Tag Archives: MR9

Lesson #96

Tools – Tag Manager function

Tags — the labels you create in MR9 to organize entities with — can be used to quickly print envelopes or labels for targeted mailings, or to send bulk emails to specific groups. By organizing clients with accurate qualifiers you can do a better job with your outreach efforts. You can also use tags to organize records locations, then use this function to contact them by group.

If you use tags to organize entities, Tag Manager is where you can look up entities by tag, add or remove tags from multiple entities at once, print envelopes and labels for specific groups, and bulk email tagged entities.

Set up tags to re-use

Before using Tag Manager set up tags for contacts, firms, and locations in Lists. You can use any word or phrase as a tag, and use as many tags as you want to define and organize entities. Tags are especially helpful in organizing firms for marketing purposes and contacts for customer service treatment. For example you might have a tag for your 25 best clients (“Top 25”) who require constant monitoring.

Setting up tag lists in MR9 is recommended over entering tags manually in each entity. With preset lists users select tags from drop-downs — which is faster than typing and eliminates misspellings — plus everyone in your company will have the same options to select from. A tag manually entered in one entity is not available to select later until you add it to a tag list.

Apply tags to entities

You can tag entities one at a time — for example tag new customers as you enter them in MR9. But if you have a group of entities to tag, use Tag Manager where you can bulk update a set of entities at once. In Tag Manager you can search for firms, contacts, and locations by name or tag. If searching by tag you can select one from the contextual drop-down or key in a partial/full tag name in the field to find manually entered tags. You can also search for contacts by firm.

Using tags in Tag Manager

The results grid in Tag Manager displays the name and address of each entity that matches your search criteria. It also shows if a displayed entity is active — e.g., a client who is still scheduling jobs. This is useful if you want to send emails, letters, etc. to only active or inactive clients.

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function, MR9 will revert back to the default order). Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

After finding entities in Tag Manager you can view the details of any entry in the results by clicking its hyperlink.

Add tags to multiple entities at once by selecting them in Tag Manager results, then choosing a tag in the drop-down and saving your choice.

Remove a tag from a group of entities at once is a just-as-easy similar process.

If you want to do a mass mailing from MR9, first find firms, contacts, or locations in Tag Manager. Then print envelopes or mailing labels for the selected entities. Or similarly send contacts, or locations an email directly from this function.

TL;DR: After tagging entities use the Tag Manager to look up tagged entities, email selected entities, print envelopes or labels for targeted mailings, quickly remove tags from entities, and add more tags to entities.

MR concepts in this lesson

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with — such as attorneys.

Entity: Individual, business, place, or discrete part of your company — such as revenue centers or branch offices. More >

Firm: Business you provide services to — usually law firms.

Location: Place where records are stored — such as hospitals.

Tags: Labels you create in MR to organize entities with relevant, searchable keywords or phrases.

Lesson #95

Tools – Bulk Update function

When something changes that affects a lot of entities — for example you have a new sales representative — save time by changing that particular setting (field) for a group of records —i.e., all of the affected contacts — at once. Use the Bulk Update function to update multiple  firms, contacts, or locations at the same time.

Depending on the information you want to change, you select:

1. The group of records (firms, contacts, or locations) where that information is stored.
2. The specific field in those records that you want to update.
3. (Depending on the field you selected) the value you want in that field.
4. Which specific entries in the group of records you want to update.

Update contacts

For contacts, you can update their billing rates, their classification, whether or not to send them marketing materials, their designated gender, credit rating, client rep, sales rep, what salutation to use in addressing them, and their preferred methods for receiving invoices and statements.

You can choose to change every listing in Contacts, only those listings for contacts that are still doing business with you (active clients), or select a custom set of contacts to update — such as all the contacts at one firm. You can also search for all contacts assigned to a single client rep or sales rep if you are bulk updating those contacts to a new client rep or sales rep.

