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1. COT float Returns the cotangent of float where float is an angle expressed in radians D EG REE S num Returns the number of degrees converted from radians EX P float Returns the exponential value of float FLOOR num Returns the largest integer less than or equal to num LOG float Returns the natural logarithm of float LOG 10 float Returns the base 10 logarithm of float CO S float Returns the cosine of float where float is an angle expressed in radians 154 REFERENCE MOD int1 int2 Returns the modulus remainder of intl divided by int2 PI Returns the value of pi as a floating point value constant POWE R num int Returns the value of num raised to the power of int RADIANS num Returns the number of radians converted from degrees RAND int Returns a random floating point value using int as an optional seed value ROUND num int Returns num rounded to int places to ROUND 32 5254 0 returns the right of the decimal point If int is negative num is rounded to ABS int places to the left of the decimal point SIG N num If num is less than zero 1 is returned If num equals zero 0 is returned If num is greater than zero 1 is returned SIN float Returns the sine of the float expression where float is an angle expressed in radians SQ RT float Returns the square root of float TAN float Returns the tangent of float where float is an angle expressed in r
2. Error in MSVCRT DLL This only happens when running WordPerfect 8 or better This is caused by a version conflict with the MSVCRT DLL Copy the DLL from your WordPerfect CD to your C Windows System directory Error opening data files This error is usually followed by an Error creating secondary merge file error This sequence of errors is caused by a corrupted database Check pronouns adt 163 TROUBLESHOOTING pvsystem adt or fresdict adt This will usually cause a lock on the c prevail fresno sf file that will need to be deleted Invalid class string Y ou are attempting to merge a document before a previous merge has completed Wait until the merge has completed before attempting to merge another WordPerfect installed without OLE class registration generally causes this Reinstall WordPerfect and make sure you do a full installation The default installation should work fine If running WordPerfect 6 1 or lower upgrade to 8 x or better Private field in document When Microsoft Word converts a WordPerfect form into its format it will place private for any field it does not have an equivalent for It will only show the Private text if hidden text is turned on To tum off the hidden text choose Tools O ptions from the main menu On the View tab uncheck Hidden Text or All If the field is printing check the Print tab in Options and uncheck the hidden text option Template document not found This er
3. The Conversion has completed At that time close the conversion program by clicking the X in the upper right hand comer You have successfully upgraded the server to 3 9 1 Unfortunately we have to run one more conversion to get your data to 3 9 2 On the Prevail Installer click the Upgrade Server button again and choose From 3 9 1 to 3 9 2 The 3 9 2 Server Upgrade window will appear Click the Upgrade Now button to begin the upgrade Once complete close the 3 9 2 Server Upgrade window You are now finished upgrading your Prevail data to 3 9 2 3 9 0 When you are ready to run the server upgrade click the Upgrade Server button on the Prevail Installer and choose From 3 9 0 to 3 9 1 The 3 9 1 Server INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE Upgrade window will appear Click the Upgrade Now button to begin the upgrade O nce complete close the 3 9 1 Server Upgrade window On the Prevail Installer click the Upgrade Server button again and choose From 3 9 1 to 3 9 2 The 3 9 2 Server Upgrade window will appear Click the Upgrade Now button to begin the upgrade Once complete close the 3 9 2 Server Upgrade window You are now finished upgrading your Prevail data to 3 9 2 3 9 1 When you are ready to run the server upgrade click the Upgrade Server button on the Prevail Installer and choose From 3 9 1 to 3 9 2 The 3 9 2 Server Upgrade window will appear Click the Upgrade Now
4. button to begin the upgrade Once complete close the 3 9 2 Server Upgrade window You are now finished upgrading your Prevail data to 3 9 2 Upgrading the Client After upgrading the server each workstation must be upgraded If you attempt to run an older version of Prevail you will get many errors when it tries to access the database On each workstation place the Prevail CD in the CD ROM drive If the Prevail Installer does not automatically appear run X Install exe where X is the letter of the CD ROM drive Click the Upgrade Client button to run the client setup Follow all on screen directions When prompted for a location choose C Prevail When the installation completes a new Prevail icon will appear on the desktop 10 GUIDED TOUR Chapter Guided Tour The Magal M ystery Tour is waiting to take you away The Beatle are a few things that need attention before running Prevail If a word processor has not been installed on the workstation being used at the moment it is a good idea to go ahead and install it A word processor is not necessary to run Prevail but this chapter will address document issues by using examples Read the word processor s installation instructions Be sure to install any option that contains OLE in the description Prevail uses OLE Object Linking and Embedding to take control of either Corel WordPerfect or Microsoft Word If the OLE options are not installed Pre
5. Related Parties Experts en oe et ee SS eT _ database To update the information on this page click the Update button Fill in any or all of the fields as desired and then click the D one button when you are finished Claims Information You can access a complete history of all claims filed with the SSA on behalf of the currently selected client by clicking the Claims tab This page contains a complete chronology of up to three separate claims 20 GUIDED TOUR Although you normally only have one claim filed Prevail gives you the ability to track up to three claims in case you have one denied or wish to start the process over while the original claim is still pending e g in Federal D istrict Court You can select which claim fee fae e era Tiere O SS a E you want to view by clicking or pe Ie Cgi Dom ome Pome sa a the desired number in the ses mmc ceis memis mes amr Mim m ite Claim infermatian Cie wa SS x Gea Claim Number choice box on the upper right side of mis oe Teg the page By default this n pe E page will display the history memis of Clam 1 since most claimants only have one claim filed at a time If a client has more than one clam currently being tracked a black dot will appear to the left of the claim number If there are three claims currently being tracked there will be a dot beside Claim 3 as well These dots will show up regardless of which claim is
6. Upgrading the Server If you are already running a previous version of Prevail you must upgrade both the server and client portions of Prevail Before attempting to upgrade the server make sure you have a recent backup and all users are logged out of Prevail If you do not have a recent backup run a backup before upgrading Prevail Depending on the amount of data currently in Prevail the upgrade can take anywhere from five minutes to two hours It is a good idea to run the upgrade after office hours to ensure minimum downtime Depending on your current version of Prevail you may need to run more than one server upgrade If you have not already read the Read Me click the Read Mel button for the latest information regarding the installations If an error occurs during any of the upgrade procedures below note the error and call Practice Technology at 407 228 4400 Also check the Prevail web site at http www prevallnel for more information about the error that occurred Please make a note of your current version of Prevail and find the appropriate upgrade path below 3 7 x or Lower When you are ready to run the server upgrade click the Upgrade Server button on the Prevail Installer and choose From 3 7 x or lower to 3 9 1 Take the time to thoroughly read the text in the conversion window Be sure to follow all on screen instructions Once the conversion has completed the conversion program will display the text
7. box and use the Change Client button to set the client Enter a description and detail if necessary It is a good idea to add at least a short description for distinguishing between to dos and search purposes Click the Done button to save the appointment Completing To Dos Completing a to do allows you to keep a record of the task at hand and when the task was completed To complete a to do select the to do and click the Complete button To complete more than one to do at a time select a to do and then hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard while clicking more to dos Finally click the Complete button The to dos you complete will disappear form the list You can view the completed to dos by checking the Completed checkbox on the To Do tab Deleting To Dos D eleting to dos is very similar to canceling to dos except once deleted the to dos are gone forever To delete a to do select the to do and click the Delete button To delete more than one to do at a time select a to do and then hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard while clicking more appointments Finally click the Delete button Searching To Dos If you need to find a particular to do based on a client or description the fastest way to find it is to search for it The search will search for all to dos that match the criteria given the current view For instance if the user view is selected the search will return all to dos for
8. I Tabs iia rub je T Ca r g Mmt E ag han Fics ies lite ri M na ness O 150P Pe Lutes eas Bad Steer vere EE n view tates hi ile ge I0 Hp Cni aed pising Frrr TA Innere O ama ba Drazi pH Views gt Toolbar _ 4 amp 4 an jiem A Gee Gee fo omh im brit Status Bar Caen Het ieron ADT Ged Testa To Diet LD qc Menu Unlike the Prevail main menu the Calendar menu does not have every possible feature on it The Calendar menu is more of a formality One important item in the menu that cannot be found anywhere else in Prevail is the Scheduler O ptions under the O ptions menu Calendar The Calendar is a graphical view of each month You can move to a different month by selecting one from the month drop down box You can also move to a different year by selecting it from the year drop down box Clicking on a day in the calendar will show all data that corresponds with that day A red day number means that there is a scheduled appointment for that particular day Using the arrow keys on your keyboard will also move from day to day and month to month Function Controls The Controls are a series of buttons drop down boxes and radio buttons that allow you to conveniently change dates users clients and views Controls The buttons under the Controls section allow you to quickly move to different dates Click the Jump button and type in a date in the MM DD YYYY format Click
9. OK and you will jump directly to the specified date 68 CALENDAR Click the Skip button and type in a number to skip ahead or back that many days from the current date in the calendar For example type in 90 and click OK to skip ahead to the date 90 days from the current calendar date Y ou can also type in 90 and skip back to the date 90 days before the current calendar date To jump to today s actual date click the Today button Y ou will be brought nght back to today from whatever date you were previously set at User Under the User section you can use the drop down box to choose another user s calendar Click the circle next to User in the View section then change the user to someone else Y ou will see everything scheduled for that particular person Client When the View is set to Client you can change the client by clicking the Change Client button The client name Power Search window will appear Search for a client s first or last name and click the Search button Double click the client you want to view in the calendar View The View section allows you to change whose data you want to view The User option means you will be viewing the appointments and to dos for the current user To view appointments and to dos associated with a particular client click the circle next to Client If you would like to see all appointments and to dos fo
10. Personal Injury Tour Plaintiff Information The Plaintiff Information page contains basic contact information about your plaintiff as well as important dates relative to the case and demand offer information On the os e side of the Page you will see pull down lists which show the attorney and case ge manager paralegal handling the case as well as when the file was last reviewed and who reviewed it If you want to add or change information on this wer OOO page click the Update Su m button This will let you P change the information in any of the fields on the page Notice that some of the fields have pull down arrows to the right of them Instead of typing in these fields you simply click on the down arrow and select an entry from the list that pops up When you are finished adding changing information on this page click the Done button and your changes will be recorded unre Rees Gaay Defendant Information The Defendant Information page lets you enter as ms defendants as you like for the currently selected gg case and also lets you select a va teeh fer a an insurance carrier adjuster ee ee ee eee and opposing counsel for e each of the defendants By highlighting a defendant from the list you can see the corresponding adjuster amp opposing counsel information for that defendant Notice the zoom buttons on the right side of the page By clicking on _
11. icon If you do not see a Prevail Document icon follow the steps in the previous section titled Creating a Prevail Document Template This will give you a clean document and the merge toolbar with the buttons Insert Merge Field and Insert Word Field Next before you can start manipulating field codes you need to be able to see the field codes Choose Tools O ptions from the Word menu On the View tab check the Field codes option Click the OK button to save the changes Prevail has over 500 merge able fields of data for each client Every one of those fields has a number associated with it You instruct the system to insert data from a client record into a document by inserting the field code number for that piece of information into the document Go ahead and start composing the letter or form like you normally compose a document in Word including any font changes formatting alignment etc When you get to a place in the document that requires client information place your cursor where the information should go and click the Insert Merge Field button A drop down menu will appear with a lot of items called F1 F530 Look at the field code list you printed earlier find the information you want to enter and choose the item from the list For instance if you wanted to choose the client s first name you would click F2 from the drop down menu If you need to enter a field code that is
12. tab is i i available for all prospects regardless immy of law type The Document History miep ne is very similar to the History tab in Emmmme mo Prevail This history includes a description of every document sent or received for this prospect Each line in this summary represents an individual document The entry for each document includes the date of P the document who generated it a _ tom j Do narrative description of the document when a response to the document is expected and whether there is detail additional notes on the document Since Prevail automatically saves all of your documents it also knows where to find them if you want to retrieve them later To retrieve any document listed in the history summary select the document and then click the View button Prevail will automatically open the word processor and retrieve the document When you are done viewing the document you can either minimize or close your word processor and switch back to Prevail Click the D one button to close the New Prospect window Viewing Prospects To view all new calls click the Prospects button on the Prevail toolbar choose Tools Open Prospects or press the Ctrlt F10 keys on your keyboard The prospective clients are listed by last name in alphabetical order by default If you would like to sort the information according to a different column just click the title of the desire
13. will print all of the to dos for the selected view If the Everyone view is selected all to dos in the database will be printed GREE z Choosing Today will print those to dos due Range ae Print What to Print for the day selected in the calendar The lt j Date Range option allows you to specify a m ee range of dates to print Once you select the aaa Date Range options the Date Range section below it will be enabled Type ina Sa Mamie date range or click the down arrow to use Frem 13159 To the calendar control Finally the View option allows you to print only those to dos Legon Oo that are currently shown in the To do grid Use the View option if you want to print the results of a search In the What to Print section check the box next to Description to print the to do s description This is highly recommended for distinguishing between to dos If you would like to print the detail for the to do check the D etail Notes option Click the Print button to print the to dos or click the Cancel button if you decide not to print the to dos Once you click the Print button the standard Windows print dialog will appear If you need to select or setup a printer do so at this window then click the OK button to print Viewing To Dos Due Today When you check the Today checkbox option on the To Do tab you can view only thos
14. All you have to do is log them into history when they arrive It takes maybe fifteen seconds to log a document into history All you have to do is click the Insert button on the history page and enter your description of the received document Make sure you indicate the correct document type e g Medical Records Received Mail etc and enter a one line description of the document The date will default to today s date but if the document was actually received on a date other than today you can change the date field Generating Time and To Do Entries Prevail can also create time and to do entries for incoming documents If you want those entries to be created simply enter the desired values in the Hours and Response Date fields when inputting your history item If you put 0 25 in the Hours field an entry will be automatically made on the Time page for a quarter of an hour The entry on the Time page will read PROCESS where the blank line will be replaced by your description of the incoming document If you enter any date other than today s date in the Response Date field Prevail will automatically generate a to do item for the user whose name appears in the Case Manager field on this history entry You can set the to do for any user not just the same manager by selecting their name It will not make them the case manager in this case It just redirects the to do entry to the ap
15. Any changes to the hearing entry will be made to the hearing s appointment in the calendar and vice versa Strategy Information The strategy screen consists of two free form memos that allow you to enter as much information as you like The Case Strategy field is generally used to enter a synopsis of how you intend to pursue this case useful if someone else has to cover something for you and needs to know what the case is all about Some attorneys like to do strategic brainstorming and record their ideas in this field The Liens field is simply a place where you can make a notation of any pending liens and letters of it 3 protection that are outstanding on this case It is ae a T idea to indicate if you are obliged to pay a referral fee to another attorney on this case To add or modify information in either of these windows click on the Update button in the upper right hand corner of your screen After making any desired changes click the D one button 25 GUIDED TOUR Parties Information It is common to have dealings with parties who are associated with a case but do nat au into any of the categories already provided in Prevail If a person or entity mma does not fit into any other pre defined categories on the other pages you can put them on the Parties page Since the categories on this page are user definable you can add any type of party as well as a description of how the
16. If Prevail finds a match it will enter the amount as well If you hit the enter key on your keyboard the cursor will jump to the end of the description so you can easily add additional information You can modify the list of predefined time types by choosing D ata Bank G eneral gt Time Types Enter the date user and a detail if necessary When you print your time reports later you can print them with or without the D etail 29 GUIDED TOUR When you are finished making your entry click the Done button The total hours in the case will be updated to reflect your new time entry Costs Information Prevail contains an integrated cost ledger to help you track costs advanced in each of your cases You can access the cost ledger for the currently selected case by clicking the Costs tab Each cost entry in the summary includes a date description check number To payee and amount The ledger also has a column called Interest Since some states allow you to charge interest on costs advanced for your cases Prevail has the ability to calculate interest on the cost ledger You can enter an interest rate by choosing Data Bank G eneral gt Firm Information FTE F AA an 4949 m s A F Pi i Tih ee en Ta Tn Haha Faine Teh nomen Gpr Hig pari E Tim T anin Heap The Prevail cost ledger has the ability to track both costs i e you advance money and payments i e the client reimburs
17. If a lot of joins and relationships across tables are part of the search it will affect the overall speed of the search Most of the search types that come with Prevail use pertinent criteria for the search such as a person s first middle or last name a company name or sometimes zip codes Search Client Name Search Search For case by Doctor v Case Sensitive ha Q Search Found 6 item s ase Doctor Last Doctor First Company Client Last Client First 4 If you are searching a client s information or a Case by type double clicking the client s name or selecting the client and hitting the Enter key on the keyboard will select this client in Prevail Other types of searches will show the detail of that particular item For instance choose Doctor from the Search For drop down box and search for a doctor If you double click one of the doctors the doctor s information will appear You can edit this information if you wish Click the Done button on the Medical Provider D etail window to close and save changes or click the Cancel button or hit the Esc key to close the window Joe98794 Bookharct Alfred Joe Joe Smis0984 Bookharct Alfred Smiyh John win76765 Bookharct Alfred win betsy Bel32844 adams charles neck clinic Bell Charles 1234 12 adams charles neck clinic Fionacar p Helga 100 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS SQL Statement Th ere is
18. To choose the client double click the client s name or select the client and hit the Enter key The case will be opened in Prevail To close the search window without choosing a client click the X in the upper right hand comer or hit the Esc key on your keyboard Power Search The Power Search feature gives you a lot more control over the search Using the Power Search you can search for any information in any of the tables in Prevail NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS The Power Search window looks exactly like the Quick Search window with three exceptions the Search For drop down box is enabled the Case Sensitive option is enabled and the Found grid defaults to blank To open the Power Search choose Tools Power Search or type Ctrl F2 Select a search type by choosing an item from the Search Search For Sas For drop down box Type the text you wish to search for fenne z in the Search box If you want to perform a case sensitive case by Opp counsel Attorney a Case by Opp Counsel Firm search meaning match exact capitalization check the Case Sensitive option Click the Search button to begin ist socasecuty 2 Defendant Mame the search Dacia Mane The amount of time it takes to complete a search depends on the nature of the search The search types that begin with Cases by typically take longer to complete because of the very nature of the search
19. p of documents you can use the Limit feature by clicking the Limit button This will show the Text Search window Enter a keyword or text string i e the word you want to search for and specify which field you want to search in for that word After you have entered a search string and clicked on the OK button Prevail will limit the display of documents so that only those documents that match your search criteria are displayed Notice that the grid turns purple and the Limit button now says RESET This is too let you know that you are in limit mode When you are finished with your search click on the RESET button and the view will return to normal When generating documents Prevail automatically creates the history entries for you You can also manually insert documents into history This is normally done if you want to track incoming as well as outgoing documents To manually insert a document into history click on the Insert button at the top of the screen An entry window will appear that lets you enter information on the new document e g description date etc There are pull down arrows on the Code and Description fields to speed data entry The code is simply a 3 letter category that lets you designate documents by type The description is a one line explanation of what the document is Note that there is also a detail field which gives you space to enter a brief desc
20. ALT TAB keys Note that every time you merge an SSA form Prevail automatically updates the claim status and makes an entry in the current client s document history Generate a letter If the current case is a personal injury case click the Forms button or press the F5 key If the current case is a social security case click the Forms button and choose Letters from the drop down menu A list of available letters will appear according to the current cases law type These letters are completely user definable You can create as many of your own form letters as you like and organize them any way you wish The Group field is used to organize letters which is a searchable field You can type in the name of the group you want to search for and you will be taken directly to the first document of that group Our sample documents are grouped based on whom they are to That is client letters are in the CLIENT group letters to the ALJ are in the ALJ group etc To select a letter to merge simply click the letter you can get there either by searching or scrolling and click on the OK button When you do this you will be shown a summary of the information that will be automatically entered into the History page for this client You can change any of this information at this point if you desire e g how much time to bill the file who gets the reminder etc When you click on the DONE b
21. Quattro Excel Bitmap JPEG and Rich Text File RTF The best option is the Adobe Acrobat type However the receiving party must have the full version of Adobe Acrobat or the free Acrobat Reader application installed to view it Refreshing Folders and Reports If more than one person in your firm is responsible for creating and maintaining reports there may be times when you need to use the refresh button 9 The refresh button will refresh the report tables and reload folders If one person creates a report while other people are using the Reporter you will need to refresh the reports to see the report that was created To refresh reports click the button Report Wizard The Report Wizard may be the single most advantageous feature the Report Sanin Designer has to offer When you need a Gaston quick report you don t always have time sci esa to sit down and design the layout for the report It takes time to perfect a report s layout and when time is of the essence you can t afford to waste it dragging objects around on a screen Instead of manually designing the layout of a report on the Design tab choose File N ew from the main menu Select Report Wizard and click the Ok button Take the time to step through the wizard Customers Company Action Club Saving a Report as a File If you need to exchange reports between offices saving a report as a file allows you to send the rep
22. Recurring button You will be asked to confirm the recurring appointment for safety s sake Click the Yes button to set the recurring appointment Now if you scroll through your calendar you will see every other Monday and Friday highlighted in the calendar Canceling an Appointment Canceling an appointment allows you to keep a record of the appointment as Opposed to deleting an appointment To cancel an appointment select the appointment and click the Cancel button You can also double click the 71 CALENDAR appointment and check the Cancelled button and save the appointment Once the appointment is cancelled a line will appear through the appointment To cancel more than one appointment at a time select an appointment and then hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard while clicking more appointments Finally click the Cancel button The appointments you selected now have a line through them indicating that they are cancelled To un cancel an appointment select the appointment and uncheck the Cancelled option Deleting Appointments Deleting appointments is very similar to canceling appointments except once deleted the appointments are gone forever To delete an appointment select the appointment and click the Delete button To delete more than one appointment at a time select an appointment and then hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard while clicking more appointments Finally c
23. a sp ecial item in the Search Client Name vn Search For drop down box REN E oo seers al Case Sensitive called SQL Statement This a oe option allows you to type in your Friniizszitncss own search in SQL format The ADDRESS1 ADDRESS2 Cll_ Janice Dianna Adamson Ms 123 45 678 F 2010S Sev Apartment 2 Att Vanda Austin Ms 598 76 513 F 123 Main Sti Apartment 24969 Vvillitr example to the right is displaying s Aguilera 61214409 57 Dunedin Br all clients that have a last name Sos Mr sor antan 6916 Graha that begins with a letter before Tr ise or a cc aS M and sorts the results by last Samual Merri Anderson 555 92 986 3070 Rich Oa Grace Aragon 551 66 709 4141 Deep Fre name first name then middle Reynaldo Arvizu 546 90 434 21564 Meek Bri Ea Ha name The SQL Statement search type is great for debugging searches debugging data and even quick calculations For information on SQL see the Reference chapter Saving Custom Searches One draw back of the SQL Statement feature is the inability to save the search for later use Though most users will be satisfied with the default searches provided there may be an instance where a particular search you need may not be in the system For these special cases we have provided an external database program called ARC32 that is used to manipulate databases at the table level with minimum interface Future versions of Pre
24. and user Date Ctrl F4 Sticky Note Add or view a sticky note for the current case O pen the calendar to the To Dos tab F9 Case Summary Opens the case summary window Ctrl 1 Change Tabs Using Ctrl 1 Ctrl 2 Ctrl 3 etc will change the Ctrl active tab Ctrl F Find Find text in the Case Notes Ctrl R Replace text in the Case Notes Universal Shortcuts The following keystrokes are available throughout Prevail K ke Description hitan U inal Any button that has a letter underlined in the button Names name such as Update can be accessed by pressing Alt U where U is the letter that is underlined _ Esc will cancel out of every window and discard changes 152 REFERENCE F12 Save Save and close window Deletes selected text and copies it to clipboard Copy the selected text to the clipboard Paste text from the clipboard Ctrl D el D elete D elete text Shift Ctrl Select All Selects all text in a field A Insert Insert Insert new items in the main Prevail window D elete D elete Deletes selected items in the main Prevail window and Calendar SQL Reference SQL Structured Query Language is a standard interactive language for getting information from a database Queries take the form of a command language that lets you select insert update find out the location of data and so forth Most of the SQL used by Prevail deals with selecting data for reports or searches Agg
25. band set the picture property to the WMF file check the DirectDraw property check the Stretch property and arrange the image to fill the entire page Finally place D BText A components on top of the image to hold field values 147 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Before you decide to convert to using the Reporter for forms and letters you must know that there is a drawback in using this method Prevail will not track letters and documents created using the Reporter like it does when you merge a document within Prevail Importing Reports There may be times when you will need to share reports among departments branches or even friends Since the Prevail Reporter stores the reports in database tables the reports have to be imported If you have received a report file RIM or PTR choose File gt Import Report or type Ctrl I Find the report file and open it If a report with the same name already exists in the table you will be prompted to overwrite the report If you choose not to overwrite the report it will be renamed for you The report will be imported into the currently selected folder You can move the report after the fact by dragging it onto another folder Printing Folders There are times when you will need to run more than one report at a time For instance if your firm does end of the month accounting reports the probability that there is more than one report to cover all accounting needs are high Not only Can you print a
26. between pages the views will change according to the tab you have selected Tabs The Tabs located along the bottom of the Prevail window are used to organize and display case information Changing tabs will cause the page content to change to the corresponding information Each law type social security and personal injury has its own set of tabs As you move between clients notice that the tab set changes as the law type changes For information on what each tab is used for see the chapter title G uided Tour Calendar For information regarding the Calendar please see the chapter titled Calendar Claims Utility The Claims Utility is used to modify the social security claims process For information regarding the Claims Utility and the Claims Utility interface please see the chapter titled Social Security 42 THE INTERFACE Case Notes The Case Notes contains a running log of information that has been Gu tee fen om entered about the current case Whenever an entry is made the date and time as well as the user s login is automatically recorded Prevail can also record time cost document appointment to do and hearing entries You can import notes from a text file export the notes as well as search and replace The Notes also has the ability to do standard text formatting including CE GILEA SE fonts font color font size and alignment The notes can also be printed for archival p
27. button to run the client setup O nce the setup has loaded follow the onscreen directions When asked for a location choose C Prevail Make sure no virus scanners are running before attempting to install the software Once the setup program has completed a Prevail icon will appear on the desktop Installing the Control Panels The Control Panel should only be installed on the Prevail administrator s computer or the person that will be responsible for maintaining Prevail The Control Panel is a set of utilities used to maintain the Prevail databases update the Prevail components add new users to the Prevail system send system wide messages clean up old calendar data replace user responsibilities and make quick backups To install the Prevail Control Panel place the Prevail CD in the CD ROM drive of the workstation of the Prevail administrator If auto run is enabled the Prevail Installer will automatically appear If you have not already read the Read Me click the Read Me button for the latest information regarding the installations INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE Click the Install Administration button to run the Control Panel setup Once the setup has loaded follow the onscreen directions When asked for a location choose C Prevail Control Make sure no virus scanners are running before attempting to install the software Once the setup program has completed a Prevail Control Panel icon will appear on the desktop
28. click the View button to open it in the related application Click the Done button to save the entry Notice that there is also a Delete button next to the Insert button You can use this button to delete any history entries that were made in error If you enter all of your incoming documents into history you can easily glance at the screen to see what has gone out and what has come in You can also use the Limit feature described earlier in this section to limit the display to documents of a particular type e g doing a search for RCV in the type field would show only incoming or received documents Y ou can also sort each column by clicking on the title of the column An arrow will appear pointing up or down depending on whether the sort is ascending or descending Custom Information The Custom Information page is used for storing information your firm needs but does not come with Prevail There are eighteen custom fields available for use Each law type social security and personal injury has its own set of custom labels so essentially there are thirty six custom fields available but only eighteen per case You can setup your custom labels for social security cases by choosing Data Bank gt Social Security gt Custom Field Labels Give each field a name and click the Done button to save them You can also do the same for personal injury cases by choosing Data Bank gt Per
29. correctly configure Prevail before running the Reporter For information on installing the Prevail Client see the Prevail user manual The Reporting Concept The Prevail Reporter uses a master detail database relation Before you even begin to create the report you must know exactly how the database files or tables will interact with each other While the Prevail Reporter does its best to help guide you through these relationships it is still best to understand how the relationships within the Prevail database are defined The master table is the most important table in the report It is the first database file you use in your report It serves as a guide throughout the report construction and gives the report builder direction Since we are dealing mainly with client based reports more than likely the master table will be the client table pvcient After you have decided how your report will run and which table will be the master table each additional table you add to the equation has to relate somehow to the master When you add tables you will be prompted to set a relationship between the table you are adding and a table that is already in your report A list of possible relationships will be provided when you attempt to set a relation Select the relationships you want to use and remove the rest from the list In most cases you must match the codes or fields to complete the relationship For instance if you were creating a repo
30. cre Stacy batch can run every day at a specific time ANY pescntion Accounting reports for the SS department combination of days of week or a particular day of the month You can schedule those 146 THE PREVAIL REPORTER important morning reports to run before your firm even wakes in the morning There are a few issues you must be aware of before you start enabling batches The most important issue is the scheduled time If you plan on enabling more than one batch on a given day you must make sure the scheduled times do not conflict Depending on the number and complexity of the reports in a batch the amount of time it takes to print the batch may increase and could possibly cause conflict in scheduled times To alleviate this potential problem print a folder by choosing File Print Folder and see how long the folder takes to print Note the time in the folder s description for reference Note that as your firm continues to grow and the amount of data increases the time it takes to run a particular batch may also increase The second issue involves attempting to avoid prompts in reports that will run as part of a batch When the report asks for information and a user is not around to supply the information the entire scheduling process is put on hold until the prompt is satisfied This will cause scheduling conflicts and missed reports The final issue is quite elementary The only way the scheduled batches can run is
31. currently selected they are only there to let you know that more than one claim exists for this client For each claim Prevail displays the claim type current level next required action hearing date and hearing time if applicable A chronology is also displayed which includes every official change in claim status to date This chronology is integrally linked to the document generation section of the program so the claim will automatically be updated when certain documents are generated For example if a claim is denied at the initial level and you generate a Request for Reconsideration the system will know that the status of this claim has changed You do not have to update the status of the claim because Prevail will do it for you You can also manually update a claim status by clicking the Update button The program will prompt you to enter the pertinent information and then update the chronology to reflect your response Any required statute reminders will be made automatically on your to do list 21 GUIDED TOUR Fees Information The Fees page of Prevail SP ti tctesen tees mer moe ye cee Ger allows you to track what 3 4 F happens in a case after the sss information Gim beet Sh peri Cote favorable decision has been reached There are fields for you to enter claimed and approved onset dates application date and favorable decision date There are also fields for primary insurance amount offset amount and adj
32. down list to select the investigating police agency that responded to this accident This allows you to automatically request accident reports without having to manually type this information in your letter To add or change any information on this page click on the Update button in the upper right hand comer of your screen Remember to click the D one button when you are through editing and your changes will be recorded Court Information The Court Information page allows you to enter information regarding the judges and court that will be handling this case In addition there are fields that allow you to enter case style and caption information exactly as you want it to appear on your pleadings 24 GUIDED TOUR You can enter an unlimited amount of hearings per case Each hearing can have its own Judge and attorney To add a hearing click the Insert button The Hearing Information window will appear where you can choose the hearing s date and time the attorney the judge or mediator and a ee description for the hearing 1 it i Ei EL Click the Done button to save the hearing Prevail will automatically create an appointment for the hearing in the calendar Once the hearing has been entered you can change the court information if necessary by selecting the hearing and clicking the Update button To change the hearing s ide time TT or description Dai click the hearing
33. group The first step is Appointment Set After the Appointment Set step the next step would be to send the application So looking at the Appointment Set step the next step would be Application Sent in the APPL Application group The default process breaks down as follows If there is not an exit at a particular step it is understood that the next step remains in the current group 48 SOCIAL SECURITY Start Application Sent 7 REQOR Reconsideration Application Denied Prepare Recon Request Prepare New Recon Request H EEE Reconsidezstion Denied Hoti of Dismissed Hening Decided Paid Win Hessing Deaded Win Py Pre He sing Confesence Pre He ming Decided Win H Await Decision iw Appeal Decided Denied Appeal Decided Win FDCD Federal District Court FOC District Filed FOC Sernace Filed Prepare for Hearing fvurait Decision FDC Motion Filed FDC Decided Win OEL Colection FOC Decided Denied bac a ot Pees End Creating a Group To create a group click the New Group button You will be prompted to enter the four character group code such as APPT The group code should be unique After you enter the group code click the OK button and you will be prompted for the description of the group Enter the description and click the OK button Ad
34. information attorneys and case managers Let s start with the firm information 14 GUIDED TOUR Firm Information Choose D ata Bank G eneral Firm Information from the main menu Prevail s Firm Information input window allows you to input your firm s address and phone numbers for automatic merging into forms and letters Replace the sample data on the screen with your firm s data Press the Tab key to move from field to field or click the mouse cursor on each field to enter data Unique Feature Notice the Interest Rate field at the bottom of the firm information window Since some states allow you to charge interest on costs advanced for your cases Prevail has the ability to calculate interest on the cost ledger of each case When you enter an interest rate in this field Prevail will calculate the interest charged on each cost item in each case starting from the date each individual cost entry was incurred If you do not want to calculate interest on your costs leave this field set at zero When entering your firm s information notice that the cursor jumps from the second address field to the zip code field Prevail has a built in zip code list with every city and state in the U S Enter the zip code and the city and state will automatically appear If the city is incorrect simply start typing the correct city If the new city is stored in Prevail s zip code list a hint window will appear
35. login ID in drop down lists to assign case managers to cases If the case manager uses Prevail make sure the Login ID is the same as his her user Login ID or else to dos appointments etc will not show up for the case manager when using Prevail 16 GUIDED TOUR Click the Done button to save the case manager or click the Cancel button to discard changes Now that you have seen how to enter attorneys and case managers essentially every item in the Data Bank menu is added in the same manner Take a moment to look through the D ata Bank menu to see exactly how much of Prevail can be customized by adding people places codes descriptions etc Custom Fields Since all of the fields in the Prevail database are predefined it leaves little customization as far as what data is being stored However Prevail has a set of eighteen custom fields that can be used in anyway see fit to help Prevail fit into your firm One thing you must remember is that the custom fields apply to all cases of type social security or personal injury This will make a lot more sense when you see it in action Choose D ata Bank gt Personal Injury gt Custom Field Labels from the main menu The Custom Data Field Labels window will appear Set Field 1 to Holiday Card and click the Done button to save it Next choose Data Bank Social Security gt Custom Field Labels from the main menu Set Field 1 to Holiday Part
36. number and go straight into your client table Prevail differs from that approach in that it has a Prospects section P revail differs from most other case management packages in that it allows a Prevail prospects are prospective clients that you have spoken to and gathered information from but who are not yet clients You can add and edit information on prospects as often as you like You can even use Prevail to automatically generate letters and forms to those prospects like you would with a real client Prevail can automatically send a fire letter to a client whose case you are not going to take or send an appointment confirmation letter to someone who you are bringing in to sign up Any of the information you gather on a prospect can be merged into these letters automatically You can even set up packages of documents that will merge several letters and forms to a prospective client e g thank you letter representation agreement etc If you sign up a prospect you can instantly transfer all information you have gathered about that prospect including all notes and generated documents into your main client table with a single click of the mouse Entering a New Call When you receive a phone call or walk in visit from a person wishing to obtain legal services you can add them to the prospects list by clicking the New Call button on the Prevail toolbar choosing File N ew Client or pressing the F10 key on your keyboard N
37. ot jared Fee page however changes depending On se senn f Oo the law type you specify If the law Ann ert f type specified is SS for Social seyssecneme gt a Security the second page you will see E ll is the SS Information page Here you can enter basic information regarding the prospect s case such as onset date previous claims employment status T incomes and scheduled appointments If you would like to schedule an appointment for an interview with the prospect click the alarm icon next to the Appointment D ate field This will open the new appointment window Notice that the Attach to Client checkbox is checked and 92 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS the name of the prospect appears grayed out This is because you are adding an appointment for a person that is not yet a client Fill in the information about the appointment and click the D one button to schedule the appointment Click the Continue or Done button to save the prospect Liability Information If the law type of the prospect is setto mE anything other than SS the new Call Senses testers rats e is treated the same Although the b a a actual data for each case differs tt emmnu some degree for the different law sumim reum types PI personal injury WC mmm mf ff worker s compensation and MM medical malpractice the basic information you input when
38. oy Order me Number Date Sales Rep Group Header 0 CustNo Kim 07 02 83 Eheck SubReportl Order detail BubF Detail _o Kauai Dive Shog Group Footer 0 CustNo o Bf21 99 1 34 00 PIJI Footer 4 Main A SubReportl Order detail 4 SubReport2 Vendor Summary Ready Left 0 Top 0 width 0 Height 0 Z ReportBuilder ppOrderDetail File Edt View Hepot Help Bence Design Preview BAE 44 fi gt DI nA Dab lee O aO hot TT The Print Dialog is automatically displayed when the report is sent to the printer This dialog allows you to select the pages number of copies and printer for the report Enter page numbers and or page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 The print job settings can be set via the Printer tab 127 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Print to file options can be set via the File tab Page Setup The Page Setup dialog can be accessed from the File Page Setup menu option of the Report Designer Y ou set the following from within the Page Setup dialog Paper size and orientation xi Paper Source Layout Magis m Layout for Columnar Reports 128 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Margins grapenaeensennngennenesy Top pa a Preview Bottom fo Cancel Left ps Right Groups Dialog The Groups dialog is accessible via the Report gt Groups men
39. printing and submitting SSA forms and end up placing too much emphasis on them Prevail has the capability to merge client data into the forms automatically but the world isn t going to end if you don t use it Some firms like to use SSA provided hard copy forms and have the clients sign them all at once during their initial intake There is nothing wrong with that If you are comfortable doing that and you either have the client fill out the forms or don t mind filling them out yourself so be it Just make sure that when you submit a form to the SSA you update the Claims page in Prevail 52 SOCIAL SECURITY accordingly Prevail knows when you use it to generate a form but it doesn t know when you use the typewriter The signature issue needn t be a big one Most SSA forms can be signed by either the claimant or the representative so beyond the initial Appointment of Representative you don t need the client s signature If you re really hung up on the issue of the client s signature then scan it and attach the scanned image to the client s file using Attach Image to Client under the file menu You can then drop the scanned signature into the document using Microsoft Word or WordPerfect when you merge the form Using the Calendar Effectively The Prevail Calendar has some very powerful search functions that will save you a lot of time if you use them correctly For example if you want to print a list of all hearing
40. report you can also print an entire folder To do this select the folder to be printed and choose File Print Folder from the main menu If your reports prompt you for information necessary to run the report be sure you are ready and available to enter information when needed The reports will not complete until all prompts have been satisfied Printing Reports to File Sometimes firms are required to send copies of Finter reports to other agencies Mae S Des el Eesti Sending hard copies by EPSON Stylus COLOR 600 mail or FAX machine are not always viable options If the report is needed immediately the best way Copie Number of copies fi T Collate E i Current Page f Pages Enter page numbers andor page ranges to get a report to another separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 person is to print the report Print Allpagesinrange to a file and send it as an e 7 Print to Fil mail attachment Tye POFFe z Where C Report pat EI The Prevail Reporter is capable of printing to a number of file types To do this preview a report and click the amp button or choose File Print from the main menu Check the Print to File option choose a file type from the Type 148 THE PREVAIL REPORTER drop down menu and give the file a name The Prevail Reporter can print to Adobe Acrobat files PD F plan HTML HTML with cascading style sheets plain text emulated text Lotus
41. some firms prefer not to use the Prevail calendar because they already have a system in place you can t underestimate the time and energy the calendar will save A common misconception about the Prevail Calendar is that you don t have the ability to schedule for another person in the firm With the Prevail Calendar you can schedule appointments or to dos for any Prevail user in your firm Not only can you schedule for another user you can also view another user s calendar or everyone s calendar at the same time You can even view a case s calendar Prevail also has appointment conflict checking to make sure someone doesn t double schedule your time The Prevail Calendar can become a driving force in your firm s productivity let s see how Opening the Calendar There are several ways to access the Calendar The easiest way is to click the Calendar button on the toolbar of the main Prevail window Y ou may also press the F6 key press the F8 key choose Tools gt Calendar or choose Tools To Do s from the main menu The Calendar will open to the appointments view on the current date You can change the default view when the calendar opens but we CALENDAR will cover that topic later There are seven parts to the Calendar interface all of which are visible at all times F wo Tia n Fmi i o ier MEE Menu _ Re be ven Doe Calendar Function Controls ji E a fate vie E ai ra
42. taking an inquiry is sufficiently similar that you do not need different input pages for each law type Information that can be entered on this page is an accident date case type one defendant and appointment If you would like to schedule an appointment for an interview with the prospect click the alarm icon next to the Appointment D ate field This will open the new appointment window Notice that the Attach to Client checkbox is checked and the name of the prospect appears grayed out This is because you are adding an appointment for a person that is not yet a client Fill in the information about the appointment and click the D one button to schedule the appointment Click the Continue or Done button to save the prospect Notes and Prospect Questionnaires The Notes tab allows you to enter an unlimited amount of text for the prospective case Prevail also uses the Notes tab for prospect questionnaires ttm meses se these sistim amen The prospect questionnaires are completely customizable You can enable the prospect questionnaires and P ssns srira customize them by choosing Options Properties from Prevail s main menu The type Of questionnaire fiss rannrstsii asi mr rsss used for a prospect depends on the E im j een law type When you activate the prospect the Notes are moved into Case Notes 93 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS Document History The Document History
43. that would be a good reason SS tS to put a sticky note on the file Thee et g ph ore Da ered ed dee bjm ede pa You can only have one sticky note per file but you can add to an existing sticky note if you want to put more information in it When a sticky note is no longer applicable in a file remember to delete it Date Last Reviewed Prevail has all sorts of ticklers and reminders almost all of which are triggered automatically by something you do in a file For example if you generate a letter that has a 30 day default response time you will get an automatic reminder in thirty days on your To Do list There is another tracking mechanism in Prevail however that works independently of all other tracking tools This mechanism is the Date Last Reviewed setting It is really a very simple tool When you review a file and you are happy that it is making progress and nothing has fallen through the cracks simply press the F11 key on the keyboard Today s date will be plugged into the Date Last Reviewed field on the lower right hand comer of the Client Information page and your login will be plugged into the Reviewed By field When looking at the client page of any case you can tell when it was last reviewed and who reviewed it That is fairly useful in and of itself but it becomes very useful when you use this tool in conjunction with the Prevail Reporter Once you have reviewed dates on your files you can print a
44. the master and detail data pipelines for the report Note The detail data pipeline is optional 129 Detail Data Pipeline Employee re ltem Part xl THE PREVAIL REPORTER Toolbars The various toolbars accessible from the design workspace are documented in this section The toolbars are dockable and follow the Office97 interface style The Toolbars are accessible from the View gt Toolbars menu option of the Report Designer or by right clicking on the docking area at the top of the Report Designer The Report Tree To access this tool mere a window select the m o SubRepott 1 Order Detail Data Design Preview View Toolbars Repo SubReport 2 Vendor Summary Ha 2 B om LISAT IA t2 Fe E T A E E ie rt Tree menu option fom EE from the Report ae Report DBT ext3 Designer main menu eon TA ReportiDBText6 This tool window is Ze TA ReportlDBText8 o tok feor sok faor sok feos rok sok ok rook nok hok hisor hisor 50k fa F PRAO TE Sunken Treasures Co 1 Kauai Dive Shoppe dockable only on the left and right sides of the Biscccn Report Designer It can sre eae l be used to organize CoP components within each band Components selected in the Report Ta eae Tree are selected in the report layout The upper portion of the Report Tree shows the main report object and any sub reports nested withi
45. the client s last name and click the Search button To select the client double click the client s name or select the client and press the Enter key If you want to use a more powerful search choose Tools Power Search from the main menu This will allow choosing from a number of searches For more information about searching read the chapter titled Search Update client information Client information is accessed and modified through the page tabs at the bottom of the window Y ou view the different pages of data for each client by clicking on the corresponding tab for the page you want To update the data on a particular page click on the Update button You can then click on any field you wish to update When in update mode the fields that you can edit are yellow Note that some fields are fill in the blank fields while others have pull down menus that allow you to select from among pre defined entries When you are finished updating the current page click on the D one button Calendar Complete a to do Access the to do list either by pressing the F6 key or by clicking on the Calendar button and then clicking on the To Do tab Highlight the to do you want to mark as completed then click on the Complete button at the bottom of the To do page 109 HOW TO Print a to do list Access the to do list by pressing the F6 key or clicking on the Calendar button then clicking o
46. these you can see detail on the defendant insurance carrier or the opposing counsel for the currently selected defendant You can add or delete defendants by clicking the Insert or Delete buttons on the navigation bar If you want to update information for the currently selected 23 GUIDED TOUR defendant click the Update button and make your desired changes Remember to click the Done button when you are through editing the information Notice that the insurance carriers and opposing counsel entries can be picked from a list rather than having to be typed in directly This way once you make an entry into the database it is there and available to be selected for any case You can also insert new entries to these databases on the fly if you need a name that is not already on the list Accident Information The Accident Information EEMEmrEEEE al 4 page allows you to enter 4 8 amp FF 4 information about the sccivantinfermstion iw wr accident and injuries for the currently selected case Note there are four dates of accident to alow for worker s compensation cases where multiple dates are common Since Prevail handles multiple law types personal injury medical malpractice worker s comp social security not all of these fields will necessarily be filled in for any given case Note that for auto cases there are fields for vehicle information as well as a pull
47. way around the Prevail pages If you do not you can always refer to other sections of the manual to get the specific details of what button to press when Here we are strictly looking at the big picture Plaintiffs Regardless of where you practice a personal injury claim is going to have one or more plaintiffs and one or more defendants In Prevail it all starts with the Plaintiff When you put in your basic information in the New Call section of Prevail the first thing you put in is the Plaintiff information Sometimes your client is the injured party and sometimes not Note that on the Plaintiff page there are separate fields for client and injured party information If the injured party is different than your client e g the injured party is deceased or a minor make sure you enter your data accordingly in the injured party fields PERSONAL INJURY The rest of the fields on the Plaintiff page are for the most part self explanatory On the right side of the screen you will see several critical dates e g statue date accident date etc as well as fields to indicate whom within your firm is handling the case Specifically there are fields for Attorney and Case Manager Make sure you assign an attorney and a case manager to each case at the very beginning of the case because a number of warnings and reminders will be automatically generated throughout the life of the case and the default is for those warnings to go to the Case Man
48. widths field will contain values for the widths of the columns in the search Each field should have a corresponding width followed by a comma For instance if your search returns five fields the value for width should be 10 10 10 10 10 This would set each column s width to 10 102 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS When you have completed filling in the data for the search click the post edit button the check below the grid This will save the search record The next time you open the Power Search the new search item will appear in the Search For drop down box 103 HOW TO Chapter How Io H ow to common tasks within Prevail Basic areas of Prevail such as the Calendar Documents and Claims Utility are used to categorize the topics They will appear in alphabetical order i l his chapter provides simple step by step instructions on how to perform General Access e mail Choose Tools E Mail from Prevail s main menu This will launch your preferred e mail application e g Microsoft O utlook Access the Rolodex Click the Rolodex button on the Prevail toolbar or press the F3 key using the keyboard to display the Rolodex You can then click on any of the alphabetical buttons across the top to view contacts Activate a new client Click the Prospects button on the Prevail toolbar The Open Prospects window will appear Select the prospect you want to activate and click on
49. with a t of a table name For instance the file pvclient adt table name would tclient The source value is the name of the database file without the extension that should be used if the search does not use SQL The type of search determines how Prevail will react to double clicking or selecting a result from a search The types are pre defined by Prevail Use only a type that already exists If the type is Client double clicking the result will open the case Any other type will show the detail for that particular item The name is the description of the search that will appear in the Search For drop down box Be careful that you choose unique names for searches The noncase field is a memo field that stores the search query when the Case Sensitive option is not checked When you design your SQL statement the text SearchString should be used when designating the incoming search value When Prevail runs a search it will replace the text SearchString with the value the user types in the Search box The case field is a memo field that stores the search query when the Case Sensitive option is checked When you design your SQL statement the text SearchString should be used when designating the incoming search value When Prevail runs a search it will replace the text SearchString with the value the user types in the Search box If the query is SQL the
50. you must still take into consideration your network environment Do you have enough free disk space on your fileserver to hold all of the data and documents once everything gets up and running You will need on average 500KB or one half of a megabyte of available disk space for each active client in the system For example if you have 200 clients you will need about 100 megabytes of available disk space to hold the data Since it takes a while for the data to fill up you do not necessarily need to have all the disk space available from the start but make sure you keep an eye on available space Upgrading a hard disk is not a big deal if you plan for it but it is a hassle if you have to do it in a crisis situation Not having enough free disk space will cause data corruption loss of data and loss of work time You will also want to consider the speed of your network If you are just running a word processor you are probably not putting much of a strain on it Prevail on the other hand opens and closes over 100 files at a time This creates a lot of network traffic and may cause a slowdown in your network s response time If you are running more than two users on a peer to peer network you may want to consider using a dedicated fileserver A fileserver is a computer that does nothing but distribute files to the other computers That may seem like a waste of a computer but consider this If you do not have a dedicated fileserver one of th
