.
Note: If you only need to send a single managed document to someone, you can also open the document management record in PracticeMaster and click the Send Email option in the Take Action group of the Quick Clicks pane. This will create a new email message in Outlook with the document attached. However, if you need to attach a single managed document to a reply or forwarded email, use the Attach PM Document button instead.
Did you know that the DropBox in Tabs3 and PracticeMaster software serves as a temporary holding area for reports and statements that are output as PDF files via the DropBox print option?
To send reports and statements to the DropBox, select DropBox from the Print window and click OK. The files sent to DropBox are temporary files that are stored on your computer, and will be removed when all Tabs3 and PracticeMaster software is closed. This is perfect for reports that need further action. You can run and review several reports for comparison, or e-mail them to another party for review before printing or saving. This can save you from unnecessary time spent finding, retrieving, and ultimately deleting temporary files.
All of the Tabs3 and PracticeMaster programs use a common DropBox, so all of your files will be accessible from one location. A separate DropBox is maintained for each user. The name of each file is determined by the name of the report. If a report is sent to the DropBox more than once, a number will be appended to the end to differentiate them. For example, if a Client List is run twice, DropBox will display “T3_Client_List.pdf” and “T3_Client_List_1.pdf”. To rename any of the files, right-click on the file and select Rename.
You can also drag and drop files to the DropBox from any Windows folder, as well as drag and drop files from the DropBox to any Windows folder. Items in the DropBox can be opened, saved, printed, e-mailed, and deleted either individually or in a group. When e-mailing DropBox items, your default e-mail program is used to create a new e-mail, and the file(s) selected will be attached. All you need to do is add recipients, your message, and then click Send!
DropBox is a great way to group files for easy handling. All of your files will be in one place for quick review, retention, or removal!
You have a special font you downloaded for your firm to use for statements and reports. Although you print some statements and reports, you also e-mail PDFs of statements and reports to certain clients and third parties. However, did you know that if the e-mail recipient doesn’t have that font installed, the font will be replaced by a different one? When a designated font in a PDF file is not installed on the reader’s computer, the closest substitution font is found and used, but sometimes this can make the PDF more difficult to read.
The solution? You can specify that the font be embedded into the PDF, so that it reaches your recipients as expected.
To embed fonts in PDF files
Note: PDF files with embedded fonts have a larger file size, which may lengthen the processing time when e-mailing statements. Additionally, some fonts cannot be embedded due to copyright laws.
You don’t need to skip the specialty font for your firm; embed the font so that others can view the file as intended!
We are pleased to inform you that we now provide e-mail support to firms with a current maintenance plan! If you have a question for support, but prefer to reach us by e-mail, send us your questions.
To request e-mail support
An auto response will be sent to you confirming that we received your request. Our goal is to reply to e-mails within one business day. However, please keep in mind that time-sensitive inquiries or complex issues should be handled by phone.
Before you can configure the toolbar to automatically journal all outgoing e-mails, you will need to install the Outlook Plug-in.
To install the PracticeMaster Outlook Plug-in
Once the Outlook Plug-in has been installed, you can specify whether new messages will be automatically journaled or not. Additionally, you can specify whether or not the records will be linked. When Linking is enabled, PracticeMaster will maintain a link between the e-mail and the Journal/Calendar/Fee record. When Linking is enabled and you try to create a PracticeMaster record from an e-mail a second time, the existing record will be opened instead. When Linking is disabled, multiple records for the same e-mail may be created.
To automatically journal outgoing e-mails
Keep in mind that these are the default settings. When sending an e-mail, you can click on the PracticeMaster tab in the new message window and select to turn Journaling and/or Linking off for this message. The next e-mail you send will revert back to the default settings.
For more information regarding the features available in PracticeMaster’s Outlook Plug-in, refer to Knowledge Base article R11516, “Configuring the PracticeMaster Outlook Plug-in.”
System Configuration isn’t a program you work in everyday like Tabs3 Billing, but is geared toward setting up certain features of the software. So what settings are controlled in System Configuration, and how do you access it?
Many settings in the software can be set up once and you’re done, but others may need to be updated such as when employees come and go, your server equipment changes, or your firm changes and grows. Although each individual program (Tabs3 Billing, PracticeMaster, etc.) has program-specific customization settings, many System Configuration settings affect more than just a single program.
Note: Manager Access Rights are required to access many of the settings in System Configuration.
System Configuration is used to set up the following features:
How to access System Configuration
You can open System Configuration via your desktop shortcut, if present, or via the Application Toolbar from any of the Tabs3 software. The Application Toolbar is typically located on the right-hand side of the main window and includes buttons for all Tabs3 software for which you have access rights. For more information about accessing System Configuration, press F1 while in the Tabs3 software and enter “System Configuration” on the Index tab.
You may already know that you can securely download PracticeMaster linked files and e-mail attachments onto your Internet-enabled device through Tabs3 Connect, but you may not realize the full potential. E-mails can be journaled to PracticeMaster by all users, which means that you can download e-mail attachments regardless of whose e-mail address received them. This allows you to quickly access information that was sent to any firm member without needing the e-mail to be forwarded to you.
For more information on Tabs3 Connect, contact your reseller and consultant, contact Technical Support at (402) 419-2210, or visit Knowledge Base Article R11480, “All About Tabs3 Connect.”