In what may be a Valentine’s Day gift to their customers, the enterprise-grade, cloud-based practice management application Centerbase released its latest version on February 13. Unlike most vendors who issue service releases that only fix “undocumented features” (translation = bugs), this update packs new features, some enhancements and updates.
What will users see in this version?
NEW – Negative Billing Entries – This. Is. BIG. How many times have users wished they could credit a specific time entry for both the value *and* the hours involved? Or wished they could reclassify work from one client, case, matter or project to another? With this new feature, users can now create negative billing entries. If the negative entry contributes to a bill that has a total negative value, monies can be refunded to the client or applied to other bills for that matter.
NEW – Payment Reversals – A payment is applied to a bill and either: (1) the payment is rejected by your financial institution; or (2) it was applied to the wrong client or matter. With this new feature, users can now reverse or undo the effects of a payment.
- The Payment Reversal will have the exact same total, distributions, and allocations as the original Payment, but in negative amounts.
- A Payment Reversal will work with payments that are either not yet included in posted bills or included on bills already posted.
- If the original Payment was transferred from Trust to pay a bill, and there was an associated Trust Bank Transfer, the Payment Reversal will have a Pending Trust Transaction back to Trust.
NEW – Line of Credit Report – This new report will list Hard Cost Expenses for a matter and calculate interest accrued as of a specified date. Users can go to System Settings –Billing–Variable Interest Rates. The report can be filtered by Matter or “As of” Date.
NEW – System Utilities – New features included in System Utilities now include:
- Copy values from one field to another. This is definitely helpful when recording information for a Contact or Matter!
- Set originator(s) based on a user lookup field or percent share field. This is a definite improvement over text fields.
NEW – Ability to Change Default Rate Tables – Oh, we love this one! A picture is worth a thousand words, and here it is:
These are just a few of the items packed into this latest release, and our Centerbase Certified Partners at Crosspointe Consulting Group would be happy to discuss them, as well as answer any questions you may have. It is obvious that the manufacturers of this application are committed to retaining the high-quality standards that make Centerbase a leader in cloud-based practice management applications. You are welcome to call us at 877-357-0555 or write to us at [email protected] to learn more about Centerbase.
Previous Articles:
Centerbase and NetDocuments – A Winning Combination
Dana Riel is President and Founder of Business Solutions, Inc., serving the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area since 1985. Her firm is the authorized training center for the region for Time Matters and PCLaw by PCLaw|Time Matters, PLLC; Timeslips and Sage 50 Accounting by Sage Software; and QuickBooks by Intuit Corporation. She also serves as a consultant for Caret Legal (formerly known as Zola Suite), CosmoLex, Soluno & TimeSolv. As a trainer, Dana has provided training services to organizations such as the DOD Defense Logistics Agency, Judge Advocate General’s Office (JAG)/Department of the Navy, University of the District of Columbia School of Law, U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as with small‐ to mid‐size law firms in the Baltimore‐Washington D.C. area. In 2009, she participated in the series of day‐long seminars sponsored by the District of Columbia Bar Association Practice Management Section, titled “Basic Training: Learn About Running a Law Office”. Ms. Riel also served as an Adjunct Professor in Georgetown University’s Paralegal Studies Program, having taught the course, “Legal Ethics/Legal Technology” in 2009; and “Legal Technology” for the Spring and Summer Semesters of 2010. She presently serves on the Advisory Board for PCLaw|Time Matters, PLLC.