Appliance wide settings for legal practices. Covers Firm, Matters, Time Billings, Budget, General and Licensing.
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To access appliance settings select the tools and settings icon (the grey cog) from the top menu bar. From the settings screen, select 'Appliance Settings'.
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Practice
The Firm Jurisdiction Country and the Firm Jurisdiction State will impact on the matter types for setting up of matter and also for the document precedents that are applicable.
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The reset shouldn't generally be used as contacts should each have a unique contact number. Therefore the contact numbers should just increase incrementally by one.
Field Name | Default Value | Description |
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Contact Number Template | {auto} | Template defining how new contact numbers are generated. See below for a more detailed description. |
Reset Contact Auto-Number on Rollover | Unchecked | If your Contact Number Template contains both Auto Number and Calendar Year parts, the system will automatically reset your next auto number on the first Contact created in the new year. The person who creates this first contact is notified when they are creating the contact and after it is saved. If this is unchecked, a notification will appear, but the system will not automatically reset the auto number. The new auto number value is determined by the Contact Auto-Number on Reset setting. |
Next Contact Auto-Number | 1000 | The next auto number the system will use when creating a new contact. This number will increase as you create contacts. Setting this number determines the next number used when you create a contact. Important: as contact numbers must be unique, be very careful changing this value. Changing it to a lower number without also changing your Contact Number Template may cause errors when creating new contacts. |
Contact Auto-Number On Reset | 1000 | The auto number the system will use when the calendar year rolls over. This number will be the first used for the first contact in the new year. |
Contact
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Number Template
(NOTE: this will be identical to Matter Numbers and should not be copy-pasted there but a new page made with a link from here)
The Contact Number Template determines how automatically generated contact numbers are created. The auto generated parts are listed below:
Name | Template | Description | Examples | ||||||
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Auto Increment | {auto [ nZeros]} | An auto increment number. Each time someone creates a contact, the number is increased by one. Note that numbers are generated when a contact is saved, not when you open the new contact page. You can optionally specify the number of leading 0's, which defaults to 4. This number will roll over if you have checked Reset Contact Auto-Number on Rollover and also have a calendar year part to your template. If your auto number increases beyond 10,000, leading zeros will no longer be added, instead the number will expand. Only one auto number may be used in the template. |
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Calendar Year | {calYr[:2|4]} | The current calendar year when the Contact is created. By default this results in a 2 digit year, but you can override it to show a 4 digit year. A calendar year ends on the 31st of December. The first contact in a new year will reset the auto increment number if you have Reset Contact Auto-Number on Rollover checked. |
{calYr:4} => 2013 | ||||||
Year Ending |
| This is the same as the Calendar Year except you can specify the month the year ends in. This allows you to roll over a year at the end of June rather than December. Again, you can ask for a 4 digit year. You specify the month in 3 letters. Specifying Dec as the month yields identical behaviour to Calendar Year. |
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Anything Without Brackets | Anything not enclosed in a pair of parenthesis is copied exactly as is. |
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Some common examples of Contact Number Templates:
{auto}- A simple auto-number.1000, 1001, 1002...
{calYr}-{auto}- A two part number with a hyphen between the parts.13-1000, 13-1001, 13-1002...
The first contact created in January will reset the auto number part: 13-1234, 14-1000
C{calYr}-{auto}- A leading C to indicate clients, year ending in Dec and a 4 digit auto number.C{yrEnd:Jun:4}-{auto:5}- A leading C to indicate clients, 4 digit year ending in June and a 5 digit auto number.C2013-01000, C2013-01001, C2013-01002...
The first contact created in July will reset the auto number part: C2013-01234, C2014-00001.
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Custom Fields
Custom Fields
Custom Fields
Custom Fields
Custom Fields are fields that can be used to record additional information about a contact.
To edit these custom fields go to Settings -> Appliance Settings -> Contacts Tab -> Custom Fields. 
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By changing the labels in this section, the new contacts page will default to showing these customised fields under the 'Additional Details' tab. The key should be the same as the label without spaces, this is an internal field name that is used to create document templates.
The custom fields can be useful for recording information which may be useful to your specific firm, or for specific matters.
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Matters
The 'Appliance Settings' around matters are the things the firm wants to demand as their default.
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It is strongly recommended that careful consideration is taken before adding in jurisdictions. If they are not going to align with the commonly accepted legal jurisdiction then the firm may encounter issues that on.
'Manage Matter Types' allows users to view, edit, and add matter types.
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These settings allow for integration of searches between SAI Global and Wise Owl Legal. They should not be changed.
Time
In the time drop down menu the firm can nominate how many minutes per unit.
Firms have been known to use 1 minute units, 6 minute units, 10 minute units and 15 minute units. At Wise Owl Legal we strongly recommend using 6 minute units, unless there is a good reason to use otherwise. Whilst 6 minute units may seem confusing at first, once it is understood it is extremely practical.
Units | Minutes |
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1 | 6 |
2 | 12 |
3 | 18 |
4 | 24 |
5 | 30 |
6 | 36 |
7 | 42 |
8 | 48 |
9 | 54 |
10 | 60 |
Changing the default time units here will NOT affect the time billing default units for current users. It will only affect new users. To change the default time unit for current users go to settings -> my settings.
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The terminology tab is where the firm can decide whether they wish to call:
Outlays: outlays or disbursements; and
Practice: practice or firm
If the firm chooses to change these terminologies they will apply Wise Owl wide.
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'Can Backdate Trust Receipts' is an important feature and should only be used during the set up of the firm. We strongly recommend that once the set up is complete that the settings are changed so that trust receipts cannot be backdated.
talk about ref numbers
The Bank Rec Nag Days is the reminder that appears to indicate a the firm hasn't done a bank reconciliation. It is recommended that this be set between 28 and 31 days. However, it is important to remember to always reconcile to the last day of the month, regardless of whether the bank account has been reconciled to the day before or not. Auditors can be very strict on this, so ensure all trust bank reconciliations are to the last day of the month.
It is strongly recommended that the Default Reversal Date, be set at current date. There is the occasional situation where the original transaction date may be a useful option; for example when entering opening balances. Ensure once all opening balances are entered, that the reversal date is changed back to current date.
Allow Electronic Trust Cheques is available as some jurisdictions allow payment of trust monies by EFT. In Queensland firms are only allowed to have EFT transactions if they have been specifically approved by the Law Society, specifically for their firm.
If your firm does not have express permission in writing to use EFT transfers, do not tick this box.
Finance
Some firms will not have a need for the Approved Status hence an option to turn it off. This decision should be made on commencement of using WOL but can be changed at any stage.
1. Go to the Settings & Tools Cog on the top menu
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2. Open the Finance Bar be clicking on it
3 3. Tick 'Hide Approved Invoice Status'
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General
This section contains basic settings including how many days a week are worked, the default search page size and other such defaults.
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Reporting
Upon setup of your company file, if you have provided us with a logo, it will be added in here. As a default all Wise Owl Legal reports will have the Wise Owl Legal logo if your company logo is not provided.
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Each user has a number of roles assigned to them, determining their level of access. These roles can be changed at any time depending on the specific circumstances of the firm. 
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This subsection can be quickly accessed through tools and settings icon > tools > manage users.
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The number of Simultaneous Users allowed with the current license is also stated. The number of users in the system at any time can also be seen. This is valuable information, as there may be times where WOL needs to be in single user mode. 
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Product Version
Information relating to your current version of Wise Owl Legal is displayed here.
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