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2b1 Blog
Amicus Attorney, Amicus Accounting and Amicus Small Firm News - Web Log (blog)
This is a blog where 2b1 inc. will report mostly news about Amicus Attorney, Amicus Accounting, Amicus Small Firm and occasionally about other interesting legal programs.
If you have questions or comments please let us know Contact us or 415 284-2221.
Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition Announced today - March 3, 2008
Today Gavel & Gown Software have announced the new upgrade to Amicus Attorney 7 Premium Edition (Amicus Attorney 7 Standard Edition is no longer available).
It has been about two years since Amicus Attorney 7 came to market and there was the Amicus Attorney 7.1 update that fixed many bugs about a year ago. Then there were additional patches up to October 15 of last year. Issues that we were still having with Amicus Attorney 7 were the ability to process more than one server request at the time. If someone would send a long request to the server e.g. posting a month worth of time entries or performing a document assembly all the other Amicus Attorney 7 users had to wait until the server would finishing processing the first request before it could fulfill the request of a second user.
No more! Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition, PE is full Multi-Threaded. This means that the server can serve many users at once. Having a server with dual or quad core with really make Amicus Attorney 2008 PE shine. Some of these speed improvements are due to the use of .NET v2.0 (AA7 was using .NET1.1) and Microsoft SQL 2005. Also Amicus Attorney 2008PE is not relying on the older COM technology which makes this program faster and more stable.
Another major advancement is the Offline component. Gavel & Gown programmers have rewritten the entire module to make it more stable and to play well with the other programs. This module can handle better exceptions between records in the main database and in the offline database during synchronization.
Now that we know Amicus Attorney 2008 PEis stable and fast let’s take a look at the new feature. Like in Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition (SFE) 2008 Premium gets the Task module. With it you can see all your To Dos in many different ways. Also you can check your coworkers To Do list and see what gets done and what is left behind. This is a great feature for attorneys to see the progress of a matter. In addition to the views available in SFE, PE also add the ability to see To Dos in a Time-line view which makes it a breeze to see what is next on maters. In the new Task module you can quickly add new To Do by entering them in the new section just type the To Do's title and the first letters of the matter very simple and fast. Like in the Calendar module in Task module you can create Task Profiles so for example I can check the events of my team for my important matters over the next 14 days, or a profile for my new litigation trial.
Another time consuming issue in Amicus Attorney 7 was manually adding people information in the People Module. We had to click in so many places to enter the complete contact information to make the assistants scream. This interface has been redesigned and there is a new Basic pan. Now in Amicus Attorney 2008 PE you can just type the address or the phone number in the field directly and it gets assigned into the right field. There is a Drop-Zone on the left where you can copy the signature from an e-mail and 2008 PE will parse the address and put the information in the right fields. You still want to double check and occasionally correct those more strange addresses.
In the Communication module we now have the unsaved e-mails back like in Amicus V+. According to the programmers its was their intent to put it on Amicus Attorney 7 but they did not have enough time. It is here now so for those of you upgrading from Amicus V/V+ you are still in familiar territory. Also improved is the way to save multiple attachments from the Amicus Attorney 2008 PE Email Detail window to save attachment to the client and matter folder. in the Outlook e-mail preferences you have more options. You can check the “When I save Attachments on Unsaved E-mail also save the underlying e-mail with the Files association”. Still in the Outlook E-mail preference you can now choose to save Firm Members e-mail.
More importantly we can now click on an e-mail link in a contact card and have the new Outlook e-mail come up with your signature!
More energy went into custom field as well there we can now replace one custom field with another (of the same type e.g. text with text) that is more important if you converted from Amicus V/V+ because the conversion did create many redundant custom fields.
Another time saving feature of Amicus Attorney 22008 PE is the ability to type the initial of your file and contact when creating an event in the Event Details window and have to rely less on your mouse.
The integration with PDA is now done exclusivelythrough Outlook. If you have a Palm device you will need enable the link from the Palm/Treo device to Outlook and have you device synch through Outlook. The advantage of doing this is that you can choose any PDA: Palm, Widows Mobile, Simbian or BlackBerry PDAs. As well as long as they synch with Outlook you have your Appointments, To Dos and Contacts in your pocket. This link is more robust then in AA7.
Last but not least Amicus Attorney 2008 PE now can show you the closed files with its total number!
Amicus Attorney 2008 PE requires Microsoft SQL 2005 which is now free with the program itself.
And now for the pricing:
|
Regular Prices |
||
| 1st license | Additional License | |
| New Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition | $699 | $599 |
| Upgrade from Amicus Attorney 7.1 | $249 | $199 |
| Upgrade from Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm | $349 | $299 |
| Upgrade from Amicus Attorney V+ or Small Firm | $349 | $299 |
| Upgrade from Amicus Attorney V or Earlier | $449 | $399 |
There is a launch promotion from now March 3 until March 31, 2008
Upgrade from version 7 – save 25% off the regular price. All other upgrades – save 30% off the regular price
|
Special upgrade price until March 31 2008 |
||
| 1st license | Additional License | |
| Upgrade from Amicus Attorney 7.1 | $186.75 | $149.25 |
| Upgrade from Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm | $244.30 | $209.30 |
| Upgrade from Amicus Attorney V+ or Small Firm | $244.30 | $209.30 |
| Upgrade from Amicus Attorney V or Earlier | $314.30 | $279.30 |
Some more details:
· Effective today, Gavel & Gown will no longer be selling new installations of Amicus 7 Premium Edition.
· Any customer who has purchased Amicus 7 Premium Edition since January 1, 2008 is eligible for a free upgrade to Amicus 2008 Premium Edition. A $49 per firm administrative charge that includes shipping and handling applies.
· Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition includes Microsoft SQL 2005 at no additional charge.
· Premium Edition is the upgrade path for all version 7 customers. There is no longer a Standard Edition.
· There is no free support period for customers purchasing new or upgrading to Premium Edition. To obtain technical support on Premium Edition 2008 you must have a current Annual Technical Support Plan in place.
To upgrade please contact 2b1 inc at 415 284-2221 or Contact us
Paolo Broggi, IT Engineer and Amicus Certified Consultant since 1997 2b1 Inc
Dec 7 2007
Gavel & Gown special 15% on Amicus Attorney 2008and Accounting products
Gavel & Gown has announced a 15% reduction on Amicus Attorney 2008, and Amicus Accounting.
SAVE 15% off licenses of Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition from now until December 31, 2007.
This special offer is valid for new customers only, up to a maximum of 10 licenses. And…
SAVE 15% off licenses of Amicus Accounting 2008 from now until December 31, 2007.
This offer is for existing Amicus Attorney customers only. Note that Amicus Accounting 2008 works with Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition only.
If a firm is using an earlier version of Amicus, they must upgrade to Amicus Attorney 2008 if they wish to use Amicus Accounting 2008.
There is no maximum to the number of licenses they can purchase at this special rate.
Both promotions end at 3:00 PM EST on December 31, 2007.
Sep 12th 2007
New Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition and Amicus Accounting 2008 released
The next generation of Amicus Attorney small firm based on the FairCom database, the same as Amicus V+, was released in September adding a new task module to manage the firm's To Dos, Auto Text to type "tc " and get Telephone Conference, improved spell checking and duplicate contact resolution and much more.
Amicus Accounting 2008 gets a new face with workflows interface.
July 13, 2007
2b1 Inc. Has a Blog
We are happy to announce that 2b1 inc. has now a blog. blog.2b1inc.com
In the new 2b1 inc blog 2b1 will discuss announcements, How to, tips, and more on different products like Amicus Attorney, Amicus Small Firm, Amicus Attorney 7, Timeslips and more.
Blog entry by
Paolo Broggi - 2b1 Inc. Amicus Certified Consultant since 1997
Information Technology Engineer
April 13, 2007
Amicus Attorney 7.1 Major Update to Amicus Attorney 7
Gavel & Gown has released on March 19th a major update of Amicus Attorney 7. This new version, Amicus Attorney 7.1 has CompuLaw and Worldox links in addition of fixing 100 bugs. Also it is compatible with Microsoft SQL 2005.
Some of the problems that this new update fixes are with links with Outlook, Palm and some accounting links. Also GG fixed problems with the off line database. This is the ability for a user to generate a copy of the database locally on their laptop so they can leave the office and get all the Amicus information with them.
2b1 had a chance to upgrade a few firms that where having some problems and after the installation of Amicus Attorney 7.1 most of the problem went away.
In our CompuLaw test we were pleasantly surprised to see the addition of a new field while entering a series of event in a File. Now we can name a sequence of events generated by CompuLaw so that in case we have multiple sequences we will be able to easily identify the correct one.
For those of you who want to install Amicus Attorney 7.1 with Microsoft SQL 2005 you should remember that to have the tutorial database working, you will have to copy the following tow files from the Amicus Attorney 7 Server\MSSQL\Data to your MS SQL installation:
AmicusTutorialMaster.mdf
AmicusTutorialMaster_log.LDF
Then you will need to do the following:
Enable the xp_cmdshell feature:
From the Start Menu, Choose "Microsoft SQL Server 2005". Look for the "SQL Server Surface Area Configuration" program either in a subfolder called "Configuration Tools" or in the "Microsoft SQL Server 2005" folder.
Launch the Surface Area Configuration, and click on the "Surface Area Configuration for Features" Link Expand the Sql Server instance and Database Engine from the tree on the left. Select "xp_cmdshell"
Ensure the "Enable xp_cmdshell" check box is checked, and click OK
If all this is not your cup of tea, contact 2b1 Inc. for help.
Blog entry by
Paolo Broggi - 2b1 Inc. Amicus Certified Consultant since 1997
Information Technology Engineer
Jan 17th 2007
Gavel and Gown announced today a new update to Amicus Small Firm. This update will give the Amicus Attorney users the ability to synchronize with Outlook’s Contacts, Appointments and tasks in addition to the current e-mail one. It also has a few fixes.
This ability enables the owners of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) running Windows CE/Mobile such the Black Jack, Q, etc. and Blackberries devices to get their Amicus AttorneyContacts, Appointments and To Dos on their devices.
People using Treo with Palm based operating system (Treo 650, 680 700p) will still be able to use the direct link with Amicus Small Firm’s Amicus Attorneyportion. People with Treo 700w and the new Treo 750 will be able to synchronize with Outlook through this new update since these Treos use Windows Mobile..
Keep in mind that the more steps you introduce in a system, the more problems you can get. My preference is to use a Palm device because of the direct link with Amicus Attorney. If that is not a possibility then go with Windows based or Blackberry PADs.
Amicus Attorney V and V+ Client/Server already have this capability. To enable it first clean up your contacts in Amicus Attorney. Then check that you have either no contacts in Outlook or that you don’t have the same contacts that you have in Amicus Attorney to avoid duplicates. Now from Amicus Attorney File>>Preference select the Outlook General tab and click on the Enable Contact & Calendar Synchronization. Then you must choose if you want to have this link in Real-time or on Command.
