Notify has been expanded to provide for scheduled, personalized email. This means that you can now schedule and email to be delivered at a future date. Instead of Outlook Tasks or Popup reminders, any recipient email address in the system Address Book can receive a personalized email. Suitable applications include diary scheduling, meeting reminders and birthday or anniversary reminders.
Scheduled emails are centrally stored and Sent to the email recipient on the given date.
Optional, but handy personalization include
Report deadline
Account number
Client Name
An unlimited free form text reminder to clearly indicate the reason why the message was sent and what response is expected.
Send your future self an email to get Dynamic now!
How to set gmail Spam Filter:
The aggressive spam filters on gmail are designed to protect you. However, sometimes gmail is too aggressive and may leave your email unusable. To allow notifications into your gmail Inbox, create a mail filter.
Log in to your gmail account.
Click the GEAR icon at the top right and then click SETTINGS.
Go to FILTERS AND BLOCKED ADDRESSES and click CREATE A NEW FILTER.
In the FROM section, type the email address notify@dynamilta.com to keep it out of your Spam Folder.
Click CREATE FILTER.
Check NEVER SEND IT TO SPAM and ALSO APPLY FILTER TO MATCHING MESSAGES boxes.
There is a gap. The gap is big and it is growing. This gap affects us daily and it needs to be addressed. We need to close this gap.
The
gap exists between the attorney’s Fee Book and every day activities.
As
recently as five years ago, correspondence was mainly by snail mail.
Letters were dictated and typed, signed and sent off in an envelope,
to reach the client in a few days time. The simple act of creating
correspondence was an involved task and physical evidence of the act
remained on the paper file. Communication was slow, formal
and tangible. Whenever a bill was drawn up, each letter on the split
pin in the file made it onto the invoice.
Today
communication is very different. Communication is electronic, with
email dominating the attorney-client communications environment. Use
of instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp (remember that one?) and
Telegram are on the rise. The result is simply that communication is
online and more live than ever before, but this near instant
communication has increased the gap. Communication occurs more
frequently, but billing is less efficient.
This
gap has a name. It is a Billing Gap.
There
is a clear gap where communication is concerned. On the one side
stands the empty Fee Book. On the other side email and instant
messaging platforms. Like a ghost story, the skeletons of old email
messages live on in your Inbox while unbilled email messages haunt
your empty Fee Book.
Regardless
of the underlying fee agreement, care should be taken to keep track
of individual billable items. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
In certain instance every single email sent and received will and
should find its way to the clients’ account. In other cases, a simple
internal log of email sent and received will be sufficient. But,
without an adequate inbox monitoring tool, keeping accurate record
becomes tedious and inaccurate.
In
a law practice, your Inbox can easily become a FeeBox.
Attorneys
indicate they send as many as 60 emails per day. Assuming that each
email also has a response, that is a 120 emails per day, over several
files. Most attorneys fall into one of three categories (a) those who
do not count email and rarely bill for the email sent and received;
(b) those who add generic Various emails sent entries to their
bills, with no clear reference as to the actual number of messages
and their dates and subjects. (c) those who meticulously keep
accurate record of each message sent or received, its time and
subject, creating a clear and accurate billing report of email
correspondence in any given matter.
If
the attorney sends 60 emails per day, at a nominal fee of R28.50 (no
VAT) per item, that amounts to R1 710.00 worth of fees per day. Five
working days results in R8 550.00. Four weeks results in R34 200.00
worth of fees. For email sent only. Double this amount for email
received. Of course, not all messages can and should be billed for.
But the vast majority of communication takes place by email, and this
communication is billable.
Emails
per day 60 @ R28.50
Billing
per day R1 710.00
Billing
per week R8 550.00
Billing
per month R34 200.00
Are
you billing R34 200.00 per month for email sent?
Tariff
published in GOVERNMENT GAZETTE 43592, dated 7 AUGUST 2020,
Magistrates Court Scale A, under item 18 (page 38) allows for
Correspondence fees R28.50.
There
are several unproductive ways of keeping track of email. One is to
keep a manual log book and write down each item, or type it into a
spreadsheet. This needs to be interpreted and converted to a fee item
at a later stage. Or, using an app, copy and paste directly from the
email client to the billing app. This is faster, but requires
discipline.
But
there is a better way.
It
is no coincidence that Microsoft Outlook for Windows remains the most
popular email client for business use. Outlook can be used with the
MS Office suite including Word, Excel etc in smaller firms, or with
an Exchange server for bigger business. Exchange Servers offer many
benefits to bigger business, including powerful internal email
management, but at cost typically beyond the budget of the average
small business. Fortunately smaller firms can implement Outlook
without the need for an Exchange Server. The Microsoft ecosystem is
based on continued commitment to local app infrastructure as
confirmed by the Office 365 local-app and cloud-data model, offering
the best of both worlds in terms of user experience and secure shared
data storage.
Imagine
a billing tool that allows billing for email directly in your Fee
Book, and bills the email accurately and immediately to the client.
Imagine an accurate bill for every email message sent or received.
There are only some many hours in a day. Spending additional time to
manually update an account based on email is not worth it.
Bill for every email sent. Bill for every email received. Never miss a fee for an email, ever, again. The choice is yours.
If
you are not billing for email, perhaps it is time to ask yourself the
question Why are we not billing for email? Is it time to
consider a billing tool that supports your daily activities? A tool
which allows fast, accurate email activity billing? A tool which
keeps your Fee Book up to date?
The
good news is that such a tool exists. Dynamic Lawyers Trust Account
software is much more than simply a bookkeeping system for attorneys.
Dynamic is also a billing tool, allowing fast, easy, reliable billing
between Microsoft Outlook and the Fee Book. This makes Dynamic very
affordable for the attorney in a small legal practice. Increased
billing is the first step towards increased revenue, and eventually
profit. Convert your Inbox into a FeeBox and drive revenue with
Dynamic’s email billing.
If
you are interested in what Dynamic’s Outlook interface can do for
your bottom line, scan the QR tag below.
For
implementing additional Outlook features, please contact us
Outlook@DynamicLTA.com.
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