General improving how things look

We have been making a few visual changes to Actionstep. Buttons are now crisper, views look more modern and the whole system is more consistent. For the most part these changes won't change functionality of Actionstep, just make it easier to look at. Over all Actionstep should be simpler to use and easier to navigate through.

The global create button

Part of trying to make things simpler has been removing the create new record options from the menus and move them to a global create button, now up in the top right of the screen beside the search box. This immediately makes it easier to create new records from anywhere in Actionstep. The created records are also smart, capturing details of what you have on screen in the new record you create.

After a little bit of use you are going to find the global create button remarkably speeds up using Actionstep. Read more about the Global Create Button here. 

Improved records

Actionstep have changed the look of some of the different records you create. Time Entries now come with more options and easier flow. Tasks have an improved look and feel to them but all the same functionality. Processing payments against your bills, entering a banking deposits and Write-offs on your bills all have new screens to help make the process simpler and easier.

The Billing screen on a matter

We have replaced the Accounting menu on the matter and the Time records menu  with a new Billing menu. 

This will allow you to see all the records concerning your bills for that matter, including the time or fees you have recorded, the expenses or disbursements against the matter, the existing bills and their payments. It also comes with an overview page to get a quick break down of that matter and a Matter Billing Options page where you can customize how you want that matter to be billed. Read more about Enhanced Matter Billing here.

The Billing menu in the navigation bar

With all the changes to the way in which billing is run in Actionstep we have given Billing it's own menu in the navigation bar at the top of the Actionstep screen. We expect that most users will use this menu to manage their billing and will just use the Accounting menu for expenses, banking and other accounting functions going forward.

This menu will allow you to access a list of your matters that are waiting to be billed and the draft and approved bills (bills waiting to be sent to clients) in your system. You will also be able to access your sent and closed off bills as well as any payments made against those bills. See Mass Billing to help understand these various steps further.  

The My Profile screen

We have moved a lot of the screens that let you set preferences and settings for an individual user into one profile screen. It is still accessed by hovering over your name at the top of the Actionstep screen but we have consolidated the options that were on that menu under one screen. We have also taken the settings from the My Email Preferences page that was found under the Email menu and added it to the My Profile screen. 

The Accounting and Billing options under the Admin menu

We have consolidated some of the screens that were in the Admin menu in Actionstep for Billing and Accounting. Previously there were at least 19 different options or screens that an administrator could access to configure billing and accounting in Actionstep. We have moved all the billing settings into one screen and consolidated the remaining options into 10 options and we will be looking to combine these further gong forward. Read more about Billing Settings screen here.

Other Administration screens and Regional plugins

Again, we have aimed to simplify Actionstep and part of that is to create regional plugins. A lot of Actionstep can be customized to suit your needs but our users found this meant a lot of time setting up the system. On top of that we found people tended to use the same settings anyway. Regional plugins simplify this.

Now when a database is created it will have a number of the settings preset to the preferences preferred by those in their region. Users can still choose to not use these regional plugins and set setting manually but the vast majority will be happy with the settings they have. You will find screens like the System Preferences (Admin > General > System Preferences) is now much simpler to use. 

We have also updated screens like Time Entry Settings to replace the timekeeping preferences screen and other small changes to other admin screens which should make things more logical.

Quick-codes to speed up populating your records

Quick-codes are a way to be able to populate your records faster. They are preset values that you apply to your records, similar to what Activity Types use to do on time records. For now Quick-codes will populate the descriptions on your time records or your bill payments, general retainers and task. We will expand on this going forward so that more from each of these records can be set automatically whenever you select a quick-code. Quick-codes will give you more details on these. 

As you would expect from the name, Enhanced Billing mode is rolling out a lot of changes to the way in which you bill. These changes are designed to produce better efficency in the billing process but also to allow for better reporting for fee allocation.

New Billing settings

To aid in making sure that your users are billing how you want them to, there are new settings to set default vaules and functions that you want to apply to your bills in Actionstep. See the Billing Settings page for what these options are and how they can be set. 

Matter customisation

The work you do for each matter is different so you should be able to bill each matter differently. Each matter comes with it's own Billing options screen where you can set how you want that matter billed. This screen flows in wonderfully with the Mass Billing function of Actionstep. You set the billing settings on your matter and these are applied automatically through mass billing. Read more about the Matter Billing Options for more information. 

Uncomplicated single billing

It is now even easier to review, update and customise the WIP recorded against your matter and how you want it to appear on your bill that you send to the client. See Single Bill for more information. 

Effortless mass billing

Mass billing in Actionstep was alwasy good but we have moved this to a new level. It is now simple to preset the variables for a matters billing in advance to speed up the billing process. You are also able to send and print bills to your clients in bulk with a simple click of the mouse. Our section on Mass Billing give more details. 

Painless general retainer functions

Enhanced Billing mode has added a simple, managable general retainer functions. Control client retainers on your matters a with a straightforward, functional interface. You cna read about automatic application of retainers, how self populating topup notices are added to your client bills and all the standard general retainer functions you could want on this page: General Retainer.

More options feeding through to your bill

We have upgraded the templates that control how the bill you send to a client is formatted. There are now format option to show more details about each item and options to create different sections of your invoice to show the information you what where you want it, how you want it displayed and summarized and ordered. 

Your bill tempaltes can now pull in and display more information as well. From general retainer details, to trust transactions to previous payments and debtor statement information.

We also have more default templates to choose from that will generate faster in your mass billing. 

As well as a huge amount of small incremental changes we have introduced brand new Billing reports and we have updated (and will continue to update) a number of the existing reports. Other improvement include an upgraded how data can be imported ino Actionstep, how you can select recipents when composing emails, more options that can be displayed in list viewshow expenses in your GL can be linked to Income accounts for billing purposes and how you can now record signatures aginst contacts to pull into your invocies and documents.