Remember that the first time that you are re-opening Amicus Attorney it will synchronize all information and may take hours if you have many contacts, appointments and to dos. I would suggest to do it before you leave in the evening and let it run over night.
If you need help with the update of Amicus Small Firm or the synchronization of Outlook feel free to contact 2b1 inc.
Amicus Accounting part of Amicus Small Firm should be at version 2006.01.01
Here are the links to Amicus Small Firmdownload and documentation.
Downloads Page
Release notes
Purchase Amicus Samll Frim at discounted prices.
Blog entry by Paolo Broggi 2b1 Inc. - Amicus Attorney Certified Consultant since 1997
www.2b1inc.com
Jan 3 2007
HAPPY NEW YEAR
I wanted to take a moment to thank you, our many clients, for the support and appreciation shown to 2b1 inc. staff this past year and making 2006 a successful year. We are hoping to bring you more information that allows you to make more informed decisions and bring you the very low prices for Amicus Attorney, Amicus Accounting, Amicus Small Firm, Timeslips, SonicWall and many more products. We are also preparing some new services that we will be launching soon in 2007.
Here at 2b1 Inc. we wish you and your families a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Peaceful New Year.
Thank you for you support. 2b1 Inc.
Amicus Attorney, Amicus Accounting, Amicus Small Firm and Timeslips updates
Amicus Accounting is up to version 2006.1.1 that fixes a few glitches. This update is available for Amicus Small firm users: In Amicus Accounting go to Help>>Check for updates to download it.
Also Timeslips mid December released Timeslips 2007 Service Pack 1 which corrects many small issues. Also from Help>>Timeslips on the Web>>Timeslips Support area.
Amicus Attorney 7 is due for an update in February 07 and in this update the link with CompuLaw and Worldox will be enabled. Check back here for more info.
Other news
Palm has released the Treo 680 a nice lighter Treo using the Palm software so that synchronization with Amicus Attorney and Amicus Small Firm appointments, to dos and contact is a click away. The Treo line of phone are getting more sophisticated so that you can have a device and have your phone, your e-mail, calendar and contact information and you can add some music, no more PDA, iPod and cell phones to carry around just one device. The Treo 680 are GSM and work around the world and work on Cingular and T-Mobile networks. For Sprint and Verizon the Treo 700p will do the same with direct synchronization to Amicus Attorney and Amicus Small Firm.
November 27th 2006
2b1 inc. offers some of the best prices on the Internet on Amicus Small Firm, Amicus Attorney and Amicus Accounting
November 27, 2006
Amicus Attorney 7 Service Pack 2 Released Today
As promised today Gavel & Gown released the Amicus Attorney Service Pack 2.
I was able to download it and save it on my server and then install it first on the server and then on the workstations. Notice that Amicus Attorney 7 SP2 will reboot the server and workstations so you may want to close all applications before starting the upgrade and make sure that every one is out of the server (you can contact 2b1 inc. to do the upgrade for you if you wish)
If you are using the tutorial database you will need to copy two files from
…\Attorney 7 Server\MSSQL\Data\AmicusTutorialMaster.mdf and
…\Attorney 7 Server\MSSQL\Data\AmicusTutorialMaster_log.ldf
and paste these files where your Amicus Attorney database is (if you have installed Amicus Attorney with MSDE you are set. If you have the full MS SQL you may have to paste these two files in …e.g. D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data.
I have tested the speed of entering a new time entry and the time that it takes now to open a window is a fraction of the time it used to take. The big billers will be happy about this improvement. The same speed improvements are true for the Event Detail window in the Calendar module, Phone Message and E-mail windows. The graphic for theses windows are now “cashed” or temporarily saved on your local PC when Amicus Attorney first opens to improve the speed.
An other improvement I like is that in Amicus Attorney 7 SP2 in the File and People modules you can select to see My To Do’s, My Appointments and All File Milestones.
For all of you having Palms and Treos you will be pleased that the synchronization speeds are faster.
For a complete list of all the new feature and bug fixes check the release notes.
The next update is expected January/February 2007 with links to CompuLaw and Worldox
If you have questions contact us or call us at (415) 284-2221 (9:30PM to 6PM PST).
Nov 22, 2006
Amicus Attorney 7 SP2 due on Monday
We just received a note from Gavel & Gown that Amicus Attorney 7 SP2 will be released on Monday November 27th.
On the new features list we have support for HotDocs 2006, the ability to generate documents from the Search Results window, remote update, Amicus Attorney Server optimization, Outlook and Palm improvements. The number to fixes went up to 150.
Gavel & Gown is making a new distribution CD that will contain SP2. If you have not installed your Amicus Attorney 7 you may want to wait until this new release ships so that you won’t have to waist your time with upgrades.
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I did receive an inquiry of a reader of this blog asking about compatibility of Amicus Attorney 7 with Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 2. I have tested Amicus Attorney 7 v 5 and v 6 with Internet Explorer 7. The click of the star to get the map in the contact card is not working. GG said that MapQuest has changed their interface and that broke the passing of the address to the MapQuest web site. This problem has been fixed in Amicus Attorney 7 SP2. The clicking on the hyper link of a web site in the contact card is working.
If you have other questions that may be helpful to other readers please send them to me.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from all our team here at 2b1 Inc.
November 15, 2006
Preview on Amicus Attorney 7 SP2
We had a webinar last week explaining the latest improvements on Amicus Attorney 7. This time Gavel & Gown decided to focus on performance and reliability in the upcoming service pack 2. In this new version the database server will go to an automatic maintenance step every day improving performance of the server. Also the dailies page will now signal events that may not be formatted correctly giving us a chance to fix that event.
