PracticeMaster

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PracticeMaster features

PracticeMaster is a practice management software developed by Software Technology Inc (STI) and has been in use since 1988. It was formally known as Case Master.This practice management software stands out from the others because of its database customization and flexibility. While other practice management software also allow customization, non compare to PracticeMaster.This software package can be designed for almost any law firm through its Area of Practice databases (each one is customizable by the firm). If your firm is dealing with Adoptions or Workman Comp, PracticeMaster can work for you.

Features of PracticeMaster

Customization Capabilities

  • PracticeMaster's graphical "Task Folder" interface is easy to use with its "point and click" access. Several task folders are customizable at the user level allowing for quick access to the information most commonly used by each professional.
  • Modify and create common client related files (i.e., fees, costs, journals) as well as area of practice specific files (i.e., Tax, Worker's Comp, Real Estate, Probate, Will/Trusts) providing you with the ability to track and organize client information the way you want.
  • You can add, change or delete fields of information in any common client related file or area of practice file. This allows you to maintain the client information you want, where you want.
  • A special Form Designer allows you to customize your data entry windows for easy data entry and editing your client and firm related data.
  • The ability to define your own indexes and column layouts allows you to change how information is displayed on the screen, making for fast and easy lookup and retrieval of contact, client and firm information.
  • PracticeMaster lets you categorize the type of work that you perform for a client by defining an "Area of Practice". Each Area of Practice can be developed from scratch or you can use one of the several pre-written Areas of Practice provided free with PracticeMaster. This flexibility is rarely found in practice management software. These pre-written systems are called Templates. Each Template includes basic files specific to an area of practice (the sample files included with each Template may need to be modified to comply with your specific firm and state requirements).

Calendaring / Scheduling

  • Graphical display by day, multi-day, week or month, with optional color coding customized at the user level, allows you to personalize your own calendar. You can also drill down to individual events and tasks from this display.
    Special note to Outlook users: Microsoft Outlook can't display a calendar by client for more than one user...but, with PracticeMaster you can (using PracticeMaster's filter feature).
  • Graphical calendar reports available by day, week or month.
  • Calendar events can be scheduled by individual, selected individuals, groups or firm-wide and includes checking for conflicting events already scheduled thus helping to keep the firm organized and limiting potential conflicts.
  • Drag-and-drop rescheduling of events helps make appointment and meeting changes quick and easy.
  • Alarms can be associated with an event and can "pop-up" on your screen to remind you of a meeting or appointment you have coming up later in the day. For busy professionals, a "snooze" button on the reminder alarm is a useful feature.
  • Private calendar entries can be password secured so that only certain members of the firm can have access to another individual's personal calendar entries, making PracticeMaster a personal information manager as well as a client and firm calendaring system.
  • Up to three reminder dates can be associated with each calendar entry helping you to ensure no meeting or task is missed or overlooked.
  • Customizable calendar plans, specifying the number of days into the past or future from a starting date (e.g., filing date), can be created to comply with a variety of schedules. These schedules can be saved and used again for similar clients governed by the same rules.
  • User defined holiday schedules can be established allowing you to use federal, state, county or even jurisdiction specific criteria when creating reminders and due dates from one of the firm's calendar plans.
  • Calendar, contact and client information can be synchronized with Palm Inc.'s Palm™ handhelds.
  • alendar records can be integrated with Microsoft Outlook® or exported to other systems such as Novell GroupWise®.

Contact Management / Related Parties

  • Track information on contacts, places and related parties including addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses all in one convenient file.
  • Customize the related party file to track any and all information specific to your firm's needs.
  • Related Parties can be associated with any number of clients, with extensive reporting options available to access a contact's activity and performance.
  • Finding a contact is quick and easy using the Contact Search feature.
  • Easily retrieve all phone call records, notes, calendar records and other client related information associated with a related party.
  • With the click of a mouse you can get a related party usage report that provides you with a list of all records where the related party is referred to.

Conflict Checking

  • Fully indexed Conflict of Interest files provide incredibly fast searching.
  • When displaying conflict results, you can drill down to the field or record where the conflict is found giving you more detail immediately to assist you with your search.
  • Search options, including "match partial words", "starts with", "phonetic check" and "contains", help provide a more flexible, yet accurate search.
  • Phrase matching, such as "must match at least one word" or "must match all words", gives you the ability to be extremely specific in your search.
  • When integrating with WORLDOX® document management software, you can optionally include the contents of all documents in the search. This provides you with a single unified report that gives you the option to drill down to a document, as well as an individual file or record.

