RB9 & RB Connect 2020 updates

Features

• Schedule same job multiple times on the same day  

  Changed to be able to add the same dates to New Job > Set Multiple Job Dates > Fixed Dates.

• More information in results grids  
  • In Send Job Confirmations/Cancellations, added Job Location, Job Location City, and Job Location State columns to the grid.
  • In Send Assignment Notifications/Cancellations, added Acknowledged Date, Job Location, Job Location City, and Job Location State columns to the grid.
• Export paychecks to QuickBooks directly from Payables  

  Added Export > QuickBooks IIF. Checks can be imported to QuickBooks without using Tools > QuickBooks Integrator.

• More search filters in Reports  

  Added Billing Rate Group to search criteria in Client Rating Report and Insurance Billing reports.

• Add overpayments to QuickBooks  

  Changed to be able to add overpayment when adding data to QuickBooks using QuickBooks Integrator’s Receive Payment.

• Resources can see task remarks on RB Connect/RB Connect Mobile  

  Added Remarks to View Job > Task section.

Top features

• Use date range for batch notifications   

  When sending Job Confirmations/Cancellations and Assignment Notifications/Cancellations:

  • Date field has been changed to Date From/To fields so you can search by a date range of up to 30 days.
  • Job Confirmations/Cancellations’ Date From defaults to today’s date.
  • When either Date From or Date To is blank, the date in the other field will be used for both dates in searches.

  Send Job Confirmations/Cancellations

  Send Assignment Notifications/Cancellations

• Task-level repository added   

  A new repository has been added for files you want to give to resources assigned to tasks. Instead of assigned resources getting all of the items uploaded to the job repository, you can easily send them documents related to their task and/or make the files available in their RB Connect.

  When emailing resources their Assignment Notifications, you can automatically attach certain file types from the Task-level repository. Set which files types to attach in System Preferences. Task-level files appear in the Repository pane of jobs in resources’ RB Connect.

  With the new Task-level repository, a new Date Type has been added. You can use Order Date as the Date Type when searching all repositories or just the Task-level repository.

• Go to Shipping directly from Turn In   

  Shipping button has been added to Turn In detail screens.

• Automatically apply sequentially numbered stamps to exhibits   

  Automatically number PDF exhibits with stamps that include RB9 job information as they are uploaded to the Witness-level repository.

  Create as many stamp templates as you want that include exhibit numbers and RB9 job information automatically with the new Exhibit Stamps function.

  Plus you can allow resources to apply stamps automatically to exhibits when uploading them via RB Connect during turn in.

• Apply custom stamps to PDF Transcripts without leaving RB9   

  Stamp RB-PDF Transcripts “original” or “certified copy,” or any other stamp you set up in RB9 with the new PDF Transcript Stamps function.

  Set up as many stamps as you want and customize their look in the new PDF Transcript Stamps function.

• Change job status in Shipping function   

  Job Status field has been added to the New/View/Edit Shipment window. You can change Job Status to Shipped in New/Edit Shipment window by selecting Change Status to Ship option.

• Faster payment processing when 1 check is paying 1 invoice   

  New One Check One Invoice option in Receivables > Receive Payments simplifies applying a payment when a single check covers a single invoice.

• Continuously add payments in Receive Payments function   

  Instead of clicking the New button in the main Receive Payments grid to apply payments, you can now select Save & New in the Edit Payment window to continue to enter payments.

• Include credit card processing fees in transactions   

  When processing credit card payments, you can break out the usage fees associated with them. There is now a field for that additional fee amount in Receive Payments. Amounts entered in this field appear in:

  • Processing Fee column in individual invoice’s Receivable Transactions grid in Invoice Inquiry.
  • Processing Fee column in individual payment’s Applied Payments grid in Receivable Transaction Inquiry.
  • Processing Fee column in Cash Receipts Register - Payments report.
  • Payment Processing Expenses account for the selected BUs in Cash Receipts Journal report.

  Processing fees are automatically applied when clients use RB Connect to pay online via PayPal.