A lot of work went in the Time Sheets module making it much faster in entering new time entries. The New Events windows went through the same speed enhancement update. In addition to all these performance improvements G&G also fixed about 60 more small bugs.
Amicus Attorney 7 SP2 release is scheduled later this week or early next week. Users from AA7 v4 and v 6 will be able to update directly to AA7 SP2. If you do not have v 4 or v 6 install you will have to bring up your version of Amicus Attorney 7 to either v 4 or v 6 to later upgrade to SP2.
October 16 2006,
Amicus Attorney 7 v 6 released
On September 21st Gavle and Gown released the 6th upgrade to its Amicus Attorney 7. This new update fixes an additional 60 bugs and adds the ability to exchange data with Amicus Accounting, increases the speed and functionality of document assembly, adds more views in the communication page so that we can now sort by My E-mail, All e-mail, all Calls and Messages and improves the link with PCLaw and QuickBooks so that abbreviation of names and punctuation won’t interrupt the initialization of the link.
Unlike update 5 you can jump from update 4 to 6 saving you the 30 to 45 minutes download of 5 and the additional hour to install it on your PCs. However, until G&G does not come out with Amicus Attorney 7 Service Release 2 you will have to upgrade one step at the time from Service Release 1, to 4 and finally to 6. Keep in mind that if you have already installed the Amicus Attorney 7 client you will have to update the clients as well for each update you do. We learned this lesson by experience…
If you need help in updating to Amicus Attorney 7 version 6 please call 415 284-2221.
Amicus Attorney update 6 Realease Note (PDF)
Monterey, California Bar Association meeting
From October 5 to 8 we were in the beautiful bay of Monterey at the California Bar Association meeting. 2b1 Inc. was showing Amicus Attorney 7, Amicus Accounting and Amicus Small Firm. We had a very crowded both and we gave many demonstrations of these products. People were mostly impressed by the Amicus Attorney 7 new polished interface and the new features. They were also curious about Amicus Accounting and Amicus Small Firm. Thank you to everyone that stopped by to see a demo or to shear your comments. You should have received your demo CD. If you have no received it please contact us.
August 23
Amicus Small Firm
Gavel & Gown has lunched a new product for the solos and small law firms: Amicus Small Firm. This new product contains the award wining Amicus Attorney V+ (v5.7) with the new Amicus Accounting. This two programs are linked together to minimize the steps to transfer information from Amicus Attorney to Amicus Accounting in both directions. For example updating the client address in the practice management program will update the information on Accounting as if they were a single program.
Amicus Attorney for those of you who don’t know yet is a practice management program that mange your Calendar appointment and to dos, Contacts, Files, Time Sheets, Communication and more. Its easy-to-use and intuitive interface minimizes the training needs. What I like about Amicus Attorney is the ability to save all information to a specific file so that I can review all phone calls, e-mails, documents, appointments, to dos and more in on place. This information is available to my colleagues as well. I can also set up precedents to automate some tasks like the procedure for a new client with its five to dos.
Also I like how Amicus Attorney handles phone calls. From a file I select the person I want to call and click on the telephone icon. Then Phone windows pops up with a timer counting. There I can review my phone calls with this person and all the phone calls on this file. Now that I caught up with the situation I dial the phone number and talk to the contact. Since I have a headset I can type a summary of my conversation as we talk (or type a note at the end of the call). From this window I can now set up a call back reminder with one click of a button. Click, and now I have a To Do for next week. A second click takes the time from the timer and puts it into a new Time Sheet which is already partially filled. I add some more detail and I am done. No more writing my time on a paper that later on I or my assistant need to enter in the billing system. Now I go the Time Sheet module to see my time collected through out the day and I click no the Post button. Now my time is in Amicus Accounting.
In Amicus accounting I can select the client or clients to bill. I choose the unbilled time/expense entries if necessary the time period for billing. Amicus Accounting can also do contingence and other type of billing. I can exclude time or expense sheets from the current bill and create the bill on my custom template. I can include the check I printed for a client as an expense, no double entry. I can have Amicus Accounting deduct the balance for this bill from the client Trust account. This program has a full General Ledger module so I can keep track of my firm expenses as well. Amicus Accounting is quite a complete accounting package with Billing, Account Payable, GL, Trust, Expense, Receipts and more. Since it was designed with the law firm in mind it has nice features like the automatic numbering of the clients and matters (that will transfer to Amicus Attorney), Trust accounts and moew. It also does a good job in keeping the interface uncluttered and intuitive in an accounting sort of way.
In conclusion Amicus Small Firm is a great cost attractive solution for small law firms that are looking to organize their information and integrate the billing and accounting parts as well. The workflow of this program focus on minimizing the number of clicks or windows that someone needs to go through to reach a function. When I am busy with clients I don’t have the time to think how do I get to that window. It has to be a click away.
For more details on Amicus Small Firm, Amicus Attorney and Amicus Accounting please visit our web site Amicus Small Firm
Author:
Paolo Broggi
Information Technology Engineer
2b1 Inc.
Serving the legal community since 1996
www.2b1inc.com
August 14, 2006
Amicus Accounting and Amicus Small Firm
Gavel and Gown held a webinar for consultants on August 8th formally introducing two new products: Amicus Accounting and Amicus Small Firm.
Amicus Accounting as we have seen in the past is a complete time, billing and accounting package (like PCLaw or a combination of Timeslips and QuickBooks). The advantage of having an integrated time, billing and accounting package is that the information only needs to be entered once, for example if we have to write a check for filing for a client, we can write the check and enter it as an expense to the client matter in one step.
