PCLaw – Using the Time Calendar

I find that many of our clients, especially the ones who have used PCLaw for a long time, do not know about the Time Calendar in PCLaw.  I don’t recall which version this was added, but it is a great tool for timekeepers.  If you only use PCLaw for accounting and are not using the calendar features, then Calendars are probably turned off in system settings.

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There are several steps involved in activating this feature, so unless you know it is there, you may not be taking advantage of the tool.

1.  Activate Calendars in System Settings under the Front Office Tab.
2. For each timekeeper, you must choose Use Calendar under Lawyers & Rates.  You can also set a daily goal for the number of hours per day.
3. In security, you must grant access to calendars for each user.  Here you can limit the user so that he can only see his time calendar, not other timekeepers. You may want your managers to be able to access all, but limit others.
4. In Workstation settings, under the Calendar tab, you can set defaults for the user so that when they select calendar, the proper calendar is already selected.

Once you have the system setup, when you open the Calendar and got to the Time Tab, for each day of the selected Calendar month, the Time tab displays:

• posted hours and time value

• the sum of separated billable and non-billable tasks

• the days of the month

• the daily goal which is set on the General tab of Lawyers and Rates

Hours posted for the day that do not meet the daily goal or have no time recorded are displayed in red.

From the Time Calendar, you can double click a day to open the timesheet, add time, modify time entries, as long as the time has not already been billed.

Because you should NOT use delay post just so you can see the total hours, go ahead and post the timesheet, then use the Time Calendar to view and/or modify.

This is a great tool – I hope you take advantage of it going forward.

Written By:  Pat Cunningham