The Amicus 2008 product line includes two core versions of Amicus Attorney: one less expensive version designed for smaller firms with simpler needs - Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition - and one premium version taking advantage of the latest technology - Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition. To simplify the choices for customers, Gavel & Gown will no longer offer a "Standard" edition. We will also of course have a 2008 version of Amicus Accounting.

The launch will begin with the release of the first two products in the line: Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition and Amicus Accounting 2008.

Please note that these two products are no longer bundled together.

They need to be purchased separately. Of course they still work together wonderfully. Cost effectively too: the price to "add Accounting to Attorney" will be only $149 per license.

However, it is important to understand that if you are upgrading from the old Amicus Small Firm, you will need to upgrade both the Amicus Attorney side and the Amicus Accounting side if you want to continue using both products.

Pricing for upgrades is as follows

• Upgrading to Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition: 1st user / add'l users
• From Amicus Small Firm $199 / $149
• From Amicus Attorney V+ (Advanced or Client/Server) $199 / $149
• From Amicus Attorney V or below (Advanced of Client/Server) $249 / $199
• Upgrading from Amicus Accounting to Amicus Accounting 2008 $99 / license

 

Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition is the latest version of Amicus Attorney built on the popular V+ (C++) platform. It is specifically designed for the solo and small firm market. It has significant enhancements over its predecessors.
These include:
a new navigation pane similar to Amicus 7,
a new Tasks module for managing To Do's all in one place,
real time spell check,
text expansion,
email signatures,
Outlook®
email integration enhancements
and the ability to run in Client/Server mode.

This product is for firms with 10 users or less only. It is a superb upgrade for all V and V+ Advanced and Client/Server customers with 10 licenses or less.

Pricing for the Small Firm Edition will be $449 for the first license and $349 for additional licenses.

 

Amicus Accounting 2008 is the new version of our Accounting product. It has many enhancements over the original Amicus Accounting, including easier navigation, the ability to change the Client on an existing matter, enhancements to Accounts Receivable interest, billing and reminder statements, a new payroll add-on option and a more powerful receipt function.

Pricing for Accounting will be $249 per license.

 

If you bill hourly for your time, or you like to track all of your time whether the file is billed by the hour or not, then if you effectively use Amicus, you can capture all your time on the Calendar. Once the time has passed for an appointment, a small blue timesheet button will appear in the upper right corner of the appointment on the calendar. Simply clicking on that will create a time entry for that event. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to assign all calendar events to a file, as the file is already filled in on the time entry.

• Personal - Vacation - [Firm Member's Full Name]
• Personal - Illness - [Firm Member's Full Name]

To see these Files in the Files Index, select the Non- Billable option in the Navigation Pane.

Another handy shortcut - have the person who creates the event entry make the description of the event text that would be acceptable in a time entry. For example, if you are attending a mediation with a client, if the person who creates that event simply puts Mediation in the title of the event, then when you create the time entry, the description simply says Mediation. When the event is created, if the title is entered as "Attend Mediation with client", then that becomes the description of the time entry.

There is also a preference in Amicus to automatically create a time entry when a to-do is checked off as completed. To see how this is set for you, go to File, Preferences, and then to the Calendar tab. The same thing is true for the title of the to-do - the time entry is simpler if the title of the to- do is something that would be acceptable on a time entry.

The third place you can post time from the Calendar in Amicus is the Communications Page. If you click on the down pointing black arrow where it says "To-Do", one of your options will be Communication. On that page, you will see all telephone calls, telephone messages, and saved sent and received emails. You will also notice that anything that has NOT had a time entry done will show a small blue time entry icon in the upper right hand corner. Simply click on that and you will get a time entry dialog box and you can complete the entry.

Of course, when you have completed the review of your time from the calendar, all of your time entries appear together in the Time Sheets Module so you can make sure you have accounted for your day.

 

There are a few ways of handling this:

Post the entire amount including the overpayment to the client file and leave a credit on the client file A/R balance to offset future bills. To do this, post the entire amount of the payment as a receipt. You might want to post this as two entries - post one entry for the amount required to pay the invoice, and then post another as the overpayment and indicate this in the description of the firm receipt. This leaves a credit on the client's A/R balance and deposits the entire amount to your general bank.