Amicus Accounting is a stand alone product and does not need Amicus Attorney. However, the integration with both Amicus Attorney V+ (5.6 new update) and Amicus Attorney 7 (update 6 available later this month) will make creating and posting time between Amicus Attorney and Accounting the easiest link ever created. From the preliminary information we have received each individual file in Amicus Attorney V+ can be exchanged without the need to go to the Amicus Administrator to run the global exchange. An exchange can be ran at the timekeeper level as well, in case the attorney was working off line and created or modified several files in Amicus.
Amicus Accounting is based on code purchased by Gavel and Gown on a well known and with a solid 20 years in the market time, billing and accounting program. Gavel & Gown redesigned the interface to make it more user friendly according the Amicus Attorney philosophy and simplified the workflow. Considering that Amicus Accounting has the law firm in mind standard features as trust accounts, contingency, time and expense billing are standard. Price per license is $249.
Amicus Small Firm
G&G introduced a new product – Amicus Small Firm which combines Amicus Attorney V+ (v 5.6) Advanced and Amicus Accounting. This will cover your small firm practice management need and also your billing and accounting needs. The easy to use Amicus V+ with the lower hardware requirements makes it very attractive to small firm (up to 10 users) with more limited budgets. The price is $499 for the first license and $349 for additional licenses. This makes it an incredible offer for front and back office solution. To keep the price down in Amicus Small Firm we won’t find the link with Worldox (document management) and link with other billing and accounting packages which aren’t really necessary since the Amicus Accounting portion will take care of those needs.
Shipment of Amicus Small Firm will start in about 2 weeks.
Current Amicus Attorney users won’t be able to upgrade to Amicus Small Firm. They will need to upgrade their current version of Amicus Attorney III, IV, V and V+ (5.5.1) to V+ (5.6) and purchase Amicus Accounting separately.
We can see that G&G with Amicus Small Firm is making an effort to attract new firms to the Amicus family of products and capture a bigger share of the market along with continuing its commitment to small law firms. At the same time Amicus Attorney 7 is courting the medium, large and all size security conscious law firms.
For more information on any of these product feel free to contact us or call us at (415) 284-2221 (9:30PM to 6PM PST).
July 27 2006
Amicus Attorney 7 Release 5 Announced
Gavel & Gown has announced yet one more update to Amicus Attorney 7 promising increased performance and more bug fixes, indicating the continuous commitment that G&G has to this product -the 5th in 4 months!
As usual, as soon as I get I’ll install it and report back to you on this blog.
As a reminder, for those of you having questions on Amicus Attorney 7 feel free to send them to us and we will reply to them here to the benefit of all our clients and readers
July 7 2006
Amicus Attorney Updated Documentation
Today Gavel and Gown updated the documentation on its web site regarding the Hardware and Software Requirements.
PLEASE read carefully the requirements before you buy Amicus Attorney...we ate returns ;-)
Hardware and Software Requirements fro Amicus Attorney 7 (PDF)
July 7 2006
QuickBooks 2006 Fix Finally Released
Gave and Gown today send up a bulletin regarding the QuickBooks 2006 problem that was preventing user of Amicus Attorney and other programs to correctly send time entries and new files from Amicus to QuickBooks (see entry of May 10 2006)
QuickBooks 2006 release 7 will fix that issue.
July 3, 2006
Amicus Attorney 7 R1 update 4 Released and News update on CompuLaw
Gavel and Gown released yet another update of Amicus Attorney 7. In this update they continued improving the speed and fixed over 55 issues.
Gavel and Gown is showing a strong commitment in making Amicus Attorney 7 a solid, faster and bugs free product.
I did call CompuLaw and they told my that just recently gave the new engine to GG for testing so CompuLaw engine is not included in this update it seems that we will need to wait another two to three months until it gets fully tested by the GG QA team.
We have been using Amicus 7 since March and now we got used to the new interface and appreciate the new features and the fixing of the bugs. At this point I feel comfortable in recommending Amicus Attorney 7 for people who are either new to practice management or the ones of you that have AAV/V+ and want to move to the next generation. Again make sure that you have PCs fast enough with enough RAM before you upgrade and that you don’t need CompuLaw.
2b1 inc. has a special for our 10 year anniversary on all Amicus Attorney new licenses. Check out our Amicus Attorney page. See more information
More details of the Amicus Attorney SR1 upgrade 4
Realease Note SR1 Update 4 (PDF)
June 1, 2006
Amicus Attorney 7 R1 SP1 Released
Gavel & Gown has release last Friday May 26, 2006 AA7 R1 SP1. This is the first significant upgrade to AA7 since it shipped. We installed it in our office system and here are a few impressions.
Make sure that you have enough space on the C: drive. We run into a space problem having only 1GB of free hard drive memory on our server on the C: partition. We had to free up 1.3GB for the upgrade to install. After the installation is done on the server we had to install the workstation manually from the Install\Workstation folder as per G&G support directions.
After the installation the version number un the Help>>About Amicus Attorney shows the following:
Build: 7.000.0001.0003
The File (300 files) and People (over 3000 people) module indexes are now open in about 3 seconds compared with 15 to 30 seconds before so that is a very significant performance increase! It seems that over all AA7 is snappier then the before.
They did add a phone dialer so that if you have a modem attached to your PC with a regular phone attached to the modem, then you can have Amicus dial the number for you and then you pick up the phone when you hear the ring sound from the modem. This function was available in AAV so it is a nice to have that feature back.
Seventy fixes are included in this major release. We have tested a few so far an important fix for 2b1 was the ability to highlight several people in the People index right click on the selected entries and choose e-mail to send out group e-mails to our clients. That now works. If you are a 2b1 client and are on our bulletin list soon you will get additional notice on Amicus Attorney and security alerts. If any one of you is interested in being on our list please send us an e-mail asking for it in our Contact Us page.