  Set up credit card payment processing fee accounts in your business units, then when processing fees are applied to invoices in Receive Payments, they are included in the corresponding accounts.

• Hide per unit rates in detailed invoices   

  New Business Unit option lets you produce detailed invoices without per unit rates displayed.

• Debit late charges and finance charges from Debit Memo   

  When a client’s check bounces, you can include the entire balance, including late charges and finance charges, in Debit Memo.

• Back up your RB9 database to your desktop   

  Use the new Download Backup File function in Tools to download backup files from up to 7 days ago.

• Choose how to send contact’s their invoices   

  Select how your clients want to receive invoices from you in their Contact records (options are email, print, both, or don’t send). Then when sending invoices, you can change the method for specific invoices from their default in the Send Invoices results grid.

• Include invoice, case, & job info in one custom report   

  In the Query Maker tool, you can use the new “Invoices+Jobs+Cases” data set to run queries that include information from invoice, job, and case fields in one list. For example, if you are running a query for invoices, your results can included the associated case numbers.

• Totals appear in exported reports   

  Results grids display the footer’s total line when exported to Excel/CSV format.

• More online payment vendors to choose from   

  In addition to PayPal you can select from these other vendors for your contacts’ Online Payment Method for paying invoices through RB Connect:

  • Authorize.net
  • First Data/Payeezy
  • Square
  • Stripe

More update features

• Add party to linked jobs with fewer clicks 

  When adding a party to either a case or a job, new Save & Edit option in the New Party panel lets you add requested services and/or add the party to all linked jobs without having to close, then reopen the party panel.

• Reschedule old jobs  

  Previously, if a job was past its scheduled date, you couldn’t reschedule it; you could only copy the job and set a new date. Now this restriction has been eliminated, and you can reschedule these jobs.

• List view job calendar defaults to tomorrow  

  Instead of blank date fields, Job Date From/To fields default to tomorrow’s date when opening Jobs (List View).

• OAuth2 authentication added to email preferences  

  In both System Preferences and User Preferences, you can choose “SMTP with OAuth2 - Microsoft 365” option when setting up your email to enable OAuth2 authentication when using Microsoft 365 Office.

• More search filters & results columns for jobs  

  Case Type has been added to the search criteria in both calendar views. Notation has been added to the search criteria in List View. Time Zone and Case Type columns have been added to the results grid in List View.

• Expanded data entry fields  

  The amount of information you can enter into certain fields in jobs has been increased:

  • Notation field is now 24 characters long.
  • Scheduling Notes, Confirmation Notes, Resource Notification Notes, and Production/Billing Notes are now unlimited in length.
• View Task Notes in results grids  

  You no longer have to go into individual tasks to read related notes. Task Notes now appear in the Tasks and Quick Assignments results grids. It is also one of columns whose order you can change in System Preferences > General > Rearrange Grid Columns.

• Notation column added to Quick Assignments results grid  

  See at a glance if there are any special notes on jobs when assigning resources without having to click into every job.

• Specialties & Requested Services added to Job Printout  

  Easily see if clients had special requests for any upcoming jobs to take into account when assigning jobs and also to remind resources of additional services that were requested.

• Sort individual resource’s payable invoices when running payroll  

  In the Pay Resources results grid, you can sort each resource’s list of payable invoices by any of the columns in the sub-grid.

• Include the full case name in Job Confirmations and other forms  

  The data field “Cases.CaseFullName” has been added to the following form templates:

  • Job Confirmations
  • Job Cancellations
  • Assignment Notifications
  • Assignment Cancellations
  • Contact Letters
  • Witness Letters
  • Other Letters
  • Collection Letters-Single Invoice
• Search for jobs by resource in Turn In  

  Since reporters often forget or lose job numbers, you can now look up jobs by resource in the Turn In window.

