Article ID: 10200

PCLaw Version 10 Service Pack 5 (SP5) Release Notes

These release notes describe new and enhanced features, and provide a list of corrected and known issues.

Refer to the What's New page for detailed information about SP5.


Verify that the following conditions exist before you download SP5:

  • A full backup of the PCLaw data files and documents exists
  • The PCLaw software and all other programs that link to PCLaw on all computers are closed

Added Features and Enhancements

The following are a list of features and enhancements:

Feature/Enhancement:
Description:

Microsoft Office 2010 32-bit support

Integration with Microsoft Office now includes the 32-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010 products.

Improved Email Tracking

The program now has an improved method of capturing Outlook emails sent through Exchange server.


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Corrected Issues

SP5 corrects the following issues:

Functional Area:
Description:

Accounts Payable

When using the Pay Now option for a new payable, the Country field displays the ZIP code.

Banking - Bank Reconciliation

  • If a bank reconciliation is set to use deposit slips but skip zero balance receipts, while both a deposit slip and zero receipt exist in the period being reconciled, the details of the deposit slip may be incorrect, or completely blank.


  • If you select to clear a zero balance deposit slip on a bank reconciliation, the same deposit slip is outstanding on the next reconciliation period.


  • If you enter Trust Receipt with a Hold status, editing the receipt to remove the hold removes it from the Client Ledger but not from the Client Summary.

BillFlow Manager

Special fees appear in BillFlow Manager as Insufficient Charges and you cannot select these charges for billing.

Billing

  • If you select Bill Only Disbursements with Mass Billing in the Matter Manager, and the matter has a Requested Bill that was previously billed (not mass billed), then the Fees become zero in the Billing Info window after you process the Bill.


  • If a matter is set to automatically create a one time disbursement and transfer trust at billing, with more than enough in trust to cover the bill total bill, a prebill shows a trust transfer with double the amount of the disbursement, showing an A/R of negative the amount of the disbursement.
    NOTE: The actual bill is correct.


  • If the last matter during a mass bill skipped, the next invoice number increments by the program as if the matter billed.


  • When using Select Charges to create a Settlement Statement, any Fee Write Downs you select do not display on the statement.


  • Taxes do not calculate on the Recreate Bill, and another copy of the first split bill matter is produced.


  • When you enable Prompt before Posting Bill and select email as one of the output options, the output generates before and after the prompt to post the bill.


  • Auto Disbursements that you reduce to zero on the Billing Info screen still bill in full.


  • If split matters have a discount applied to fees on the Matter Manager, and this discount is applied at time of billing on the Billing Info screen, the amount of fees split to other matters is subtracted from the discount.


  • Billing a single entry using a template with paragraph style explanations enabled displays the explanation code used for that single entry twice on the bill.


  • If a bill containing No Charge fees is undone, the fee adjustments created at the time of billing to offset the No Charge fees are not removed from the matter.


  • During a split bill, when split matters create auto disbursements based on the percentage of fees, one matter allocates the percentage of the full amount of fees on the main matter, rather than the percentage of that split matter's share of fees.


  • Total Taxes on Charge Selection screen calculate at current rate even when the entry date for items qualifies for an earlier rate.


  • Trust funds can transfer at the time of billing regardless of the trust balance on the actual bill date.


Calendar

  • You can enter appointments with a blank duration by deleting the duration field.


  • If a matter has more than one ToDo with upcoming but different due dates, and the first ToDo is changed, the Matter Status report will show the second ToDo as the next ToDo, skipping the ToDo that was changed.


  • The Reminder Notification and Sound Alert do not work when creating a Reminder in the Calendar.

Contact Manager

Printing a label for a single contact in a large SQL database can cause the program to fail.

Data Entry

  • When you change the Payment Method of a receipt to Cash, you still must enter a  Drawer.
    NOTE: Australia only.


  • While spell checking on any data entry screen on a Vista system, you cannot add found words to the custom dictionary.


  • If a payment allocated to multiple lawyers is short of the total receivable, the allocations round too high by a total of 0.01, creating a discrepancy between the Client Ledger and the Billing Fees Journal.

General Ledger

If the list of G/L Accounts prints while the list is not in tree view, the sub accounts fields on the printout are blank.

Link - API

If you enter a time entry through the link, some hours values are incorrectly convert to seconds.

Matter Manager

Clicking the Unbilled Disbursements button on the Matter Manager Summary tab shows Trust Disbursements unbilled or billed in the list of Register items.

Outlook Connection

  • While syncing contacts with Outlook, any changes to the email field in the program are ignored, and replaced by the original value in Outlook.


  • If a contact syncs from Outlook to PCLaw, the Outlook Display As field uses the email field in the program, even if the Display As field is the person's name.