Realease Note SR1 Update 1 (PDF)
2b1 has been working on Amicus Attorney 7 since beginning of April and we can say that after a few days to get used to the new interface and now with the Service Release 1 improving the speed and squashing 70 minor bugs we are feeling comfortable to recommend Amicus Attorney to all new firms that need a powerful way to manage the information about the cases and helps in keeping all the information organized in a easy to get interface. For those of you that are an version V/V+ be prepared to spend some time in relearning a few things.
We have an unofficial report about CompuLaw being closer to completion so we are expecting it to be ready in July/ August.
If you are getting or upgrading to AA7 make sure that your server have a minimum of 1 GB RAM and that your worksations have minimum of 512MB RAM or better.
2b1 inc. can help you with this upgrade. Please Contact Us to set up an appointment or if you have questions (415) 285-2221
May 24 2006
Gavel & Gown new Amicus Attorney 7 Service Pack 1
We got a bulleting from G&G:
"Please be advised that Service Pack 1 for Amicus Attorney 7 Release 1 will be available for download from the InstallShield Update Service website [this week]. It will contain a new auto-dialler feature, performance enhancements in Files and People, new diagnostic tools to help our Customer Support technicians service our customers better, and over 70 fixes.
Service packs are cumulative, meaning that bugs fixed in a prior update or service pack, are also fixed in subsequent service packs. Accordingly, R1 Update 1 fixes will be included in R1 SP1.
Release Notes and an updated Known Issues list will be posted on our site as soon as the download is available."
As soon as we get it we will test it and let you know about our findings in this blog.
May 15 2006
Amicus Attorney 7 and Hardware Requirements
Amicus Attorney 7 dose not use a local database like Amicus Attorney V/V+. As a consequence it needs to pull the information down from the server each time we look up information. Then this information is store in temporary files on the local PC’s hard drive and in the memory (RAM).
In order to speed up the response time of Amicus Attorney 7 make sure that your PCs have a minimum of 512MB RAM and a fast processor. If you can get 1GB (1000MB) of RAM get it you will see a difference. Next your server needs to be able to satisfy all the requests from the Amicus Attorney users so make sure that you have a minimum of 1GB of RAM but 2GB or more is better and get the fastest processor you can afford.
Finally do not forget your network. If you have 10BaseT it is a good time to upgrade to 100 or 1000BaseT network since prices of new switches came down. Mostly changing the switch with a faster one will do it. If you are installing a new network make sure that the cables are CAT 6 that support higher transfer rate.
Every piece of the puzzle is important to make sure that we run an optimize network and take advantage of the Amicus Attorney many new feature at faster speed. If you need more information contact us e-mail.
May 11 2006
Special 55% discount on SmartDraw Legal Solution 7
Until May 31st 2006 SmartDraw Legal Solution 7 is discounted 55.5% of its price. If you need an easy to use drawing software to create diagrams to support your cases take advantage of this offer.
SmartDraw 7 Page
May 10, 2006
Reporting From The Amicus Conference – Part 2
In a session Ron Collins introduced a less known person to us her name is Cathryn Hawke and she is the product manager of Amicus Accounting. We were please to see this program in action for the first time. The interface is similar to Amicus Attorney 7 and it also inherits its easy of use.
A release date or pricing for Amicus Accounting was not available; however, they said that they are planning for a summer release. Amicus Accounting is a billing and accounting program like PCLaw or Timeslips and QuickBooks together. It can be used independently from Amicus Attorney or in conjunction with it. G&G is saying that the integration with Amicus Attorney is going on the par as PCLaw, Timeslips and QuickBooks if not better.
Amicus Accounting has all the features that a law office needs: time and expense billing, split billing, trust accounts, fee distribution and much more. From the demonstration it seemed easy to access all functions and Amicus Accounting will come with a variety of reports. Once it will ship I will be able to tell you more.
I am please that G&G is lunching Amicus Accounting so that our clients will be able to have a set of programs that have a consistent interface and easy of use. Amicus Accounting is a fully loaded accounting package that gives us another serious option to choose from. I am looking forward to test it.
Now for the products that we are currently waiting: here is the approximate timeline for their releases:
- CompuLaw, summer 2006
- Worldox, summer/fall 2006
- Amicus Telephone, later 2007
May 10, 2006
QuickBooks 2006 Problem Still Not Fixed
About three or four weeks ago G&G sent out an alert saying that Amicus Attorney V/V+/7 linked with QuickBooks 2006 (QB) may have problems and generats error 1000.
It was determined that the problem was with QuickBooks new 2006 version and it was breaking with other programs connecting with it as well.
I checked with G&G support team yesterday May 9th and they confirmed that the QuickBooks 2006 program was not yet fixed and they are waiting the fix from Inuit for testing shortly. Estimated time is about 2 months.
May 10, 2006
New 2b1 Inc. Amicus Attorney Upgrade Page
We have added an upgrade page to our e-commerce so you can upgrade to your Amicus Attorney 7 today.
Amicus Attorney Upgrade Page
May 2, 2006
Reporting From The Amicus Conference – Part 1
Gavel & Gown held the Amicus Conference in Las Vegas on April 27 and 28. We had 2 days packed with technical classes on the newly released Amicus Attorney 7 and the soon to be released Amicus Accounting.
