It would be useful to have task types for a first RCE, a second RCE, etc., so that we could setup automatic billing item creation in a way that would take into account the correct USPTO fee automatically.
Similarly, it would be nice to have an option to use similar task types for non-finals and finals. We have some clients, that pay different amounts based on where the case is during prosecution and currently the only way to determine which office action we are on is to count manually.
@gregg_appcoll Missed this! Sorry! I just reached out. Thank you.
@gregg_appcoll As a follow up, we'd also very much like to be able to access our files within AppColl. It's becoming a priority for us to be able to utilize our documents and at the moment that means we have to move our documents out of AppColl. We'd rather not do that since we have an entire system and workflow setup to utilize AppColl's "Files" module as our primary source of truth. Is this at all on the roadmap? If not, I'll need to look for an alternative solution.
@adminT7009 Great to hear! We have several workflows in mind, but none are currently possible without the API as all of our files are stored in AppColl. Simplest idea would be to set up a workflow that takes an new OA document, summarizes it, retrieves and summarizes prior art cited, and generates a shell response.
I suspect that everyone at some point will be asking for this, but an API for ChatGPT or the like would be extremely useful to our workflow. Are there any plans to introduce such an API?
As of now, the background color options in AppColl are based entirely on a tasks' due date and the deadline type. It would be very useful if we could select a background color for a specific task type. For example, I would like to set all "Respond to Non-Final Office Action - 4 month" tasks to orange and "Respond to Non-Final Office Action - 5 month" tasks to red - regardless of how close to the due date they are. This would allow me to quickly see in a report all of those tasks for which an extension is already due.
The current system doesn't allow me to do this. If I set the background color of all tasks with an External Extendable Deadline type and due within one month to orange, then all "Respond to Non-Final Office Action - 3 month" tasks due within the next month are orange, all "Respond to Non-Final Office Action - 4 month" tasks are orange, all "Respond to Non-Final Office Action - 5 month" tasks are orange, and so on.
@gregg_appcoll Thank you!
I was able to use this to get the total number of office actions received for a client, but not an average per matter for that client. Is that possible using the Categories and Series tabs?
@gregg_appcoll said in Count of Office Actions and RCE:
The second report is possible provided you have created a custom "File RCE" task type and close them as they are filed. Do you currently have this set up? Thanks.
We do have this set up!
@SadiqA2304, rather than having a set of client-specific transient tasks + client-specific billing item templates, I suggest we have only client-specific billing item templates that include the client-specific trigger. Right now, the billing item templates can only be triggered based on the setting of a status of a task. I'd like to also add that the billing item template is only triggered when that task is closed AND the matter is for a particular client. No need to create both a transient task and a billing item template. Instead, I can create just a single billing item template.
As an example, when I close a "Respond to Non-Final Office Action - 3 month deadline" task in a matter for Client ABC, I would like a billing item to be created based on a template that is set to be triggered when that particular task is closed and the client is ABC. When I close a "Respond to Non-Final Office Action - 3 month deadline" task in a matter for Client XYZ, I would like a billing item created based on a template that is set to be triggered when that particular task is closed and the client is XYZ. I'd like to do that by creating a billing item template for ABC and another for XYZ, without having to create a transient task for Client ABC, a transient task for Client XYZ, a billing item template for ABC, and a billing item template for XYZ. We got very close with the "generate a billing item from this template when the status of task X changes to done" was added, but it not client-specific.
This might be possible, but I haven't quite figured out a way to do it yet:
I'd like to be able to run some analysis on the average number of office actions received in a matter before notice of allowance for a client's matters. As of now, I don't believe there is any way within Appcoll to count the number of office actions received in a matter other than manually.
Additionally, it would be very helpful for billing purposes to have a running count of the number of RCEs filed in a case so that we can set up an automatic generation of a billing item for the correct RCE fee.
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.
It would be extremely helpful to enable a 'bulk edit' option in the Report Schedules module. I can see this being useful when to remove or add a single contact on a set of regularly scheduled reports.
@gregg_appcoll said in Additional Date and Text Fields on Task Level:
@KimG5166 this is on our list of future projects. We will make an announcement when this has been added. We hope this helps.
Any update on this @gregg_appcoll?
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.
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.
@GeorgeJ4336 said in Add Form Generation and Attachment to E-mail Templates:
This would, for example, make preparing reporting messages easier, because relevant documents, or perhaps a superset of them, would already be attached to the draft reporting message AppColl generates.
Alternatively, the Edit Template UI could be augmented to include a similar checkbox, as mocked up below.
The ability to add a document associated with a task to an email would be absolutely amazing!
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!
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 would LOVE an option to send a single email to multiple people that included multiple different reports. Even better would be the ability to combine all of those reports into a single PDF when sending that single email.
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.
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.
I would like to be able to have some reports derived from another 'master' report, where any change to the formatting of the master report is reflected in the derived reports. For example, if I add a column to a 'master' prosecution report that includes all US prosecution, I'd like any client-specific US prosecutions derived from the master prosecution report to also include this newly added column.
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 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.
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:
