Dropbox has made some new changes recently, and they’ve been causing issues. If you are using Dropbox to share your TimeNet Law Data, it is very important that you check your Dropbox configuration and make sure it is properly setup.
How to Check Your Dropbox Configuration
Please follow the steps below to make sure Dropbox is configured correctly:
1. Click the Dropbox icon in your menubar, click the colored circular icon in the top-right of the Dropbox window, and select Preferences.
2. Click Sync, and see if you have an option for “New Files Default” and make sure it is set to “Available Offline”, and not “Online Only”. You can close that window.
3. Go to your Dropbox folder and navigate to the TimeNet Law Data folder inside. Right-click on it and select “Make Available Offline”. Wait a few minutes and make sure a green checkmark appears next to the TimeNet Law Data folder. 4. Repeat the above steps on any other computer(s) running TimeNet Law as well.
Once you’ve completed those steps, TimeNet Law will work correctly with Dropbox.
TimeNet Law 4.4 has arrived! This update includes a new compact view for the main window, big improvements to One Click Billing and reissued invoices, as well as important bug fixes and compatibility improvements.
Be sure to check out the full release notes and download the update using the buttons below.
TimeNet Law 4.3 is ready to go! We’ve made some big improvements to Accounting and added some other important fixes and improvements. Let’s take a look at what’s new!
Accounting Updates
New UI
Accounting in TimeNet Law 4.3 has some big new features. First, let’s talk about the Accounts window in general. You’ll notice a refreshed UI, and a new settings option that lets you show or hide automatic accounts such as A/R and retainers.
Double Entry Bookkeeping
TimeNet Law used to allow you to link client payments in an account. These transactions appeared in the account and affected the balance, but they could not be edited or deleted.
TimeNet Law 4.3 introduces a new double entry system. Client payments will now show up as independent transactions in the account. You can edit them or delete them as you can any other transaction. Changing or deleting these transactions will not affect client payments. You will need to make those changes in the Payment Center as well.
New Ways to Double-Deposit
With the changes outlined above, we’ve made some improvements to how you can log transactions. Now, when making a payment in the Payment Center, or when creating a transaction in the Accounts window, you can automatically create a new entry in the other area.
You can also designate an account to be the default used for depositing client payments. When creating invoices, you can also have the automatic bookkeeper payments deposited into an account of your choice.
We’ve made updates to the user manual in the Payment Center and Accounting sections to reflect these changes, so be sure to take a look there to learn more.
More Improvements
TimeNet Law 4.3 also has a number of other new features, shortcuts, important bug fixes, and compatibility improvements. Check out the full release notes to learn more.
Introducing the new TimeNet Law 4.2 update — with Document Templates, support for Smart Fields in Microsoft Word, and more new features, fixes and improvements.
Document Templates
Now with TimeNet Law 4.2 you can create a list of Document Templates and organize them with folders and tags. Document Templates can be easily added to any matter.
Document Templates also support Smart Fields for Microsoft Word documents. When adding a Document Template to a matter, any Smart Fields in the template will be automatically filled in with the data from that client and matter.
We’ve updated our Document Management Guide to include information about the new Document Templates system.
We’ve also added the ability to email or text a client directly from anywhere in the program that lists their contact information, made some UI improvements, and fixed some other issues. Be sure to check out the full release notes.
Apple is moving full steam ahead with their transition away from Intel and onto their own custom chips: M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max. How is the transition going, and are any of these Apple Silicon Macs a good fit for your law firm?
Let’s just get this out of the way right up front: YES, the M1 Macs are a fantastic option for your law firm – with a couple of tiny caveats. We’ll get to that in a minute.
Advantages of M1 Macs
Apple moving to their own in-house chips has brought some shocking advantages. Not only are these computers blazing fast, they are also incredibly power efficient. For laptops, that means longer lasting battery life. Way longer. Like 12 or more hours of actual heavy usage. For desktops, this means lower power costs.
The MacBook Air is an insane value right now. It has unheard of battery life, it’s incredibly fast, and it doesn’t even have a fan. You’ll appreciate that if you’re in a meeting room or on a conference call. The machine is literally dead silent.
Just how fast is the M1 MacBook Air? We’ve been using it as a main development and design machine for over a year, and it feels even faster than our iMac Pros. The only time they are slower is with high-end graphics processes. But as long as you’re not editing 4K video or rendering the next Pixar animated movie, you won’t notice or care.
Can the M1 chip do everything you need for your law firm? Absolutely. It doesn’t even break a sweat with heavy email and web browsing, editing large documents, or running billing and accounting software.
What About Compatibility?
Many people are concerned about compatibility with their existing apps. They needn’t worry. M1 Macs come with a built-in “compatibility mode” called Rosetta. It lets you run Intel applications that haven’t been optimized for M1 chips yet.
Not only do all of your Intel apps work fine with Rosetta, they are often even faster than running them on actual Intel Macs. The bottom line is everything will just work, and you won’t even notice Rosetta. Things will just feel much faster.
What About Those Caveats?
M1 Macs no longer support Boot Camp – so if you’re booting into Windows for any reason, that will no longer work. You can still run Windows using other methods, such as Parallels.
You’ll also want to check with your printer and scanner manufacturer to ensure they support M1 Macs. They absolutely should — you might have more of an issue making sure they support macOS Monterey.
