USING A PLAN OF ACTION

 

 

This area of the program has recently been enhanced and improved and this document will illustrate some of the changes that have been made and show you how to customize your own Plans of Action.

 

What is a Plan of Action?

 

 

A Plan of Action is a list of pre-defined Reminders that are inserted automatically when a new Matter is added.

 

 

These Reminders represent a set of procedures that need to be followed during the course of a matter.  They provide estimated dates of completion and keep track of when a particular task was completed. 

 

Plans of Action are more relevant to conveyancing Matters which have pre-defined steps that need to be completed to reach a goal (Lodgement) within a certain timeframe.

 

Why has it been changed 

 

In previous versions the Reminders were based around the Instructed date, i.e. the program would insert the Reminder based on x number of days after the date of instruction.

 

Although this was sufficient, it was not always entirely user-friendly.  For example, if there was a delay in the Mortgagor signing the documents, the steps following this would all be delayed and would have to be manually adjusted.  The improvements to the Plans of Action now take into account that a step may be delayed and can adjust future steps accordingly.

 

The main enhancement is been the ability to link a Reminder to another Reminder, i.e. the date of Reminder #5 can now be calculated x number of days after Reminder #2

 

The Setup

 

LegalSuite can provides client with basic Plans of Action for Bonds and Transfers which can then be customized according to your firm’s requirements.

 

Plans of Action are contained under Setup | File Management | Plans of Action

 

Fig 1: Plans of Action

 

 

 

For the purposes of this document, the Bonds Plan of Action will be used as a reference.

 

Click on the Bonds Plan of Action on the left-hand side of the window.  On the right-hand side the list of Reminders linked to that Plan of Action (i.e. Bonds) appears.  The columns are:-

 

Column

Description

Order

The order that the highlighted Reminder appears in the list

Code

The Code of the Reminder (this must be unique)

Reminder

The text of the Reminder – this is what appears in the Reminders screen

LAW

The LAW Message Number that will be automatically sent from LegalSuite when the Reminder is marked as “Done”

WebLink

The WebLink Message that will be automatically sent from LegalSuite when the Reminder is marked as “Done”

Days

The number of days after the Base Date, e.g. Date Instructed, that this Reminder must be done

Base Date

The date from which the number of days runs, e.g. Date Instructed, Today’s Date, Target Lodgement Date, etc.

 

Reminders are linked to Plans of Action.  Right-click and click on Change on the first Reminder in the list – Acknowledge receipt of instruction to Bank.  The following screen will appear:-

 

Fig 2: Reminder

 

Click on the ellipse  button to the right of the grey block:-

 

Fig 3: Reminders

 

The Reminders window opens (this window can also be accessed by going to Setup | File Management | Reminders).

 

The Bonds Group of Reminders is automatically selected.  The list of Reminders for this Group appears on the right-hand side of the screen.

 

You will notice from the above that Base Date of some Reminders is Date Instructed and other Base Dates are not.  The ones based on Date Instructed are fairly self-explanatory – when you take on a new matter, the Date Instructed is reflected as that date.  On the Date Instructed, i.e. the date the matter is inserted onto LegalSuite, certain tasks should immediately be performed, such as :-

 

Acknowledge receipt of instruction to Bank

Advise Mortgagor of receipt of instruction to Bank

Client contacted

 

These steps are fairly straight-forward and there should be no reason for delay in completing these tasks.  They are therefore calculated as 1 day from Date Instructed.  Right-click on the first Reminder in the list and click on Change:-

 

Fig 4: Changing a Reminder

 

The following fields appear on the General tab:-

 

Message

The text that appears in the Reminders screen

Code

A unique code for the Reminder – when adding a Reminder the code can be typed and the text will appear

Group

The Group that this Reminder belongs to – this is used to organise and categorise the Reminders

Days

The number of days before or after the base date.  To insert the Reminder prior to the base date, simply put a minus (-) sign before the number, e.g. -5

Base Date

The date on which the Reminder in calculated.  The options are:-

 

Date of Instruction – the Instructed date on the General tab of the matter

 

Court Date – only used in Litigation.  The Court Date as reflected on the Litigation tab of the matter

 

Today’s Date – the current date

 

Target Lodgement Date – only used in Conveyancing.  The Target Lodgement Date as reflected Conveyancing tab of the matter

 

Reminder – one Reminder’s date can be based on another Reminder’s date.  If one step is delayed, subsequent dates will be adjusted accordingly.  See the section below headed “Linking Base Dates to Reminders”

 

Use Working Days to calculate the date

Do not include weekends when working out the date

Linking Base Dates to Reminders

 

One Reminder is often based on another Reminder.  For example in the Bonds Plan of Action, the Reminder “Request draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys” is dependant on the Instruction Date.  It is fairly safe to assume that there will be no delays in performing this Reminder. 

