Did you know that you can use a timer in Tabs3 Connect? Timers are shared between Tabs3 Connect and PracticeMaster, letting you seamlessly add and edit timers whether you’re in the office or on the go. The timer will continue to track your time even if the browser window closes.
- Tap
to start a new timer. - Tap
to resume a paused timer. - Tap
to pause a timer. - Tap
to see a list of current timers, and optionally convert timers to fees.
For more information on Tabs3 Connect, contact your Tabs3 Software consultant, call Support at (402) 419-2210, or visit Knowledge Base Article R11480, “All About Tabs3 Connect.”
With PracticeMaster, you can use timers to track the time you spend on research, planning, correspondence, and more. However, if you don’t turn timers into fees, you may be missing out on valuable time that can be billed to your clients.
Process Timer Records (from the Quick Launch, search for and select “Process Timer Records”) provides the ability to convert your timer and other journal records into fees. You can optionally process records into individual fees or combine multiple timer records into a single fee, provided the records are for the same client.
To select a record in the Process Timer Records window, click in the 
column or click the 
to place a check mark next to the record. If you want to remove the check mark from a record, click in the column again or click the 
. Once one or more records have been selected:
- Click the Combine to Fee button to combine all selected records into a single fee.
- Click the Convert to Fee button to create individual fees for each selected record.
- Click the Mark as Hidden button to remove the selected record(s) from the Process Timer Records window. (Note: Removing a record from the Process Timer Records window will not remove it from the Journal file.)
When clicking the Combine to Fee or Convert to Fee buttons, a Convert to Fee window will be opened, allowing you to edit the Fee before saving. Default Fee values for each record type (Email, Phone, Research, Timer, and more) can be specified via the Convert to Fee Settings utility (from the Quick Launch, search for and select “Convert to Fee Settings”). Specifying default values such as the tcode, timekeeper, description, and minimum time to bill can help streamline your Process Timer Records routine.
If you’re not already using the Process Timer Records feature, consider adding it to your process to help make sure you’re getting paid for your time.
When it comes to maximizing your billable hours, it’s important to have a reliable timer feature that allows you to easily convert your time into fees.
The Using Timers in PracticeMaster video shows how easy it is to record time spent in meetings, on phone calls, and doing other work, as well as how to quickly convert and process your timer records.
Watch this four-minute video here:
Training Videos can be accessed at Tabs3.com/videos. You can also access the videos while in the software by selecting Help | Training Videos.
In a law firm, there can be an overwhelming amount of information to manage – matter information, contact information, upcoming meetings, research, emails, and documents galore. But there is hope! PracticeMaster can help make you more organized than you’ve ever been before. PracticeMaster provides the tools you need to manage it all.
Calendar – View not just your calendar, but your firm’s calendar. View appointments for a specific client or matter, an employee, or view appointments based on any information in the calendar record such as dates, calendar codes, and location.
Contacts – Don’t just search your list of contacts; see all contacts for any matter at a glance, and every matter in which a particular contact is associated.
Document Management – Specify how you want to name and file your documents, and then let PracticeMaster do it for you! Optionally use Fujitsu® ScanSnap™ to scan and import documents. Quickly see all documents for a case, or different versions of the same kind of documents across all your cases.
Matter Manager – Tie everything for a matter together in one place: calendar records, contacts, email, meeting notes, documents, billing summary, and more!
Conflict of Interest – Maintain ethical walls by searching files, documents, email attachments, and contacts for key words. Optionally limit results to certain files, and more.
Timers – Use timers to track your time, phone tasks, and research. Switch between timers as needed, and then process timer records into fees!
Filtering – Add filters to your files so that you can easily see only those records that you want to see.
QuickViews – QuickViews combine a filter, column layout, and sort option into a tab at the top of the List tab of any file, which allows you to quickly switch your view depending on the records you are working with. Add Smart tabs to provide an additional level of record sorting.
Integration – Integrate calendar records and contacts with Outlook. Install the PracticeMaster toolbar in Outlook®, Internet Explorer, Microsoft® Word, Excel®, PowerPoint®, Adobe® Reader or Acrobat®, and WordPerfect® to save documents and research to PracticeMaster, or to create journal entries, calendar entries, or fees from within the other software. Integration with CalendarRules™, NetDocuments®, and more is also available!
Areas of Practice – Areas of Practice provide a way to save separate information for different types of matters, without having the clutter of everything all in one file or set of files.
Report Writer – Create custom reports using the fields in PracticeMaster.
WorkFlows – Help automate your workload by creating WorkFlows to automatically start tasks or notify other users based on specified events.
Document Assembly – Help automate form letters by creating document templates that pull information from any file in PracticeMaster. Once created, simply select the client and the template, and it does the rest.
For a complete list of PracticeMaster features, refer to Knowledge Base Article R11548, “PracticeMaster Feature Comparison.” For more information about PracticeMaster features or to purchase a license of PracticeMaster, contact your consultant, or contact our Sales Department at (402) 419-2200.
I noticed a coworker viewing their timer records in a calendar view similar to the Daily Calendar. They were able to see the client information and description for each timer record as well. How do I access this feature?
The Visual Timer Display can be accessed via the 
button (Visual Timer Display) in the Timer window or via File | Visual Timer Display. Like the Daily Calendar, each user can customize the properties to show their preferred fields.
To customize the fields in the Visual Timer Display
- From the Maintenance menu, point to Preferences and select Visual Timer Display Properties.
- In the Display Fields section, click the Select Fields button.
- In the Available Fields column, double-click the fields you want to be included in the Visual Timer Display. This moves the fields to the Display Fields column.
- Click OK.
- Click OK.
Did you know that you can convert calendar, e-mail, note, phone, research, timer, and document records into fees? This allows you to easily bill your client for the time spent on their matter.
The Converting Records to Billable Fees video shows you how to convert records to fees via the Matter Manager, Calendar and Journal file, and the Process Timer Records utility. Additionally, this video walks you through the Convert to Fee Settings, which allow you to specify default settings to be used (e.g., Tcode, Minimum Time to Bill, etc.) for each type of record.
Watch this eight-minute video here:
Training Videos can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at Tabs3.com/videos. You can also access Training Videos while in the software by selecting Help | Documentation and then clicking the See also link for Tabs3 and PracticeMaster Training Videos.
You may work with multiple matters throughout the day, so how can you ensure that you are keeping an accurate account of how much time is spent on each task? The PracticeMaster Timer window (File | Timer) can be used to track Time Tasks, Phone Tasks, and Research Tasks. Each record is saved to the Journal 
file and can include the Client, Work Description, Contact, a Description of the task, and more. Start and stop the timer for tasks throughout the day from the Timer window as needed.
Once you’re ready to bill a client for your time, you can easily turn timer records into fees using the Process Fee Records program (File | Process Timer Records). When processed, a record is created in the Fee file for the designated client, and a timer record is maintained in the Journal file. This makes it easy to keep track of your time, and to accurately bill clients for work. Using the PracticeMaster Timer means you will never again have to guess at how much time you spent on tasks.