51. AIL REPORTER After you have added all of the fields select File Save set the Name field to New Cases and Referral Sources and click the OK button Next a Report Properties window will appear Fill in the Description of the report and click the Save button If you move your mouse over each button a hint will appear displaying what the button will do This is helpful when first learning how an interface works This is a good time to experiment with all of the controls and options available to you There are a lot of toolbars that do not show by default Choose View gt T oolbars and select a toolbar that you wish to see Step 3 Generating the Report Click on the Preview tab to see how the report looks when populated with data This is the only thing you have to do to complete this step The report engine handles the generation of the report Now you can adjust the report to look exactly as you wish Click back on the Design tab and make your adjustments Be sure to save the report when you are finished Advanced Topics Like any software package there are a few features that are quite powerful but generally left out of the usual introductions and tutorials because of the depth of knowledge needed to discuss the features If you have not yet mastered the process of creating a simple report then the topics contained in this chapter may be out of your reach Before continuing be sure you have a s
52. After you have let Prevail make an automatic to do entry the reminder will show up on the specified user s To Do list on the date specified in the D ate field K eep in mind when selecting the response date that the to do entry will not appear on any to do list until that date has been reached For this reason you have to be careful with your dates For example if you received a document that requires a response from you within thirty days make the Response Date something less than thirty days so the warning shows up far enough in advance on the to do list for the user to prepare the response It is a good idea to indicate the actual due date in the Description field then set the Due date to something like ten days earlier than that date This way you can glance at the entry and see the actual due date but the reminder shows up on the to do list sometime earlier Just be careful when setting dates that you do not use today s date as the due date because Prevail will not set a reminder If you want the reminder to show up immediately or almost immediately set the due date to tomorrow s date 61 PERSONAL INJURY Using Limit Once a case has been going on for a while you will have quite a few documents listed particularly if you are listing both incoming and outgoing documents You can very quickly sort through all these entries to find what you are looking for if you use the Limit button Thi
53. INTERFACE Tools Menu Quick Search Opens the Quick Search window to search for a client s first or last name Power Search Opens the Power Search window for more advanced searches Closed Prospects Opens the Closed Prospects window to view the closed prospects Open Prospects O pens the O pen Prospects window to view all currently opened prospects eee Data Bank Reports Utilities F2 Ctrl F2 se Power Search OF Closed Prospects Shift F10 Open Prospects Ctrl F10 Chat Digital Photo Ctrl F9 E Mail Forms Letters Fo Notes F4 VY Query E Rolodex F3 a Calendar F3 Set Reviewed Date F11 Sticky Note Ctrl F 4 To Do s F6 Zip Codes Chat Allows you to text chat with other users running Prevail Digital Photo If the current client has a photo journal it will open the Photo Journal program If the client does not it will open a capture program that allows you to take a picture of your client E Mail O pens your selected e mail program Forms Letters Merge a form or a letter Notes O pens the cases running notes Query Run a predefined query to limit client list Rolodex O pens the rolodex Calendar O pens the calendar Set Reviewed D ate Sets the review date and reviewer of the current case Sticky Note Allows you to add or show a pop up notes window that will appear whenever you choose that client To Do s Opens the calendar to
54. N is the current user then you would only be searching John s calendar for hearings If you want to search all calendars make sure you have the Everyone view selected 53 SOCIAL SECURITY A Note about Notes Prevail has several kinds of notes available for each case Which ones you use depend on your purpose for entering them and your style of practice Case Notes The most commonly used notes are the Case Notes which can be ey yo om accessed by clicking the Notes j Sf SEs su ices button or pressing the F4 key from rxees Veen sed pemg be any client data page This function automatically plugs in the date the time and the user making the notes entry You are then given as much Space as you need to type your note These notes are most commonly used for making comments about client contact or storing late breaking news about a case It is also helpful to cut and paste email and phone messages about the client into these notes since that allows you to record pertinent information without re typing anything Case notes are designed for general what s going on in this case type of information THER IHF b pH ee Be ee ee Strategy Notes There is however another m place to put notes about a case If you look on the Strategy page of any Social Security case you Will find a tress large memo field called Case f strategy You can put notes here too but this area is in
55. Old appointments and to dos that are no longer needed do nothing but slow down Appesrtrments Totun the calendar To remove older calendar data fams mocimmis Femara todos balora click the Clean Calendar button For both the Appointments and To do section set p a cutoff date to remove all data before that Elen date Click the Clean button to remove the data Quick Backup The Quick Backup will create a ZIP file of your Prevail database files and store them in the P Prevail Backups directory where P is your mapped server drive The Quick Backup does not backup your documents client folders or any other documents within the Prevail directory You should still run a tape backup or some other form of backup on a regular basis If you ever need to restore from a Quick Backup you will need a ZIP program such as PK Unzip or WinZip Security Security allows you to set non Super user privileges such as the ability to add edit delete merge letters and forms activate close delete prospects close delete cases modify firm wide options and use the Claim Utility You must be a Super User before you can modify the security options 120 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Chapter The Prevail Reporter N ow that I have this data what can I do with it database that cannot otherwise be done with the Prevail program The Reporter comes with many standard reports but you may fin
56. Prevail Reporter interface is fairly simple to cases by understand Reports are organized similar to the way H ee eA you would organize groups of papers that pertain to a cases by Case Manager particular subject in folders Each folder is a E elon category and a batch You can create as many folders i as your firm needs and each folder can hold as many reports as necessary Folders are Good 123 THE PREVAIL REPORTER As stated above the folders are used to organize or group reports To create a new folder choose File gt New Folder or click the ET button Make sure you give each new folder a unique name After you enter a name you will see the J folder s properties window This iS i ensbe scheduled run ays of Week where you can tum a folder into an Frequency fieery m T Sunday Manca automated batch by enabling the tim fi2zcoam Tuesday Wednesday a Thursday fv Frida Scheduled Run properties Demme Cre i l Printer File Saturday If you double click a folder the list of deseription reports stored in that folder wil Accounting reports tor the SS department appear You can move reports from one folder to another by dragging the report onto a new folder You can rename folders or reports by selecting cancel it then clicking the item s name A box will appear around the highlighted text You can rename the item and hit the enter key when you are finished or hit th
57. SA form for the current case Query The Query button allows you to limit the current case list by using an xBase expression Notes Click the Notes button to access the case notes for the current case Rolodex Click the Rolodex button to view contacts Photo If the current case has a photo journal the Photo button will open the Photo Journal program If the current case does not have a photo journal the photo button will allow you to take a picture of the client Update The Update button allows you to edit the information on the current page Page Name The Page Name displays the current page s name Navigation Bar The Navigation Bar provides navigation between cases and functions such as inserting deleting viewing limiting saving and canceling 41 THE INTERFACE e Previous Moves to the previous case e Next Moves to the next case e Insert Inserts a new item to the selected input boxes list or items such as employers time entries fee entries or cost entries e Delete Deletes the selected item on pages where applicable e View Used to view a document on the History page e Limit Limits the items that are viewed on pages such as Time Costs and History e Done Saves the changes made during an update e Cancel Cancels the changes made during an update and reverts all data to its previous state Page Content The Page Content is where the cases information is displayed As you move
58. Version Practice Technology Inc The future of case management Prevail Case Management System LEARNING TO USE THE Prevail Case Management System Copyright 2001 Practice Technology Inc 1312 E Robinson Street Orlando FL 32801 Phone 407 228 4400 Fax 407 228 4414 Table of Contents GETTING STARTED AN OVERVIEW Chapter Getting Started An Overview A utomating your practice is a process not an event As you begin the process you will quickly realize that there are a lot of decisions to be made and a lot of work to be done Make no mistake your firm s productivity will go down while this work is being done Fortunately the gains once you get up and running will far outweigh the initial loss The overall success of your implementation i e how quickly our software begins saving you time and money depends almost entirely on your degree of planning and your level of commitment to the process When considering the big picture of implementing Prevail you need to address the following issues i l his simple truth should be the guiding force behind your implementation Hardware amp Network Preparation Software Installation Workstation Configuration Basic D ata Entry Procedural D ecision Making Forms Customization Reporting amp Management We ll try to give you some insight as to how you can plan your implementation to cover all the bases Remember the better you plan the more
59. a sticky note on a file if it is important enough for any person who does anything with the file knows whatever piece of information you are trying to convey For example if a client is mentally ill and has threatened to kill you and your entire staff that would be a good reason SS S to put a sticky note on the file Then et g pa coer Dy eed ed You can only have one sticky note per file but you can add to an existing sticky note if you want to put more information in it When a sticky note is no longer applicable in a file remember to delete it 64 PERSONAL INJURY Date Last Reviewed Prevail has all sorts of ticklers and reminders almost all of which are triggered automatically by something you do in a file For example if you generate a letter that has a 30 day default response time you will get an automatic reminder in thirty days on your To Do list There is another tracking mechanism in Prevail however that works independently of all other tracking tools This mechanism is the Date Last Reviewed setting It is really a very simple tool When you review a file and you are happy that it is making progress and nothing has fallen through the cracks simply press the F11 key on the keyboard Today s date will be plugged into the Date Last Reviewed field on the lower right hand comer of the Client Information page and your login will be plugged into the Reviewed By field When looking at the client page of
60. a large number instead of scrolling through the entire list simply choose any item such as F1 and change the number to the corresponding field code number When you add a merge field to the document it will appear as 81 DOCUMENTS MERGEFIELD FL You can continue in this fashion moving the cursor to each spot in your document where you want to insert a field code clicking the Insert Merge Field button and clicking the field number Remember to insert field codes in exactly the same place in the document as you would insert the actual data For example if your document started out looking like this salutation first name middle name last name address city state zip Dear Salutation lastname You would replace the information in parentheses with the corresponding field codes as follows MERGEFIELD F1 MERGEFIELD F2 MERGEFIELD F3 MERGEFIELD F4 MERGEFIELD F5 MERGEFIELD F6 MERGEFIELD F7 MERGEFIELD F8 MERGEFIELD F9 Dear MERGEFIELD F1 MERGEFIELD F3 With these codes inserted in this fashion every time you merged this letter in Prevail it would automatically insert the appropriate information from the currently selected client into the finished document We just used a few field codes here for purposes of illustration make sure you read over the entire field code list to get a feel for the many fields of information that are available to be merged Also do not worry
61. a response to the document is expected and whether there is detail additional notes on the document If there are notes on a document and you want to view them you can simply double click on the document s listing in the summary This will bring up a more detailed view of the document that includes the case manager the person who will receive the follow up reminder for this document on his her to do list notes time charged for the document Prevail can automatically bill the file every time a specific document is created and even the physical file name of the document When you are finished viewing the entry click on the Done button at the bottom of this window 88 DOCUMENTS Since Prevail automatically saves all of your documents it also knows where to find them if you want to retrieve them later To retrieve any document listed in the history summary select the document and then click the View button on the navigation bar Prevail will automatically open the word processor and retrieve the document When you are a done viewing the document fers tere pa fee test you can either minimize or 2 E n Ue CU UE close your word processor Mamitematen Gis 2 eo and switch back to Prevail orale i If you want you can leave both Prevail and your word processor running at all times If you want to quickly search through your document history entries to find a l specific document or group nar
62. ach case with each cost entry Like calculations you can set the grouping at the query design step or the layout Fieni ENPF design step Setting the grouping at the Em cera a Add layout design will give you more control Inset over the output of the data set rather than T Break O Data Field Custom Field control over the data set itself To set a group at the layout design choose On Group Chang Report gt Groups from the Report Stetnewpase Designer menu In the Groups drop a pen down box select the field to group the report You Can also choose to start a new Keep group together page for each group which is perfect for I Reprint group headers on subsequent pages 145 THE PREVAIL REPORTER invoices For an example of grouping see the report called Simple Costs D ue Sub Reports Most traditional reports those that use only a few tables are quite easy to create When you start adding more information to a data set the complexity of the report greatly increases To help with organization you can add sub reports to your report A sub report is almost the exact same thing as a normal report The layout design is done as you would a normal report The only difference is that a sub report is nested into the main report Footer report in the Report Designer by selecting the report and clicking the button Place a Sub report component El on the Detail band A tab will be c
63. add it to the list by clicking the Add button Once you have selected the LTD provider click the Done button to attach it to the case Click the D one button to save the new LTD provider Update the status of a claim To update the status of a claim you must first be on the Claims page O nce you are on the claims page you will see a chronology of the selected claim Note that on the right side of the window you can choose Claim 1 2 or 3 While you normally only have one claims filed for each client Prevail gives you the ability to independently track up to three concurrent claims You can select the desired claim to update by clicking on the appropriate claim number Claim 1 is the default and its status will be displayed if you do not click on another claim number Once the desired claim is displayed you can update its status by clicking on the Update button Prevail always knows what happens next in a claim and you will be prompted to input pertinent information about this change in status After you respond to the prompts the updated status of the claim will be displayed 115 THE PREVAIL CONTROL PANEL Chapter The Prevail Control Panel M aintaining the Prevail system one machine in the office should have the Control Panel installed on it preferably the machine of the system administrator The Control Panel is used to reindex the database pack the database add new users to the system a
64. adians TRUNCATE num Returns num truncated to int places to TRUNCATE 3245 334 int the right of the decimal point If intis returns 3245 33 negative num is truncated to A BS int places to the left of the decimal point String Functions ASCII str Returns integer ASCII value for ASCII A returns 65 single character at start of str BIT_LENGTH str Returns length of str in bits BIT LENGTH Hello returns assumes 8 bit characters 40 CHAR int Returns a character value from CHAR 65 returns A ASCII integer 155 REFERENCE CHAR LENGTH str Returns the length of string in CHAR LENGTH Hello characters returns 5 CHARACTER LENG Returns the length of string in CHARACTER LENGTH Hell T H str characters 0 returns 5 CONCAT str1 str2 Returns a string that is the result CONCAT Hello World of concatenating str2 to str1 returns Hello World INSERT str1 start len Returns a string where str2 into IN SERT SQL is fun 8 0 not str2 str1 at position start for at most returns SQL is not fun len characters Replacing len characters LCA SE str Returns string with all uppercase LCASE SQL Is Fun returns characters converted to sql is fun lowercase LEFT str count Return the left part of string str LEFT SQL is fun 3 returns up to count characters SQL LENGTH str Returns the number of LENGTH Testing returns 7 charac
65. ager If you don t have a Case Manager assigned they can t be put on the Case Manager s To Do list One of the first things you will need to do before entering your case data is to set up your case types and case status levels under the Data Bank menu option Prevail lets you define your own case types and associate a statute of limitations for each type of case If you define a case type and tell Prevail that it carries a 3 year statute Prevail will automatically calculate the statute based on the date of accident and warn you 60 days ahead of time on your to do list that the statute is approaching You can also define your own entries for case status Typical entries for this category are pre suit demand letter sent suit filed etc but you can make define your own and track your cases accordingly Defendants Prevail allows you to insert as many Defendants as you like onto the D efendants page Note that for each Defendant you can select a corresponding insurance company insurance adjuster and opposing counsel To add defendants to a case simply click the Insert button and type in the information for the new Defendant Prevail will give you space to put in both individual names and company names You simply enter whichever is appropriate If the D efendant is a company leave the First and Last Name fields blank and type the company name in the Company field If the defendant is an individua
66. akes a record of every outgoing document you generate Y ou can quickly glance at the history list and see every document you have sent This list also has the ability to track incoming documents Many firms like to enter their incoming documents into history so that a complete chronological record of correspondence both incoming and outgoing is generated Other firms do not want to bother entering every incoming document into history so they simply make a notation in client notes whenever an important document comes in Neither approach is right or wrong They are just different We do recommend that a decision regarding which features of the software will be used be made with some degree of forethought and discussion If you step back and let things develop on their own users will always take the path of least GETTING STARTED AN OVERVIEW resistance This generally means whatever is the least troublesome to them at the time rather than what is best for your practice in the long run If you are a social security firm you will need to decide the claims process your firm will be using Once you start using Prevail to some degree it becomes increasingly difficult to change the claims process without affecting your cases The claims process is simply an outline used by Prevail to help guide you through an entire social security claim The process starts with a particular action such as an appointment with the client and ends in either a
67. al components Use TrueType fonts indicated by a icon when possible These render well on both the screen and printer If you are using a dot matrix printer the print driver may supply printer fonts indicated E by a icon which you can use to speed up the printing of the report Finally fonts that have no icon to the left of the font name are screen fonts and should not be used in reports where WY SIWYG is required Font ae select the font size You can also type in this box to set the font size exactly _ a a font to bold Italic ball hain nt to italic Underline Set font to underline ona i siooas Lil il Set the background color of the textual component Bring the component to the front The components in the front print last the components in the back print first Use the Report Tree to see the exact layering of components within the band 136 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Sent to Back 2 Send the component to the back The components in the front print last the components in the back print first Use the Report Tree to see the exact layering of components within the band Align or Space Toolbar Align or Space Es Eo 3 m d S iol To access this toolbar select the View Toolbars Align or Space menu option from the Report Designer main menu This toolbar will assist in positioning components relative to one another and relative to the band in which they appear Action Icon De