And finally, if you rely on any other highly specialized and possibly out-of-date hardware or software, make sure to check with them for any compatibility concerns as well.
TimeNet Law is fully compatible with macOS Monterey and all M1 Macs.
Which M1 Should I Get?
We do not recommend the 13″ M1 MacBook Pro. It offers essentially no advantages over the 13″ MacBook Air, and the Air is cheaper, has a better keyboard configuration (with actual function keys instead of the TouchBar, which is now no longer an option in new Apple laptops), and is lighter and easier to transport.
We also do not recommend the new M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pros, unless having a 14″ or 16″ screen is absolutely critical for you, or you can’t live without a built-in HDMI and/or SD Card slot. If so, then get the base M1 Pro, not the Max. The main difference there is graphics performance, so you likely won’t need it. The base M1 Pro is more than enough for all of your day-to-day tasks.
On any M1 or M1 Pro Mac, we highly recommend 32GB of RAM minimum. You may be dealing with a lot of documents and websites at once, and having the extra RAM will really make a difference. It will also help future-proof your computer, so that it remains highly usable for many years to come.
The only other thing to consider is hard drive space. 1 or 2 TB should be a great option, but you can double-check what you’re using now on your current Mac, and make sure to give yourself some extra room on top of that.
The Bottom Line
Apple’s new M1 chips are insanely great, and there’s never been a better time to switch to a Mac, or upgrade your existing Mac. The transition really is seamless. We have been incredibly impressed with performance, heat & fan noise (there’s basically none), Rosetta’s compatibility mode, and the overall quality of these new M1 Macs.
If you’re on the fence, now is the time to jump. They really are that good.
We’re excited to announce that TimeNet Law 4.1 is here! This is a big one! We’re introducing:
Full document management with search, tagging, file reminders and so much more
A totally redesigned reminder system, with powerful system-wide notification support
Zero-configuration invoice emailing — now you can email invoices to your clients without configuring and managing a mail server
But we didn’t stop there. TimeNet Law 4.1 adds a bunch of other new features, improvements and fixes too — over 40 in all! Let’s take a look at what’s new.
Document Management
First up: Document Management! For a long time, TimeNet Law has allowed you to link a file to a task, but that’s about it. TimeNet Law 4.1 now brings you complete document management! What does that mean? Let’s check it out.
Documents Folder for Every Matter
TimeNet Law will automatically create a Documents folder for every matter you create. You can access your matter documents right from the matter window. The new View Toggle button lets you switch between List View, Calendar View, or Files View.
Documents are stored in your TimeNet Law database and are automatically synced along with your other TimeNet Law data.
Files View in a Matter
Powerful Search and File Tagging
TimeNet Law uses your Mac’s powerful built-in Spotlight indexing to search for files. Find files by type, content, context, and more. Even find text in images using macOS Monterey’s new Live Text feature! All from right inside TimeNet Law. Search is lightning fast, even with thousands of files.
Instantly search documents by name, content, date, tag, and reminder status
You can also tag files with custom tags and assign them colors. Then filter your search even further by tag.
Tagging documents
All of this can be done from inside each matter, but you can also search your entire document library. The new QuickSearch Documents window lets you search all of your documents. Further refine your search by client or tag, date range, and more to find exactly what you’re looking for fast.
Easily search all of your client documents
Assign Deadlines and Reminders to Documents
You can assign a reminder to a document to track due dates and follow-up actions. Assign the reminder to a specific timekeeper, or mark it to be completed by any timekeeper.
Documents flagged with reminders will show a reminder badge in the file list, and they will also appear on your calendar, task manager list, and Launchpad!
All the Features You Expect
Drag and drop, duplication, moving, sorting, searching, Quick Look previewing — you can do it all right from inside TimeNet Law! Even drag files from one matter to another, or out of TimeNet Law to your Finder and vice versa. It’s incredibly powerful.
The new document management system will help you keep all of your client files organized and within reach. Instantly access a matter’s files with one click. Tag them, assign reminders, save notes, and see file deadlines on your calendar. Managing client files just got so much easier!
To help you get the most out of the new Document Management system, we’ve created a complete guide.
Next, we’ve got a brand new notification system! With TimeNet Law 4, we added task management and calendaring. Reminders were added as an option, but they weren’t working well for some users. We’ve totally redesigned the notification system, so now they should be working for everyone.
You’ll get macOS-style system notifications. These notifications can be assigned to only appear for specific users of TimeNet Law (which requires Control Center and user login), or they can appear for everyone who runs TimeNet Law.
Notifications will even fire if TimeNet Law isn’t open! Once you get a notification, you can dismiss it, snooze it for 10 minutes, or jump right to the associated task in TimeNet Law — all from the notification.
Zero-Config Invoice Emailing
TimeNet Law could always email invoices to your clients automatically as you created them, but it required you to configure your own mail server settings. Users with iCloud or gmail accounts could have issues, and even when it worked, having to manually manage those settings was not ideal.
We’ve solved this problem with TimeNet Law 4.1 by spinning up our own mail server. Now TimeNet Law uses this automatically-configured mail server to email your invoices to your clients.
Invoices will be delivered with a customizable “from address”, so your clients can reply directly to you. And your invoices are never saved on our mail servers.
There’s a Lot More!
In addition to the new notification system and full document management, TimeNet Law 4.1 includes a lot of other new features, improvements and fixes. You can view the full release notes and download the new version below.
