Case Expense Financing For Law Firms & Lawyers
Authored By: Candace Whitman
President and CEO Michael J. Swanson interviewed Attorney Timothy Bailey of Bailey, Javins and Carter, LC about his experience as an Advocate Capital, Inc. client.
Attorney Bailey shares how Advocate Capital, Inc. has impacted his firm and allowed them to get even better results for their clients.
Authored By: Krista Kemmerly
We invite you to join our webinar next Tuesday with President and CEO Michael J. Swanson and special guest, Training Specialist, Billie Hardison.
Throughout this webinar, Mike Swanson and Billie Hardison will explain how our AdvoTrac® Case Expense Funding Service works and how it has helped successful law firms get even better results for their clients.
The AdvoTrac® Case Expense Funding Service Webinar is on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 with Michael J. Swanson and Billie Hardison.
Space is limited, so register for the April 24th webinar now: https://www.advocatecapital.com/webinarapril24
It’s OK if you register but are unable to attend. You’ll get an email to a video recording of the webinar when it’s complete so that you can view it later.
We enhance our proprietary software, AdvoTrac ®, with new capabilities and features on a regular basis. AdvoTrac® is Advocate Capital’s differentiator, a strategic tool for our clients and employees. Our clients gain access to their accounts via the web portal, and they often have suggestions on how to improve AdvoTrac®.
Here are the Spring 2018 AdvoTrac® improvements:
Reports – We added three brand new reports to the portal: Principal Balance by Date Range, Initial Case Funding by Date Range and Closed Cases.
The Principal Balance by Date Range report allows a user to view their firm’s principal balance for each day within the date range parameters. This can help the firm to understand their utilization trends.
The Initial Case Funding by Date Range report allows a user to view which cases funded for the first time within the date range parameters. The report shows the case name, memo information, date and amount. This can help a firm audit their funded cases if needed.
The Closed Cases by Date Range report allows a user to identify which cases were paid and closed within the date range parameters. The report shows the case name, date opened, date closed and the payoff amount, helping the firm with reconciliation.
Since we added three more reports to the reports tab, we felt it was time to alphabetize the drop-down menu creating a more user-friendly experience.
In addition to the new reports, we modified the Reprint Payoff Quote for cases paid off online. We removed the remittance address, per diem amount and changed the text from “Amount Payable” to “Amount Paid” to ensure clear communication. These changes were previously made to the Payoff Quote but not on the Reprint Payoff Quote.
When a Request for Loan Advance is received, our accounting department emails a Transaction Detail for Funding report to the client confirming their request is complete. The report now includes the firm’s account manager name and contact information, making it easier to contact them should there be any questions.
Funding Requests – If a client has working capital availability, they can select a radio button on the funding screen to fund working capital, eliminating the need to scroll all the way to the bottom of their case listing to choose working capital as a case to fund. This function previously existed but was inconsistently working if a client had a reopened working capital line. The radio button visibility has been corrected.
Payments – When a client has multiple bank accounts set-up for payments, and the client fails to select the bank account, an error message appears. The error message “Bank Account Required” was moved beside the bank selection field instead of the middle of the page, making it easier to notice.
We added our new remittance address for paper checks to the Payoff Quote with a yellow highlight and to the frequently asked questions page in the portal.
Monthly Summary Emails – On the 15th of every month, AdvoTrac® sends an email to clients summarizing their account activity. We removed the word “new” from the funded cases line, which was confusing the type of funding that occurred on the account.
Training – We added two new videos to the help and training section: “Creating a User” and “Modify or Unlock a User.”
The training videos for Reports Part I, Reports Part II and Reports Part III have been updated.
All video titles were revised, removing the “How to” text at the beginning making the titles more concise.
Step by step PDF instructions are now available for all tutorials.
Administrative – A firm administrator may notice the following changes when modifying or creating a user:
We would love to hear from you! If you have ideas for additional improvements to AdvoTrac, please send them to me at TBurns@AdvocateCapital.com or call me at 615-577-5447.
If you would like to read about the Winter, 2018 AdvoTrac Improvements, click here.
Tina Burns
Vice President
There are many reasons to join a book club. Here are five that the team at Advocate Capital have taken to heart.
Whether you are an avid reader or want to try something new, a book club can be a great use of your time. We at Advocate Capital love our book club and look forward to reading more exciting books in the coming year.
Check out our latest book club event on our Facebook and Google+ pages.
Rebecca Stottlemyer
Executive Client Manager
Authored By: Candace Whitman
Are you planning to attend the AIEG 2018 Spring Seminar in Nashville, TN?
AIEG’s mission is to improve the ability of its members to represent those harmed through unwavering support, unparalleled sharing of documents and knowledge, and by providing insightful and substantive seminars with nationally recognized faculty.
The seminar will take place April 17-20 at the Hilton Nashville Downtown. Please stop by our booth to say hello and learn more about case expense funding. Jeff Glueck, Vice President of Strategic Solutions, will be there to represent Advocate Capital, Inc. and talk with you about The Advocate Flexline®.
