RB9, RB Lite, & RB Connect 2023 updates

What’s new this time?

You will start seeing improvements in the latest RB9 update even before you sign in: The Login screen now automatically displays the last Login Name used eliminating the need to enter your user name every time.

This latest update includes some system-wide updates — such as an improved email attachment process — plus 2 new functions and new/updated features across RB9, RB Lite, RB Connect, and RB Connect Mobile.

New functions

The latest RB update includes 2 new functions:

• Override Resource Pay Inquiry 

  New function under Inquiry lets you search historical data about override pay. Previously there wasn’t a way to track payments issued via Override Resource Pay. With this new report you can audit these payments separately from the resource pay total for a specific time period, a single resource, a single job, and/or a single invoice.

• Billing Sheets 

  You can quickly search for billing sheets and their related data that resources turned in using RB Connect with this new function in the Connect module. Once located, you can download individual billing sheets. (Not available in RB Lite.)

New login features

• Faster login 

  RB9, RB Lite, RB Connect, and RB Connect Mobile remember and automatically display the last user name that logged in from the device being used so you only have to enter your password.

• Functions automatically open after log in 

  You can have RB9/RB Lite open specific functions when you log in. Select up to 5 functions in the new Startup Functions section of User Preferences to load by default when logging into RB.

Systemwide updates

• More main screen shortcuts 

  Shortcuts from results grids have been part of RB9 since 2021. In this update shortcuts have been added to the results grid of more functions so you can immediately access common operations such as View, Edit, and Delete. Some results grids have different/additional shortcuts such as:

  • Jobs (List View) – View, Edit, Send Job Confirmation, Change Job Status
  • Tasks (List View) — New, View, Edit, Set Acknowledged Date, Clear Acknowledged Date
• Font name of selected text displays in HTML toolbars 

  You can easily find the name of a font style used in any HTML editor in RB9, RB Lite, RB Connect, or RB Connect Mobile such as Notes fields or the Mail Composer. Select any styled text in an HTML editor and the name of the font used for that text appears in the HTML toolbar.

• Email attachment improvements 
  • Now the drag & drop zone for attaching files in RB’s Mail Composer only appears when the Attach files button is clicked.
  • Attach files from your RB Repository to emails in the mail composer with the click of a button in:
    • Send Job Confirmation/Cancellation
    • Send Assignment Notification/Cancellation
    • Send Invoices
    • Invoice Inquiry
  • When sending Assignment Notifications RB will automatically attach repository files only if the attachment’s file size does not exceed 20MB.

More updates by module

Calendar

• Alphabetical characters in case numbers automatically capitalized 

  RB now automatically converts lowercase characters to uppercase as you enter them in Case No.

• Internal RB9 case numbers 

  RB now automatically applies and displays consecutive internal case numbers similar to job numbers. The Internal Case No. will help distinguish cases in results and is searchable.

• Save & New option for adding parties to cases 

  When adding parties to a case, Save & New option has been added to the New Party panel to enable continuous entry of parties.

• Cancel multiple jobs tied to a case at once 

  All jobs within a case can be selected and canceled at once with the More > Cancel Jobs option in the Edit Case window.

• Separate start times for a job and its tasks 

  If you have a job with tasks that will start at different times than the job you could use linked jobs. But now you can keep the tasks in the job and give them their own start and end times.

  • With the new Use different task time from job time option in the New Task panel you can assign start and end times to a task if the job and order dates are the same.
  • When a task has its own start and end times resource availability is determined by the task time.
  • In Task calendars and related functions like Quick Assignments the existing time headers have been changed to job time headers and task time headers have been added. Start Time in the Send Assignment Notifications/Cancellations results grid has been changed to Job Start Time.
  • If the task time is different from the job time when you change the job time the system will display an alert to manually change the task time.
  • RB automatically logs when a task’s start or end time changes to the job’s Notes Log.
  • Assignment Notification iCalendar files will use task times for calendar entries if they have been set separately from job times. If there are no task times the .ics files will use the job time.
  • If you set the system preference for Line Data for Monthly View in Tasks (Monthly View) to display Start Time the calendar will display the task’s start time if it exists. Otherwise it will display the job’s start time.
• Hybrid locations for Zoom meetings 

  When entering a new job, you can now input a physical location/address and create an online Zoom meeting at the same time. Job Location has been changed to a Location for In-room Participants section and a Location for Remote Participants section for Zoom meetings. Only Location for In-room Participants data will be displayed as Location Info. in results grids.

