If you link Amicus and QuickBooks, and post time from Amicus, how do you know which clients to invoice once the time is in QuickBooks without running Statements?

When you open QuickBooks, click on Customer Center from the Shortcut List, or click on Customers - Customer Center from the main menu. The Customer Center has four quadrants - three of these quadrants can be customized to show the type of information you wish to view, and also allow you to perform various activities.

The lower left quadrant shows a list of 'Unbilled Job- related Expenses' for 'All customers'. The upper left quadrant shows 'Customers with Open Balances' - 'Through Today'. The lower right quadrant shows 'Customers with Overdue Balances' - 'Through Today'.

The bottom two quadrants can be customized to show any of the following lists:

• Customers with Overdue Balances
• Unbilled Job-related Expenses
• 10 Most / Least Profitable Customers
• 10 Least Profitable Customers
• 10 Most / Least Profitable Jobs
• 10 Most / Least Profitable Products
• 10 Most / Least Profitable Services

The top left quadrant (and the bottom quadrants) can be customized to show the following date ranges:

• All
• Today
• This Week / This Month
• This Fiscal Quarter / This Fiscal Year
• Last Week / Last Month
• Last Fiscal Quarter / Last Fiscal Year

Depending on which list is displayed, the Activities available are:

• Write Letters
• Job Profitability Summary / Detail Report
• Receive Payments
• Create Statements
• Manage Your Receivables
• Open Invoices Report
• Collections Report
• A/R Aging Summary Report
• Customer Balance Summary Report

How often do you find yourself counting days, weeks or months on a calendar to figure out an exact date?

Hopefully never! The Amicus Date Calculator gives you a quick way to determine a date based on a given set of criteria. For example, you need to file an affidavit four business days before a known court date.

First, select Amicus - Date Calculator from any Amicus menu (or press Ctrl-Shift D).

• Enter a number in the first text box.
• Select one of the following options from the 2nd drop-down list: business days, calendar days, weeks, months, or years.
• Select one of the following from the 3rd drop- down list: before, after, or between.
• Click on the Date icon to view the mini- calendar, and select the appropriate date.
• Click on the Weekend or Holiday drop- down list box and select one of the following: Show it anyway, Show the previous business day, or Show the next business day.
• Click on the Calculate button to view the calculated date.

Once the calculated date appears at the bottom of the window, clicking on the Information button will take you to the calendar day view for this calculated date where you can add a To Do or an Appointment.

Click on Close to close the Date Calculator.

Most of the Amicus Modules have a menu selection (in capital letters) that allows you to modify the view.

For example, select CALENDAR - Small Calendar View, from the main calendar module, and you will see a much smaller calendar display (640 x 480). The Medium View uses 800 x 600 resolution, and the Large View uses 1024 x 768 resolution.

The Large Calendar View is the default view; the Medium or Large View are recommended for laptop users or older monitors having a smaller screen resolution. If you have a large screen resolution set, you may want to try Small or Medium View.

The following modules allow you to change views: FILES, CONTACTS, CALENDAR, TIME SHEETS, NOTES, and COMCENTER.

Have you noticed problems with your Amicus database? Have you seen duplicate contacts in your contact list? Do you have to think about which contact to use to record a phone call, or to attach a calendar event or ToDo?

I have performed many database cleanups for my clients in the past few years, and there seems to be a pattern of similar issues in almost every firm. If you have noticed any of the problems listed below, please call me so that we can discuss how to resolve these problems.

Here are some of the common problems that I see:

• Company names in 'Last Name' field
• First and Last Name in 'First Name' field
• Names entered in all CAPS
• Primary Card (Home or Office) not selected appropriately
• Commas and Spaces at the end of First Name, Last Name, Company, etc.

If your firm continues to work with a database with duplicates, or other problems, the problems will continue to get worse - unless you invest the time and money on a cleanup. I discussed the issues of dealing with contact duplicates in the September 2005 newsletter, but I wanted to revisit this problem, since it has come up so many times recently. The sooner you deal with the clean-up, the sooner your firm can get on with practicing law - and making money!