Mobile time billing is a vital part of legal practice. The Hours keeper app offers mobile timesheet creation on all major mobile devices. Walking into a client’s office for consultation, or attending a taxation at court, nothing is easier than tapping the start and stop on the Hours Keeper app.
Dynamic is designed to provide a compliant, integrated Business and Trust Accounting system for attorneys. But, simply distinguishing trust and business transactions is an easy task. That can even be done manually. The truth is that basic accounting is very simple indeed. But simplicity disappears immediately once custom demands are made of the accounting records. A manual system does not immediately and accurately yield a trial balance, cash book, or ledger report on a given day. Nor can a manual system effortlessly and error free provide multiple trust-to-business transfers during a month, a week or even the same day.
Of course, Dynamic can do all these things.
But there is more.
Dynamic can produce easy to read, custom management accounting reports combining business and trust transactions into a single net balance, combined with file activity. Making it easy for management to see at a glance the state of any file.
Not only are reports streamlined on a file level, but high level overview reports provide a birds eye view, with a drill down to the individual transaction.
Whether you want to look at the data form a high level, to spot trends, or investigate a specific department, file, ledger, or transaction, this is all possible.
But there is more.
Productivity Tools
Dynamic supports a wide range of tools designed to increase productivity.
Productivity tools are designed to make tedious, repetitive tasks fast, easy, and reliable. By automating number crunching the risk of error is reduced, or even completely eliminated. Productivity here means to get more done in the time available. If the same task could be performed manually, without rework or error, in the same time, we have achieved nothing. So our benchmarks are clearly defined: speed in execution, accuracy, with no repetition or rework, and as few errors as possible.
Fee Book: Import Hours Keeper Timesheet
Hours Keeper is a premier time tracking mobile app. And it’s compatible with Dynamic.
Effective time management, and eventually effective time billing is central to legal practice.
Keeping a timesheet is not enough, Timesheetsshould be
flexible
complement operations
easily integrate with the overall accounting system
Manual timesheets require paper, are often left on a desk in a private office and still require re-typing timesheet particulars to a billing sheet or system. The Hours keeper app makes it possible to keep accurate, up to the minute time billing sheets on a mobile device.
Dynamic makes it easy to import the Hours Keeper Timesheet directly into the Fee Book.
Hours Keeper is a market leader in mobile time keeping. Hours Keeper allows to record your daily working hours for each client, including your overtime and break time.
It current has a 3.5 out of 5 rating in the Apple App Store and 4.6 out of 5 on Google Play store for Android. Supporting both Apple and Android, makes it possible to capture accurate timesheet information on almost every smartphone. The app generates a CSV export file, which can be imported raw by Dynamic. This means without any fiddling, the timesheet can be uploaded to the Fee Book.
Speed – beats a manual timesheet any day!
100% accurate. No errors in interpretation or conversion of data from timesheet to billing!
No repetition. No rework. Once the data is captured in the app, it can be imported as is into the Fee Book. Of course, editing the CSV file is possible… But why would you want to do that?
Error free.
And, once the data has been imported to the Fee Book, it can immediately be edited, or billed to a client! Reducing the time delay between finalizing the timesheet and billing to seconds!
Timesheets may be uploaded at any time.
Search for “HoursKeeper” in the Apple App Store or in the Google Play store.
Fee Book: Import from CSV
spreadsheet general
CSV is a multi-purpose, basic text file format which can be opened by any spreadsheet application. Think of a CSV file as a basic, text based spreadsheet. All the data, with none of the tricky hidden columns or display options. What you see is what you get.
This allows the import of Fees into the Fee Book.
A common application is to circulate spreadsheet with fees for a specific matter through the office to be edited and updated by everyone who worked on the matter.
Once complete, the file may then be imported into the Fee Book. Simply select Save As… in the spreadsheet app and choose CSV as the format. Don’t worry about the technical stuff like delimiters and text separators, we have that covered.
A sample file is located in the HelpFile.
Why do we use the Fee Book? Again speed, accuracy and simplicity are the key words. The Dynamic Fee Book is flexible and easy to use, making it the ideal control point for fees originating from various sources.
Dynamic applies a strict interpretation of the ISO8601 date format. Dates are imported in YYYY-MM-DD format only. Other date formats will be rejected.
Please see the Help File for more information.
Core Accounting
Processing: Import from Fee Book
Fast, accurate and no repetition! That’s exactly what the Import from Fee Book does! Once a fee as has been captured into the Fee Book, it can easily be processed into the ledger. The design is intended to support the processing of multiple items simultaneous. No tedious re-typing or copy & paste involved. Processing directly from the Fee Book. And current VAT rates can be applied, while the original work done date will be remembered.
Please see the Help File for more information.
Processing: Import from CSV
CSV is a multi-purpose, basic text file format which can be opened by any spreadsheet application. Think of a CSV file as a basic, text based spreadsheet. All the data, with none of the tricky hidden columns or display options. What you see is what you get.
This allows the import ledger journal type transactions directly into the ledger. Suitable for Opening Balances.
A sample file is located in the HelpFile.
This feature uses the same CSV format as the Fee Book, but supports more transaction types, including Trust Journals.
Please see the Help File for more information.
UDT: User Defined Transactions
UDTs are lists of transactions defined by the user, to be used in dropdown selectors, such as the Fee Book, to quickly and accurately process transactions. The main application is in the Fee Book. Think of each UDT Plan as a menu of Fee Items available to select from.
