RTG Bills Convert is a small program that reads a comma-delimited file created by Timeslips* or another billing program and loads the data into RTG Bills.

RTG Bills Convert creates three types of entries in RTG Bills:

1. Clients: The client name and address, and two telephone numbers, are extracted from the Timeslips data. A client number and a client abbreviation are assigned.
   
   
2. Matters: The matter name and matter reference are extracted. A matter number and a matter abbreviation are assigned.
   
   
3. Adjustments: For each matter with a non-zero balance due, an adjustment transaction is created. The fee balance in Timeslips becomes fees due in RTG Bills. The cost balance in Timeslips becomes expenses due in RTG Bills. (If your old program can output separate balances for fees, expenses, late charges, and taxes, they all can be kept separate in RTG Bills.)

The comma-delimited file containing your data should be named tortg.csv and you should copy it into the folder where the RTG Bills data is stored. If you don't know where that is, you can view the System Information report to get the Data Location.

Start RTG Bills. On the main window of RTG Bills, click the Reports button. On the Choose A Report window, scroll down through the list of reports to System Information. Click that item to select it, then click View to view the report, which shows the Data Location. If you see this Data Location:

C:\ProgramData\RTG\RTG Bills\

then you may need help finding this hidden folder. See:

Finding the Data Location

When the comma-delimited file is in the Data Location, you are ready to proceed.

The name of the conversion program is RTG Bills Convert. Right-click the RTG Bills icon and choose Run as administrator. When RTG Bills appears, choose File > Update and click Yes to start RTG Update. You will see a window with the title Update RTG Bills. Assuming you have a working Internet connection, click the Check The Internet For Updates button.

You should now see a list of available updates. One of them should say, RTG Bills Convert. Check this item, then click Install. The conversion program will now be installed on your computer. When it is done, exit from RTG Update.

If you do not see RTG Bills Convert in the list, most likely it is already installed.

Start RTG Bills. Choose File > Tools. Find RTG Bills Convert in the list and click on it, then click OK. The conversion program will start.

If you do not see RTG Bills Convert in the list, it has not been installed. See the previous section for installation instructions.

You should see the RTG Bills Convert window. To read your data, you need to make several choices. We will describe each one in detail.

The conversion date is a date you have chosen for the conversion to RTG Bills. All transactions after the conversion date will be entered into RTG Bills.

Typically, the last day of a month is used. Bills for that month are created in Timeslips. Transactions after that date are entered into RTG Bills. The balance due that is transferred from Timeslips will be the amount due as of the conversion date.

The three types of conversion determine how the Timeslips nicknames are used to create clients and matters in RTG Bills. To review the details of each conversion type, click here.

If you are converting from a program other than Timeslips, click here.

Your data can have three or four address lines, not counting the city, state, and ZIP code. If you have three address lines, choose None. If you have four address lines, the fourth line is the attention line. In RTG Bills, you can place it either after the client name, or after the city/state/ZIP.

You can choose to give each matter its own address. The address in Timeslips is copied to the Matter Address field in RTG Bills. You might use this option if you want to add a different attention line later for each of the client's matters.

If you don't check this box, the first matter for a client determines the address for all of that client's matters. The Matter Address in RTG Bills will be blank, which means the client address will be used on the bills.

Usually the correct choice is One combined field.

However, if you are converting from Timeslips Version 6, choose Three separate fields. Even though the report template you used to create the comma-delimited file specified city, state, and ZIP as one field, this version of Timeslips creates three separate fields anyway!

Your comma-delimited file may or may not contain information about the balance due for each matter. For Timeslips, the file may contain a total previous balance or separate fee and cost balances. Check the appropriate boxes.

For other programs, you may convert separate balances for fees, expenses, late charges, and taxes. Check the appropriate boxes to show which numbers should be read from the data file. If a box is not checked, that number is not read from the data file, and the corresponding balance is set to zero.

If you followed the previous directions for creating the comma-delimited file from Timeslips, you should be ready to do a conversion. (If you are converting from a different program, the directions are here.)

From the menu, choose File > Test Conversion. First the program reads through the entire comma-delimited file and checks that it has the correct format. Next the program reads and converts the first two data records (i.e., two matters). It does not alter the RTG Bills database yet.

Note: If you get a "File not found" error message, then the file tortg.csv is not in the RTG Bills Data Location. See the instructions above for finding the Data Location.

If everything is working, you will see the Results Of Conversion Test window. The left-hand column shows client information and the right-hand column shows matter information.

The choices you made will affect the results you see. For example, the Client Abbreviation will be Nickname 1 for a Type 1 conversion, the portion of Nickname 1 before the hyphen for a Type 2 conversion, and Nickname 2 for a Type 3 conversion.

Be sure to check the Matter Balance. Compare it to the known balance for this client in Timeslips.

When you are done reviewing this data, click OK. You will see the same display, with information taken from the second record of the comma-delimited file.

When you are done reviewing this second window, click OK. The test conversion is complete.

If you found any problems, you can correct them now before doing an actual conversion. The test conversion can be run as many times as necessary, because it does not change the RTG Bills database.

Now you are ready to convert the data. Choose File > Convert Clients from the menu.

A message displays the settings to be used. Click Yes to proceed with the conversion.

When the conversion is done, a message tells you how many clients and matters were created. For a Type 1 conversion, the two numbers should be the same. However, for a Type 2 or Type 3 conversion, you should have more matters than clients.

Choose File > Exit from the menu to exit the program.

Check everything you can! Print a Client List and a Matter List in RTG Bills.

You may find that the Matter Name seems to be cut off. This is normal.

Since Timeslips doesn't have matter names, the conversion program has to create them. It copies the In Reference To field to the Matter Reference field in RTG Bills. To get a Matter Name, it uses the first 60 characters of the Matter Reference. If the field was longer than that in Timeslips, it gets cut off. The Matter Reference field, however, is not cut off.

The Matter Name appears on RTG Bills reports and on the screen to help you identify a matter. For actual bills, however, you have a choice of using the Matter Name or the Matter Reference. See Setup > Bill Formats in RTG Bills.

Next step: Use RTG Bills to print bills, using the conversion date as the cutoff date. You should get a bill for all matters which have a non-zero balance. These bills are not sent to your clients. They just set the correct "previous balance" in RTG Bills.

If you have any questions about the conversion process, click here to contact us.

Need to change the data and try again?

Back to the Timeslips conversion instructions

Back to the "other programs" conversion instructions