Time Matters 6.0 - Dec/Jan '05

Time Matters 6.0

Time Matters 6 comes in the Professional (standard) version and the Structured Query Language-based Enterprise version, with the addition of Billing Matters and Billing Matters Plus. I have to say this early: Unless Time Matters 6’s changes are important to you, wait to upgrade when the product is on sale.

Time Matters, Billing Matters and Billing Matters Plus share the same database and are not installed with separate CDs. Users can choose which of the modules they want to activate. If a customer orders Time Matters with Billing Matters and Billing Matters Plus, the product ships activated and ready to use. If you choose to purchase additional licenses or products, you get an unlock code. Billing Matters Plus adds back office accounting — accounts payable and receivable, general ledger, check writing and reconciliation, and more. Billing Matters Plus might obviate the need to separately purchase Intuit’s QuickBooks, although I didn’t see anything mentioned about payroll services — a feature I rely on with my QuickBooks Pro.

Out of the box, I hardly noticed any changes to version 6. The upgrades seem more like a version 5.1 than 6 to me, but if they are useful to you, you might say they are evolutionary. For example, version 6 adds a New Outliner/Case Planner/
Project Planner. Document management enhancements were made for handling Excel, PowerPoint and Acrobat files. Now there is wired and wireless synchronization of Time Matters data to Research In Motion BlackBerry devices, duplicate records checking and resolution, security group and profile management, enhanced relations between all records, integration with LexisNexis CourtLink Docket Search and Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator, improved spell check and more.

The new outliner allows you to break up the tasks into segments. You also can assign them as you would any other entry in Time Matters. You then can transform this into a scheduled telephone call, task or event. If Billing Matters Plus was intended to take a bite of QuickBooks’ market, then it appears the Time Matters outliner was designed to crush CaseSoft’s NoteMap.

Other benefits included the ability to use the document management features with Portable Document Format files. For example, if you are using a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner, you can activate the Time Matters macro and have your PDF file linked to your Time Matters records. There is a similar functionality with Excel and PowerPoint.

In addition, there are improved security features. In a large firm, you might want to grant partners full access to files, while associates and paralegals have less. With the upgrade, you can more handily create templates of security profiles. You also can modify a particular user from the template. Purportedly, Information Technology departments have clamored for this feature and one administrator claimed this feature alone will save him an hour a day.

Enhanced Outlook integration also is available. You easily can connect your e-mails with Time Matters even from Outlook, rather than requiring Time Matters’ own e-mail client.

I went from the Professional edition to the SQL edition. I get less system crashes than when using the Professional edition, but unless you regularly import your e-mails directly into Time Matters or have a lot of users, there is no real compelling reason to upgrade to SQL.

Getting the upgrade to configure properly killed a day and cost me $150 in tech support calls, but once I had everything configured, things were fine. Also, if you want to add additional users, you have to pay the fee to upgrade for the number of licenses you have.

When you upgrade an SQL database, you are not just renaming a file — you have to “Repopulate” the database. Fortunately, the completed upgrade safely brings back all of your data and functionality seamlessly, leaving your prior installation and database intact.

Time Matters 6.0
LexisNexis Time Matters
www.timematters.com
(800) 328-2898
Price: $350 for Professional, $700 for Enterprise.

Pentium III 450MHz or better. Windows 95/98/NT4.0/2000/
XP/Server.

Reviewed by Gary B. Garland, an elder law attorney with offices in Freehold, N.J., Manchester, N.J. and New York City. He also is the administrator of www.gadgetaddict.com and can be reached at gary@gadgetaddict.com.

Dec/Jan '05 Issue

PROS
This already refined package upgrades seamlessly from prior versions.

CONS
Its new features might not do much for all users.

VERDICT
Improvements over version 5 are hardly noticeable to me, although they might be critical to other firms. If you have never tried Time Matters, it’s still a top-notch application to run your practice more efficiently.