Update firms

For firms, you can update many more fields:

• Current account status
• Whether to show detailed breakdowns on their invoices
• Billing rates
• Your ranking of them (the type of firm they are or their value to you)
• Credit rating
• Whether they are Cash on Delivery (COD)
• Sales rep or client rep they belong to
• Staff responsible for collecting payments from them
• Whether monthly statements are printed for each contact at this firm separately or combined and sent to “Accounts Payable”
• Percentage you deduct if you offer a negotiated discount on all the firms’ invoices
• Whether or not to send them marketing materials
• Percentage you charge the firms monthly on past-due invoices
• Type of firm (e.g., law firm, insurance company, corporation)
• Deadline in business days past the payment terms of invoices for the firms to render payment before MR notifies you to start collection efforts
• Percentage you charge the firms as a one-time account service fee on past-due invoices
• Firm designated as the firms’ headquarters (Parent Firm)
• Terms for payment that will appear on the firms’ invoices
• Percentage for the state sales tax for the firms
• Where the firms heard of you (source of initial contact)
• Method for receiving consolidated statements

Like contacts, you can choose to change every listing in Firms, only active firms, or a custom set of specific firms. You can also search for all firms assigned to a single sales rep if you are bulk updating those firms to a new sales rep.

Update locations

For locations you can update:

• Who on your staff handles these locations
• The category of the facilities where records are stored, e.g., hospital, courthouse, or school
• A different entity that handles the release of information (ROI) for these locations

As with the other entities, you can choose to change every listing in Locations, only active locations, or a custom set of specific locations.

There is no Undo in Bulk Update

When you select Update All for firms, contacts, or locations, MR9 warns you that you are about to update all the entities in the selected table and you must affirm that you want to change the entire table. The default reply is No to help minimize errors made with this irreversible command.

NOTE: In addition to the stand-alone Bulk Update function, Billing Rates has a Mass Update feature (in the Service Item Master), which you can use to update rates in multiple billing rate tables at once. With these power-user features, you will be able to keep your MR database updated more easily.

TL;DR: If you have a number of entities that need the same information changed, save time by changing them all at once.

MR9 concepts in this lesson

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with — such as attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, legal assistants, claim adjusters, and court clerks.

Firm: Business you provide services to — usually law firms, but can also be other court reporting firms, vendors, insurance companies, corporate clients, and courts.

Location: Place where records are stored — such as hospitals, schools, doctors’ offices, or businesses.

Parent Firm: Headquarters of a multi-branch corporation.

Lesson #94

Tools – Bulk Import function

Data entry and getting MR9 populated is a time-consuming task. One of those long drawn-out processes is entering firms, contacts, and locations from scratch. If you have existing client and location information, don’t re-key these entities into MR9; instead export it to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets from your application, then import it into MR.

MR9 offers 3 import options:

• Firms
• Firms with Contacts
• Locations

If you’re new to MR9 and want to import your clients first, we recommend using Firms with Contacts so you import your client law firms and other entities, such as insurance companies, along with your contacts at those firms at the same time.

Preparation is key

Bringing your client and location databases into MR9 using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets will save you a lot of time but there are a few things to note:

• To import your data into MR9 the Excel spreadsheet must have all of the same column headers in the same order as the Bulk Import headers. So we provide Excel templates to make it easy to set up your spreadsheet correctly. All you have to do is copy and paste your data into the template.
• While you must have the exact same column headers in the exact same order, you do not have to populate all the fields in the spreadsheet. Only required fields in each spreadsheet must have entries in each row in the spreadsheet. For example when importing Firms with Contacts, only the firm name and the contact’s name must be included in each row.
• If you are including an entity’s state you must use the 2-letter USPS abbreviation.
• If you are including email addresses for contacts or locations, each entity should have only one email address.
• When importing entities MR9 does not check the database for duplicate entries. If you discover duplicate entities after importing, you can either delete the duplicate or merge the entries.