UDTs can be managed from the Core module, using Config: Manage User Defined Transactions. The workflow is as follows:
Create a new UDT Plan. Each Plan has a name: John’s Corporate Fees
Add items to the Plan, eg Drafting Memorandum of understanding
Use the items from the Plan in the Fee Book
Import Items for a Plan from CSV. This CSV uses a simple format exactly like that displayed on screen:
Type, which must be BFA,
Narrative of up to 200 characters,
a Debit amount,
a Credit which must be 0,
Cascade value, set to A and
Order value of 1. Cascade and Order have not yet been implemented.
UDTs are defined in the Core module and activated by Refresh in the Front Desk.
Please see the Help File for more information.
Tasks: Reconcile Cash Book – Advanced
This amazing feature allows semi-automated processing of CSV transaction history from the bank. Transactions are automatically allocated based on user selection.
Each bank uses their own format. The basic seven column import format is
These files must be edited by the user before import.
The columns ACNO, VAT, VOUCHER, may be left blank, but must be inserted into the source file.
A handy little tool is the CSVConvert application. This can be used to modify the raw file received from the bank into a format more import friendly. CSVConvert is available from our Download page.
Dynamic applies a strict interpretation of the ISO8601 date format. To accommodate different date formats, either dd-mm-yyyy or YYYY-MM-DD (ISO8601), Dynamic allows a date format specification. Please see the Bank Account settings.
The ability to pre-set VAT selection on ledger accounts is not only a great time saver, but also prevents processing errors.
Direct processing from bank transaction history to cash book!
Accurate ledger allocation!
Pre-set VAT selection!
No fuss, easy and accurate bank reconciliation. Exactly what you expect.
Typical applications of this function include the following
Financial Year End entries are easily generated from Income and Expense reports and can conveniently update all affected accounts through a single import. Use Journal type “BJA”
Bad Debt reversals can easily be managed with type “BDX”. Debit the Bad Debt account and credit the relevant client account.
Off line users can maintain spreadsheets with information, such as Fees which can then be conveniently imported into the system. For Fees use type “BFA”
Recoverable Disbursements may be captured manually or loaded from monitoring software, such as telephone or copier solutions. Use Journal type “BJA” or Petty Cash “BPC”
The various transaction types are all ledger based and it is not possible to update a Cash Book using this import.
The Processing: Import from CSV menu item allows the direct processing of transactions from a pre-formatted, prepared CSV file.
The file must follow a layout similar to this: BookType, Matter1, Business2, Description1, Description2, Date, Amount, VAT, Voucher
CSV template in Excel
BookType Users familiar with import of batch transactions in any suite of legal software should be comfortable with this type of file and layout.
Contains a valid transaction type. Only Ledger type transactions are support. Bank transactions such as receipts and cheques cannot be processed here. Valid options are
BJA – Business Journals
BFA – Business Fees
BFX – Business Fee Reversals
BDX – Business Credit Notes
BPC – Business Petty Cash
BBF – Business Balance Brought Forward
TJA – Trust journals
Matter1
An existing ledger account number. The account to be debited.
Business2
An existing ledger account number. The account to be credited.
Description1
Transaction narrative for the account to be debited.
Description2
Transaction narrative for the account to be credited.
Date
A valid date in yyyy-mm-dd format.
Amount
A valid transaction amount. 0.00 transactions are not processed.
VAT
Contains a valid VAT type.
Valid options are
N*0 – No VAT
I*10.00 – Input VAT at 10%
O*17.5 – Output VAT at 17.5%
Voucher
Optional. If blank will be replaced with the word “Import”
Business Balance Brought Forward BBF types are suitable for bringing forward balances from third party accounting records.
Sometimes, Excel will not recognize a CSV file for what it is. Instead of breaking the delimited fields up into separate cells, it will consider each line as a line of text and list the entire line in a single cell.
The problem is typically caused by a mismatch between Windows and Excel Regional Settings.
To fix this permanently, follow these steps:
Windows 8+
Windows Regional Settings
List “,”
Decimal “.”
CSV used to be an abbreviation for Comma Separated Value files, a simple text file format used to import and export data between databases.
At the time of writing this, Microsoft had started using the name Character Separated Value files. This system allows both traditional Comma Separated Value and Character Separated Value files.
Example of traditional CSV (comma): "text 1","text 2","text 3" using a comma: , Example of Microsoft CSV (character): "text 1"|"text 2"|"text 3" using a pipe: |
The CSV export format used by Dynamic has been tested a wide range of systems and should work by default.
Spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice Calc should recognize the data format. It may be necessary to use a Paste Special option, to select the delimiter and separator characters.
Note, sometimes numbers will appear as text and it will not be possible to do calculations. To fix this, follow these steps:
Edit > Find & Replace…
[More Options]
tick Regular Expressions
Search: .+ (a dot and a plus)
Replace: & (the ampersand character)
[Replace All]
This is a very clever trick leveraging the power of Regular Expressions built in to spreadsheet software.
Dynamic CSV reports export and will automatically open in Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice Calc. This has been tested on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.
Hours Keeper is a premier time tracking mobile app. And it’s compatible with Dynamic.
Speed – beats a manual timesheet any day!
Please see the Help File for more information.
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