• Names instead of numbers appear in the Subject line in internal messages  

  To easily identify the messages without opening them, reminders sent from the Notes Log of:

  • A case contains the case name instead of case number in the Subject line.
  • A firm contains the firm’s name instead of firm number in the Subject line. Reminders sent from a firm’s Collections pane also use the firm name instead of number.
  • A resource contains the resource’s name instead of resource number in the Subject line. Reminders sent from a resource’s Certifications pane also use the resource name instead of number.
  • A location contains the location’s name instead of location number in the Subject line.
• Resource assignment paper trail  

  When you assign a resource to a task (and if you remove a resource from a task), a log entry is made in the job’s Notes Log so you have a paper trail of resource assignments.

• Allow contacts to request same-day jobs via RB Connect  

  If you set the option, “Do not allow new job request within this number of days (weekends are excluded)” to –1 in general job preferences in RB Connect, contacts can make job requests for the current date.

• Resources can copy services to multiple invoices  

  When resources turn in jobs through RB Connect and generate multiple invoices, they can save time by using the new Copy Service To function to copy services from one invoice to others.

• More rearrange-able grid columns 

  In addition to the new Tasks Notes appearing as a rearrange-able column in Tasks and Quick Assignments, other grid columns whose order you can change in System Preferences > General > Rearrange Grid Columns include:

  • Notation in Quick Assignments.
  • Time Zone and Case Type in Jobs (List View).

  (This option has been changed in RB 9.20 to user customizable grids.)

• See current receivables transaction balances at a glance  

  Balance column added to Invoice Inquiry results grid.

• Clients can reschedule jobs with a Request New status  

  Clients do not have to wait for you to acknowledge that you received a request before they can reschedule a job when the date/time changes or they made an error entering the job.

Customization

Designate your RB Connect reply email address

You can now specify which email address appears as the sender in emails from RB Connect and which your clients and resources reply to. Enter the reply email address in the Sender’s Email field in the RB Connect Preferences General preferences window.

Improvement

Faster download speeds

The method for downloading and setting up RB9 pages in a browser has been changed to make the process faster and eliminate problems caused by slower-speed networks. Previously, if the end-user clicked a button before all background operations were finished, the operations would stop and nothing would happen as a result of the button click.

In this version of RB9, background operations are now 50% faster, lessening the likelihood of these types of errors and resulting in faster page loads for everyone.

Improvement

Speedier QuickBooks Integrator performance

QuickBooks Integrator was too slow when dealing with large amounts of data. This updated fixes that slow performance problem.

This table highlights the difference between QuickBooks Integrator converting RB9 data and inserting it into QuickBooks in the last version of RB9 and the current version, using an example of a database with over 30,000 invoices and 5 sets of data for each type of data:

(unit: seconds)

As you can see, all types of data convert from RB9 and insert into QuickBooks faster — up to 16 times faster! In addition to this new built-in speed enhancement, be sure to always launch your QuickBooks application before using QuickBooks Integrator. With this simple fix, you will see over 300% faster performance.

Top features

• Search firms by contact improved   

  When you use the Search By Contact Name option in Lookup Firm windows, the results returned are listed by contact and firm name instead of firm name only, so you can more quickly located the correct firm.

  Also, when creating a new job, if you search by Contact Name, when you click the hyperlinked contact name in the search results, the New Job window automatically defaults to the contact's name in the Scheduling Contact field, eliminating the need to choose the contact again.

• Keep a paper trail of your RB9 emails   

  You now have the option to always send yourself a blind carbon copy of emails you send through RB9. Set in User Preferences.

• Resize multi-line input boxes to see entire entry   

  Multi-line input boxes in Edit windows are resizable. Drag the bottom-right handle of a multi-line box to grow the box so you can view the contents without scrolling. (Not available in Internet Explorer or Edge browsers.)

• Search and edit linked jobs   

  If you use linked jobs instead of tasks for the video portion of a depo job or for other separate tasks of one job, those linked jobs now appear in job searches in the Calendar, so you can easily look up and edit those jobs separately from the main job they are linked to.

  Also, the Linked Job field in a job is now editable so you can link a job to an existing job, or delete a link between jobs.