Process is easy

After exporting your existing data to an Excel spreadsheet the import process is simple: Select the type of spreadsheet you are importing in Bulk Import and upload the spreadsheet’s .xlsx file.

If the spreadsheet was formatted correctly, the data will appear in the Bulk Import results grid. You can view your entries but not edit them. If you see any errors, you can edit your spreadsheet and re-upload the file or edit the entries in MR9 after importing. If the data looks ok, you can have MR9 import the entries to the appropriate Entity database automatically.

TL;DR: Import existing client and location information from other applications via Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

MR9 concepts in this lesson

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with.

Entity: Individual, business, place, or discrete part of your company, such as revenue centers or branch offices. More >

Firm: Business you provide services to, usually law firms.

Location: Place where records are stored — such as hospitals, schools, doctors’ offices, or businesses.

Lesson #93

DIY in your MR9

Import data, create forms and labels, perform custom data searches, and more in this versatile toolkit. In this module, you can:

• Import existing client and location information from other applications into MR9.
• Quickly update different clients and locations at the same time. 
• Use tags (keywords or phrases) to organize entities like clients or locations. Send emails or regular mail to all entities tagged the same. 
• Create forms and letters using the set of customizable templates in a word processor with mail merge that automatically incorporates your MR9 data. 
• Modify default label templates and create new ones.
• Search notes globally in MR9 Notes Logs.
• Monitor repository usage by in-house staff as well as by clients via MR Connect as required by general security rules for business applications.
• Save copies of your MR9 database to your hard drive/server.
• View automatic emails sent from your MR9.
• Audit entity merges done in your MR9 database.
• Perform custom searches of your MR9 data­base, and create your own reports from the results. (If you require more complex reports from MR9, we offer a plug-in called Data Reader and custom programming if you would like OMTI to create something for you. )
• Import MR9 entities, invoices, paychecks, and payment transactions into QuickBooks. 

Tools functions by name

• Bulk Import
• Bulk Update
• Tag Manager
• Form Templates
• Label Templates
• Notes Finder
• Repository Download Log
• Download Backup File
• Email Log
• Merge History
• Query Maker
• QuickBooks Integrator

TL;DR: Import data, update records, create forms and labels, and more in this versatile toolkit.

MR9 concepts in this lesson

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.

MR Connect: Online repository, orders, and access to your office for clients and others. More >

Lesson #91

Orders – Daily Tracking Summary function

The Daily Tracking Summary list all parts with completed workflows or tracking steps within a specified period. Use this function to produce reports that document your progress for any time period.

The default Daily Tracking Summary lists all tracking items, i.e. workflows, finished today so you can document your day’s progress and fix any errors on the spot. You can change the search criteria to see your progress for a different time frame, focus on other aspects, and/or see information on individual steps in workflows. If you choose to generate a report of your tracking items/workflows, you get an aerial view of your record-gathering progress including each workflow’s:

• Order.Part No.
• Where records are to be retrieved from
• When the part was ordered
• Deadline for obtaining the part’s records
• Where the part is in your production cycle
• MR9 user who is the case coordinator for the order
• Type of item being tracked
• Timeframe for completing the tracked item
• Case name
• Client who ordered records/services
• Part of your business responsible for invoicing the order

If you choose to generate the report by tracking steps, you get a more detailed report that includes all of the above information plus a breakdown of all the finished steps in each workflow listed that displays:

• Timeframe for completing each tracking step in each workflow instead of only the workflow timeframe
• Stage in your workflow where the tracking item is
• Who is responsible for completing the tracking step

Create reports using different criteria

In addition to daily reports, you can generate reports for:

• Different date ranges
• A single manager
• One or more tracking items
• One or more of your company’s business units

If you choose to generate a report breaking down the workflows to see their finished tracking steps and related information, you can also narrow those reports to single MR9 users responsible for tracking steps.

Review  and update

If you notice any errors in the report or want to move an item to the next step, you can update the part from within the report. You can also export the grid as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

TL;DR: Generate reports of all parts with completed tracking steps within a specified period. 

