Kathy Baker, Consultant, Juris Professional Services, LexisNexis:
While inputting your time do you ever need to add an internal note on the entry as a reminder to yourself, the Billing attorney or the Billing staff? For example, “Bill at ½ Rate”, “Include travel expense receipts “, “Mark down to x hours”, “Split with Matter XYZ”, “Bill at No Charge”, “Format Associate entries with same verbiage”, etc. Are internal notes sometimes needed on the expense entry when disbursing the cost to the client?
Why not take advantage of the Time and Expense Entry Note fields in Juris and Juris Suite? The Note fields can be made accessible to any user in Juris and/or Juris Suite. In Juris each user can update the setting for “Use Note Field” from their Edit Preferences when in a Time/Expense entry. The Administrator can grant access to the Time and/or Expense Note Field from within Field Access Permissions in Juris Suite My Transactions. Once the field is enabled the user is able to input their desired verbiage. Juris Suite Compliance Rules could be created to enforce, limit, or control the data entered in the field.
After enabling the fields, don’t forget to add the Entry Note field to your Prebill Design if not already available. Any verbiage entered in the field on the time entry will be readily available on the Prebill. With the “Display Mode” option in the Behavior section of the Entry Note Field Properties set to “Prebill Only”, the verbiage will not print on the client’s bill. However, if you do not use the same Bill Design for the Prebill and the Bill, there is no need to make the change to the “Display Mode” setting.