Best posts made by BrandonK6644

It would be extremely helpful if we could drag and drop multiple documents into a task at the same time. Possibly allow the admin to set a default folder to which all drag & dropped files are stored? For example, if I drag a visio file and and a docx file into a task, both will get stored in the "Working Documents" folder. We regularly need to upload multiple documents at the same time and the current process is tedious.

We refer to our matters using the Attorney Ref. It would be very useful to have our email intake addresses be associated with that attorney ref rather than (or in addition to) the Appcoll Matter ID. Something simple would be best as well. Something like "FOO3229US01@intake.appcoll.com" where FOO3229US01 is the Attorney Ref.

For law firms, it would be extremely useful if nearly everything could be client specific. Client-specific billing item templates would be amazing. While the ability to generate a billing item based on a template when a particular tasks closes is a nice addition, it would be even better if we could add additional filters for triggering that billing item. For example, it seems like it would be best if the billing item template could not only be specified to be triggered at the completion of a task, but also when the matter is associated with a particular client.

We currently have to create a transient task for each different client that is triggered when a particular task is closed (a 'Respond to Non-Final' task, for example) and the matter is related that particular client. When that transient task is completed, a billing item is generated from a template that is specific to that client. Adding this set of transient tasks for each and every client is time consuming and duplicative when we already have to add a billing item template for each task and client.

For law firms, it would be extremely useful if nearly everything could be client specific. Client-specific billing item templates would be an absolute game changer. We have a variety of billing item templates because our clients have different flat fees for the same task. For example, we might invoice Client A $10 for a response to non-final while we invoice Client B $20 for the same task.

It is currently not possible to set an option in the billing item template to restrict billing item generation based on the template to matters for a particular client. What would be preferred is that I could create a billing item template for a task, associate that task with a particular client, and when the task is closed in the matter a billing item will be generated based on the ONLY IF the matter is for the particular client.
Here is an example: when a "Respond to Non-Final Office Action - 3 Month Deadline" task is completed in a matter for Client A, I want a single billing item created based on a $10 billing item template that is associated only with Client A. No other billing items would be created. When the same task is completed in another matter – a matter for Client B – I want a single billing item created based on a $20 billing item template associated with Client B. Again, no other billing item would be created.

If this were an issue for one or two tasks or one or two clients, I wouldn’t bother asking. But Appcoll should be able to grow with our firm. We have many clients and many tasks. We want as seamless a process as possible. Other platforms provide client-specific billing item generation (or, in their lingo ‘pre-bill’). It is a necessity for our firm to find a solution to this problem because we spend an unacceptable amount of time creating invoices from billing items that were generated but aren’t actually correct for that matter. Instead, with client-specific billing item generation, we could reduce our time and risk for manual error dramatically.

When exporting a report, it would be very nice to have the report exported in an XLSX format rather than CSV. It's. a minor thing of course to save the CSV file as an XLSX once downloaded, but it's an extra step I take quite a bit that seems unnecessary.

For law firms, it would be extremely useful if nearly everything could be client specific. For example, I need a particular attorney to be restricted from accessing one client's matters, but no others. Without using one of the special contact fields (partner, attorney, contributor, for example) in a matter, this is not possible.

Even then, the permissions in the contacts module only provide an option in which the the attorney is limited to accessing those matters in which the attorney is listed as contributor/partner/attorney. Thus, in order to restrict an attorney from accessing just one client's matters, that attorney has to be added to ALL other matters. If the attorney should be restricted from accessing Client A's matters, then the attorney must be listed in the special contact fields for all matters of Client B, Client C, Client D and so on. Such a procedure is difficult to administer over time (when each new matter is opened). Additionally, that field is now not available to someone else.

It seems much easier to have an option in the contacts module to either: (1) select, from a set of clients, the clients for which the contact is allowed to access matters or (2) select, from a set of clients, the clients for which the contact is prohibited to access matters.

I suspect this is a long shot, but it would be amazing if there was an ability to modify a docx in Appcoll's interface without going through the download/upload process. For example, I would love to click on one of my attorney's draft responses to an office action to enter an 'edit mode' in an Appcoll interface, review and make changes to the text of the response, and then exit out of the 'edit mode.' By contrast, what I have to do now is download the file, open the file in Word, edit the file, save updated file (making absolutely certain the naming is the same so when I upload, I take advantage of the versioning capabilities in AC), then upload. That little part about the same name is really the most annoying part of the whole thing. We require our attorneys to have a single working copy of a document in a task so that anybody in our firm knows precisely where the 'current' copy of a particular document is. If I go through several rounds of revisions on a particular draft, I might download the same file multiple times to my downloads folder - and each time it gets renumbered. When uploading the most current version back to the task, I have to be 100% sure the name is the same as the one stored in AC otherwise, I will have 2 different documents displayed which is not ideal.

In the filters, it would be very useful to provide an option to select one or more task type instead of specifying only a single one (and making sure you get the spelling perfect). A list, much like what is provided when filtering by matter types, would be far more beneficial, reduce risk of human error, and provide for very flexible report construction.

Instead of the image below, it would have a list of all available task types and the user could select any number of them:

We assign tasks to attorneys and paralegals to complete (regardless of the matter attorney, matter partner, or matter paralegal). It would be very useful to have a notification email sent to that person when their name is set as the owner of the task. It's my understanding that currently there is no way to do that.

I'd suggest allowing the admin to select a default folder. For example, the default could be "WorkInProgress" everytime you want to upload a new document or create a form letter within a task.

I would love the ability to view the first generation of a matter's connection in a more traditional tree/flowchart style. Right now, with complicated families, it is nearly impossible to decipher the tree is shown. If we could limit the diagram to just one level (child or parent or sibling) that would make everything so much easier to read. If we could click on the child/parent/sibling and be shown that matter's first level familial connections we'd be able to traverse a tree quickly in a meaningful way.

We track a variety of dates for a variety of reasons and it would be very helpful to have more than the number of currently available custom date fields for matters. I believe we are limited to 4.

Rather than downloading a CSV of a report/view and saving as XLSX so that I can insert columns for evaluations and/or aggregations into the table, I would greatly appreciate being able to add such columns directly in the report view in Appcoll. Such a column would include a basic evaluation or aggregation utilizing data in the fields of the report (or even better, any field in the matter/task related to that record). For example, I would love a column indicating the current status of a draft application based on a set of "if" statements and various custom user fields represented in my report. I expect a sum or average might also be useful to folks. Essentially, I would like some basic Excel-type calculations that I could use in the reports screen itself and save as part of the report. In this way, when a report is generated and emailed on a regular schedule, the evaluations and aggregations would also be calculated at that time and included in the report that my folks get.

I know there are some capabilities like this for Financial, Productivity, and Statistics reports, but I don't believe there is anything like this for Tasks or Matters repots.

It would be very helpful if I could add additional custom user fields in excess of 16. Unlimited would be preferred, but any increase will be helpful.

We utilize the form letters templates to create shells for prosecution items among other things. Given that the PTO is moving to docx format for everything, I would LOVE the ability to create those templates in docx instead of rtf. It would save us one step.

I'd also love to be able to automatically generate a template within a task when the task is generated. Is that possible?

It would be extremely helpful to us if we could have multiple users associated with a single task. For example, for a "Respond to Non-Final Office Action" task, I would love to an owner of the task be the attorney drafting the response, a reviewing attorney assigned to the task, and a paralegal responsible for filing the response assigned to the task. I know I can do this with 3 different tasks, one assigned to each different user, but that quickly begins to make the tasks complicated to wade through.

Thanks!

@SadiqA2304 Yup! This!