• Zoom meetings automatically deleted for canceled jobs 

  RB9 now automatically deletes a Zoom meeting when its Job Status changes to Canceled.

• Resource Warnings appear in Task panel 

  When a resource is selected in the New/View/Edit Task panel their Resource Warning appears beneath their name in the Task panel.

• Cancel the reporter but not the whole task 

  Cancel and Reactivate Task function has been added to the More button on the Edit Task panel. You can cancel a task and reactivate it at once instead of having to do it in separate steps.

• Task Status added to task calendars 

  You can search by Task Status in Tasks (List View) and Tasks (Monthly View). And Task Status has been added to the tooltip in Monthly View.

• Case and Witness columns added to Send Job Confirmations/Cancellations grid 

  Case name and Witness name of jobs are now displayed in the Send Job Confirmations/Cancellations results grid.

• Canceled tasks more visibly defined in Tasks (Monthly View) 

  Canceled tasks are now displayed as strikethrough text in the monthly calendar view.

• Witness column added to Tasks in Progress 

  Witness names appear in Tasks in Progress’s results grid.

Production

• Job Status Changed column added to Turn In results grid 

  Next to the Job Status column in Turn In’s results grid you can see the date and time the status was changed. Prioritize what jobs to work on based on when they were turned in or shipped.

• Added Remarks to Witness grid 

  You no longer have to open the View/Edit Witness panel to see notes about the witness.

• Save & Edit option when updating witnesses 

  The Save button on the Edit Witness panel now has Save & Edit and Save & Close options.

• Improvements in overriding resource pay 

  When overriding resource pay in the New Additional Pay panel in either Turn In or Payables:

  • You can select a resource by assigned task in addition to by resource name.
  • The pay rate for the selected resource displays as the default.
• Use page counts to calculate service item amounts 

  Designate in the Service Item Master which services will use page counts and pages to deduct for calculating charges like Original/Copy service items do. Then in the New Service/Edit Service panel in Turn In witness pages will be displayed and used for calculating any service items where Use Pages for calculation was set to Yes in the Service Item Master.

• Duplicate, rename, or delete file when converting transcripts to PDF 

  When converting an ASCII file to an RB-PDF Transcript, you can use the new More button in the Actions column of the final screen to duplicate, rename, or delete any file listed.

Billing

• Unnecessary step when posting invoices eliminated 

  After posting invoice(s) from Billing or Turn In, if you answer Yes to “Do you want to send or archive the posted invoices?” the Send Invoices function displays the invoices as checked by default eliminating the need to select the invoices again.

• Blank Pay Rate/Zero Pay Amount alert when posting 

  You now have a System Preferences option so when an invoice does not have a pay rate applied to it — or the total pay amount is 0 — and you attempt to post it in either Billing or Turn In, RB will display a warning and ask if you still want to post the invoice.

Inquiry

• Exclude “no marketing” contacts and firms in marketing inquiries 

  If Category is set to Firms or Contacts in Marketing Inquiry an Exclude ‘Do not attempt marketing’ filter appears so you can filter out those entities in your results.

Receivables

• Duplicate payments & refunds allowed with other open transactions 

  When adding a duplicate payment or refund to an invoice the transaction can be entered even if there is another transaction entered that has not been posted to the corresponding invoice.

• Void invoice but pay resource 

  Not to void Resource Pay option added to Void transactions in Enter Other Transactions. If the option is turned on, resource payment can proceed even if the invoice is voided. This includes overriding resource pay in Payables. And these pay amounts for voided invoices appear in:

  • Total Payable Reports
  • Additional Resource Production Reports
  • Liability Balance Log (where it is added to the Increase R/P column and removed from the Decrease R/P column)
• Created By and Created columns added to Enter Other Transactions grid 

  You can now see which user entered a transaction and when in the Enter Other Transactions results grid.