MR9 concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Order: Usually a request for all records related to a case or to serve a subpoena for an appearance at a legal proceeding. This is different from a work order which is called a part in MR9 as it is part of an order. You can have multiple parts/work orders for a single order/case.

Part: A part of an order is a separate record that is being sought that is included in the entire body of records for a case or patient. You can also think of it as the work order for that separate record.

Tracking: System for keeping track of where production items are in your production cycle and physically in your office.

Tracking Item: Workflow specific types of orders go through. For example your process for records retrieval would be a tracking item and the steps in a workflow are called tracking steps. If you have different workflows for different types of records retrieval — or other services you provide like process serving — you can set up multiple tracking items.

Tracking Step: Step in a workflow.

Lesson #87

Reports – Insurance Billing function

When insurance companies ask for a report that breaks down their invoices by law firm and attorney, you can provide this report. The Insurance Billing report lists each Sold To Firm’s invoices, including the invoice number, date, amount billed, balance, related order part number and date, patient name, and the case name. Each Sold To Firm’s listing includes their address and phone number to help the insurance company identify them correctly.

The default report lists each invoice billed directly to an insurance company (or other third party) that was posted today, grouped and subtotaled by client and insurance company, one insurance company to a page (or pages if they have more posted invoices than a page’s worth) with a Grand Total page at the end of the report. The report’s footer displays the searched by post date (today) above the timestamp.

You can generate reports for:

• Different date ranges
• A single Bill To Firm (i.e., the insurance company)
• Subsidiary firms being billed that belong to one parent firm
• Firms in specific Billing Rate Group(s)
• One or more of your company’s business units

Restricting the report to a single Bill To Firm or Bill To Parent Firm will generate the dedicated report insurance companies want.

The report’s footer displays which search criteria you used to generate the particular report with the exception of:

• Blank search fields
• ALL list selections
• If you generate a report for a single resource

If you select two or more items in a  search criteria list, the report will display that as “(multiple values selected).”

You can search for a word or phrase in the onscreen report. MR9 will highlight all instances of your searched word/phrase in the report and list them in a scroll box along with the page number where they occur.

Export the report in a variety of formats to save, share, or edit in another application, or print it.

TL;DR: Produce reports for insurance companies breaking down their invoices by client. 

MR9 concepts in this lesson

Billing Rate Groups: Umbrella structures that categorize your billing rates.

Bill To Firm: The firm responsible for paying the invoice for a job. This firm could be the same as the firm that scheduled the job or ordered services, but also could be a third-party firm, such as an insurance agency.

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Firm: Company you do business with.

Order: Usually a request for all records related to a case or to serve a subpoena for an appearance at a legal proceeding. This is different from a work order which is called a part in MR9 as it is part of an order. You can have multiple parts/work orders for a single order/case.

Parent Firm: Headquarters of a multi-branch corporation.

Part: A part of an order is a separate record that is being sought that is included in the entire body of records for a case or patient. You can also think of it as the work order for that separate record.

Sold To Firm: Firm that ordered the services on the invoice.

Lesson #86

Reports – Client Rating Report function

This report lists all invoices (starting with O&1), grouped and subtotaled by client. Each client is listed with the number of originals and amount billed for originals, number of copies and amount billed for copies, combined totals, their outstanding balance, and payment history.

Default is all invoices posted today in descending order by amount, grouped by firm and contact who ordered the services billed (Sold To Firm).

• Each firm’s listing includes their address and phone number to help you identify them correctly.
• Contacts with qualifying original and/or copy orders appear under their firm name with their posted invoice details broken out.
• At the end of the report, grand totals for each column are listed.
• The report’s footer displays the searched by date (today) above the timestamp.