68. all both the server portion of Prevail and the Installing the Server To install the server portion of Prevail place the Prevail CD in the CD ROM drive If auto run is enabled the Prevail Installer will automatically appear If it does not run X Install exe where X is the letter of your CD ROM drive Before installing anything click the Read Me button to read the latest information about the installations not available at the time of this printing If your fileserver is running Novell NetWare you must map the server drive to a workstation before you can run the install To map the server drive run the Windows Explorer by choosing Start Programs Windows Explorer or Windows NT Explorer Choose Tools Map Network Drive from the menu Choose a letter for the drive We recommend using P if available Next using the Shared Directories tree view select the server computer and the drive that you plan on installing the Prevail server files to The UNC Universal Naming Convention path will automatically fill in when you select a drive Make sure the Reconnect at Logon checkbox is checked and then click the O K button A new hard drive icon will appear on the left side of the Windows Explorer with the letter you chose INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE On the Prevail Installer click the Install Server button to run the server setup program Once loaded the setup will guide you through the rest of the installa
69. anager initials incorrect If the case manager initials at the end of a document ATT cmn are incorrect open the document for editing and make sure the field code for the initials is 225 and not 226 Field code 226 is the user s initials not the case manager s initials and will not appear lowercased as they should Field code 225 is the case manager s initials and will appear lowercased Class not registered WordPerfect was installed without the OLE components If WordPerfect was installed using the Compact install type these will not be included Reinstall WordPerfect using the Typical Install or go to Custom Install and add the OLE Components This error can also occur if WordPerfect has lost its OLE registration Corel is aware of this problem and includes a program called pfreg exe found in the Corel SuiteX Programs directory Run this program and un register the components then re register the components Drive not available This error is caused by a default setting in WordPerfect Choose Tools Settings from the main menu of WordPerfect and double click the Files icon On the Document tab there is a setting called Default document folder If this path does not exist it will give an error message after the merge has completed when it tries to save the document Error creating secondary file Make sure you have the latest fresdict adt file Check the Prevail Network at http www prevail net for an update for this file
70. and then edit the claims process to reflect your needs before you start to add clients into Prevail Once you begin to enter clients into Prevail it becomes increasingly difficult to process all clients in the same manner To view the Claims Utility choose Utilities gt Claims Utility from the main menu 47 SOCIAL SECURITY Prevail uses groups levels and steps to make up the claims process Each group should be considered a level in the claims process and each step in a level should be pertinent to a process that takes place at that particular level For instance all steps that can possibly happen at the hearing level of a claim should be in the HEAR group Because of backwards compatibility issues a group can only consist of four characters Prevail 3 9 adds a description of a group but merely for aesthetic purposes Select a group to see the steps in that group Modifying the Process After you have looked through the default process determine whether you would like to start from scratch or modify the existing process to your specifications If you want to start completely from scratch you will need to delete each step in every group then each group Think of the claims process as a Connect the D ots with words You will always have a starting point in the process From there you point to the next step until the process reaches the end Using the default process the starting point would be the APPT appointment
71. any case you can tell when it was last reviewed and who reviewed it That is fairly useful in and of itself but it becomes very useful when you use this tool in conjunction with the Prevail Reporter Once you have reviewed dates on your files you can print a report that lists all files that were last reviewed more than sixty days ago or 90 days or 120 or whatever you choose Because personal injury clients tend to call and ask what is going on so frequently it is very easy to become reactive instead of proactive when tracking their case Y ou never forget about the ones who call every week It s the rare ones you never hear from that are most likely to have something fall through the cracks and get forgotten Since the Date Last Reviewed update can only be triggered by a specific human action any case that is in danger of falling through the cracks will show up on the Date Last Reviewed aging report All of the Prevail reports are user definable so you can custom your aging report to suit your own preferences Prevail Reporter The data in your Prevail system is much more meaningful when you can create lists and reports to help you manage your practice The Prevail Reporter contains a variety of useful reports for this purpose You can print case lists sorted and counted by a variety of criteria claim status referral source attorney etc The reports won t mean much until you get all your client data in there but
72. ar with Prevail For more information on how to use the claims utility and much more see the chapter titled Social Security 17 GUIDED TOUR Social Security Tour Client Information The Client Information page contains basic contact information about the currently selected client In addition to the standard biographical data this page contains referral source information alternate contact information and information on who is responsible for the case If you want to add or change information on this awe n ee page click on the Update Z 2 D t ay due my e p button in the toolbar This Sm mm m will let you access and change the information in any of the fields on the page When Prevail is in EE nef comer update mode the fields will turn yellow If Prevail is in insert mode the fields will turn green You will notice that some of the fields e g salutation language etc have pull down arrows to the right of them These are called iden down boxes and instead of typing in these fields click on the down arrow and select an entry from the list that pops up You may notice that when you click on a pull down arrow the Insert button enables If you wish to add items to the drop down box you can do it by clicking on the Insert button An entry window will appear allowing you to add your entry Click the D one button or press the F12 key to save your changes If y
73. arch or Limit button e Nearly every grid in Prevail has the ability to sort data in a column ascending or descending by clicking on the name of a column An arrow will appear next to the field that is currently used for sorting An up arrow means the data is in ascending order A down arrow means the data is in descending order If you click a field and an arrow does not appear it means that you cannot use that field to sort e If the selected field is a drop down box a box with a down arrow on it you can sometimes add items to that drop down list by pressing the Insert key on the keyboard For instance if you are on the Client Information page and the currently selected field is Language you can press the Insert key to insert a new language into the list You may also have noticed that the Insert button was enabled when you entered that field e Pressing the Tab key will cycle through the input boxes and buttons on every window e Standard Windows copy Ctrl C cut Ctrl X paste Ctrl V and Undo Ctrlt Z keystrokes work when applicable Prevail Login If you have more than one user using Prevail the first memz window you will see when you run Prevail is the Prevail Login This window allows you to choose a D user to login as The Login button will login to the system with the currently selected user The Exit m FAREY AIL wares FE F ipn ed A eres button will close Pre
74. ase number can be found there If you are viewing closed cases the date the case was closed can also be found on the Title Bar The Main Menu is a series of drop down windows that contain items to every feature found in Prevail The Toolbar is a bar of buttons used to gain quick access to commonly used features The Page Name located on the right side below the Toolbar displays the name of the current page showing in Prevail The Navigation Bar located to the right of the Page Name is used to navigate through Prevail The Page Content changes according to tab and provides the majority of user input Finally the Tabs located across the bottom of the Prevail window is used to page through different areas or groups of information in a case Title Bar inL Bie Ei Tools DisinQerdk papis jiis Pipra yes pi Help k T Fa Main Menu Toolbar Page Name Navigation Bar Page Content Spon Foa rrqa lt lt chy Pm Ce Zece ie Tabs oa Bo FIE pories ba Pe parrini a ial ite Ge Customizing for Your Firm Every firm that uses the Prevail Case Management System uses it in a different manner Some firms use Prevail to its fullest ability and others use portions of the program that fills a void in their current management practice Either way each firm needs the ability to customize Prevail to fit their needs Part of customizing Prevail is setting up all of the data users will not change on a daily basis such as the firm
75. base fields Use the DisplayFormat property to format the value D BMemo Used to print plain text from a memo field of a database table This control will automatically word wrap the text Set the Stretch property to True and the component will dynamically resize to print all of the text Use the ShiftRelativeTo property to define dynamic relationships with 132 THE PREVAIL REPORTER PP other stretchable objects D BRichT ext DBCalc E D nde D BBarCode mF Used to print formatted text from a memo or BLOB field of a database table This control will automatically word wrap the text Set the Stretch property to True and the component will dynamically resize to print all of the text Use the ShiftRelativel o property to define dynamic relationships with other stretchable objects Used for simple database calculations Sum Min Max Count and Average The value can be reset when a group breaks using the ResetG roup property Used to print whthatsordnedasbee BLOB fl or windows metafiles as whthatsordnedasbee BLOB fl stored in a database BLOB field Used to render barcodes based on the BarCodeT ype and the value supplied via the D ataField property The following symbologies are supported Codabar Code 128 Code 39 EAN 13 EAN 8 FIM A B C Interleaved 2 of 5 PostNet UPC A UPC E D BT eeChart Allows data aware TeeCharts to be placed within a report Advanced Component Palette To access this to
76. be retained if you sign up the client and will automatically be transferred into active client notes When you are done entering information on the new caller click the Continue or Done button Keep in mind that this information will then be stored in the prospects database not your main client database It will not be moved over into your main client database until you activate it Add employment history First pull up the client to whose file you want to add employment history Then click on the Employment The employment page contains a list of employers on the left and detail fields on the right By clicking on different names in the employer list on the left hand side of the screen you can display detail on different employers To add an employer click the Insert button at the top of the screen The detail fields on the left of the page will turn green Type the information into the green fields and click the Done button when you are finished The new employer will then be added to the list 106 HOW TO Add a medical provider to a case First pull up the client for whom you want to add a medical provider Then click the Medicals tab at the bottom of the screen You will then see a summary of medical treatment for the currently selected client This includes a list of medical providers that have treated the client as well as a treatment detail for each provider You can view the treatment
77. bels 4 which allow us to type in static text such as a report title or column heading and D BT ext UA which is used to show data from the data set Click the amp button then click anywhere on the Header band This will be the title of the report Under the amp button there is a field to type the text to be used for that label In that field type New Cases and Referral Sources Y ou can change the font properties as you desire Position the title label by dragging it Using the same method place labels for the following fields on the Header band 1 Case 2 Last Name 3 First Name 4 Intake Date 5 Referral Type 6 Referral Contact Next we need to add the actual data fields Click the A button then click anywhere on the Detail band Under the A button you will see a drop down box Select Case Number User Assigned from the drop down box Notice that the text of the D BT ext has changed to the current value of the record in the data set Position the DBText by dragging it Place it under the column header we made above Do the same for fields 2 6 Shortcut Report Wizard The Report Designer also allows for an extremely simple way to create layouts using the Report Wizard Choose File gt New select Report Wizard and click the Ok button Select the fields to be displayed in the report set the order then click the Finish button to preview the design 143 THE PREV
78. by clicking on the Offices tab at the bottom of your screen This page displays names and phone numbers for SSA office Examiner ALJ and long term disability insurance provider You can view the detail on any one of these parties by clicking on the magnifying glass icon to the night of the name This will give you full name address and phone number of the party To add an examiner to a case click on the Update button Then click the Choose button next to the Examiner field If the name you want doesn t appear on the list you can add it to the list by clicking the Add button Once you have selected the examiner click the Done button to attach it to the case Click the Done button to save the new examiner 114 HOW TO Attach a LTD insurance provider First pull up the desired client Then select the SSA office page by clicking on the Offices tab at the bottom of your screen This page displays names and phone numbers for SSA office Examiner ALJ and long term disability insurance provider You can view the detail on any one of these parties by clicking on the magnifying glass icon to the right of the name This will give you full name address and phone number of the party To add a LTD provider to a case click on the Update button Then click the Choose button next to the Long Term Disability Provider field If the name you want doesn t appear on the list you can
79. check the Completed checkbox Daily View The Daily View tab is used as a visual representation of your day s appointments in time blocks such as each hour of the day every thirty minutes of the day or even every fifteen minutes of the day When you click the Daily View tab the time blocks will be adjusted to show the current time of the day For instance if it s 1 30 PM the daily view will EES Pils E adjust to show the period from 1 30 to whatever time fits in the OUT T a T ran grid Any appointments Ji 222 2 onou Cae pete scheduled that day will be 77777 mm blocked in gray V1_ I gt E E EE EEr Pear a description You can view an em aioe pee appointment by double clicking ss the gray area amr E RS el odd geno Peel If you want to add a new appointment you can highlight the time frame 1 30 PM 4 00 PM by clicking the mouse button on the 1 30 PM row dragging your mouse to the 4 00 PM row letting go of the mouse button then clicking the Add button Fill in the appointment information as described in the Appointments section alae Pi f li iEn y aj If you would like to print the daily view you can do so by clicking the Print button Once you click the Print button the standard Windows print dialog will appear If you need to select or setup a printer do so at this window
80. client ID if in Prevail it is the second set of numbers on the Case Summary screen like Ada2348A using the correct capitalization and click the OK button Next enter the new client ID and click the OK button The Control Panel will begin to scan the tables making the appropriate changes Broadcast Message Prevail 3 9 2 has the very beginning of a future complex messaging system built in Eventually you will be able to perform many tasks from the Control Panel on a particular user s machine or on everyone s machine However Prevail 3 9 2 has only a basic messaging system You can send a message to all users using Prevail by clicking the Broadcast Message button Enter the text you wish to send to all users running Prevail and click the O K button Commands As mentioned earlier this is just the beginning of a rather complex messaging system The only command used by Prevail at this time is the TIMEHSHUTDOWN command The TIMESHUTDOWN command will broadcast a message to all users running Prevail setting an internal timer for five minutes Once the five minutes have expired Prevail will close by itself on every machine that received the message 119 THE PREVAIL CONTROL PANEL To use the TIMESHUTDOWN command click the Broadcast Message button type TIMESHUTDOWN Please shutdown Prevail Prevail will automatically close in 5 minutes and click the O K button Clean Calendar
81. d a need to create or customize your own reports as you begin to use the Prevail system i l he Prevail Reporter is used to extract information from the Prevail As with any software package it takes time to learn how the software works The Prevail Reporter is no exception Before you start creating reports you must first understand the concepts of reporting This manual will attempt to guide you through the Prevail Reporter the basic concepts used in reporting tips and tricks that will make for a more productive report and how you will benefit from the Prevail Reporter Installing the Reporter Before you can use the Reporter you must install it on each workstation that will be running the Reporter To install the Reporter place the Prevail CD into the CD ROM drive If Auto Run is enabled the install menu will automatically appear If it does not simply run D Install exe where D is the letter of your CD ROM drive Click the Install Reporter button to launch the Prevail Reporter Install program Step through the install wizard When it asks for a location set it to C Prevail Reporter if it is not already set Once you have completed the install it will add a shortcut to your desktop and to your Start Programs Prevail menu If the Reporter was installed on a workstation that is not running Prevail be sure you install the Prevail Client before attempting to run the Reporter You must THE PREVAIL REPORTER
82. d column For example if you want to sort the information according to the onset date click Onset at the top of the column The prospects will be sorted according to the onset date in ascending order Clicking Onset again will switch the sort to descending order 94 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS The buttons across the top of the window allow you to perform the various functions available to your Prospects data Some of these functions are also available in the main Prevail window while others you will only see in the Open Prospects window To close the Open Prospects window click the Done button or the X in the upper right hand corner Adding a Prospect To add a new call from the O pen Prospects window click the New Call button For information on adding a new call please see the previous section titled Entering a New Call Editing a Prospect If you need to change a prospect s information double click the prospect or select the prospect and click the Edit button The New Prospect window will appear Change the desired information and click the Done button to save the changes If you do not want to save the changes you have made click the Cancel button Deleting a Prospect Deleting a prospect is generally not advised unless you have made a mistake on a prospect and would like to add the information again When you delete a prospect the prospect is deleted
83. details of what button to press and when to press it Here we are strictly looking at the big picture Auto SSA Offices Prevail 3 9 2 has the ability to automatically select a client s SSA office Disability Analyst DDS and ALJ OHA by using the client s zip code This is done when a prospect is activated Therefore you must enter the prospect s correct zip code before activation for the auto SSA feature to work If the zip code is blank at activation an arbitrary SSA office will be selected or none at all If you would like to reassign the offices for existing clients or if you don t know a prospect s zip code you can assign the offices at any time by choose Utilities A ssign O ffices SOCIAL SECURITY Claims Tracking This tab is the single most important tracking mechanism for Social Security cases The Claims tab for each case contains an exact chronology of every step in the Social Security claims process If you have got a case at the hearing level you can glance at this screen and tell instantly when the hearing is going to be You can also see the date it was scheduled the date it was requested the date the reconsideration was denied the date the initial application was denied and so forth Instead of just telling you where the claim is now Prevail tells you everything that has happened with the claim up until this point as well as what is expected to happen next Many of the routine what s going o
84. ding a Step To add a step to the claims process choose the group that the step t cas tana rae should belong to and click the Add amm a step button If the group does not exist you will need to create it before adding the step Notice that 3 the Order Group and Code F aT ieee as fields are automatically set by fm 4 Prevail More than likely you will mr not have to edit these fields AS you G T move from field to field look at the a aaa ae 49 SOCIAL SECURITY Field Description on the right side of the window The Field Description describes what each field is used for The Next Group and Next Step fields refer to what should be displayed as the next step when you are looking at a client s claim tab The Next Group is used to show the correct group when you choose to update a claim Click the Save button to save the step If you do not want to save the step click the Cancel button Editing a Step Select the group and step and click the Edit Step button Make your changes and click the Save button to save the changes If you do not want to save the changes click the Cancel button i i r a ee ai n a mag w f a a E eei cade Deleting Steps and Se Secs GTOUDS hie faeries al sees When deleting steps make sure that they are not used by cases It is generally not a good idea to delete steps unles
