RTG Timer Online: Getting Started

Introduction

Use RTG Timer Online to enter fees and expenses from any Internet-connected computer with a modern Web browser. You can transfer the fees and expenses to RTG Bills Online or to RTG Bills on your PC.

Note that RTG Timer Online is not a complete billing system. It is only for entering fees and expenses. To create bills, you need either RTG Bills Online or the Windows PC version of RTG Bills.

 

1. User name and password

When you signed up for RTG Timer Online, you were asked to choose a user name for the Supervisor. You should receive an email message from RTG with the user name and password for the Supervisor.

The Supervisor can add users, up to the limit imposed by your subscription. During the free trial period, you are allowed a maximum of three users. The Supervisor can also delete a user when a person leaves your firm.

Each user can change his or her own password.

 

2. Supervisor

A Supervisor can decide which other users will have Supervisor privileges.

A Supervisor can edit the information for your firm's users, including their full name, email address, and Supervisor status. A Supervisor can make any other user a Supervisor, or remove Supervisor status from any other user.

A Supervisor can also determine which timekeepers can be accessed by each user. For example, most likely an attorney will access only his or her own data, but a legal assistant or an office manager may need to access data for more than one timekeeper.

A Supervisor can upload RTG Bills data from a Windows PC (clients, matters, timekeepers, and codes) and download released transactions (fees and expenses).

 

3. Prepare RTG Bills

We strongly recommend using the latest version of RTG Bills.

Older versions of RTG Bills may not be able to communicate with RTG Timer Online. Please read: A new server for RTG Timer Online.

Next, we suggest that you look at the Client/Matter Check report in RTG Bills to identify problems in your data. For example, you should fix clients with no client name and matters with no matter name. Fix all such problems before you try to upload data to RTG Timer Online.

In RTG Bills, choose:

Edit > Timekeepers

Check that the timekeepers you want to see in RTG Timer Online have a Timekeeper Key. RTG Bills won't upload the timekeeper information without a Timekeeper Key. Suggestion*

You can view a Timekeeper List in RTG Bills to see which timekeepers have keys. Although it is possible to enter additional timekeepers in RTG Timer Online even without a timekeeper key, RTG Bills will not import their fees and expenses without such a key. So you need a key for each timekeeper if you plan to download the fees and expenses into RTG Bills in order to create bills. Additional timekeeper keys are an inexpensive, one-time purchase.

Next, choose:

Setup > RTG Timer Online

Enter your User Name and Password for RTG Timer Online.  Set the Server number to 3 unless RTG has told you to change it to another number. Click Close. The User Name and Password are stored so that you will not need to enter them again.

If you want to hide billing rates in RTG Timer Online, choose that option in RTG Bills:

Setup > Other > Firm > Hide rates in RTG Timer

This setting is included in the data sent to RTG Timer Online.

 

4. Upload RTG Bills data

If you are using RTG Bills Online, RTG Timer Online reads the data it needs from RTG Bills Online automatically. However, if you are using RTG Timer Online with RTG Bills on a PC, you must send the RTG Bills data to RTG Timer Online.

To send RTG Bills data from your Windows PC to RTG Timer Online, choose:

File > RTG Timer Online > Upload RTG Bills Data

You will see the Upload To RTG Timer Online window. Click the Upload button and the data is sent to RTG Timer Online. If errors occur, fix them and try again.

Some punctuation characters that are accepted in RTG Bills are not allowed in RTG Timer Online. You may need to change names and abbreviations to remove such characters before RTG Timer Online will accept the data.

Note that any error that occurs can prevent RTG Timer Online from receiving all of your RTG Bills data. For example, an error in a client name can cause some of your clients, and all of your matters, to be missing from RTG Timer Online. So it is important to fix all errors at this time.

Note that shorthand codes are not uploaded. Suggestion*

 

5. Sign in to RTG Timer Online

The Supervisor should sign in to RTG Timer Online:

https://app.rtgsoftware.com/timer/signin.htm

At the RTG Timer Menu, click Supervisor Menu.