Payables

• Smarter pay adjustments 

  Pay Date is no longer required when:

  • Searching for open pay adjustments. If you search Pay Adjustments without a defined pay date, you can search all pay adjustments that are not closed.
  • Entering a new pay adjustment. If you add a pay adjustment without a defined pay date, the adjustment is automatically set to the next payroll. However if the open pay adjustment is a negative amount, it is set to the next payroll only if the amount can be deducted. Otherwise it remains an open pay adjustment. And if you click Reset Payroll in Pay Resources, the pay date is automatically cleared for open pay adjustments which will be set again to the next payroll.
• View Copy Only sales commission reports 

  The Exclude Copies search filter in the Sales Commission Report function has been changed to Original/Copy and offers the options of ALL, Original Only, and Copy Only.

Tools

• Warning dialog box appears when trying to update ALL entities 

  If you choose to update “All” in Bulk Update for firms, contacts, resources, or locations, RB9 displays a confirmation message to warn that you are about to update all the entities in the selected table with this change so you can affirm that you want to change the entire table. The default in the popup alert is No to help minimize errors made with this irreversible command.

• More data fields in Form Templates 
  • JobLocation_URL and JobLocation_URLNotes data fields added to Job Confirmations, Job Cancellations, Assignment Notifications, and Assignment Cancellations.
  • Task_StartTime and Task_EndTime added to Assignment Notifications and Assignment Cancellations.

Entities

• Assign multiple Notification Types at once in Entities 

  When assigning different notification types (e.g., accounting, job, repository) to email addresses in a firm, contact, or resource the dropdown in the New Notification Email panel has been changed to check boxes in most functions. You can now check multiple boxes to select what types of emails an email address will receive instead of adding the types one at a time.

• Include resources’ business name or nickname 

  Like firms in RB, Resources now have an a/k/a field you can use for their preferred nickname — or business name if they are independent contractors. In Search By, the “Full Name” option in the Name dropdown has been changed to “Full Name or a/k/a” so you can search by their alternative name.

• Assignment availability saved when merging resources 

  When merging resources the assignment availability of the Merge From resource is copied to the Merge To resource instead of being deleted.

• Resource birth date can be added without the year 

  When entering a resource’s birthday only the month and day are required. You do not have to include the year.

Setup

• Use Witness page count for calculating any service item charges 

  In addition to Original and Copy, you can now tie other service items to the Witness page count with the Use Pages for calculation option in the Service Item Master. With this flag turned on, the amount for the service item is calculated using the witness’s transcript pages and page deductions — the same way Original and Copy service items are calculated.

• More data fields in form emails 

  In System Preferences:

  • JobLocation_URL and JobLocation_URLNotes added to Assignment Notification, Assignment Cancellation, Job Confirmation, and Job Cancellation Email Subject and Message.
  • Task_StartTime and Task_EndTime added to Assignment Notification and Assignment Cancellation Email Subject and Message.
  • BillToContactNo, BillToFirmNo added to Statement Email Subject and Message.

RB Connect & RB Connect Mobile highlights

• Hybrid job location sections added 

  In both RB Connect and RB Connect Mobile the Job Location pane in jobs in Contact > Calendar and Resource > Jobs has been updated to include sections for in-person and remote job locations.

• No default dates in contacts’ account activity 

  On the Contact side of RB Connect/RB Connect Mobile when Account Activity is selected, Account Status defaults to “Show Open Invoices Only” and displays all open invoices.

• Simplified transcript highlighting 

  Instead of expecting attorneys to select the highlight color each time they want to highlight a line in a transcript using Transcript Packages, they now designate a default color and then continue to apply highlights in that default color until they change the default highlight color.

