Billing Matters Plus

Re: Report on referral sources

Kathy Burger — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:42:01 GMT

Here's another possible solution. Let's say I do Worker's Comp. And let's say there are 8 or 10 firms in the area that refer work to me. If I set those firms up as 'staff', I can enter them in the 'other' staff field on the billing preference. I can then use the Fee Allocation report to get a list of receipts by 'other' staff, with a summary at the bottom. I can even set a percentage calculator using the fee allocation button on the billing preference. So, if I am sharing fee receipts with the referree, (did I spell that correctly?), the system will calculate it for me. There is a down side; the staff has to be active. I accommodate this by making the staff ID start with the letter Z. I eliminate those staff from the calendar by electing to choose which staff to include, but even if I don't, they cycle to the bottom alphabetically. (Do you have any staff whose first name begins with Z?) There are two other options. One is to enter the referred by on the contact record OR the matter record in one of the custom or user fields (depending on your version). Then pull THAT field, using field links, onto the billing item form, into a custom or user field. In that way you can create reports from the billing item list, and have it sort and sub-total by any of the values on the billing items, including that custom field. The down side to THIS approach is, you can only report on billing, not on receipts. The UP side is, you can see investment of time by referree. The other option is to contact a CIC such as Tommy Glenn or Deepa Patel, (both have offices in California) who do excellent work in custom reporting. But, I have to say the 'other' staff option has been the solution for most of the firms with which I've worked.

Re: Report on referral sources

Lisa Zurcher — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:49:29 GMT

As you have discovered there is not a Referred By Report in the Standard Reports. Sometimes, you have an option to create a Quick Tab to display Matter and Billing Prefs Fields. Unfortunately, the Referred By field in the Bill Prefs is not included in available choices for Field Display. I would recommend two options: 1 Contact a CIC who is proficient with customized reporting. I would refer you to Deepa Patel. Or 2. Record the Referral or Business Source information in another location.

I have clients utilizing other record types to track the referral source of business and or advertising efforts. Typically we customize the Phone or Note record to track this information. There are a multitude of methods to accomplish the tracking. The reason most of my clients use a record type other than the Matter Form is that not all prospective client calls result in a case. Most of my clients want to include all prospective client calls in their Referral Reporting to know where their business is coming from and also to know which marketing campaigns are effective.

I hope this helps.

Report on referral sources

Ed Enoch — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 23:11:37 GMT

The billing preferences general screen has a place to enter the referral source (referred by). I cannot find any way to run a report based on that information so that I can track referrals. Help?