Features of the Today Screen

The Today Screen’s importance has been increased dramatically in Prime Office 16. In previous versions, the Today Screen was the first screen that opened after login. It also had a designated tab on the Menu Book. You can now choose it as your default Startup Screen, access it from a button on the Home screen or choose it from View on the Ribbon Bar.

The Today Screen opens displaying the Daily Work Sheet. Previous versions opened to the Calendar Screen, which is now the second tab. Which tab shows first is easily changed.

Daily Work Sheet tab

Displays time-saving features in Prime in one place and makes the system easier to use. It uses the number of the person logged in. It allows staff to quickly get to the critical tasks. There are separate Work Sheet tabs for managers and Private Bar Involvement (PBI) coordinators.

1) View their critical dates, plus or minus 7 days 2) Look at their open cases, calendar schedule, accept or reject Eligibility slips, stale cases, callbacks, get help, etc. 3) View recommended reports suggested by management. These can easily be run like frequent reports. 4) Add frequent/favorite reports to provide a short cut to frequently used reports. 5) Generate a Time Sheet - This is a time sheet for the pay period. It is explained more in depth below, under the Home Screen.

Recommended and Favorite Reports

Provides a short cut to frequently used reports. You can also get a preview of the reports from here. 1) One tab provides Recommended Reports (set by the administrator) and 2) The other shows Favorite Reports (favorite reports set by the user). 3) If you run a report on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, you can type notes about the report, such as who should run it and when. 4) If there is a preview of the report in the system, select the report and click on Preview to see how that report looks before running it. 5) Report Search takes you to Report Preview screen (Described under Reports).

The password-protected (password MGT) Management Work Sheet

Provides management with choices similar to the Daily Work Sheet, but from an office or unit standpoint. 1) For example, the Daily Work Sheet might have Look at my Open Cases and the Management Sheet would look at Office Open Cases or Unit Open Cases. 2) This sheet also has different Frequent and Recommended Management Reports. 3) The Critical dates allow you to toggle between those in the office or in individual units using the Toggle Office/Unit button. To go back to the Daily Work Sheet, just click on the Daily Sheet button.

The password-protected PBI Work Sheet

Works the same as the Daily and Management Sheets but looks at: 1) PBI open cases 2) Open cases with no lawyer 3) Lawyers with no cases 4) Stale PBI cases 5) Lawyers with no activity 6) Cases accepted in a time period, etc.

To go back to the Daily Work Sheet, just click on the Daily Sheet button.

Calendar tab

Presents the group calendar for a person, the entire office or unit for the Work Week.

1) Although it defaults to your schedule, the pull downs allow this to be changed to another advocate, office, unit or combination of these. 2) You can change it to a different week by clicking on the date icon. Choose a date in a different week to see the schedule in that week. 3) Calendar records will continue to show up on this report even if marked as completed. 4) Both appointments and tickles (reminders) show on this calendar. 5) Double-click on a calendar day to open up what’s scheduled on that day. Double click on the row to open the Client’s Intake record. 6) You can select a different period by using the Other Calendar pull down to display a Day, a Week or a Monthly calendar.

7) Prime integrates with Microsoft Office 365’s Calendar. You can view, import, or export appointment calendar dates between Microsoft Office 365 and Prime. The system will display calendar events in day, workweek, calendar week, and month views just like Outlook. Within Prime, you can send and receive email. Some of these features are dependent upon whether we host Prime or you host it in your own office.

Your Open Cases tab

Displays a list of your open cases. Double clicking on one immediately opens the Client’s Intake record and you can begin working on it. Like Open Cases on the Home Screen (Described later), you can enter a calendar event, notes and time, or just time on a case without having to go into that Client’s record.

Speed Time and Notes

The Speed Time/Notes, Calendar, and Time buttons on the Your Open Cases tab allow you to add time, case notes, and calendar events with the minimum number of keystrokes. This button allows you to: 1) Read the notes on the selected case, 2) Add a Time slip and have any comment go into the notes or 3) Just add a Note to the case.

Dashboard

Drives your caseload by giving you information about it. It allows you to gain insight into the cases of an advocate, unit, office or program-wide basis. 1) If you want to review cases that have been open but not active within 90 days, type in 90 in the green box and click on Advocate (your cases), Managing Attorney (cases in the office), Unit (Housing Unit, Intake Unit, Consumer Unit, etc.), or Program Director (complete program with several offices). 2) It shows your open cases by your main funding code, cases opened and closed in the last 30 days or 31-60 days, cases with no activity, open cases by area of law, etc. It also allows you see the list of cases by clicking on the Look at Cases button.

Internal Messaging - Internal Messaging is covered below under the Home Screen. The options are the same on the Today Screen’s Internal Messages tab as they are on the Home Screen. A user can read, send and print internal messages.