ELECTRONIC CORRESPONDENT FACILITY IN LEGALSUITE

For The Instructing Attorney

Author:                 Cindy Kruger

Date:                     April 2007

Audience:             Bookkeeping

Summary:             How the Electronic correspondent facility works in LegalSuite

CONTENTS:

· Overview of process

· Retrieving your Firm code

· Registering your firm

· What to do if you are the Instructing Attorney

· Downloading Invoices

· Conclusion

Overview Of Process:

LegalSuite has an exciting feature in which you can automatically capture your correspondent Invoices transactions if your Correspondent/ Agent also uses LegalSuite.

When an attorney acts on your behalf in an area that falls outside your jurisdiction he is called an Agent or a Correspondent. For example – If the Attorney handling the matter is in Durban but the debtor lives in Johannesburg, an attorney in the Johannesburg area will act as a correspondent to collect the money from the debtor at the request of the Durban attorney.

If you are the instructing Attorney this Correspondent / Agent is opened as a creditor in the Creditors Ledger because you are responsible for the fees and disbursements regardless of whether the correspondent collects money from the debtor or not.

This feature will allow your Agent to send the Invoice transactions electronically and as you are the instructing attorney you can download the transactions which are imported as batches into LegalSuite automatically.

This simplifies the procedure and eradicates errors when capturing transactions from the Correspondent invoices.

Retrieving your Firm code

When instructing another attorney you need to supply your firm code to them, or if you are the Agent / Correspondent you need to obtain the instructing attorneys firm code.  This code is the reference that links the transactions that are uploaded or downloaded and identifies which transactions belong to which attorney.

The firm code is found under the “Program Settings” option selected from the “Setup” pulldown menu on the top of the screen. Under the “General” TAB you will find your firm code next to the “Licensed Until” option. If your firm code does not appear under the program settings you need to contact LegalSuite on 0861 711150.

Screen Layout

Registering your firm

Select  “File” pull down menu on your top tool bar, select “Import/Export” then “Post Office” . If it is the first time you are entering the screen the following message will appear:

Click on OK and make sure your firm’s details are correct on the next screen

Click on OK and your registration is now complete

What to do if you are the Instructing Attorney

Open your matter in LegalSuite with your client being the person requiring you to collect monies from a Debtor on his behalf. You must also open a Creditor in your creditor’s ledger for the Agent / Corresponding Attorney and you need to fill in the “Firm Code” that you have obtained from the Agent / Corresponding Attorney.    

You will also have to give your “Firm Code” to your Correspondent / Agent.

Your Agent / Correspondent Attorney will still collect moneys on behalf of your client from the debtor as normal then create Invoices for your account. They will also create a download of the Invoice transactions that you can retrieve from the internet and post automatically to the matters concerned.

Inserting you creditor:

Open the creditors ledger by clicking on the  icon on the main toolbar and the creditors ledger will open:

Screen Layout

In the creditors screen, click on  on the main toolbar. The Inserting a creditor screen will open:

Screen Layout

Fill in the information on each of the relevant tabs

NB!! Don’t forget to fill in the “Firm Code” of the “Agent / Correspondent” that you have obtained from the Correspondent attorney under the “LegalSuite” TAB.

Screen Layout

Click  once you have completed capturing the Creditor.

Downloading Invoices

Once the Agent / Correspondent has finished the Invoices and uploaded them to the internet, you need to download the Invoice transactions. These Invoices will be imported as a batch of transactions into LegalSuite. The Correspondent batch must be checked and posted by the bookkeeper.

You will no longer have to manually capture the correspondent Invoice if both parties use LegalSuite Software.

Using the “File” pulldown menu on your top tool bar, select “Import/Export” then select the “Post Office” option.

Screen Layout

LegalSuite will connect to the Internet to download your Firms transactions as new packages:

Screen Layout

The available transactions will be listed. You can tag the transactions you would like to import into the program.

Click on  to import the transactions as batches into LegalSuite.

The system will ask you if you would like to Import the batches

Click on

Once the Batches have been imported you will get the following message:

Go to your batches screen - print and post the imported batches as per normal:

Screen Layout

Conclusion

Once everything is set up in LegalSuite, the Electronic correspondent feature will be very beneficial to your firm as it will save time and money. Once the agent has uploaded the Invoices they are available immediately. There will be no capturing involved, LegalSuite will import the batches into the system and the bookkeeper need only update the batches. This function will make the correspondent process very simple and easy to understand.

The Electronic correspondent feature will be beneficial to your firm because  LegalSuite will automatically capture Correspondent transactions directly from the Correspondent Attorneys Invoices. This eradicated the need for you to analyze and manually capture these difficult to understand invoices that are received from Correspondents.

You will also be able to provide a quicker service to your clients without much intervention from your accounting department.

This function will make the correspondent process very simple and easy to use.