RTG Bills V2.11 introduced the ability to format hourly fee transactions so that the hourly rate appears beneath the number of hours. If you choose this option, however, you may find formatting errors after the first page of the bill.

In particular, you will find that the first transaction description on some pages begins on the same line as the matter header, instead of beginning underneath the header as it should. As a result, the matter name may overwrite the matter description.

This problem is caused by a bug in RTG Bills. It will be fixed in the next version. In the meantime, you can work around this problem in two ways:

1. Do not specify the option to put the hourly rate below the number of hours. Put it after the description instead. (This was the only option in RTG Bills prior to V2.11.)
   
   
2. You can make a small change to the bill format using Layout, the custom bill formatter, that will eliminate this error. Instructions are provided below.

First you must create your bill format with the standard bill formatter in RTG Bills: Setup > Bill Formats.

After you follow these instructions to eliminate the formatting problem, you will not be able to use the standard bill formatter to make further changes. You can still change labels, margins, and the bill message (if any) using Layout, but you won't be able to make any of the other formatting changes offered in the standard bill formatter.

Remember that you only need to follow these instructions if your format specifies that the Hourly Rate should be Under Hours on the Fees tab of the Edit Sections window. If you do not show the rate, or if you show it under the description, then there is no need to fix anything.

From here on we'll assume that you created a bill format that asks for the hourly rate to be placed under the number of hours for hourly fee transactions. Follow these steps to customize the bill format to avoid the formatting problem described above:

1. Start RTG Bills and choose File > Tools. Click on Layout (custom bill formatter) to select it, then click OK.
   
   
2. You should see the RTG Layout window. Select format 001 (or whichever format you need to modify) and click Edit.
   
   
3. At the Edit A Bill Format window, click Edit Sections.
   
   
4. At the Edit A Section window, choose Hourly transaction from the drop-down list. The list will show the coded instructions that tell RTG Bills how to print an hourly rate transaction. The first three instructions are these:

   916	New page
   930	Start table
   25	Transaction date

   (We've omitted the additional columns that are part of the third line.)
   
   If you don't see these three instructions at the top of the list:
   • Perhaps you selected the wrong section from the drop-down list. (Choose the right section from the drop-down list.)
   • Perhaps this bill format does not specify that the hourly rate should go under the hours. (No fix is required.)
   • If only the third line is different, perhaps your format doesn't show the date. (You can proceed anyway, but we have not tested all possible combinations of fields to see if this fix will work.)
   
   
5. We need to switch the second and third lines. To do that, click on the second line (Start table) so that it is highlighted. Then click the Lower button to the right of the list. That moves the line down one position.
   
   The order of the codes in the first column should now be 916, 25, and 930. Click Close.
   
   
6. At the Edit A Bill Format window, click Save. You will see a warning that the standard bill formatter will not be able to change this format. Click Yes to proceed.
   
   
7. At the RTG Layout window, click Close to exit from RTG Layout.

The change you have just made will eliminate the formatting error for this bill format. If you have other bill formats that show the hourly rate below the hours, you will have to repeat this procedure to change them also.

If you wish to change the labels, margins, or bill message of a custom bill format, you can do this easily with Layout. Start Layout as before: File > Tools. Edit the format and click the General Features button. Changes to the labels and margins work the same as the standard bill formatter. The bill message has a Message tab here that also allows changes. (In the standard bill formatter, the Message tab is on the Edit Sections window.)

To make further changes, you can delete the format and start again using the standard bill formatter. To delete a format, edit the format you want to delete. At the Edit A Bill Format window, choose File > Delete from the menu. Click Yes to confirm that you wish to delete the bill format.

Once the custom format is deleted, you can create a new one having the same number with the standard bill formatter. You will have to apply the "fix" once again as described above.