We were warmly welcomed by Ron Collins the G&G president and quickly jumped in to sessions about the big changes in the database engines from the Amicus Attorney V FairCom to the Amicus Attorney 7 (AA7) Microsoft two versions of SQL databases. With SQL we won’t need to re-index or unlock records any longer. However the additional strength of the SQL data base may come with complexity. There are two flavors of MS SQL the MSDE and the full MS SQL.
MSDE comes standard with Amicus Attorney 7 but it is limited to a database size of 2 GB which is enough for most small firm and maximum of 15 users. One additional limitation we have found out here at 2b1 inc. offices is that MSDE install itself on the C:\ drive and can not be install in another drive. Most of 2b1 inc. and other consulting firms’ server installations comes with the C:\drive dedicated to the Windows server operating system and the D:\ drive for the firm data. This can be a problem if the C:\ drive does not have enough space (3 GB are necessary).
MS SQL does not have these limitations and can be installed on any drive, can have any number of users and can grow at whatever size you wish. G&G sales MS SQL licenses for exclusive use with Amicus Attorney 7 at $100 per user. If your firm already has MS SQL for the current number of users you don’t need to purchase additional licenses. With this version of SQL you can also use existing tools to query and extract information from the over 400 Amicus Attorney 7 tables. Amicus Attorney V (AAV)has about 74 tables.
We had a class about enabling links to billing and accounting programs like Timeslips, PCLaw and QuickBooks ( see previous posting of April 13, 2006). Some careful planning is required ahead of initializing the link but the improvements compared to V are quite remarkable. You can choose a person/company as the billing entity that may or may not be independent of a client card, the ability to exchange just one file’s information or from any workstation run a global exchange (given Administrator rights).
Another section covered the newly redesigned link with e-mail in Outlook. In this Outlook view we can see all the e-mail folders and associate the e-mails with files and people.
Amicus Attorney 7 has document management built in and by enabling it, it will keep track of any document going in and out of the client’s folder. Check in and check out buttons are provided in most of MS Office programs and WordPerfect. Then it can use the Windows 2000/2003 Server index service to index your thousands of documents makeing the search of text inside the documents a matter of seconds instead of hours.
Gavel & Gown is also providing a Software Development Kit (SDK) and they have provided an Application Programming Interface (API) to their Amicus Attorney 7 so that we can now create applications on top of Amicus Attorney. This means that now we have the tools to create new functions specifically to your firm if what you want is not in Amicus yet. For example we could create a program that will export certain information from Amicus or another one the will move your documents into the Amicus Attorney document management system.
Lastly they show us the new security options in AA7 that should provide enough level of security for most firms, including giving access to all files to the partners group even if they are not assigned to files or people, or disable the Time Sheets module for the temp group. Note that by default the change office feature (in AAV) is disable and you need to choose who has access and which type of access you want to give: Assistant (full access) or Coworker (more limited access).
April 22, 2006
New Release Posted by Gavel & Gown - SR1 Update 1
Yesterday Gavel & Gown release a new update to Amicus Attorney 7. After the update, the Help >> About Amicus Attorney will show you the following build number:
7.000.0001.0002
This new update fixes several minor bugs. Here is the link to the fixed problems: Realease Note R1 Update 1
April 21, 2006
Opening a New Amicus Attorney 7 File with Timeslips Link
After a few days of using Amicus Attorney 7 with the new Timeslips link we discovered new procedures to open new files in AA7.
Case 1 – Opening a new file in AA7 and you have ALL the information including Client ID, Matter ID, Nickname 1 & 2 for Timeslips.
In this case you open the new file in AA7 and add the client. When you get to the full-file-window, you need to add the additional information in the Admin>>Accounting and Admin>>Billing Info pages (note that you may have to scroll down to see the Billing Info link on the left pane). As you click on the Save and Close button you will be prompted to exchange the file click on the OK button and the new file is now in Timeslips.
Case 2 – Opening a new file BUT someone else will assign/enter Client ID, Matter ID Nickname 1 & 2 at a later time
In this case you open the new file, add the client, choose the file type and the billing category. Now you can work in it by entering events, appointment, time entries etc.. As you close the file windows you will be asked to exchange. This time you select the Exclude option. Later your assistant will open that file add the missing information and the will exchange that file to Timeslips.
April 18, 2006
Minor bugs found
After sometime of using Amicus Attorney 7 Premium edition we run into some minor glitches.
- Time Sheet module: When creating a new time entry you can’t enter a value of 0.75 hours. It will be rounded up to 0.8. In the Time Sheets preferences the minimum rounding that AA7 will retain is 0.1 even if you enter 0.05 or 0.01.
- Time Sheet module: Once you have created a time entry you can not edit the time. The work around is to copy and past the text in a new time entry and delete the old one.
- Communication: When clicking on the telephone button in a pink message window the date and time of the phone call is set by the date and time in the pink message. To be accurate you will have manually adjust the date and time in the phone window.
All of these issues have been reported to Gavel & Gown.
April 17, 2006
Amicus Attorney 2006 Conference
2b1 inc. specialists will be participating to the Amicus Attorney Conference held in Las Vegas on April 27 and 28. We will be able to report more news on Amicus Attorney and additional Gavel & Gown products on our return.
April 13, 2006
Amicus Attorney 7 and Timeslips Link
We have enabled the link between Amicus Attorney 7 and Timeslips. Many of you will be pleased that the new link allows the user to run an exchange from your desktop. You don't have to go to the server like in previous versions of Amicus Attorney to send new files over to Timeslips or back to Amicus Attorney 7. Also you can exchange just one file so that you can create a new file in Amicus Attorney 7 by entering all the necessary information. Then exchange the new file with Timeslips and now you can post your time to this new file.