Post the difference to the client's WIP to offset unbilled expense entries. To do this, post a regular firm receipt for the amount required to pay the invoice. Then, post another receipt selecting the Unbilled Expenses option on the firm receipt screen. This posts the credit to the client's WIP expenses balance (reducing the expense balance) and deposits the payment in your general bank.

Post the difference to the client's WIP and then writes a firm check to reimburse the client for the difference. Use this option if you want to reimburse the client for the excess amount. Follow the instructions above to pay the outstanding invoice and post the excess to the client's Unbilled Expense balance. This posts a credit to the client's WIP expenses balance. Then, post a firm check to the client file for the amount of the excess. This offsets the amount of the receipt to the WIP expenses, (leaving the expenses balance back where you started), and removes the excess funds from your general bank.

 

 

The new Tasks Module in Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition provides a new centralized place to get organized and get things done. It provides a variety of views along with filters and functions specially designed for easy management of To Do's. The Tasks list may be filtered in many useful ways, and displays To Do's for yourself and and/or others in either Simple or Detailed format. You may define customized views via Tasks Profiles. The list provides an editable row for quick and simple creation of new Tasks, without needing to open the Event Details window.

You can enter To Do's just by typing in the Task list. There is no extra dialog needed, so you can quickly jot down new tasks as you think of them, and refine the details later. See all of your To Do's across any range of time or files in one easy to manage list. Sort them, change priorities or dates or even reassign them. Check the status of them and easily manage delegated tasks.

Viewing the Task List

Filtering the list to a Standard View:
For a standard view of the list, select the upper SHOW option, and then select the desired secondary options at the right:

• Format: Select either Simple or Detailed. The Detailed view adds the following information and controls to items in the list: Do button, Category column, and Time Entry icon.
• Range of Tasks: Select overdue Tasks, Tasks due today, or Tasks due within the next 7, 14, or 30 days.
• Done Tasks: Select this option to include Tasks that have been marked Done.
• Assigned To: Click the icon to select one or more Team Members. Tasks assigned to at least one of these Team Members will be shown.

Filtering the list to a Custom View:
For a custom view of the list, select this SHOW option, and then either select a previously defined and saved Custom Tasks Profile or click the Profile button to create a new Custom Tasks Profile. The particular Tasks Profile chosen determines whose Tasks are shown and how they are displayed.

Working with Custom Tasks Profiles:
Custom Tasks Profiles enable you to define custom views of the Tasks list. For example, you might create a Profile that shows a list of Tasks with Deadlines, assigned to Files of Type "Commercial/Corporate", for the next 14 days, assigned to you and, optionally, another Team Member.

To display a custom view of the list:

1. From the Tasks list, select the lower SHOW option.
2. Select a pre-defined Custom Tasks Profile from the drop-down list, or click the Profile button to create a new CustomTasks Profile.

Creating a Custom Task Profile
You may set the criteria for the display of the Tasks list by either using the basic settings above the list, or by creating a Custom Tasks Profile, which offers more options.

To create a Custom Tasks Profile:

1. Click the Profile button. The Custom Tasks Profiles selection dialog appears.
2. Click Edit. The Custom Tasks Profiles dialog appears, open to the Who tab.
3. From the Who tab you may set the following: " Which To Do's to show, based on the Team Members assigned. Select the Team Members either through the Select Contacts button or the Select File button.
4. Click the How tab to set the following: " How the list is formatted: Simple or Detailed. The Detailed Format adds the following information and controls to items in the list: Do button, Category column, and Time Entry icon. " How the list is sorted: by File, Date and Priority, Deadline, or Category.
5. Click the When tab to set the following: " Which To Do's to show, based on their Start Date. Specify dates relative to whenever the Profile is used: either Today or within the Next or Last number of specified days. Alternatively, specify a particular date range.
6. Click the What tab to set the following: " Which kind of items to show: all Tasks, only overdue Tasks, only Milestone Tasks, only Tasks with Deadlines, or only Done Tasks. " Which Category of Tasks to show. " Which items to show, based on the File assigned: Files of a particular Type, or only a specific File. To include Closed Files, select the checkbox.
7. To save the Profile for later use, select the "Save this Tasks Profile as" checkbox, and, if desired, enter a Custom Tasks Profile name in the field provided. You do not need to save the Profile if you just want to apply it temporarily.
8. If saving the Profile for later use, you may set it as your default Custom Tasks Profile by selecting the appropriate checkbox.
9. Click OK in the Custom Tasks Profile dialog when you are finished creating your settings.
10. The Task list reappears, filtered and formatted according to your Profile.

