Known Problems in RTG Bills

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More Known Problems in RTG Bills




Version 2.14			Retainer Account Wizard not found If you upgraded from V2.13 to V2.14 shortly after it was announced, you may see this error message when you try to create a new retainer account. The cause is an error in the upgrade that caused a file to have the wrong name. The upgrade has now been fixed. To fix the problem, go to the folder where RTG Bills is installed. Find the file retwiz.rtg and rename it to retwiz.exe. (Capitalization is ignored by Windows.) It should work now. Run-time error '339' You may see this error message, which says the file tabctl32.ocx is not correctly registered, under these circumstances: RTG Bills is used from more than one PC on a network. You are not using RTG Timer, or you have not yet upgraded it to Version 2.14 on each PC. You used the free RTG Bills upgrade to Version 2.14, or you used the full installation file but only on one PC. The PC that was used to upgrade RTG Bills will not display this error, but the others will. The solution is to do one of the following: If you have the installation file for Version 2.14, use it to install RTG Bills from each PC. Or you can install RTG Timer on each PC. If you want to use free upgrades, install RTG Timer on all of the PCs and upgrade it to Version 2.14. See Upgrading RTG Bills On A Network. *Error in Matter Aging (wide)* report** Version 2.14 has a new custom report, Matter Aging (wide). Compared to the standard aging report, it shows an additional aging category, 91-120 days. The report is printed in landscape mode to make room for the additional column. This report is included in upgrade 171, Custom reports for RTG Bills. However, the pagination in the report is incorrect, causing information to be lost at the bottom of each page. The problem is fixed by upgrade 177. Error generating bills If you choose the option to suppress the printing of bills with a zero balance and no new fees or expenses, you may see this error: Error generating bills Could not start transaction; too many transactions already nested. When you click OK, you will see another error message: Run-time error '3246': Operation not supported in transactions. This problem is caused by a programming error in RTG Bills. It is fixed in Version 2.15.



Version 2.13			Cannot print bills with credit balance In RTG Bills, Setup > Other > Firm offers a checkbox, Send bills that show a credit balance. However, even if this option is checked, the bill may not print. No bill is printed if the matter balance would be zero, except that an overpayment was entered that made the balance negative (a credit). RTG Bills does not consider the overpayment (even though it should), so the bill is not printed. Zero amount appears as "$No charge" on bills When you create a bill format, you may choose to show the currency symbol (e.g., a dollar sign) before each transaction amount. You may also choose to show "No charge" instead of a zero amount (normally, "0.00"). However, if you choose both of these options, a zero amount appears as "$No charge" on the bills. The currency symbol should not appear. Printing prebills to a text file The Print To File button lets you save a prebill either in RTG Review format or as a standard text file. You should choose RTG Review format. Then you can use RTG Review (a free upgrade) to view the prebill, print it, or convert it to a PDF file. If you ignore this recommendation and save the prebill as a standard text file, some items on the prebill will overlap others. The reason is that the prebill uses a proportionally-spaced font to get more information in the available space, but a standard text file cannot represent font information. In addition, there are two minor problems that occur if you save a prebill as a standard text file. First, RTG Bills will say that the file already exists, even if it doesn't. You must choose Yes to overwrite the file. Second, the text file will contain two copies of every prebill. Cutoff date is in the future You may see this warning when you reprint a bill, even though the date you have entered is not in the future. The problem only occurs after you view or print a bill with cutoff dates that are in the future.



Version 2.12			Cannot print envelopes or create PDF files If you use RTG Bills from more than one computer, you may find that you get an error message when you print envelopes on any computer except the one on which RTG Bills is installed. You may also get an error message if you use Reprint As PDF to create PDF files from bills. Errors occur because these features require new system files that must be installed on each computer. The recommended solution is to install RTG Timer on each PC that will use RTG Bills. (It is not necessary to do this on the PC on which RTG Bills itself is installed.) This solves the problem because installing RTG Timer will install all of the system files that RTG Bills requires. Error reading INI file You will get this error message if you start unreleas.exe, the utility program that unreleases RTG Timer transactions. Aside from this message, the program will work normally. This program is rarely needed. If you release RTG Timer transactions to a file (standalone operation), then lose or accidentally erase the file, you can "unrelease" the transactions so they can be edited and released again in RTG Timer.



Version 2.11			Cannot print envelopes If you use RTG Bills from more than one computer, you will find that you get an error message when you print envelopes on any computer except the one on which RTG Bills is installed. This occurs because printing envelopes requires a new system file that must be installed on each computer. The solution is provided in this article. Bill formatting error after page 1 This version introduces 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. To fix the problem, upgrade to Version 2.12. Incorrect monthly totals in RTG Timer The monthly totals shown on the monthly calendar (in the lower-right corner) are incorrect. The totals for each day of the month, however, are correct. Timekeeper doesn't change after edit At the Select A Fee Or Expense Item window, check the box that says Show Timekeeper. Now edit an item and change the timekeeper. When you save the change and return to this window, the timekeeper is not changed in the list of items. This is a display problem only. The item has been changed properly in the RTG Bills database. If you remove the check mark for Show Timekeeper and then check it again, you will see that the list shows the correct timekeeper. Cannot print one envelope After you print bills, you can choose Bills > Envelopes to print envelopes for those bills. However, if you choose One Matter, you will get a message Already printed a bill for that matter and you will be unable to print an envelope. You can work around this problem in two ways. At the Envelopes window, choose Matter Range instead of One Matter and enter the matter number in both the From and To boxes. Or you can edit the matter, click the Address tab, and use the Print Envelope button there. Odd behavior of Up button When you are choosing a client at the Select A Client window, the Up button should move back 10 clients. Sometimes it moves back fewer than 10, and at times it may appear not to move back at all. This problem occurs when hidden clients are not shown in the client list. The hidden clients are being counted as if they were shown in the list.