• Separate task times added on Resource side 

  With the new ability to schedule different start and end times for tasks, the Resource side of RB Connect/RB Connect Mobile differentiates between job and task times:

  • Start Time and End Time has been added to the Task section of job details.
  • Add To Calendar options in Jobs uses the task time unless there is no task time, then it uses the job time.
  • Start Time in RB Connect Dashboard’s Top 10 Upcoming Jobs grid and RB Connect Mobile’s Jobs in Calendar View Style indicates the task start time if there is a task start time, or the job start time if there is no task start time.
  • In RB Connect’s Jobs in List View Style when Type is Assigned, the Time header in the main grid has been changed to Job Time and a Task Time column has been added.
  • In RB Connect’s Jobs in Calendar View Style when Type is Assigned, Time in the task tooltip has been changed to Job Time and a Task Time field has been added.
• Resource’s Tasks in Progress improvements 

  On the Resource side of RB Connect in Tasks in Progress:

  • Task Status has been added to the main grid next to the task name for easy reference.
  • The job number is now a hyperlink so the resource can view the job from the Tasks in Progress window — plus add the job to their calendar, print the assignment notification, upload/download files, and check in at the job.
• Scheduled By field added to billing sheet 

  On the Resource side of RB Connect in Turn In, Scheduled By has been added to the billing sheet in Step 4 – Confirm & Finish so your production staff will know who to copy the transcript and invoice to.

Fixes

Fixed issues in:

• Cases where the Bill To Contact’s Warning was not displaying on the New Party panel when Same as Sold To is Yes.
• Pay Resources where column sorting was reset when performing Set/Clear Pay in the invoices sub-grid of each resource.
• RB Connect Mobile in Contact > Calendar and Resource > Jobs where the Adjust clock for daylight saving changes label in View Job did not word wrap and obscured the switch control.

New Microsoft email protocol

With this latest update, RB9 updated to the latest Microsoft email protocol. Microsoft permanently disabled SMTP with OAuth2 – Microsoft 365, which was used to send RB email through the Microsoft 365, on October 1, 2022.

If you are currently using SMTP with OAuth2 – Microsoft 365 you can continue to use it. However you cannot get new authorization with this protocol so we have added the new Microsoft Graph API – Microsoft 365 as an email option in RB.

You can select the new Microsoft Graph API – Microsoft 365 option in System Preferences and/or User Preferences to send email from RB9 through Microsoft 365.

Don’t lose Zoom interactivity in RB

Zoom has announced they have deprecated the API we use to connect RB to Zoom and it will stop working June 1, 2023. To keep using Zoom in RB9 after that date you must update to the new Server-to-Server OAuth app type before then.

Instructions for updating your Zoom settings are included under Help on the Setup > System Preferences screen or use this direct link.

You can continue to use your current setup as is until the end of May. Both the current API (JWT) and the new API (Server-to-Server OAuth) will work.

New functions

This RB update includes 3 new functions:

• Tasks (Monthly View) 

  Similar to Jobs (Monthly View), view tasks as items on an interactive calendar page instead of in a list. You can customize the view in Setup > System Preferences with options similar to the Jobs monthly calendar options. Original Tasks function is renamed Tasks (List View) and includes all jobs. Monthly View will only display jobs that include tasks.

• Send Payment Receipts 

  Send clients receipts acknowledging posted payments. Create your own Payment Receipt forms in Tools > Form Templates, and customize the Subject line of the email that accompanies payment receipts in Setup > System Preferences.

• Send Invitations 

  Email new contacts or resources invitations to RB Connect that automatically include their login credentials. Customize the invitation forms with your own content, RB9 data fields, text formatting, and images.

Top features

• Sort results grids by multiple columns 

  In any results grid you can select more than one column to sort the list, choose the order of the columns to sort by, and whether to sort by ascending or descending order in each selected column. 

• Special treatment of rush order messages 

  To make rush order messages from Turn In stand out in Notifications and Messages, only rush order  messages are flagged by RB and their Subject line appears in red.