Another welcomed feature is the check box to exclude a file from the exchange. Now you can easily close a file in Timeslips and check this box in Amicus Attorney 7 to avoid creating duplicate files. As part of the new link in Amicus Attorney 7 we can now choose the person or company that will be billed and by checking a box we can tell the system to automatically update the information in the other program once this person or company information is changed.
Warning. Setting up the Amicus Timeslips link for users that already have AA V/V+ and Timeslips will require work. Be prepared in investing a few hours to read all the notes, to match your users, tasks, expenses and make sure that there are no duplicate files in Amicus and in Timeslips BEFORE initializing the link and don’t forget to backup both databases. For those of you that do not currently have data in either Amicus or Timeslips you can skip the check for duplicate step but you will have to synchronize the other information.
If you don’t wish to invest all this time or you are less technical, 2b1 will happy to help you in setting up the link. We can even do this remotely if you have a fast connection to the internet. Keep in mind that we will need to ask questions regarding the files so someone with the right knowledge of the flies should be available.
Call 2b1 Inc. at (415) 284-2221 to have our technicians setting up your link or send us an e-mail.. We can work remotely if you have a fast Internet connection any where in the world.
See more information
April 11, 2006
Bulleting from Gavel & Gown
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL AMICUS ATTORNEY VERSIONS X or 7 PCLAW LINK USERS:
The latest PCLaw updates (Versions 7.62a and 7.62b) include changes that cause the link with Amicus Attorney Versions X and 7 to fail when new Amicus Attorney Matters, or updates to existing Matters, are exchanged. THIS MAY ALSO RESULT IN AMICUS DATA CORRUPTION.
WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT AMICUS ATTORNEY X AND 7 CUSTOMERS APPLY EITHER OF THESE UPDATES TO THEIR PCLAW APPLICATION. The recommended version for use with Amicus Attorney X or 7 is PCLaw Version 7.61c.
We are advised that a fix for this problem should be issued by PCLaw in an update to be made available later this week.
April 10, 2006
Amicus Attorney 7 New Release
Gavel & Gown has released a new service release. You should receive a sticky notification. You can go to the Amicus Attorney 7 server and select the Check for Updates to get the new release.
After the update is intalled the new release number in the Help>>About Amicus Attorney is
7.000.0001.0001
April 7, 2006
Amicus Attorney 7 First Impression
2b1 Inc. had the pleasure to test Amicus Attorney 7 (AA7) in December 2004 and little by little, we have seen this program flourishing into an amazing new release.
Gavel & Gown (G&G) listened to the many suggestions we had and some of the most requested features are included in Amicus Attorney 7. Many of you will be happy with the new Auto Text. Type ³tcc² and that will expand in ³Telephone call with client² in your time sheets. Also, the spell check is like the one found in Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect. A red underline indicates the misspelled word and right clicking on it will give you suggestions for corrections.
Some of you have told me that the Amicus Attorney V interface looked "cartoon-ish". No more. Amicus Attorney 7 interface has been redesigned by professionals and what a difference! It is very slick, and personally I think other programs should follow their example.
Smart tags will be welcomed by MS Word users so that by typing a name in a document will show with red dots underneath click on the “i” - which is the smart tag - to insert the address of that person in the document or create a new appointment for him or her.
Also from MS Word, WordPerfect and Outlook you can attach the document you are working on to a file, person, add it to the library or check the document in and out by clicking on the corresponding icon in the new Amicus Attorney 7 tool bar.
The Outlook e-mail integration went to an unprecedented level. G&G simply put Outlook in the Communication module! You need to see this to appreciate it. But they did not stop there. G&G put explorer in the Files module so that you can see all the documents in a matter! Also in the Files module we can now create new custom pages and have control on the layout of the several custom fields. In AA7 Premium there is no limit to the number of custom fields.
New in AA7 is the Favorite module. Go to the Files module and right click on the ones that you use the most and select Add To Favorites. Then click on the Favorites module to see only the Files, People, Library, Search Profiles, Notes, Documents and Internet links you need to see.
The integration with PCLaw, QuickBooks and Timeslips has increased making the posting of time and updating the client information simpler with out the need to go the Amicus Administrator to run an Exchange. If you have the necessary rights you can Exchange from any AA7 workstation.
Freedom is here with AA7. Log in from any workstation with your user name and password and you will see all your information without switching to a different office. This means that you can have several users sharing a PC and each one will have his or her user name and password and the appropriate rights will apply. This is useful if you have temporary helpers.
Another feature that I like is the universal search so I can search for example for John Smith in the Files, People (Contacts in AAV) Calendar and Communications with a single search.
Now let’s talk about upgrading to it. If you are a new firm considering a well rounded easy to use practice management program AA7 is for you. Firms that have Amicus Attorney V/V+ without additional links can upgrade now. Firms that have Amicus Attorney V/V+ linked with Worldox, CompuLaw, Tabs III and Telephone Pro will need to wait a little longer as this links are being finished. We will be going at the Amicus conference at the end of the month. We will be able to tell you more after that.
Since the interface has changed and the additional functionality consider taking a training to learn how to use the new power of Amicus Attorney 7 and to customize it to your needs.
One thing that we suggest at this point if you are interested in getting the new features and functionality of Amicus Attorney 7 take advantage of the special discount price running until April 30, 2006 so you can get the $30 off the regular price and then 2b1 will install it in a couple of months when the new links will be completed.
To place your order call 2b1 Inc. at 415 284-2221 or send us an e-mail.
See more information
author:
Paolo Broggi
2b1 inc.
Information Technology Engineer
Premier Certified Amicus Attorney Consultant and Trainer since 1997