While you’re there, don’t forget to register to win a pair of Beats Studio Wireless Headphones. We look forward to seeing you next week in our home city of Nashville!
Authored By: Krista Kemmerly
Are you traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada for the MTMP Spectacular Spring Conference?
The conference kicks off next week, from April 11th through the 13th at the The Wynn, Las Vegas. Michael J. Swanson, Donna Jones and Buffy Escue will be representing Advocate Capital, Inc. at the conference. We welcome you to stop by our booth (#26) to say hello and learn more about the AdvoTrac® Case Expense Funding Service.
Don’t forget to register to win a pair of Beats Studio Wireless Headphones!
The MTMP Conference allows you to network at the largest gathering of plaintiff mass torts attorneys in the nation and includes world renowned entertainers and speakers.
We hope to see you there!
Do you know that we have a team of expert training professionals at Advocate Capital, Inc.? Our team is led by our dedicated Training Specialist, Billie Hardison, and is here to help you with any AdvoTrac® questions. The training team is also staffed with Quickbooks Pro Advisors who can assist you with recording Advocate Capital transactions in Quickbooks, both Desktop and Online!
As our dedicated Training Specialist, Billie is also our resident expert in the Excel application. You may have seen her continuing series of Excel Tips and Tricks featured on the Advocate Capital blog and website. If you have specific questions or require assistance with reports in Excel, schedule a session for one-on-one guidance.
In fact, contact us at TrainingTeam@AdvocateCapital.com or 615-577-1000 for any of your training needs!
Note: Advocate Capital, Inc. does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. Our training on QuickBooks and other topics are presented for informational purposes only, and are not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should always consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors.
Donna A. Jones
Senior Vice President
Photo Credit: Rido
A. The first step to preparing for retirement is to select the right financial planner.
Having an expert on your side is always a good idea! The right financial advisor can make the difference between a comfortable retirement and not being able to retire at all. Be careful to do your homework when selecting an advisor. Anyone can call themselves an advisor, so make sure they have the right credentials. At a minimum, your advisor should be a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). This status is awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards and must be maintained by the advisor through ongoing education.
B. Next, max out your best savings options.
If your employer offers a 401(k), find a way to take advantage of it, ideally maxing out your contributions, if possible. This is especially valuable if your employer offers a “match”, whereby they contribute to your account by matching your contributions up to a certain limit. You can think of the matching contributions as an instant return on your investment. When you put in one dollar and your employer matches that, you just made a 100% return on that dollar! Where else can you get returns like that?
C. Lastly, educate yourself.
Spending a little less time surfing the Internet for pure entertainment and a little more time investing in your financial future through education just makes sense. Here are a few websites to get you started:
Whether you are facing retirement in the next few years or decades from now, it’s never too late to get started. Make a commitment to investing time and money in your future and get started today!
To read my full article about how to prepare for retirement, check out page 10 of the latest issue of Living Safer magazine. You can find the article in digital form by clicking here.
Michael J. Swanson
President and Chief Executive Officer
Photo Credit: Pinkomelet
Excel is a smart software. If you are performing calculations in your spreadsheet, Excel can do a lot of the work for you.
Let’s say you have a column of numbers that you want to total. All you need to do in Excel is scroll to the bottom of the column and click the first available empty cell. From the Home tab, select the Auto Sum icon. It looks like the letter M turned sideways. And that’s it! Excel recognizes the cells you are trying to calculate.
I also like the Currency options on the Home tab. If you highlight your column of numbers and select the $ (Dollar Sign) symbol, it will automatically convert all your numbers to currency. If you click the % (percentage) symbol, Excel will automatically convert the selected data into a percentage. If you select the , (comma) symbol, it will automatically convert your selected cells into a decimal.
Note: If there is a blank field in your column of data, Excel may not capture all the data you are trying to calculate. It will only calculate as far as it sees data. You can also accomplish these features by right clicking on a selection and selecting Format Cells, but I like the shortcut icons!
If you are an Advocate Capital customer and need help preparing or manipulating data in the Excel application, feel free to contact me at BHardison@AdvocateCapital.com.
We love feedback from our customers and implement suggestions often. What shortcut do you use the most? If you have a question or idea for an Excel tip that you would like to see, let me know and I might write about it!
Billie Hardison
Training Specialist
Photo Credit: Natee Meepian
Authored By: Krista Kemmerly
Earlier this month the Strategic Solutions Team hosted a festive “Beware the Ides of March” luncheon for our employee appreciation event.
Employees enjoyed traditional Greek food from Greco Greek Street Food.
We also listened to great Greek music and played a round of trivia.
To conclude the event, we had a costume contest. Our team broke out their togas costumes. Billie Hardison was voted Best Costume in her toga.
View photos from the event on Advocate Capital, Inc. Facebook and Google+ albums.