• Add color & text styling to notes & remarks 

  Change the appearance of the contents of:

  • Direct Billing Notes
  • Notes in Edit Task panel
  • Invoice Messages
  • Firm and Contact Calendar Notes
  • Production/Billing Notes 
  • Case Remarks
  • Scheduling Notes
  • Confirmation Notes
  • Resource Notification Notes
  • Notes Templates

  Change the font name, size, and color. Appearance formatting appears in the fields in RB and also in forms, invoices, reports, etc. that include the fields.

• Add multiple contacts at a firm at once as parties to a case 

  When adding additional parties to a case, you can add multiple contacts at the same firm simultaneously from the New Party panel.

• Inactive contacts hidden as default in Firm’s All Contacts panel 

  Initial view of All Contacts panel in a firm listing shows only active clients. Show Inactive button has been added to the panel to access a firm’s entire contact list.

• Send Draft Pay Statement to resources 

  If you want to give reporters the opportunity to verify that nothing is missing from their upcoming pay that they were expecting to receive, you can now print and/or email Draft Pay Statements to resources. Customize the email sent with draft pay statements in Setup > System Preferences.

• Assign preferred resources in Quick Assignments 

  If you maintain preferred/blocked resources lists for firms and contacts you can view those lists in Quick Assignments, so you can:

  • Avoid attempting to assign a blocked resource.
  • Assign an ordering firm’s or ordering contact’s preferred resource to a task with a click. 
• Monthly View calendars always display today’s date 

  If your browser window isn’t large enough to display the whole Job (Monthly View) or Task (Monthly View) calendar page, RB will default to display the area with today’s date so you don’t have to scroll.

• Have repository files publish when uploaded as the default 

  System Preference added in Production > Repository to default to publish new uploads. Previously you had to check the Publish box when uploading files. Now if this option is selected, you uncheck the box when uploading files you do not want to publish.

• More warnings displayed in jobs 

  Warning fields with red text have been added to job detail screens for:

  • Scheduling Firm
  • Scheduled By
  • When Firm is selected in the Location Type drop-down
• Collapsed view in Turn In > Invoice grid stays collapsed 

  Selecting a More action in the invoice pane of an Edit Turn In screen no longer affects the current expanded/collapsed state of the invoices listed in the Invoices grid. In earlier versions, performing a More action would default all of the listed invoices to an expanded view.

• More unlimited length text fields 

  RB adds more unlimited text fields in this update. Now you can enter as much information as desired in:

  • Direct Billing Notes
  • Notes in Edit Task panel
  • Invoice Messages
  • Firm and Contact Calendar Notes
  • Production/Billing Notes 
• Add repository files in New Job screen 

  Instead of having to save a new job before you can upload files to its repository, the Repository pane appears in the New Job screen as well as the Edit Job screen.

• New Email Log options 

  In System Preferences > Tools > Email Log, designate which types of RB9 emails you want to keep track of and how long you want to store them. Previously only sent email’s contents and attachments file names were recorded. Now all attachment files will be stored as well and add on to your repository size. So you have the option to deselect all unnecessary email types that do not need to be recorded so you can manage your repository size. 

• Update the status of individual tasks 

  A Task Status field has been added to the Task panel. You can add your own task status categories in Setup > Lists, then select from them in individual tasks’ Change Status drop-downs. You can also view individual tasks’ status history from their Task Status fields. 

• Allow resources to update task status through RB Connect/RB Connect Mobile 

  Task Status has been added to the Task pane of View Job windows in RB Connect so resources can see what stage a task is in. You can also give them the ability to change the Task Status themselves by enabling online task status changes in Connect Preferences > Resource-Jobs. 

Also

• Status column added to Tasks grid in job detail screens.
• End Time and Task Status columns added to Tasks (List View) results grid.
• Status column changed to Job Status in Tasks (List View) results grid. 
• Task Status column added to Tasks in Progress results grid.
• Changed to default to Validate Address in new FedEx and UPS shipping labels in Shipping. Previous default was to not validate address.
• Invoices emailed from the Client Activity function are recorded in the invoice’s Notes Log with the explanation that it was sent from Client Activity.