Version 2.07
RTG Bills Version 2.07 is a minor update. It fixes a few problems and provides compatibility with RTG Scripts. (Released July 24, 2002)
Changes in this version
- Multiple Retainer Accounts
Each matter can now have more than one retainer account, so you can have one account to pay fees and another to pay expenses. Each account, as an option, can request replenishment when it falls below a specified balance.
- Client-Level Retainers
Previously, all retainer accounts were matter-level accounts, meaning that they could only be applied to a specific matter. Now you can also create client-level retainer accounts, which can be applied to any matter for a specified client.
- Maximum Fee
You can set a maximum fee for a matter. If the fees to be billed would cause the fees to date to exceed the maximum, the prebill shows a warning message. A new Maximum Fees report shows the maximum fee and the fees to date for each matter that has a maximum fee.
- Closed Matters Not Shown
Most reports will no longer show closed matters. You can check the Include Closed Matters box, when you choose the matters for the report, to show them if you wish.
- Printer Selection
RTG Bills uses the default printer for your computer each time you start the program. You can easily switch to any other available printer, without changing the default printer. (Previously, changing the printer in RTG Bills changed the default printer, which could affect other programs.)
- Easier Updates
RTG Bills and RTG Timer can now check the RTG Web site for the latest upgrades and add-on programs. You can choose the updates you want to install and let the program automatically download and install them for you.
If you have several copies of RTG Timer running on a network, you can download upgrades from the RTG Web site to a shared folder on your file server. Then each copy of RTG Timer can upgrade from the shared folder.
- Restore Deleted Clients
Deleted clients are now saved in the archive file (where deleted matters are saved) so you can restore them if necessary. Client-level retainer transactions are saved with (and restored with) the client information.
- Historical Client Cover Pages
As previously, when a client has more than one matter being billed, a Client Cover Page can be created to summarize the bills for the client. With the addition of client-level retainers in this version, the Client Cover Page has the added function of summarizing the activity in client-level retainer accounts.
To go along with this added importance, the Client Cover Pages are now saved. Just as you can print any past bill, you can now print any past Client Cover Page.
- List Button For Matter Range
When you print a report that lets you choose a range of matters, you have the option of choosing a range of matter numbers. However, there was no easy way to select all of the matters for one client.
We've added a List button that lets you choose a client and then inserts the range of matter numbers that includes that client. For example, if you choose client 4, it will insert the range 4-1 through 4-999999.
- Codes On Prebills
The activity code and task code are now shown on the prebill if they were entered with the transaction.
How to get
RTG Bills
- If you haven't purchased RTG Bills...
Complete ordering information is on the Orders page.
- If you have RTG Bills Version 2...
See Upgrading RTG Bills.
Known problems
- Print To File
When you print a report to a file, or reprint a bill to disk, RTG Bills must convert it to plain text format. All font information is removed. If the conversion creates a line of more than 80 characters or a page of more than 56 lines, an error occurs and the program exits.
To work around this problem, do not use a font size smaller than 12 points if you plan to save your reports or bills in a disk file.
The next version will allow 66 lines per page. Also, if you exceed the limits, the excess text will be ignored.
Please note that this problem only affects saving a bill or report in a disk file. It does not occur during normal viewing or printing.
- Always Bill
If the only transaction to be billed has a negative amount, no bill is produced, even though the Fee/Expense Threshold for the matter is set to Always Bill.
This will be fixed in the next version.
- Codes On Prebills
The activity and task codes may not appear on the prebills. This occurs if you installed Version 2.07 over an older version. It does not occur on a new installation, or if you used the free upgrade from Version 2.06.
This is a problem in the installation program. The old prebill formats are not replaced by the new ones. To fix it, delete the files Bill249.rtg and Bill250.rtg, then re-install Version 2.07.
- Matter Abbreviations
The matter abbreviation should always be upper-case, but this is not enforced. Also, when selecting a matter and the matters are listed by abbreviation, the names do not line up properly.
This will be fixed in the next version.
- Reprint Bills
If you attempt to reprint a bill, and the historical bill file that contains that bill is missing, a run-time error occurs and the program exits.
Under normal circumstances, this error will not occur because there should be no missing historical bills for recent bills. However, if you deleted files from the Oldbills folder, or failed to copy them when you moved to a new computer or a new hard disk, you may see this error.
This will be fixed in the next version.
- Cannot Upgrade Timer
After you upgrade RTG Bills to Version 2.08, you may encounter this error message when you start RTG Timer: Wrong database version (2.08) for this program version (2.07). This occurs if RTG Bills and RTG Timer are installed in the same location.
This problem can be resolved by installing a more recent version of RTG Bills.