 

However, the date that you receive the draft deed from Transferring Attorneys cannot be controlled as there may be unexpected delays.

 

In a bond matter, one can assume that:-

 

Send documents to Agents for Lodgement

 

is dependant on

 

Documents signed by Mortgagor

 

which in turn is dependant on

 

Prepare all Bond and supporting documents

 

which in turn is dependant on

 

Receive draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys

 

which in turn is dependant on

 

Request draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys

 

which should be performed 2 days after the Date Instructed

 

Similarly :-

 

Receive permission to register from Bank

 

Is dependant on the Target Lodgement Date.

 

The first step is to create a basic Plan of Action – with all the Base Dates set to the Instruction Date.  Once you have the basic layout, you can then base a Reminder on another Reminder or a Target Lodgement Date.  To do this:-

 

Go to Setup | File Management | Plans of Action.  Highlight the Plan of Action, e.g. Bonds on the left-hand side of the screen and double-click on the Reminder on the right-hand side of the screen. The “Receive draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys” reminder will be used as an example.  Double-click on it and the following window will appear:-

 

Fig 5: Reminder

 

The Code is a unique code used to identify the Reminder.

 

The Condition field is an advanced field that can be used to ensure this Reminder is only inserted if certain criteria are met.  LegalSuite support personnel will be able to assist you with any specific conditions you may require.

 

Click on the ellipse button  :-

 

A list of the Reminders for the Bonds group is displayed:-

 

Fig 6: Reminders

 

Right-click on the Reminder “Receive draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys” and click on Change:-

 

Fig 7: Changing a Reminder

 

Select the “Reminder” option and click on the ellipse button to select the Reminder upon which this one is based.

 

 

A list of Reminders will open – highlight the one on which you are basing the current Reminder and click on Select. Remember to specify the number of days before / after the base date.

 

 

 

 

The Reminder “Receive draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys” is now dependant upon another Reminder – “Request draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys”.  If the Reminder “Request draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys” is delayed for some reason, the Reminder “Receive draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys” will be adjusted automatically (based on the date the Reminder was marked as Done).

 

If you have a look at your Reminders screen with your Plan of Action, you will notice that it looks the same as it did previously:-

 

Fig 8: Reminders for the highlighted matter

 

Remember that the Reminder “Receive draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys” is dependant upon another Reminder – “Request draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys”.  If the date the draft Deed is requested from the Transferring Attorneys is delayed, then the date the draft Deed is received from the Transferring Attorneys will be later than anticipated, which will result in other delays throughout the matter.

 

This is where the most notable changes have been made to the Plans of Action. 

 

When you mark the Reminder “Request draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys” as done, the date of any Reminder that is based upon this one is automatically adjusted.  i.e. the date that the Reminder “Request draft Deed from Transferring Attorneys” was due to be completed was the 19/10/2007 but due to unforeseen delays was only completed on 25/10/2007.  Because of this delay, all the other steps in the matter are going to be delayed.  Previously, users would have to go and manually adjust the dates of the Reminders to take into consideration the delay in one step being completed – this is no longer necessary.  As can be seen from Fig 9 below, all subsequent Reminders have been adjusted accordingly:-

 

 

 

Fig 9: Reminders for the highlighted matter showing automatically adjusted dates

 

Summary

 

1.            Setup your Plan of Action :  Setup | File Management | Plans of Action

2.            Link the Plan of Action to your matter

3.            When a Reminder is marked as “Done”, dates of Reminders that are based on other Reminders will be automatically adjusted.

 

 

 

 

**END**