Lesson #112
Setup – Lists function
Lists in MR9 allow users to choose an entry from a set of available values — saving time and reducing errors that result from keying in entries. MR9 includes initial values and defaults for lists used throughout the system, and you can run your business using these defaults. You can also edit, hide, merge, or delete most of these entries. You cannot create new lists, but you can add your own entries to most MR9 lists.
Managing lists
When setting up your MR9 system, take some time to customize its default lists to better match your company. You can revise a list at any time you have new options to add or unused options you’d like to remove/hide.
You can set each list’s default entry which will appear in any field tied to that list. Default entries cannot be deleted. If you want to delete a default-designated entry, you must set a different entry in the list as the default. Then you can delete the other entry if it is not required by MR9.
If you no longer need a particular entry — but want to keep its historical data — you can merge it into an existing entry of the same data type if it is not required by MR9.
If you don’t want to delete an entry or merge it into another entry— but you also don’t want it to appear as a list option in MR9 — you can de-activate it if it is not required by MR9. It will still exist in the database but it will be hidden.
You can export any list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, print, or use in other applications.
Lists can be customized for:
- Accounting: Although MR is not an accounting system, it does track many financial aspects of your business. Its data can be used with QuickBooks, and it replaces separate billing software.
Set up categories for types of accounts, financial transactions, names for types of custodian fees, payments, payment terms, and units of service items (e.g., pages, miles, or hours).
Also set up billing rate groups: parent structures for related billing rates. (You could have 100s of billing rates, which can quickly become overwhelming without some sort of organizing capability.) You will assign each billing rate table, firm, contact, and party to an order to a billing rate group . - Connect: MR Connect is the MR9 plug-in that gives your clients and third parties direct access to your office via the internet.
Set up designations for MR Connect support ticket ratings and status (e.g., Awaiting Response or Closed). - Contacts: Contacts are people who work at firms that order services from you.
Set up categories for types of contacts, notes, work turnaround preferences, credit ratings, and tags to organize contacts. Also set up gender classifications, work titles, and salutations. - Firms: Firms are companies you do business with: They order services from you, e.g., a law firm, or they are a third party that pays you, e.g., an insurance company.
Set up categories for types of firms, notes, credit ratings, collection actions, and tags to organize firms. Also set up designations for account status, class (the quality or ranking of a firm), and client sources (how clients heard of you). - Invoice: Set up categories (Groups) for invoice headers and messages so you can find what you want when invoicing without having to scroll through all of your invoice headers or messages. Also set up categories for invoice types and notes types to use as search filters.
- Locations: Set up categories for types of locations, departments within locations, doctor specialties and titles, notes, ways subpoenas are served, and tags to organize locations your runners visit.
- Orders: Set up categories for types of cases, special kinds of dates, sides represented in a suit, notes about the related case or parties, how orders are received by your company, and case statuses — such as in progress or settled.
- Others: Set up categories for types of events to acknowledge — such as client birthdays and anniversaries, how notes in Notes Logs were received (e.g., System, Email, or call), and award point redemption like gift cards or cash.
- Parts: Set up types of actions to take with requests — such as Contact Client — and actions taken — such as Call Made or Email Sent, admissibility of records, types of record being obtained e.g. Medical or Billing, categories of scheduling actions — such as mail requests or pick up records, part statuses — such as records obtained or part canceled, and categories of subpoenas — such as for a person or document.
- Production: Set up designations for how products are delivered to clients, e.g. USPS, courier, or FedEx.
- Repository: Set up designations for types of files that you will store in MR9 — such as notices and delivery receipts — to aid in finding files once stored. Some designations are pre-set by MR9 and cannot be deleted or edited, except options to show or hide on MR Connect.
- Tracking: Set up categories for items/services you want to track — such as records and process serving — and the priority of tracked items — such as rush or low.
- Users: Users are people on your staff who directly access MR9 — as opposed to contacts who access your office through MR Connect.
Set up categories for departments in your company and position titles.
TL;DR: Many lists in MR9 can be customized by adding/editing options to better fit your company.
MR9 concepts in this lesson
Award Points: Used to encourage clients to book with your agency by rewarding them with points for different services.
Billing Rate Groups: Umbrella structures aimed at categorizing your billing rates. Instead of one long list of billing rates, Billing Rate Groups create a series of shorter lists to search through when invoicing clients.
Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with.
Firm: Companies you do business with.
Header Group: Parent structure that contains related invoice headers as its children.
Location: Place where records are stored — such as hospitals, schools, doctors’ offices, or businesses.
Message Group: Parent structure that contains related invoice messages as its children.
MR Connect: Online repository, orders, and access to your office for clients and others. More >
Notes Logs: Un-editable internal-use only notes entered either by a user or automatically by MR9 appear in chronological logs in the database record where they occurred, such as an order, part, invoice, or entity. More >
Order: An order in MR9 is usually a request for all records related to a case or to serve a subpoena for an appearance at a legal proceeding as opposed to a work order.
Part: A part of an order is a work order/request for a single record that is included in the entire body of records for a case or patient.
Tracking: System for keeping track of where production items are in your production cycle and physically in your office.
Users: You and your staff who directly access MR9.
