Inprotech: Multiple Invoice Formats

I passed on a quick little tip today that’s worth publishing overall I think.

Inprotech has functionality that allows multiple invoice formats to be set up. The idea is that individual clients can each have their own specific format and this format will be automatically assigned as the invoice is raised without the operator having to think about.

It might be because a different of invoice is required for different legal entity or office, a filing case has a different layout from an opposition case or simply one client wants more detail than the firm’s standard invoice.

This automation is achieved by recording attributes against the invoice format and a best fit algorithm is applied when the invoice is raised to pick the format that best meets the corresponding attributes of the debtor.

It all works very nicely but one little issue is when there are multiple clients that require the same invoice layout. The typical example is when you are dealing with multiple subsidiaries of a large organization. Maybe there are 10 or 15 different debtors in total but they all require to the group specific invoice format.

Using the system as it stands, you need to set up the billing template and then create the 15 bill formats in the table, one for each debtor. You get 5 or 6 clients like this and all of sudden you’ve got a maintenance nightmare on bill formats!

The reason you have to do this is that the debtor is seemingly the only client related attribute that you can apply against the invoice format. What you really need is the Client Group attribute or something like that.

The tip here is to use the client Language attribute as the grouping facility. Or course, this assumes you aren’t using it actually for the client’s language!!

Set up a Language in the pick list for say “ABC Company Invoice Format” and then attach this language against all of the name records for those organisations in the ABC Group. Then set up the ABC Invoice Format (once) with the necessary template and attach this Language attribute to the format. When the bill is raised for a debtor with this language the correct format will be selected. You don’t have set up a new format record, to use the same template, if a new group company comes along and you only have to maintain the record in one place when it changes.

I also like to code the Languages with an “AAA” at the start so that all of the invoice format languages are at the top of the picklist:

AAA – Australia Post Invoice Format
AAA – IBM Format
AAA – Proctor & Gamble Invoice Format

The alternative, or course, is to delete any languages not used from the list.

This approach is also useful if you want to have a different invoice format for local clients and international clients. Maybe you don’t want more space for descriptions for clients or the banking/remittance details are different. Simply set up a language type of International Invoice Format (or vice versa) and attach it to international clients.

Of course, you then need to make sure that this happens during the client take on process. Maybe using the name copy facility with a template record, but that’s definitely another story!!

Inprotech: Price List

I have been working on a couple of projects recently where we have set up the price list in fees & charges module and then incorporated it into the workflow to have the work in progress generated for billing based upon that list. As you will be aware there is no useful reporting in the system to help this process at all.


As a result we developed, over a period of time, an SQL statement that returns relevant data with one row per charge item so that it can be easily reviewed by the user. Here it is:

select F.CRITERIANO as "Id", C.DESCRIPTION as "Fee/Charge",
A.CASETYPEDESC as "Case Type", P.PROPERTYNAME as "Prop Type",
isnull(Y.INFORMALNAME,'') as "Cty", F.SERVWIPCODE as "S/C Code",
F.SERVBASEFEE as "S/C 1", F.SERVVARIABLEFEE as "S/C 2",
F.SERVICECURRENCY as "S/C Curr", N.NARRATIVECODE as "Narrative",
isnull(F.DISBWIPCODE,'') as "Disb Code",
F.DISBBASEFEE as "Disb Fee 1", F.DISBVARIABLEFEE as "Disb Fee 2",
isnull(F.DISBCURRENCY,'') as "Disb Curr", isnull(FT.FEENAME,'') as "Fee Type",
isnull(Q.SOURCE,'') as "Quantity"
from FEESCALCULATION F
left join CRITERIA C on C.CRITERIANO = F.CRITERIANO
left join COUNTRY Y on Y.COUNTRYCODE = C.COUNTRYCODE
left join PROPERTYTYPE P on P.PROPERTYTYPE = C.PROPERTYTYPE
left join CASETYPE A on A.CASETYPE = C.CASETYPE
left join NARRATIVE N on N.NARRATIVENO = F.SERVICENARRATIVE
left join QUANTITYSOURCE Q on Q.QUANTITYSOURCEID = F.PARAMETERSOURCE
left join FEETYPES FT on FT.FEETYPE = F.FEETYPE

The idea is then to copy it into Excel and sort it as appropriate and remove columns depending upon the type of information required to be reviewed.