Advanced Document Assembly

  • Option to use either PracticeMaster's proprietary assembly engine for Microsoft Word, or use HotDocs® for either Microsoft Word or WordPerfect®.
  • Create ticklers automatically, such as fee and expense entries, based on what you want to bill the client for the creation of a document or group of documents.
  • As an option, you can automatically create a calendar entry during the assembly process. For example, you can create a reminder to make sure you receive a response one week after your document was created and sent out.
  • Automatically create a detailed document management record after the assembly of each document providing fast and easy reference and retrieval of the document in the future.
  • When information required for the assembly of a document is not in the practice management data files, the program will prompt you to enter the information, saving it to the document as well as writing it back to the data file.

Document Tracking / Management

  • Built-in document history tracking.
  • Integration with iManage and WORLDOX® document management software. Client name and description synchronization with WORLDOX's client tables, as well as automatically displaying the WORLDOX Edit Profile window after saving an assembled document.
  • Scanned documents using Visioneer's PaperPort imaging software can easily be attached to a document management record within a client file making the image readily retrievable at any time.

E-mail Integration

  • Send and receive e-mail. You can also associate e-mail messages with a client or a related party.
  • E-mail in PracticeMaster works with any MAPI compliant e-mail program including Microsoft Exchange, Outlook® and Novell's GroupWise®.
  • Attachments to e-mails can be viewed and saved.

Client Notes

  • Enter or paste notes (not specific to phone or e-mail records) as client notes in a free form text file with built-in spell checking.
  • Associate notes with a client and/or a related party (such as notes from a meeting with your client and opposing counsel).

Report Writer

  • Due to PracticeMaster's file customization capabilities, you can create a custom report using virtually any field from any file.
  • Custom reports can be designed using a Report Wizard that greatly simplifies the report creation process.
  • Drag-and-drop features help make the design of your custom reports much easier.
  • Optionally output your custom report data to different formats including HTML, MS Word Mail Merge, WordPerfect Mail Merge, as well as comma delimited ASCII.

Palm Handheld Integration

  • Palm™ Handheld Application software is included with PracticeMaster providing two-way synchronization capabilities between PracticeMaster and handheld computers running Palm OS® Version 4, such as Palm Inc.'s Palm™ handhelds or the Handspring Visor. This software is provided at no additional charge.
  • Ability to add, change and browse calendar information for your User ID.
  • Ability to browse calendar information for all users or users associated with a specific client.
  • Ability to add and browse Related Party information.
  • Ability to browse, Client, Timekeeper, Calendar Code and Category Information.
  • Two-way integration can also be achieved using the Palm's familiar built-in Palm components (i.e., Address Book, Date Book and To Do List) and PracticeMaster's new Palm Conduits. This software is provided at no additional charge with PracticeMaster and works with Palm OS® Version 5 and earlier.

Security

  • Limit access to any and all menu options within PracticeMaster at the user level.

    Options include the ability to view, enter, edit and/or delete information in any file.

  • Individual clients, as well as an individual user's calendar entries can be secured at the user level.

Time Tracking & Billing

  • Easily track time spent on specific tasks or phone calls.
  • Minimum time and a minimum time increment can be defined to add consistency and value to your billing and fee records.
  • Multiple timers can be combined to create a single fee record. This allows you to track your time as you work for a client, on and off throughout the day, but still only have one billable fee at the end of the day.
  • Cost transactions can be posted to Intuit's QuickBooks®.

Briefcase (Remote Access)

  • Briefcase is a separate module that is included with PracticeMaster and is designed to work with PracticeMaster data on a separate computer without the use of a network or modem.
  • Check out client, contact and calendar information on your laptop, basically taking your office with you.
  • Briefcase data can be checked out as "read only" (i.e., view), or as a completely interactive system. (The number of check outs allowed is equal to the concurrent user level of PracticeMaster).
  • Check out one, several or all clients, just your calendar entries, the firm's calendar, or everything, it's all up to you.
  • Synchronize any changes or additions you make to your checked out Briefcase data with the main system.