RTG Timer Online should now have a list of your timekeepers. If you wish, you can look at a Timekeeper List from the Supervisor Menu to verify this.

You must assign timekeepers to each user, to tell RTG Timer which users can enter data for which timekeepers.

Click Edit Users on the Supervisor Menu. On the Select a User page, click on a timekeeper. You should choose yourself first.

On the Edit a User page, verify that your email address is correct. This is important, because it is the address that RTG will use to contact you regarding RTG Timer Online.

Still on the Edit a User page, you can specify which timekeepers can be accessed by this user. As a Supervisor, you may want access to all timekeepers. You must add them to the list one at a time. Select a timekeeper from the dropdown list, then click the Add button. Repeat this for any other timekeepers you must access. When you are done, click Save.

Back at the Select a User page, you can select another user and assign timekeepers. Repeat this process for each user.

When you are done, click the Done button on the Select a User page to return to the Supervisor Menu.

 

6. Browser settings

RTG Timer Online opens a new window to show help information. Some pop-up blockers prevent the help window from appearing. You can easily check if this is a problem by clicking the Help link on the Supervisor Menu. If a new window opens and displays the Supervisor Menu help page, there is no problem.

However, if you do not see a new window, you must turn off the pop-up blocker in your Web browser. We have instructions that explain how to do that for various browsers. In RTG Timer Online:

Help > How-To Guides > How to Turn Off the Pop-up Blocker

After the pop-up blocker is turned off, check that the help window appears when you click the Help link.

 

7. Check code tables

Click Edit Codes on the Supervisor Menu. On the Select a Code Table page, a list of your code tables from RTG Bills will appear. Click on the first code table.

On the Select a Code page, verify that the Table Type is correct. There are two possible types: Activity/Expense or Task. Most firms do not use task codes, unless they are doing electronic billing with RTG E-Bills.

If the Table Type is incorrect, click the Change button to change it. When it is correct, click Done to return to the Select a Code Table page.

If you have more code tables, repeat this process for each one, to make sure they all have the correct Table Type.

The reason this step is necessary is that older versions of RTG Bills did not have a Table Type field. For that reason, the type could be set wrong.

When you are done, click the Done button on the Select a Code Table page to return to the Supervisor Menu. You can click RTG Timer Menu to return to the RTG Timer Menu.

 

8. Enter fees and expenses

You and any other users at your firm should now be able to enter fees and expenses. Eventually, when the fees and expenses are ready to be billed, the user will release them, which writes them into a file.

In order to bill the released items, you must download them into RTG Bills. This is only necessary if you are using the PC version of RTG Bills, not if you are using RTG Bills Online.

In RTG Bills on the PC, choose:

File > RTG Timer Online > Download Released Items

You will see the Download From RTG Timer Online window. Each entry in the list represents a file stored on the RTG Timer Online server. The Items column shows how many fee and expense items are in each file.

Look at the top entry in the list. If it says No in the Downloaded column, it means there are fees and expenses that were released in RTG Timer Online but that have not yet been downloaded into RTG Bills. Normally, any other entries in the list will say Yes in the Downloaded column.

If the top entry in the list has not been downloaded, click it to select that entry. Click Download to read the items into RTG Bills.

Once the fees and expenses are in RTG Bills, they can be edited and billed.

 

9. Sign out

When you are finished using RTG Timer Online for the day, you should sign out. Signing out ensures that no one else can gain access to RTG Timer Online by using your computer and pretending to be you.

 

* Suggestions

To enter data for more than one timekeeper during the free trial period, see Timekeepers in RTG Timer Online free trial.

To upload shorthand codes from RTG Bills or RTG Timer to RTG Timer Online, see Shorthand codes in RTG Timer Online.

 
 
Home Site Map Contact

Copyright © 2024 RTG Data Systems | Privacy Policy