Inprotech: Data Quality

Data quality is always an issue for patent attorney firms.

Many years ago we developed functionality to report upon potential data exceptions within the database. At a recent client meeting we were talking about auditing data and this report was raised, once more a good deal of people in the room were unaware of its existence.

It's called the Property Data Exceptions report and it is available from the Reports menu of the case summary window, the one that you get that lists all the cases selected and allows you to tick cases for reporting and processing. The menu item sort of sneaks in there on this window and you could be forgiven for not noticing it because it is not available on the Reports menu on the first selection window. Unless you look closely it is not so obvious that it is now available on the summary window.

The report was written for CPA renewal clients in attempt to be able to get the data as clean as possible before sending it electronically to CPA via the interfacing programs. As such, it has a bit of a renewals focus but there is some utility for the audit of data in general. It runs over the selection of ticked cases in the summary window and can be selected to run over all the cases or only those with a case type of Property.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of documentation about what the report does (in fact, absolutely none) so the following is what each of the options does to the best of my memory:

1. Agent Details - foreign cases where no agent is recorded against the case.
2. Application Details - the case has an application number but no application date or vice versa.
3. Registration Details - the case has a registration number but no registration date or vice versa.
4. Publication Details - the case has an publication number but no publication date or vice versa.
5. Priority Details - the case has a Basis that is claiming convention but has no earliest priority date.
6. Entity Size - the country requires definition of whether small or large entity parameters are to be used to calculate fees (eg. US and Canada) but this hasn't been recorded against the case. This is determined by an attribute recorded against the country via the Country program.
7. Number of Claims – the country requires the number of claims to be able to calculate the renewal fee, eg. Japan, The Philippines, but the number of claims hasn’t been recorded against the case. This is determined by an attribute recorded against the country via the Country program.
8. Number of Designs – the country requires the number of designs to be able to calculate the renewal fee, eg. Germany, but the number of designs hasn’t been recorded against the case. This is determined by an attribute recorded against the country via the Country program.
9. Date Sequence – makes sure that the dates recorded against the case meet the validation requirements as defined by the Dates Logic rules for the applicable criteria. This is the area where you might define, for example, that the Registration Date needs to be greater that the Application Date. This validation rule will be applied at the time of data entry however any previous loaded cases can be audited overall.
10. Official Number Format – applies any number formatting rules to official numbers entered and displays an error when the validation fails. The formats need to be set up against the number types for the country via the Country program.

Upon reflection, I can think of a number of extensions to the approach to add a lot more value but it is there right now and it is free to use!
One idea could be to use it if you are looking at giving a client access to their portfolio over the web via the Client WorkBench. Bring all their cases up in a query and run the report over it to see what exceptions are highlighted. This way you have an idea of the data quality that you are presenting to the client in a quick report and therefore assess how you want to handle the situation.
Another could be to run the report for cases in a takeover situation after they have been loaded.
Food for thought.

Inprotech: Printing Multiple Letters from the Case Enquiry

It’s interesting to remember sometimes why certain features were put in the software. Sometimes I don’t recall at all and often wonder if we were looking to solve a business problem or it just seemed a good and fun idea at the time!

It’s even more interesting when a user finds out about the functionality for the first time and tells me a really good business reason for the feature.

Case in point today is the ability to print multiple documents from the case enquiry summary window. This feature allows you to print the same letter for multiple cases. All the ones that are ticked in the summary window in fact. Go to the Forms menu and the WP Document window. Select the document from the picklist and click ok. One document will be created for every document in the summary list that is ticked.

I am pretty sure we added this because it was a good idea and easy to implement given that we were adding the “print a document from the case and name record” feature.

One of the people at my client found out about this today for the first time. She thinks it is brilliant because when a group of cases move from one attorney to another they use the bulk name change feature to change the staff responsibility but then have to print out, one by one, the new file cover sheet.

This is a PassThru letter that has information about the case, including the responsible staff member, that is attached to the front of the physical file. From now on, she will be able to print all of the cover sheets at the same time the name change occurs, with no manual intervention, saving heaps of her time!!!