Version 2.10			Code box disappears from RTG Timer transactions If you were using activity codes (or task codes) in RTG Timer, the activity code box (or task code box) may no longer appear after the upgrade to V2.10. The reason is that RTG Timer now uses the standard code tables set in RTG Bills. To fix this, start RTG Bills and choose Setup > Other > Standards. Choose the desired activity code table (and task code table, if you use it) and click Save. If RTG Timer is set to communicate with RTG Bills, it will see the new setting the next time you start RTG Timer. If RTG Timer does not communicate with RTG Bills ("standalone mode"), you must export the data from RTG Bills: File > Export > To RTG Timer, then import the data into RTG Timer: File > Import. Fees received during a time period The Payments and Adjustments by Date (or by Matter) report shows "unapplied payments" even after the payments have appeared on a bill. In fact, all payments entered with Auto Allocation selected are added to the "unapplied payments" total, which appears at the end of the report. This is not a bug. It is the correct behavior for this report, which shows payments and adjustments as they were entered. However, the result is that you cannot get the total fees or expenses received during a specified time period from this report. The problem is discussed in detail here. The solution is to use a new report provided by RTG Reports, Payment Summary by Matter. To get this report, use File > Upgrade to install the latest version of RTG Reports. Reprinting split bills To print the bills for a single matter that is billed to more than one client (split billing), you select the primary matter. A separate bill is printed for each secondary matter, but no bill is printed for the primary matter. This is the correct behavior. Problem 1: To reprint a split bill, you must select the secondary matters individually instead of selecting the primary matter. Problem 2: This problem is a consequence of the first problem. If RTG Bills is set to print more than one copy of each bill (Bills > Bills > Options) and you select a single primary matter, only one copy of each secondary matter's bill will be printed. You can print additional copies using Bills > Reprint Bills, but you must select the secondary matter, not the primary matter. You won't notice this problem if you print all the bills at once. When you select All Matters, you are including both primary and secondary matters, so the correct number of copies will be printed. Both problems will be fixed in the next version of RTG Bills. Selecting a primary matter will reprint the bills of each secondary matter. Positioning cursor in Description field If you click on text in the Description field of a transaction, the cursor jumps to the end of the text instead of going where you clicked. This will be fixed in the next version.



Version 2.09			List of upgrades applied is lost The new version of RTG Upgrade creates a new list of the upgrades that have been applied. As a consequence, it "forgets" any previously-applied upgrades. The upgrade to V2.09 makes most of the previous upgrades obsolete anyway, so this should not be a serious problem. Manual retainer warning After you enter a manual retainer (a Use Retainer transaction), a message appears that says the matter is set for automatic retainers, even when it is not. Ignore the warning and click Yes to save the transaction. Bill doesn't show split transactions Existing bill formats must be updated to be compatible with split billing. Choose Setup > Bill Formats. For each format, select the format, click Edit, then click Save to save the bill format. When the bill format is saved, the new sections needed for split billing are added automatically. If you have a custom bill format that will be used for split bill matters, a new custom bill format will be needed. Contact RTG for assistance. Billing Summary doesn't show split fees or expenses If you choose a one-column Billing Summary with separate rows for fees and expenses, the fees and expenses in the summary do not include split fees and expenses. However, all of the totals are correct. This is a problem with the bill format created when you choose Setup > Bill Formats. To fix the problem, choose File > Upgrade in RTG Bills and install upgrade number 120. Cannot reprint bills If you choose the new option to use the fee and expense cutoff as the Bill Date, the historical bills are saved with the wrong date (namely, the date they were printed). This problem is discussed in detail here. Run-time error in RTG Timer If you click Interrupt in RTG Timer, a new hourly rate transaction is created and the stopwatch is started. Then if you choose an activity code, the stopwatch disappears. When you Save or Cancel the transaction, a message says the stopwatch is still running, followed by a run-time error. RTG Timer exits without saving the new transaction. To work around this problem, do not enter an activity code for an hourly rate transaction created with the Interrupt button. If you just want the text supplied by the activity code, you can define a shorthand code to do that. If you are actually using activity codes, you'll have to add it later, after the transaction is saved. This problem will be fixed in the next version of RTG Timer. New client in RTG Bills If you choose File > New > Client in RTG Bills, the program creates the new client but does not go to the Edit A Client window as it should. To avoid this problem, choose File > Open > Clients from the menu, then click the New button. Even better: click the Clients button and then the New button. Run-time error 3021 in RTG Bills This happens if there are no clients in the database and the last client number you entered is not valid. When you click the Clients button, a run-time error occurs and RTG Bills exits. Start RTG Bills again and choose File > New > Client. Once you create a client, the problem goes away.



			Return to the first Known Problems page. Problems in Versions 2.01 through 2.08 are reported on the page for that version. You will find links to each version on the Support page.