85. do is log them into history when they arrive It takes maybe fifteen seconds to log a document into history All you have to do is click the Insert button on the history page and enter your description of the received document Make sure you indicate the correct document type e g Medical Records Received Mail etc and enter a one line description of the document The date will default to today s date but if the document was actually received on a date other than today you can change the date field Generating Time and To Do Entries Prevail can also create time and to do entries for incoming documents If you want those entries to be created simply enter the desired values in the Hours and Response Date fields when inputting your history item If you put 0 25 in the Hours field an entry will be automatically made on the Time page for a quarter of an hour The entry on the Time page will read PROCESS _ where the blank line will be replaced by your description of the incoming document If you enter any date other than today s date in the Response Date field Prevail will automatically generate a to do item for the user whose name appears in the Case Manager field on this history entry You can set the to do for any user not just the same manager by selecting their name It will not make them the case manager in this case It just redirects the to do entry to the appropriate list
86. e New Call button The New Call button lets you take information on a potential client i e when someone calls on the phone and store that information without having to put the information into your main client database Since you don t sign up everyone you talk to Prevail keeps your prospects in a separate database until you decide you want to either delete them or activate them make them a client When you activate them all of the information you ve entered is automatically moved over into the main client database When you click on the New Call button or press the F10 key an entry screen will pop up allowing you to enter information on the caller You don t need to fill in every field just the information you want to enter Make sure you choose a law type from the Law Type drop down so Prevail knows what type of case this caller is When you ve entered everything you want to enter on the first page click on the Continue button and you will move to the next page of new client information Most of these fields should be fairly self explanatory The second page of the new client call window contains information specific to the law type you have chosen Notice that there is a notes field at the bottom of the second page You can use this information to jot down notes on your conversation This comes in handy if you refuse a case you make a note as to why you re turning down the case Any notes you put in here will
87. e Click the Download and Apply Updates button The Control Panel will download the selected components update the version list then apply any updates if accessible Some components such as the Prevail client application and the Control Panel will prompt you to run the update the next time you try to run the programs Users If you need to add a user to the Prevail system click the Users button In order to add or remove the user from the system you must have Super User security You will be prompted to enter your login and password Enter them accordingly making sure you capitalize your login Once your login has been accepted the User Utility will appear The Prevail Users list located on the left side of the window displays a list of all users currently in the system To add a new user to the system click the New button Fill in the information then click the Save button to save the user or click the Cancel button to cancel adding the user to the system When adding a user make sure that the Login of the new user is unique and does not exist in the Prevail Users list When finished with user utilities click the D one button Who s Using Who s Using will tell you who is currently logged into Prevail O_o Click the Who s Using button If anyone is logged into Prevail a window will appear with a list of users If you wish pme to send the users a
88. e charge was automatically posted to the case costs sections which will be discussed later fe oS aaa TT bo be o T e 0 T 7 Diah a e hil i Tn Maha Madical ntamuten Epe fet Si peri cee By glancing at the treatment history for a provider you can instantly tell what your client was treated for what records you have and what records you do not have You can also add additional treatment history entries for each provider For example if a chiropractor had previously treated your client for back pain you would already have an entry listed in treatment history If your client later went back to the same chiropractor for neck pain you could click the Insert button to add another treatment history item for that provider The provider s name and address information would already be listed so you would just have to add specific treatment information e g purpose dates etc Once you enter a provider into the database you never have to re type the information if you 28 GUIDED TOUR encounter the same provider again in another case you can simply pick the name from a list To add a provider to the currently selected case click the Insert button Next click the New Provider button You can then select from a list of providers If you need to add a new provider to the list click the Add button The information you enter about the provider will be sav
89. e computers on your network has to function as both a fileserver and a workstation If the person using that computer locks up in any application and has to re boot everybody is logged out of Prevail since the date resides on the machine that has locked up Speed is also a consideration here If the computer serving as a fileserver also serves as a workstation it has to divide its resources between the two jobs That means it does each job half as well as it would if it were only doing one job If your firm will have more than ten people simultaneously using Prevail then you must also consider purchasing the Advantage Database Server The Advantage Database Server runs on either Windows NT or Novell NetWare The database server makes Prevail a true Client Server environment where the data is opened on the server as opposed to each machine that uses Prevail This greatly improves Prevail s overall speed index management and data integrity If you would like to GETTING STARTED AN OVERVIEW purchase the Advantage Database Server or have any questions regarding the database server please visit our website at fhttp www prevail net or give us a call Installation and Configuration Installing Prevail is not very hard but there are a lot of things that need to be set up on each workstation before the program will run correctly Before you install the software read the installation notes and make sure you understand them There two
90. e times however when you will want to create a new claim Let s assume for example that you have a claim that is gone all the way to the Appeals Council level Even if you plan on taking it all the way to Federal Court it is often a good idea to re file at the initial level In this case you would do that by clicking on the button beside Claim 2 then clicking the Update button Y ou will be prompted to start a brand new claim The new claim Claim 2 can now be tracked independently of the original claim Just remember to select the correct claim before making any future updates Prevail will help you remember that there is more than one claim active in this case by putting a dot to the left of the claim number for any active claim If you pull up a case and only see a dot beside Claim 1 then that is the only one that exists If you see dots beside Claim 1 and Claim 2 then there are two active claims in the current case It is rare that you will need Claim 3 but it does happen Claims Utility The Claims Utility is used to create modify and remove steps from the sim gra mese mice mn rer Social Security claim process Prevail ships with a default set of steps but most firms find the need to tailor this process specifically for their firm The claims process is one of the more important features for Social Security firms If you are a new user to Prevail it is recommended that you first plan how your firm will handle claims
91. e Esc key to cancel renaming the item Folder Properties Accounting Reports Each report is stored in a folder for organization If you open a folder and click on a report you will see the report s description in the lower left hand corner of the Reporter The report s description is used to differentiate reports by something other than its name To preview a report double click it Like folders reports also have properties To view a reports properties select a report and choose File Properties from the main menu Here you can edit a report s description or view information such as when the report was created last modified last ran who created it or who was the last user to run the report Report Properties Simple Costs Due information Created 114241995 1 33 53 AM Created By JON Last Modified 11130999 6 39 46 PM Last Fun 11 504 999 6 39 46 PM Last Fun By JON Description This report displays all open cases and the costs due Folder and Report Toolbar ore ee 124 THE PREVAIL REPORTER The Folder and Report Toolbar provides shortcuts to some of the same options found in the main menu New Folder Creates a new folder New Report Creates a new report template and opens the Report D esigner Edit Report af O pens the selected report in the Report Designer for editing Delete Folder Repor Deletes the selected folder or report t Search for a rep
92. e appointment check the D etail Notes option Click the Print button to print the appointments or click the Cancel button if you decide not to print the appointments Once you click the Print button the standard Windows print dialog will appear If you need to select or setup a printer do so at this window then click the OK button to print To Dos Adding To Dos Adding a new to do is similar to adding a new appointment On the To Do tab click f amp the Add button or choose File gt New To Do from the menu You can also add a To Do from the main Prevail window by choose aw p File gt New To Do The To Do Detail sempr window will appear with a blank to do Choose the user who is to receive the to do For this example choose your user name 73 CALENDAR The Set D ate automatically defaults to the current date if necessary to change it do so by typing in the date or clicking the down arrow to use the calendar control Set the Due Date in the same manner The Type is used to determine the kind of to do For instance if the to do were used to warn of an upcoming statute date then the type would be SOL You can type in your own type or choose one from the drop down box The Priority is used for your convenience only Select a priority from the drop down box If this to do is associated with a case you can check the Attach to Client
93. e if you use them correctly For example if you want to print a list of all hearings you have coming up in the next month you can simply pull up your calendar execute a search and print the results The Calendar search function works very much like the limit function in Document History You simply enter the search criteria and then tell Prevail which field to apply the search criteria to In the Calendar you have the additional capability to enter a date range for the search If you do not specify a date range it will default to one year from the current date Once you execute the search a list 62 PERSONAL INJURY of all matching appointments will be displayed You can print the list by simply clicking on the Print button Remember that you need to be very consistent in your data entry for calendar searches to work effectively When Prevail automatically places a hearing on your calendar it uses the word Hearing If you put your own hearings on the calendar using the abbreviation Hrg instead of the word Hearing then you will run into trouble There is no way a single search could find both Hearing and Hrg you would have to do two separate searches to find them all You can avoid inaccurate searches or duplication of effort by simply agreeing in advance on the terminology your office is going to use and using it consistently Also keep in mind that when you do a search in the Prevail Calendar yo
94. e in the document that requires client information place your cursor where the information should go and click the Insert Field button The first time you do this a message may appear that says No records or field names were found This is ok since it does not hurt anything Click OK to close the message Next a box will appear that allows you to type in the field number you want to insert into your document Refer to your field code list to find the right number then click the cursor in the Field window and type the number When you are done click the Insert button to the nght of the field window This will insert the field into your document When you add a merge field to the document it will appear as Eee 83 DOCUMENTS You can continue in this fashion moving the cursor to each spot in your document where you want to insert a field code typing in the desired field number and clicking the Insert button If you accidentally close the Insert Field window you can open it again by clicking the Insert Field button on the left side of your toolbar Remember to insert field codes in exactly the same place in the document as you would insert the actual data For example if your document started out looking like this salutation first name middle name last name address city state zip Dear Salutation lastname You would replace the information in parentheses with
95. e them print them and search them Status Bar The Status Bar located along the bottom of the Calendar is used to display the status of the calendar formatting displaying printing when the next appointment is and how many to dos are due today Appointments The Appointments is where the majority of the appointment maintenance is done From the Appointments page you can view the currently selected day s appointments in a columnar report sorted by date and start time You can add new appointments set recurring appointments cancel appointments delete appointments search for appointments and print appointments First let s add an appointment Adding Appointments To add a new appointment click the Add button on the Appointment s toolbar You a ae rang can also choose File gt New Appointment smemas srasni muim from the calendar menu or choose m fas fem amr goon File gt New Appointment from the main F Prevail menu without opening the calendar The Appointment Details window will appear with a blank appointment Choose the user who is to receive the appointment For _ sses gece this example choose your user name The Appointment Type is not necessary but at times will help you decipher exactly what type of appointment you are looking at You can customize the appointment types by choosing O ptions Calendar Options See the section title Calendar Options for m
96. e to dos that are due on the date currently selected in the calendar This is great for weeding out current to dos Sometimes you may see a to do such as a Statute of Limitations warning that runs ten days from the due date You won t always acknowledge that warning the first day it shows up on the to do list Therefore your to do list will not always remain totally blank all of the time Viewing only those to dos due during the current day will help reduce clutter and 75 CALENDAR time it takes to figure out exactly which tasks need to be completed To return to the regular view uncheck the Today checkbox Viewing Completed To Dos There may be times when you will need to review old completed to dos for archival purposes To do so check the Completed checkbox A list of completed to dos will show with the Completed column visible showing the date that the to do was completed When viewing completed to dos you are limited in what you can do with them For instance if you double click a to do you will notice that all of the fields appear grayed out This is because you cannot edit a to do once it has been completed If you wish to delete completed to dos select them and click the D elete button This will remove them from the database forever If you need to search for a completed to do click the Search button and follow the same instructions for searching regular to dos To return to the regular to do view un
97. e you have selected the ALJ click the D one button to attach it to the case Click the D one button to save the new ALJ Attach an SSA office Prevail 3 9 2 has the ability to automatically select the SSA office by using the client s zip code However this is only done when the prospect is activated Therefore you must fill in the prospect s correct zip code before activation to automatically select the SSA office If the zip code is blank an arbitrary SSA office is selected or none at all If the client is already active pull up the desired client Then select the SSA office page by clicking on the Offices tab at the bottom of your screen This page displays names and phone numbers for SSA office Examiner ALJ and long term disability insurance provider Y ou can view the detail on any one of these parties by clicking on the magnifying glass icon to the right of the name This will give you full name address and phone number of the party To add a SSA office to a case click on the Update button Then click the Choose button next to the SSA Office field If the name you want doesn t appear on the list you can add it to the list by clicking the Add button O nce you have selected the SSA office click the D one button to attach it to the case Click the Done button to save the new SSA Office Attach an examiner First pull up the desired client Then select the SSA office page
98. eans that you are accepting this prospect as a client When activating a prospect the prospect s information is copied over to the client table making it an open case The prospect is then removed from the prospects list To activate a prospect choose one from the list and click the Activate button Prevail will ask you to confirm your decision Click Yes to continue to activate the prospect or choose No to cancel After confirming to activate the prospect Prevail will ask for a case number The case number automatically defaults to Prevail s internal client ID number The default case number consists of the first three letters of the person s last name the last four digits of their social security number and a letter between A and Z Prevail will use A if this is the first case this person has in the system For each subsequent case that person has the letter will be incremented Y ou may use this numbering system if you would like or you may use your pre existing numbering system instead Enter your desired case number and click the OK button Once you click OK Prevail will check for any conflicts that may occur prospect you are activating is a defendant in another case etc At this point the prospect is now a client If conflicts exist review them then decide whether to keep the client If you decide not to keep the client you can close the case It is always a good idea to enter something in the case notes
99. ecurity and personal injury tour these tabs will be explained below Employment Information The Employment Information screen contains information about the client s past employment history You can add as many past employers as you like by clicking on the Insert button You can add specific information for each employer including name address phone number dates of employment and workload There is also space fora 27 GUIDED TOUR narrative description of actual job duties Once employment information is entered for one or more employers you can display information on each employer by selecting an employer from the Employers list located on the left side of the page To edit an employer s information select the employer and then click the Update button Medical Information By clicking on the Medical tab you can get a summary of medical treatments for the currently selected client This includes a list of medical providers that have treated the client as well as a treatment detail for each provider You can view the treatment history for any provider by selecting the providers name in the Medical Provider list The treatment history displayed in the lower portion of the page includes dates of treatment when medical records were last requested and when they were last received There is also a field that indicates if the firm vad a charge for the records If there was th
100. ed for later use Y ou will then be prompted to enter a treatment summary for the new provider with the current client i e what they were treated for dates etc When you select one of the treatments listed in the Treatment History list the detail appears to the night of the list giving more information about that specific treatment This information includes treatment date range when records were last requested when they were last received whether your firm paid for the records and whether the SSA already has a copy of these records Time Information In order to help you track time in your cases Prevail maintains a time ledger for each case You can access the time ledger for the currently selected case by clicking the Time tab When you click this tab a time summary will show all time entries for the currently selected case This display will include the date description user and time amount for each entry At the bottom of the summary screen a Total Time field will display the sum of hours spent on this case to date To make a new time entry simply click the Insert button Notice that the fields in the Item Description section are now green This is used to indicate that the system is in insert mode Start typing the description of the time entry and you will notice that Prevail will try to figure out what you are typing This hunting ability allows for quick time entries