• Improved Job Printout layout   

  Information about each job on the Job Printout has been rearranged to be easier to read:

  • Essential job information, such as date, time, job type, and ordering client are in the header of each job, which also makes it easier to distinguish between jobs on the page.
  • If a job entry doesn’t fit at the end of a page, the entire job entry is moved to the next page so there are no entries split between pages.

• Faster to add multiple witnesses   

  Save & New option added to New Witness screen makes it faster to add multiple witnesses to a job during turn-in by keeping you in the New Witness screen.

• Print addresses on envelopes   

  In addition to DYMO labels for correspondence and packaging, you can now generate a PDF file of addresses positioned to print on standard envelope sizes or create your own custom layout.

• Use popular queries to make custom reports  

  Instead of writing your own queries from scratch in Query Maker, download queries written by RB9 staff and other users to generate reports that are most commonly requested but are not in RB9 yet.

• Mass update a firm’s contact notification emails   

  You can designate one contact’s email address to receive a specific type of notification email (Job, Invoice, Repository) for multiple contacts at a firm at once. You can also delete notification emails to some or all contacts at a firm at once.

  This is handy when someone leaves the firm who has been responsible for all the contacts’ accounting emails, for example. You can globally delete that email from the contacts’ list, then add the new email address. All in one function.

• More merge options   

  You can now merge more list entries, retaining historical data but reducing the number of entries in a list and removing entries you don’t need. For a complete list of the new merge-able lists, see the update notice for ReporterBase 9.11 in the Knowledgebase.

• Set different margins for condensed transcripts, word lists, and word indexes   

  When setting up PDF transcript templates, you can set different page margins for the full-size transcript, the condensed transcript, the word list, and the word index. You can also change them on the fly when creating RB-PDF Transcripts.

• Set longer time-out intervals   

  For security reasons, RB9 automatically logs users out after a certain period of inactivity unless they indicate they want to stay connected. Now you can change the session timeout interval from the default 20 minutes to up to 60 minutes.

• Canceled jobs easy to see in RB Connect   

  To make them stand out, canceled jobs appear in red in List view, and in red and crossed-out in Calendar view in both Contact and Resource sides of RB Connect.

  On Contact side:

  On Resource side:

More update features

• Faster log-in   

  Log-in processing speed is up to 30% faster in this release.

• Record of job confirmations & cancellations includes address   

  When you send job confirmations or cancellations via email, RB9 makes a Job Confirmation/Cancellation entry that includes the receiver’s email address in the Notes Log of the jobs.

• Record of sent invoices & statements includes address   

  When you send invoices  or statements via email, RB9 makes a “sent” entry that includes the receiver’s email address in the Notes Log of the invoices/statements.

• View invoice details in Receivable Transaction Inquiry   

  Numbers that appear in the Invoice No. column of search results in the Receivable Transaction Inquiry function are hyperlinked to the related invoice for all transaction types except Payment.

• Grand total appears on Resource Billings Report   

  The Resource Billings Report now includes a grand total on the last page adding together all the resources’ earnings in the report.

• Job numbers included on statements   

  Invoices listed on statements now include their job number along with the invoice number, invoice date, job date, witness name, and balance.

• See active entities in Tag Manager results   

  The Tag Manager now includes an Active column in the search results so you can see at a glance which entities are still active (such as clients who are still scheduling jobs), so you can send emails, letters, etc. to only active entities.

• See warnings about locations at a glance  

  Location warnings are now included in the results grid of the Locations module, so you can see if there is a warning about a location without having to click into the location’s  details.

• Exclude automatic file attachments for designated tasks   

  If you have set up Assignment Notifications to have repository files automatically attached to them, you can designate specific tasks you do not want to include these files with their notifications.

• Include client’s phone number on invoices & statements   

  Default option prints the Bill To client’s number below their address.

  On invoices:

  On statements:

• Always print details on a firm’s invoices & statements   

  You can set as a default to have services listed on all new firms’ invoices. You can turn off the option on individual firm’s listings.