For more information on the Tasks Module and Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition, contact Carmen Relatores @ 513 368-0042 or crelatores@cni-incorporated.com

 

 

A new function in Amicus Accounting 2008 enables users to reassign a matter from one client to another when necessary. This assigns a different Client Matter ID to the matter and moves all Accounts Receivable, billings, trust, WIP (unbilled fees & expenses), history, etc. to the new client. For example, someone might have created a "Richter Purchase" matter accidentally on the John Richter client instead of the Jimmy Richter client, and you now wish to fix that mistake.

Go to Clients > Change Client on Matter.

In the Replace Client On field, select the Client Matter ID either by scrolling through the list or by typing the information you wish to find and allowing the selector to automatically search the list and highlight the closest match. Click OK or double-click a client matter.

In the Client field, indicate the client to whom you want the Matter reassigned.

If you identify an existing client,
that client's ID will be assigned. If the firm is set for automatic numbering, the Matter ID will be automatically assigned. If the firm is NOT set for automatic client matter file numbering, a New Client Matter dialog appears-enter a Matter ID that is unique for the new client, up to 10 characters long, and click OK

Or, if you click New to create a new client,
you will need to enter information about the new client:

• If the firm is set for automatic numbering, the Client ID and Matter ID are automatically assigned by Amicus Accounting. If the firm is NOT set for automatic client matter file numbering, enter a unique Client ID, up to 15 characters long, and a Matter ID, up to 10 characters long.
• In the New Client screen, describe the client. First, if the Client is an Individual, leave the Individual/Company flag set to the default and fill in the Client's First Name, Middle and Last Name. The Client Name and Mail To fields will be filled in for you. You may edit the Mail To name if necessary to reflect how you would like it to appear on billing statements.
• If the Client is a Company, change the Individual/Company flag to Company and fill in the Company Name. The Client Name and Mail To name will be filled in for you. You may edit the Mail To name if necessary.
• Enter the client's address and contact information.
• Enter the contact name on the file. This name will print after the "Attention" line on billing statements.
• Enter the salutation for the contact name.
• Enter the telephone, fax and e-mail details for the Client.
• Click OK.

In either case, the new Client Matter ID is now shown at the bottom of the Change Client on Matter screen.

Click Change Now to reassign the matter as specified.

In the "successfully changed" message, click OK.

The Change Client on Matter window appears, open to the Matter Notes view. Enter or edit notes if desired. You may also edit information on the Billing, Billing Contacts, or Diary Report Items Not Reviewed views. When finished, click Save or Cancel, as appropriate.

 

Below is a list of the current versions of important law office software supported by Cooperative Network Integrators, Inc..

Amicus Attorney: Downloads

• Amicus Attorney 7: build 7.07 (SP2)
• Amicus Attorney V: v 5.1.1
• Amicus Attorney V+: v. 5.8.1
• Amicus Attorney V+ with Accounting Integration ONLY: v. 5.8.x
• Amicus Attorney X: v. SP1.1
• Amicus Small Firm: v. 5.8.1

 

Amicus Accounting:

• Amicus Accounting: release 2006.3

 

Microsoft Office:

• Click here and select Check for Updates.

 

Corel Word Perfect:

• Click here then select your version.

email: rcarter@cni-incorporated.com

phone: 513-755-1377

web: http://www.cni-incorporated.com