101. efficiently it will get done Your implementation plan must take into consideration each of these elements We will address them in order of occurrence but keep in mind that they may need your attention simultaneously Hardware and Network Preparation If you are installing the system on a network you need to make sure all of your computers can run the software in their present configuration As with any computer the more RAM processing power and hard drive space the better In the computer world you can never indulge too much in any of these specifications Each computer must have a minimum of 32MB of RAM in order GETTING STARTED AN OVERVIEW for Prevail to run properly however we recommend 64 MB of RAM Anything 120mhz or faster should give acceptable performance If speed is very important to you you might want to consider something more along the lines of a 300mhz processor Although Prevail will run with these bare minimum requirements you must take into consideration your computer habits If you tend to run more than a few applications at a time you will probably require more RAM and a faster processor When using Prevail it is very common for users to have Prevail a word processor and an email application opened at all times These are very demanding applications If your system performance suffers while running these three applications you may want to consider upgrading If your computers meet the basic system requirements
102. el button to cancel adding the user to the system When adding a user make sure that the Login of the new user is unique and does not exist in the Prevail Users list When finished with user utilities click the D one button 44 SOCIAL SECURITY Chapter Social Security U sing Prevail to manage your Socal Security practice and track Social Security Disability claims This chapter will address the capabilities of those tools and discuss in general terms how they can be used to manage your Social Security Disability practice Keep in mind that Prevail itself is nothing more than a tool or more specifically a toolbox Any good mechanic relies heavily upon his tools but must know which tools to use for which purpose Managing your practice like fixing an engine requires that you know how to select the proper tool and use it appropriately Hopefully this chapter will give you enough insight into the tools that come with Prevail to figure out which ones you are going to use most often and how you are going to use them P revail contains a number of powerful tools designed specifically to process There will be no step by step how to descriptions in this chapter besides the section on the Claims Utility We are assuming that you can handle the logistics of mouse clicks and know your way around the Prevail windows and tabs If you do not you can always refer to other sections of the manual to get the specific
103. ent or Everyone the user s login will appear before the appointment s description Click anywhere on the Events window to close it or click the X in the upper right hand corner If you would like to print the view you can do so by clicking the Print button Once you click the Print button the standard Windows print dialog will appear If you need to select or setup a printer do so at this window then click the OK button to print Calendar Options The Calendar allows for some rao customization Choose Options gt Calendar t Ll Options Under Appointment Types yu T p tae eeu can give descriptive names to the different mei f je types of appointments and change the icon eit tee te 78 CALENDAR for each type The D efault Views section lets you change what view is the default view when the Calendar opens Change the D efault Time Blocks to whatever size block you would like to use when scheduling appointments and to dos and viewing the Daily View Click the D one button to save your changes 79 DOCUMENTS Chapter Documents Save time and increase productivity by utilizing Prevail s document features management Prevail speeds up the document process by doing the data entry work for you All that is necessary on your part is selecting the letter or form to merge With as little as three mouse clicks you will be merging docu
104. er as the Defendant in each case Prevail gives you four spaces for dates of accident on the Accident page but that is only for multiple accidents with the same employer If you have a claimant who has multiple accidents with multiple employers set up a different case for each employer For personal injury cases it is not at all uncommon to have multiple defendants in a case For example in an auto case you might have the adverse driver listed as a defendant but also have a PIP claim wherein the PIP provider will be listed as a second defendant in the same case Y ou certainly have the option of entering the PIP suit as an entirely different case but that is up to you Neither approach is inherently right or wrong If you want to keep all the document history and notes together then list the PIP carrier as a second defendant If you want them differentiated enter the PIP suit as a different case Court The Court page in Prevail has several functions First of all it allows you to instantly see any hearings that are scheduled in the current case without having to search through or even look at the Calendar There is a place to enter hearings on this page and all hearings entered through this page will be automatically placed on the appropriate attorney s calendar If an appointment is added to the calendar and the type is Hearing a hearing will be placed on the Hearing tab There is also a section on the Court
105. er when merging this document a box would pop up prompting the user to Enter D ate and Time There are also instances where you might not always want to include a merge field For example if an address has two lines i e a second line for a suite number you would want to insert the field code for the second line of the address However not every address has a second line If an address doesn t have a second line and you insert a field code for the second line you would be left with a blank line in your finished document WordPerfect has a very simple way to fix this Simply insert a question mark directly after the field number This will instruct WordPerfect to eliminate the line entirely if the field is blank thus eliminating blank lines in your finished documents The codes in your form letter would then look like this Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Field 4 Field 5 Field 6 Field 7 Field 8 Field 9 Dear Field 1l Field 3 Notice the question mark inside the parentheses on Field 6 If that field contains data then it will be inserted in the appropriate spot when the document is merged If it is blank the line will be eliminated in the finished document Once you have finished composing the document save it to your My Files folder or save it to the X Prevail D ocs directory where X is the mapped server drive Adding the Document to Prevail After you ve created the document you have to add i
106. es you Y ou can make either a cost entry or payment in the ledger by clicking the Insert button When you click Insert the fields in the Item Description will change to green This is to let you know you are in insert mode Enter the information and click the Done The total at the bottom of the cost ledger will automatically be updated to reflect your new entry History Information In addition to creating form i letters and SSA forms s noe De i m Prevail also keeps track Of Sslsssssssssssssssssst tstisststnnsnnIGn them When you generate a letter or an SSA form it is automatically saved and a record of that document is made in the document history for the currently selected case This history includes a description of every document sent or received 30 GUIDED TOUR for this case Each line in this summary represents an individual document The entry for each document includes the date of the document who generated it a narrative description of the document when a response to the document is expected and whether there is detail additional notes on the document If there are notes on a document and you want to view them you can simply double click on the document s listing in the summary This will bring up a more detailed view of the document that includes the case manager the person who will receive the follow up reminder for this document on his her to do list
107. essage on the status bar that says Imported X new report s where X is the actual number of reports imported If areport with the same name already exists in the table you will be prompted to overwrite the report If you choose not to overwrite the report it will be renamed for you 150 REFERENCE Chapter Reference A complete list of all keyboard commands SQL functions and other bits of information Keyboard Shortcuts hia New Prospect Create a new prospect Ctrl A New Schedule a new appointment from the main Appointment Prevail window Ctrl T New To Do Create a new to do from the main Prevail window F12 Save If in update mode F12 will save changes Ctrl U Update Update client information on the main Prevail window Ctrl I Import Text If in update mode and the active field is a memo from File field this will allow you to enter text from a file Ctrl P Print ee current tab Alt F4 ep tes lt lt F2 Quick Search Search for a client by last name Ctrl F2 Search for cases providers attorneys parties etc REFERENCE Shift F10 Closed View closed prospects Prospects Ctrl F10 Open Prospects View opened prospects Ctrl F9 D igital Photo Capture or view photos for a case F5 Forms Create forms or letters F4 Case Notes O pen case notes F3 Rolodex Open the rolodex O pen the calendar to the Appointments tab Set Reviewed Sets the current cases review date
108. est search that scans open and closed cases to see if the defendant you are entering was a client of yours at one time Note that Prevail will not search for conflicts with friendly doctors or insurance providers Add a new hearing Click the Court tab of the case you want to add a hearing to Click the Insert button and fill out the information about the hearing When finished click the Done button to save the hearing Note that all hearings entered on the Court page will automatically be added as an appointment in the calendar Hearings created in the calendar will not be added to the Court page Add a third party On the case you wish to add a new party to click the Parties tab Next click the Insert button to bring up the Related Party window Select the type of party from the Type drop down box Click the Choose button to choose the party If necessary fill out any notes or insurance information in the fields provided Click the Done button to save the party Editing a party s contact On the Parties tab choose the party that you want to change the contact information for Click the Update button The Contact Information section will 112 HOW TO turn yellow indicating that you are in update mode Enter the new information and click the D one button to save it Social Security Add a new claim to case First pull up the client for wh
109. etter It is no substitute for knowing your way around the more advanced functions of your word processing software but it is enough to point you in the right direction Reporting and Management The management portion of case management software is often forgotten once a firm gets a system up and running Once all your data is in Prevail and you have been using it effectively for a while you need to consider what type of information you may want to get out of the system There are already a number of status based reports in the Prevail Reporter but you may want to create others For information on the Prevail Reporter please read the Prevail Reporter manual GETTING STARTED AN OVERVIEW The Prevail Reporter manual will guide you through basic report creation reporting concepts and tips on creating powerful functional reports INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE Chapter Installing the Software Installing the components necessary to start using the Prevail system client application If you plan on installing Prevail on only one computer the server portion as well as the client application should be installed on the same machine If you plan on using Prevail across the entire network the server install must be performed on the computer that is the fileserver unless the server is running Novell NetWare In that case install the server portion via a workstation with the server drive mapped accordingly B efore running Prevail inst
110. eur gee ee eessesgeee place to put notes about a nsis es e case If you look on the mm m Ge Strategy page of ANY sesmas personal injury case you Will fe ses seen oso omens mee find a large memo field f a called Case Strategy You can put notes here too but this area is intended for attorney notes about the a TATE a theory or strategy of the mesafe case This is where you can O detail a blueprint of your case Where are you going with it What issues are you going to pursue It s helpful for your staff to know what you were thinking about a case when you signed it up It is also helpful if another attorney has to cover a hearing or deposition for you Another person should be able to read through these notes and get a good idea of what the case is all about They are unlimited in length if you type more than fits in the window it will scroll and there is a field code for this notes field so you can include them in a pre hearing worksheet if you want on E e Sticky Notes Another kind of note available in Prevail is the Sticky Note which you can create in any case by pressing Ctrl F4 A Sticky Note in Prevail is analogous to putting a physical Post It note on the hardcopy file Whenever anybody pulls up a case that has a Sticky Note applied to it the note will pop up instantly regardless of what page of client data the user is trying to access You generally will only need to put
111. f forms for use with prospects As far as field codes are concerned the prospects field codes are matched as best as possible to its regular client counterpart For instance the basic client information such as first name last name middle name salutation street address one street address two city state zip code etc are the same as the prospect s basic information So if your letter does not contain information for specific law types the forms can be used for both clients and prospects For a complete field code list for prospects choose Options Print Prospect Field Code List from the main Prevail menu Use these field codes when creating merge documents to be used for your prospects Printing When you click the Print button on the Open Prospects window a drop down menu will appear giving you two options Printing the Prospects List The first item in the Print drop down menu is List Choosing List will print out a columnar report with every prospect in Prevail The list will include information such as the prospect s name social security number phone number law type and onset date When you choose the List option a standard Windows print dialog will appear If you need to select or setup a printer do so at this window then click the OK button to print Printing a Prospect The second item in the Print drop down menu is Prospect Choosing Prospect will print t
112. favorable or non favorable decision As you update claims Prevail will suggest the next step by using the process you define Prevail comes with a standard process that most firms deem proper with minor modifications For more information on the claims process and instructions on editing the process see section on the Claims Utility Forms Customization Prevail comes with a lot of forms and form letters but you will almost always want to customize these add letterhead change signature blocks add additional language etc or replace them with your own letters In either case you will need a person with a sound knowledge of Microsoft Word or WordPerfect to accomplish these tasks Keep in mind that the ability to automatically generate and track documents will more than any other feature save you time and money in the long run Do not gloss over the process of getting them set up the way you want them Make sure whoever is setting up the forms has read the chapter in your word processor manual on document merges While perfectly usable forms can be created by simply inserting field codes into your existing documents there are also a number of powerful features in both Microsoft Word and WordPerfect script languages that you may want to take advantage of If you can t find your word processor manual or you want additional help the How Do I section of this manual contains basic instructions for creating a form or form l
113. forever with no way to retrieve it To delete a prospect select the prospect and click the Delete button You will be asked to confirm the deletion Click the Yes button to delete the prospect permanently or click the No button to keep the prospect It is recommended to use Close rather than deleting a prospect Please see the section below titled Closing a Prospect Merging Forms and Letters A new feature to Prevail 3 9 is the ability to merge documents with prospects As you learned above prospects have their own document history like a regular client To merge a document with a prospect select the prospect and click the Forms button on the Open Prospects window If you are viewing a prospect s information you can merge a document by clicking on the Document History tab and clicking the Forms button Using both methods when you click the Forms button a drop down menu will appear Select either Letters or Forms depending on which type of document you want to merge If merging a form select the form and click the OK button to start the merge If merging a letter select the letter click the OK button fill in the document s information and click the D one button 95 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS Since the prospects table and the regular client table differ in the number and types of fields they have it may be necessary to create a separate set o
114. formance If you are running any virus scanners turn them off Most virus scanners have options to scan files when they are opened If this is the case it may take Prevail up to 15 minutes to open because the scanner is scanning large files across a network If you have not packed the database in a while do so This will help speed up the startup and general performance Use the Control Panel to clean old calendar appointments and to dos If you are still experiencing slow performance and more than ten people are using Prevail at the same time you may want to consider purchasing the Advantage Database Server This will make Prevail a true Client Server environment reducing network traffic and the number of files that are opened on each workstation Check your hardware Prevail requires a Pentium 166 and 32 MB RAM for minimal performance If you are accustomed to fast performance with a number of applications opened at the same time then consider upgrading to atleast a Pentium 233 with 64 MB RAM or better Strange appointments behavior Check to make sure that the appointments are actually for the user that is currently selected and you are on the correct day in the calendar 162 TROUBLESHOOTING Sometimes the appointment index PVAPPT ADI gets damaged Reindex the database and Prevail will accept appointments It will not however bring back appointments that were added during the time it was damaged Merging Documents Case m
115. he currently selected components into the om clipboard Copies the currently selected components into CODY the clipboard Pastes the components in the clipboard into the 134 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Edit Toolbar To access this toolbar select the View gt Toolbars Edit menu option from the Report Designer main menu This toolbar will assist in setting the most important property or properties for the currently selected component No component selected D ata aware component selected This configuration allows the data pipeline and data field for the component to be set The drop down list on the left shows the data pipeline The drop down list on the right shows the field name Edit Label component selected Cust No Here a label component has been selected in the Report Designer The Edit toolbar displays an edit box where the label s caption can be set Edi Shape component selected Rounded Rectangle Sguare o Pe Pounded Rectangle Here a shape component has been selected in the Report Designer The Edit toolbar displays the different shape types Format Toolbar Format Arial jfi BT u 135 THE PREVAIL REPORTER To access this toolbar select the View gt Toolbars Format menu option from the Report Designer main menu This toolbar will assist in setting the font colors and layering of components Property Icon D Pep S kins Name N A ha the font name for textu
116. he selected prospect s information The information printed includes all of the information available on the New Prospect window When you choose the List option a standard Windows print dialog will appear If you need to select or setup a printer do so at this window then click the OK button to print Reviewing a Prospect When you review a prospect to become a potential client Prevail keeps track of when you last reviewed the client and the number of times you have reviewed the prospect A review basically consists of looking at the prospect s information To review a prospect select the prospect and click the Review button The New Prospect window will appear with the prospect s information Click the Continue button to view the second page of information When you have finished reviewing the prospect click the Done button at any time or click the 96 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS Continue button from the second page When the New Prospect window closes notice that the Tries and Last Try column is updated for that prospect Searching Prospects To search for a prospect click the Search button on the Open Prospects window The prospect name Power Search window will appear Search for a prospect s first or last name and click the Search button To view a prospect double click the prospect Activating a Prospect Activating a prospect simply m
117. history for any provider by single clicking your mouse on the provider s name in the medical provider window The treatment history displayed in the lower window includes dates of treatment when medical records were last requested and when they were last received There is also a field that indicates if the firm paid a charge for the records Since you see a finite number of medical providers over and over again in your files Prevail has a database of medical providers This allows you to simply pick a provider name off a list and have all the other information address phone fax number etc filled in automatically Once you enter a provider into the database for any client you never have to re type the information when you encounter the same provider again in another client you can simply pick the name off a list To add a provider to the currently selected client simply click the mouse on the Insert button and click on the New Provider button You can then select from among providers in the database If you want to insert a provider into the database you can do so at this point by clicking on the Add button The information you enter about the provider will be permanently saved in the medical provider database You will then be prompted to enter a treatment summary for the new provider with the current client i e what they were treated for dates etc When you click on one of the treatments listed in the Treatme