Past Due Notices

If a Past Due Notice is output to the editor, the Edit Disk Image list can show the wrong client name and matter number for this file if the matter number matches an invoice number for another matter.

Phone Call Manager

The List of Phone Calls report that you generate from the Print button in Phone Call Manager fails to display the To information for phone calls.

Register

  • On the Invoice tab of the register, after changing an invoice and selecting Write Off All Outstanding Invoices for this Matter on the Change-Bill screen, fees are not written off, and disbursements are only written off with manual adjustments.


  • If you enable Show GST/HST on Trust Check (cheque) Entries, correcting a trust check produces an error.

Reports

  • The Vendor Listing report with Total Payable and/or Total Purchases tokens that you add to customize the template produce incorrect amounts.


  • General checks you create using Include in AP appear doubled under the paid out disbs column on the GST/HST Journal report.


  • If a set of books has more than 100 lawyers, the Comparative Time Listing report freezes.


  • A Discount to fees applied to multiple timekeepers at time of billing appears as a negative fee allocation to the responsible lawyer on the Client Ledger, while the correct allocations appear on the Billing Fees Journal and Receivables by Lawyer.


  • The Client Trust Listing report generates too slowly.

Search - Global

Selecting Notes in addition to the default parameters fails to search notes. Only when selecting Notes in addition to Appointments/Phone Calls/To Do's does Global Search return the correct results.

Template Editor

  • The default Past Due template uses Client Address instead of Billing Address, resulting in the Past Due Statement having the Billing Name and Client Address.


  • The Net Write Offs token displays 0.00 on bills and pre-bills, even when there have been write offs to previous invoices.


  • The tokens for Write Up/Down of Disbursements Total and Write Up/Down of Fees Total for Bill Activity on billing templates only show 0.00.


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Additional Issues Corrected by SP5 Hotfix 3 (SP5 HF3)

SP5 HF3 corrects the following issues:

Functional Area:
Description:

Bank Reconciliation

If you enable Use Deposit Slips, outstanding deposit slips from the previous period appear in the current bank reconciliation as individual entries rather than as a single deposit slip.

Billing

  • If you apply a general retainer at billing and the amount applied is less than the amount on the bill, the program records the entry twice to different GL accounts.


  • If your firm uses explanation codes followed by text in the description field of time or expense entries, when billed, the space that normally appears between the explanation code and text is missing.


  • A full write down of fees during final billing are missing on the Client Ledger, Client Summary, and bill. The Client Ledger does not reflect the write down and appears as if you did not make an adjustment. The Client Summary in the Matter Manager shows a negative unbilled fee entry, which is not visible from the Client Ledger.


  • Full or partial fee adjustments during Request Bill or Release Bill are missing. A write down shows as a negative fee entry on the Client Summary but the Client Ledger and bill reflects the full amount owing.


  • When billing by client for multiple matters and you enable automatic discounts for those matters, the invoice total does not calculate the discount correctly and causes the total bill to be incorrect.


  • Writing off a bill by an amount that is less than the retainer balance causes an imbalance between the Client Ledger and Billing Fees Journal reports.


Data Entry

  • Trust Receipts in a Hold status are not releasing after set days expire and are not showing up on bills.


  • Receive Payment does not auto-populate allocations when you apply a payment against multiple matters.

General Ledger

  • When adjusting a GL entry and saving, the adjusting entry is incorrect.


Internet

  • PCLaw version 10 SP5 HF3 supports Internet Explorer 9 Beta.



NOTE:

If you experience any of the above issues, upgrade to SP5 HF3.


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Known Issues

The following known issues exist after you upgrade to SP5:

Functional Area:
Description:

Billing

  • Multiple pages can print on a single page when select Prompt Before Posting and send a bill directly to your printer.


  • If you select charges while creating a bill and change an entry on the Select Charges window, that entry becomes corrupt and the Billing Information window closes.


  • In a cash accounting system, the retainer amount does not transfer to the lawyer's fee G/L account after creating a bill.

Calendar

If you select a date format other than MM/DD/YYYY under the Other tab of the System Settings window, the Daily View in the Calendar still shows the month's full name in front of the date.

Contact Manager

Selecting a large number of contacts (over 100) to export from the Contact Manager can cause a forced program close.

Outlook Connection

If you enable the connection for email tracking and timer and use the Advanced Find two times in a row, Microsoft Outlook closes.

Reports

  • The Payable Listing report is missing vendor information when you export it to Excel


  • The Client Ledger report run for Totals Only produces a corrupt .xls file when you export it to Excel.


  • If you filter the Purchases Journal by G/L, the report shows blank lines for each skipped invoice up to a maximum of three blank lines for each vendor.


  • If a matter has a zero balance in one trust account but still has funds in another trust account with a higher nickname (number), the balance in the second account does not show the correct bank account on the Client Trust Listing.


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