Customize your reports

You can generate reports for:

• Different date ranges
• Firms that are responsible for paying the invoices (Bill To Firm)
• Subsidiary firms that belong to one parent firm
• A single Sold To or Bill To Firm
• Firms in specific Billing Rate Group(s)
• One or more of your company’s business units

You can sort the list by amount or alphabetically by firm name. Sorting by amount lists clients in descending order starting with total amounts billed for originals, then copies. Sorting this list by amount can generate a holiday gift list. The report’s footer will display which search criteria you used to generate the particular report with the exception of blank search fields, ALL list selections, or if generating a report for a single firm. If you select two or more items in a list, the report will display that as “(multiple values selected).”

You can also choose a summary version that gives each client one line in the report that lists the firm name, the same original and copy breakdowns and combined totals for the firm, their outstanding balance and payment history, It also hides any zero amounts, making it easier to see the other amounts at a glance.

You can search for a word or phrase in the onscreen report. MR9 will highlight all instances of your searched word/phrase in the report and list them in a scroll box along with the page number where they occur. Export the report in a variety of formats to save it and/or edit in another application, or print it.

TL;DR: Generate reports rating clients on original and copy orders. One use of this report is to generate a holiday gift list based on the amounts shown.

MR9 concepts in this lesson

Billing Rate Groups: Umbrella structures that categorize your billing rates.

Bill To Firm: The firm responsible for paying the invoice for a job, usually the Sold To Firm but can be a third party, such as an insurance agency.

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Firm: Business you provide services to, usually law firms.

Parent Firm: Headquarters of a multi-branch corporation.

Sold To Firm: Firm that ordered the services on the invoice.

Lesson #85

Reports – Misc. Sales function

Beyond originals, copies, exhibits, rush charges, mileage, and attendance are a whole host of other charges you bill to your clients called miscellaneous service items. The Misc. Sales report summarizes billed miscellaneous charges by client for a specific date range.

When you set up MR9, you organized your miscellaneous service items into groups of related items called Service Item Subgroups. For example under the Service Item Subgroup “Delivery” you included all of the delivery options you offer, e.g., FedEx, UPS, USPS, courier, DHL, shipping & handling. The Misc. Sales report covers one Service Item Subgroup at a time.

Today’s miscellaneous sales

The default Misc. Sales report shows all miscellaneous charges that are part of your first Service Item Subgroup that were included on any invoices posted today. Service item charges are broken down by firm billed — and the firm totals are further broken down to each contact at the firm that was billed for the relevant service items. Each firm’s listing includes their address and phone number to help you identify them correctly.

Each contact line on the report lists:

• Contact’s name
• Number of times they were billed for the service item
• Total amount they were billed
• Average amount they were billed

A firm totals line appears after each firm’s contact listings. At the end of the report grand totals for the 3 amounts (number of times billed, total amount billed, and average amount billed) are listed.

Other miscellaneous sales reports

You can generate reports for:

• Different date ranges
• Different Service Item Subgroups
• A single service item or several from the same subgroup
• Service items posted for all firms under a single Parent Firm
• Service items posted under one or more of your company’s business units

One way to use this report is to find out which clients are buying services you introduced recently.

You can have the results listed in alphabetical order of the billed firm’s name or in ascending order of the total amount billed. And you can have the report compile results from all contacts in each firm into single firm-wide entries in the list.

The report’s footer will display which search criteria you used to generate the particular report with the exception of blank search fields, ALL list selections, and service items. If you generate a report for a single service item or several from the same subgroup, the service items searched will appear at the top of each page of the report. If you select two or more items in the Business Units list, the report will display that as “(multiple values selected)” in the footer.

You can search for a word or phrase in the onscreen report. MR9 will highlight all instances of your searched word/phrase in the report and list them in a scroll box along with the page number where they occur. Export the report in a variety of formats to save, share, and/or edit in another application, or print it.

TL;DR: View miscellaneous sales charges totals & averages by contact and firm.

MR9 concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with.

Firm: Business you provide services to, usually law firms.

Parent Firm: Headquarters of a multi-branch corporation.

Service items: Regular charges that you bill to your clients.

