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Technology - Probate provides information on current technology and microcomputer software of interest in the probate and estate planning areas. The editors of Probate & Property welcome information and suggestions from readers.
Remote Practice Management
Continuing with the theme of my last column, lawyers can now manage their law practices remotely in addition to merely accessing information. Of course, remote access allows practice management generally because typically you have access to your practice management system as well. This column will update earlier reviews of more traditional practice management systems and give you a sampling of true "cloud" practice management systems, including one that in my estimate is among the best of breed in that category.
PracticeMaster/Tabs
Consistent with previous reviews, I still use and appreciate the long-standing PracticeMaster/Tabs3 (collectively "Tabs") (www.tabs3.com) practice management system. The Tabs system has not changed significantly in recent years, primarily because it was so well designed (and well loved by scores of users, see, e.g., numerous recent TechnoLawyer awards). As a result, all the substantive comments in my earlier reviews still apply. There are, however, a few updates to highlight.
First, the Tabs system now features credit card processing. My firm does not use this feature because it typically uses PayPal (www.paypal.com) or Google Checkout (http://checkout.google.com) to process the few credit card payments it receives. For firms that use credit card payments on a regular basis, though, this is a very useful feature that integrates with the Tabs payment and trust accounting functionality.
Second, the Tabs system now generates reports in multiple formats (HTML, PDF, TXT, AND XLS). In the past, it could generate only printerbased reports, and I used the print driver supplied with the full versions of Adobe Acrobat (www.adobe.com) called Distiller to do this. That still works well. Nevertheless, exporting data to use in just about any conceivable way, including a spreadsheet application - from simple summary reports to detailed client information including specific, full-blown time entries - is a welcome addition to the Tabs system. This data exporting feature also can be used for general data backup purposes if you want practice management data to appear in a certain way for backup purposes (or if the Tabs system is ever unavailable, which has never happened...