Service Item Subgroups: Groups of related service items that make billing faster, because instead of scrolling through a long undifferentiated list of all of your miscellaneous service items, you can locate individual items quickly in their small subgroups.

Lesson #81

Payables – Reward Points Analysis function

If you reward your best customers with points based on the business generated by their calls to you, use this function to get a monthly, quarterly, and yearly breakdown of clients’ point activity.

This interactive report lists clients’ yearly, quarterly, and monthly points activity for a defined time span including points earned, points redeemed, adjustments, and transfers.

View current activities or customize the report

Reward Points Analysis defaults to all activities in the current month to date, broken down by firm and contact. You can restrict the results to:

• One or more selected activities
• Different date range
• Single firm or contact at a firm and/or
• One or more redemption types (such as cash or gift cards)

The report defaults to displaying points activity by month and year. You can choose to have it break down activity by quarters too which can be helpful when viewing information over a longer date range.

The report displays a list of all contacts with points activity that fit your search criteria — grouped by firm — in year-to-date totals. Firms are listed in order of points earned in descending order. Contacts are listed similarly within each firm. Each contact’s point activities are subtotaled by type (earned, adjustment, transfer, redemption) in each year, month, and quarter (optionally), with grand totals of each type for the entire date range.

Interact with the report

Like other interactive reports in MR9 you can quickly switch between detailed and summary views of the report. While the default view is to view points activity by contact, you can “collapse” the view to firm listings which merges points activity in each activity type column for all contacts at a firm. You can also toggle individual firms between the collapsed/summary view and the breakdown-by-contact view.

Similarly the initial results in the report are displayed as yearly totals. You can “expand” the view to see the monthly (and quarterly if desired) subtotals and toggle between summary and monthly (and quarterly) views for individual years/quarters.

The Reward Points Analysis report is uneditable. You can export it to save, use in other applications, or print out.

TL;DR: View clients’ point activity by contact or firm in specified date ranges in summary or detailed form.

MR9 concepts in this lesson

Award Points: Used to encourage clients to book with your agency by rewarding them with points for different services. If you have MR Connect, you can allow contacts to request point redemptions online. (Also referred to as reward points.)

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with, such as attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, legal assistants, claim adjusters, and court clerks.

Firm: Business you provide services to, usually law firms, but can also be other court reporting firms, vendors, insurance companies, corporate clients, and courts.

Lesson #77

Payables – Reward Points History function

If you reward your best customers with points based on the business generated by their calls to you, use this function to see at a glance what points-related activities have been done by which contacts.

Reward Points History defaults to all activities (earned, transferred, redeemed, and adjustments) in all stages of completion that occurred today. It lists activities alphabetically by:

• Firm
• Contacts at the firm
• Date
• Type of activity
• Current activity status
• Points earned or used by the activity
• Number of the invoice that earned points
• Method of redemption
• Any related remarks

It includes a points grand total at the bottom of the grid.

You can change the date range, display history for a single firm or contact, view points related to one or more specific activities, and/or restrict the results to one or more activity statuses.

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function MR9 will revert back to the default order).

Reward Points History is an overview only and uneditable. You can export the list of activities as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

NOTE: Contact point history is also available in each enrolled contact’s MR9 listing and in the Reward Points Summary.

Point history in contact listings is all of the contact’s activity in chronological order, most recent first.

Point history in Reward Points Summary is searchable (it is the Reward Points History function defaulting to today’s activities by the contact selected in Reward Points Summary).

TL;DR: Get an overview of clients’ reward points activity.

MR9 concepts in this lesson

Award Points: Used to encourage clients to book with your agency by rewarding them with points for different services. If you have MR Connect, you can allow contacts to request point redemptions online. (Also referred to as reward points.)

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with, such as attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, legal assistants, claim adjusters, and court clerks.

Firm: Business you provide services to, usually law firms, but can also be other court reporting firms, vendors, insurance companies, corporate clients, and courts.