118. if the Prevail Reporter is running on at least one machine It is generally not a good idea to run scheduled batches on more than one machine unless you need to print the same reports to different printers in different parts of the firm For instance if the accounting department is located on a different floor than the attomeys it might be a good idea to run the Reporter on one machine in both places so each department s needs are satisfied Form and Letter Emulation If you create a lot of forms or letters you may benefit from using the Prevail Reporter to generate them Since you have the ability to limit a dataset by criteria you could automate all of your document creation by setting up forms in the Reporter For instance if your firm sends out Holiday cards to clients you could setup a custom field in Prevail called Holiday Card using the values Yes and No to denote whether the client will receive a card When you create the letter you would set the Search Criteria to show all records that have the value of Yes in that particular custom field To create a form using the reporter you could either manually replicate it by using Shapes lines labels and D BText CA components If you have access to a scanner you could scan the form and save the image as a WMF Windows MetaFile Remove the Header and Footer bands stretch the D etail band to use the entire page height place an image component t on the D etail
119. if the text of the actual code wraps to the next line G enerally in actual documents the text itself is much smaller than the codes There are some things in your document that may be variable from one client to another but for which no field codes exist In these instances you can use the Fill in command from the Insert Word Field button menu This way when the end user is merging the document they will be prompted to enter the appropriate information directly from the keyboard while the document is merging For example if your letter tells the client about a scheduled appointment and you want to include the date and time in the text of the letter you can insert a Fill in command into your form letter This would pause the merge and prompt the user to enter the date and time of the appointment before continuing In the text of the form letter the Fill in code would look like this Your appointment has been scheduled for FILLIN Enter appointment date and time 82 DOCUMENTS However when merging this document a box would pop up prompting the user to Enter appointment date and time There are also instances where you might not always want to include a merge field For example if an address has 2 lines i e a second line for a suite number you would want to insert the field code for the second line of the address However not every address has a second line If an address does not have a second line and you in
120. il has a lot of timesaving features but none of them will do anything for you unless there is data in the system If you already have some kind of database system in place we can convert your existing data for you at least some of it to work with Prevail If you don t have any kind of database then you will have to start from the beginning Getting all of your clients into the system is a formidable task but the sooner it gets done the sooner you begin reaping the rewards Since Prevail uses pick lists for one time data entry of related parties medical providers insurance companies Judges etc it often helps to put these parties in first Then when you are entering clients you can simply pick related parties from a list rather than GETTING STARTED AN OVERVIEW typing them in manually Do not put off entering your data into the system It is like cleaning your house the longer you wait to do it the longer it takes One successful approach is to have a Saturday workday where everybody comes in to the office and spends an entire uninterrupted day doing data entry Make it a casual day and order in lunch Doing the data entry in an informal environment without the added pressure of the phone ringing makes the process go much faster Using a team approach with everybody working together should eliminate complaints of individuals not doing their share Procedural Decision Making The procedural aspect of the implementat
121. ilding a report with the Prevail Reporter is a three step process Let s begin Step 1 Select Data Before we do anything we must know exactly what our report s goal is For this example we want to create a report that will A Prompt for a date range B Show all cases added to Prevail within that date range C Show each case s referral source By simply knowing what the report will do we know which data we will need to include in the report Since the report is basically a case list we will be using the Clients table pvdient as our master table and the Referral Source table pvretsrc as our detail table On the Prevail Report Designer click the Data tab This is where we will define the data that will be used in the report Select File gt New from the main menu select Query Wizard and click the OK button The Query Wizard window will appear This wizard will help guide us through the data selection From the Available Tables list select Clients and click the right arrow button to move the table over to the Selected Tables list Since our detail table will be the Referral Source table select it and click the right arrow button When you click the right arrow button a window called Join Table will appear This is where we define the relationship between these two tables A list of possible relationships will be displayed in the Joined Fields list Some of these joins a
122. iles Used to display common report information such as page number page count print date and time date time etc The format is controlled by the D isplayFormat property SystemV ariable a Used to display bitmaps and windows metafiles in reports Assign the Picture property of this component in order to place an image in your report Use the Report D esigner s built in picture dialog to load images at design time 131 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Shape RE Use this component to print various shapes squares rectangles circles ellipses Set the Shape property to select a type of shape Use the Brush and Pen properties to control the color and border TeeChart Used to display standard non data aware TeeCharts This component enables you to use TeeChart inside the Report D esigner Y ou can access the TeeChart editor via a popup menu iu Used to render barcodes The string value assigned to the D ata property is encoded based on the BarCodeT ype If the data to be encoded is in a database use D BBarCode The following symbologies are supported Codabar Code 128 Code 39 EAN 13 EAN 8 FIM A B C Interleaved 2 of 5 PostNet UPC A UPC E Data Component Palette ETTET To access this toolbar select the View Toolbars Data Components menu option from the Report Designer main menu This toolbar will assist in creating data aware report components DBText Used for displaying values from all types of data
123. ing will appear in your to do list a few days before it s actually due for a response giving you time to prepare if necessary Y ou can set the exact text that will appear on the to do by setting the Reminder Text field If the document requires special information such as a defendant s information or insurance information then check the option necessary for the document When you merge the document you will be prompted to select the appropriate defendant employer medical provider or related party Click the Done button to save the document s entry or click the Cancel button to discard the new entry If you need to make any modifications to a document click the Edit this Document button to open the document in your word processor 86 DOCUMENTS Merging Letters To merge a letter with the currently selected client click the Forms button The Merge Type defaults to Letter Select the letter you wish to merge and click the OK button You can search for the document s group by entering the group in the Search field F pea fe and pressing Enter on the keyboard a on sarm _ After you selected the document the History Item window will appear allowing you to modify the information about the document that is about to be merged The history item information will eee a appear in the Document History after it has been a pel merged Most of the inf
124. ion is the one which requires the most thought and attention on your part This is where you decide which of Prevail s features you are going to use and how you are going to use them Prevail was developed with input from firms all over the country with differing styles of practice Because of varying influences on the development of the product not all firms will use all features A feature that is considered crucial to a personal injury firm on the east coast might seem utterly superfluous to a social security firm on the west coast If after reviewing the guided tour and experimenting with the software you find a feature you do not think fits your practice do not use it There are however certain core elements of Prevail that are used by virtually all firms Everybody uses the document generation and tracking features everybody uses the client notes and everybody uses status tracking Beyond that there are no established norms Some firms choose not to use the calendar because they already have one in place Some firms do not use the to do list features because they feel mistakenly they are too small to need them Some firms do not use the time ledgers because they seldom do fee affidavits and do not mind recreating their time from the file You have to go through the software and figure out which features are applicable to your style of practice One big area of variation in use is the document history feature Prevail automatically m
125. is tab Once you ve set the drag and drop behavior it is retained for future design sessions The Report Wizard The Report Wizard can be accessed via the File gt New menu option of the report designer A series of screens are presented Each requests information about the report When the last page is reached either a preview or design option can be selected Clicking the Finish button causes a report to be created and displayed as requested 140 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Your First Report If you are already familiar with reporting and the process of creating a report then this should be simple for you If you have never created a functional report it might seem like another language to you but with a few practice reports under your belt you should be creating reports like a pro This chapter will attempt to simplify the process of creating a new report and define terms used in reporting Starting with a Clean Slate To explain the reporting basics we will be creating a new report that will prompt for a date range and show all cases that were added to Prevail and the referral source Select the folder called Lists and click the E button to bring up a blank report template By selecting the Lists folder before clicking the new report button we have chosen to create our new report in the Lists folder You can always move the report to another folder by dragging it into another folder Bu
126. l and run the Prevail Control Panel program which should appear in the Prevail group in your Windows Start Programs menu Click the Reindex button and Prevail will automatically rebuild all of its indexes If you cannot find this program you will need to install it See the chapter titled Installing the Software 108 HOW TO Review prospective clients Rather than forcing you to immediately enter prospective clients into your main client database Prevail allows you to enter them into a prospects table that you can track separately from your active clients When you sign up a prospect you can automatically transfer all data from that prospect into your main client database with a single click of the mouse To view or edit information on a person in your prospect database click the Prospects button on the Prevail toolbar To review a prospect select the prospect and click the Review button The prospect s information will be displayed If necessary update any client information and click the Continue button On the second page of data enter any necessary information and click the Continue or Done button This will increment the Tries field and set today s date in the Last Try field Search for client You can view a different client from anywhere in Prevail by clicking on the Search button on the Prevail toolbar The Quick Search window will appear Enter
127. l type the name in the First and Last Name fields leaving the Company field blank Note that any time you add a defendant to a case Prevail will automatically perform a conflict of interest search It will search through both open and closed files to see if the Defendant you have entered has been previously represented by your firm as a Plaintiff Similarly when you add a new Plaintiff the system searches through open and closed files to see if the new Plaintiff has ever been a Defendant in a case handled by your firm While this functionality is enough of a conflict search to get you a discount on your malpractice insurance it s no substitute for due diligence in screening your cases There is no good way for the computer to keep you from accidentally suing a friendly doctor or a referral source so you ll still have to use some other means to check for those situations 58 PERSONAL INJURY The mechanics of adding and updating defendants is pretty simple If you want to change any of the information that appears for a particular defendant simply highlight that defendant in the top window and click the Update button Y ou can then add or change information about the defendant insurance adjuster insurance company or opposing counsel If you want to delete a defendant entirely highlight the defendant in the top window and click the D elete button If you handle Worker s Compensation cases you will want to enter the employ
128. lick the D elete button Searching for Appointments If you need to find a particular appointment based on a client or description the fastest way to find it is to search for it The search will search for all appointments that match the criteria given the current view For instance if the user view is selected the search will return all appointments for the current user only If the Everyone view is selected it will return all appointments that match the criteria for all users in Prevail To search for an appointment click the EEE Search button Enter a keyword into the an Search field The search is not case sensitive Don t worry about getting Serena capitalization correct Select Client Name to search for a client s last name or select Description to search for text in an uctes To fr2n7eo l appointment s description field Choose a date range by typing in the dates or using 5 5 the drop down calendar control Click the Search button The matching appointments will be shown in the appointments grid Notice the grid is now purple and the Search button now says RESET This is to inform you that you are in search mode Click the RESET button to return to the normal view ate Range From fi 21 r59 T C Client Mame i Description 72 CALENDAR Printing Appointments Sometimes it may be necessary to print a list of appointments fo
129. ll be visible To preview a report double click it These reports are standard reports that come with Prevail but you may find the need to personalize these reports or create new ones To print a report choose File Print or click the amp button Reporter Settings Since the Prevail Reporter uses the same settings as the Prevail client application there probably will not be a need to change the Reporter s Database Server Enable Network Local i Remote Internet Prevail Directories settings To access the settings choose Options Settings from the main tecPah cvrevsi Browse menu If you are running the Merge Path Local Drive Advantage D atabase Server make sure Merge Patni everevai Browse Network Path P Prevail Browse the Database Server option is set to Remote otherwise set it to Local If the machine is part of a network check the Machine is on a Network option This will allow Prevail to receive system messages The Network Path is the path the Prevail data resides in The Local Path is the path to your local Prevail directory This should be set to C Prevail for most installs The Merge Path can be any directory but it usually is the same as the Local Path The Prevail Reporter must be restarted after making changes to the settings The Reporter Interface PB Bont ah Simple Costs Due The
130. m the main menu and Prevail will reassign the offices If the assigned office is wrong you can simply pick the desired office from a list By clicking on the magnifying glass icon to the right of any of the displayed parties you can zoom in to see address and phone number information To add or update information on the page click the Update button Y ou will notice that some of the fields on this page have Choose buttons to the right of them To select an entry for any of the items SSA Office DDS OHA ALJ etc click the Choose button next to the item you would like to change A list of entries will be displayed Pick a name from the list and click the D one button By clicking the D one button you have selected that item At the Prevail window click the Done button to save the changes Strategy Information The Strategy Information page lets you enter notes m Ff F E about how you plan tOo seweprinfomsiion iw wi Sa a pursue this claim You can seme enter physical description of Emh eun unr min 1 rst set seueay ate ernst wr te ares aes W your Client listing and grid fettecivascctacemcrsen e ntemnntm reat information as well as indicating whether the client is capable of working or i Tonto l currently working You can m mme paa a 2 arora brr also assign a medical and R T OE eid vocational expert from the Pee fees pele
131. m32 for Windows NT users Make sure the following settings are correct If the user still experiences these errors try increasing the numbers by 10 CONNECTIONS 20 TABLES 70 INDEX ES 100 LOCKS 750 The file with the correct settings can be downloaded from Save the fle in the C Windows System directory for Windows 95 98 users and in the C Winnt System32 directory for Windows NT users OE Exception on Costs Time Tab If the Local Connect Failed message does not appear before the blue screen OE Exception error then this is normally caused because a cost or time entry has a blank date 161 TROUBLESHOOTING The solution to this problem is to make sure all cost and time entries have a date To fix old entries download and run the CTFix exe program from the website at http www previal net usersonly files ctfix exe Out of memory This error might occur when updating or activating a client First make sure there is plenty of free hard drive space on the server It can also be caused by table corruption of some sort Call PTI for a solution RichEdit Line Insertion Error More than likely the machine this happens on is a Windows 95 98 machine The reason this error occurs is the Case Notes file has reached the maximum size limit Export the notes by clicking the Export button Windows 95 98 enforces a 32KB or 64KB resource limit on RichEdit memo fields Windows NT allows for unlimited size Slow Prevail per
132. ments saving time and being more productive than ever before ne of Prevail s time saving features is its document creation and Prevail is compatible with Microsoft Word 95 2000 and Corel WordPerfect Suite 7 9 2000 Before you can start merging documents one of these word processors must be installed on the machine that is running Prevail This chapter will help guide you through creating new forms and letters merging documents with clients and modifying existing forms and letters Creating New Documents The process described below tells you how to create document templates to use with Prevail You follow this process one time for each document template you want to create Once a template is created it can be used over and over to create documents complete with merged client data in any of your cases To merge documents from templates that have already been created simply press F5 or click the Forms button If that is all you are trying to do read no further in this section This section is intended solely for the power users If you just want to know how to merge letters in your cases skip ahead past all this scary stuff to the section called Merging Letters Creating documents is a two step process The first step to creating a merge document is to actually create the document template in the word processor Before we begin make sure you have printed the field code lists by choosing Options Print Field C
133. mpts because that would hang up the batch process so you would enter a value into the field Click the Next button to set the order We want to sort our report by the client s last and first name so select Set Order and add Clients Last Name and Clients First Name to the Selected Fields list Click the Next button If you wish to give the data set a description name do so by entering it in the Description field Click the Finish button A sample resulting set will be displayed Click the OK button to close it Step 2 Designing the Layout Now that we have a data set to work with we need to create the layout for the report The layout is the visual organization for the data we have selected Click the Design tab There are five basic parts to a report s layout These are called Bands 1 Title used to display the title of the report 2 Header appears at the top of each page and usually contains the column headers 3 Detail the detail is where the data usually is displayed The detail band is repeated until the end of a page or all of the data has been displayed 142 THE PREVAIL REPORTER 4 Footer appears at the bottom of each page and usually contains page number or report totals 5 Summary used to show a summary of the report usually by column totals Creating a layout is pretty simple For this report we will primarily be using La
134. n Eile Etrit cam Print Ctrl F Printer Setup Logoft Exit Alt Fa 36 THE INTERFACE Save If in update or edit mode this will save the changes similar to clicking the D one button Update Info Puts the system into update mode similar to clicking the Update button Attach Image to Client This will add an image file to the client s photo journal Export as Text This will export the current page s information to a plain ASCII text file This is useful for inserting text into documents Import Text from File If the currently selected field is a memo field big input box this item will allow you to copy the contents of another file into the memo field This would be like opening a text file in Notepad and copying and pasting the text into Prevail Print This will print the current page All pages in Prevail are printable Printer Setup Used to configure the printer Logoff Logout of Prevail This will not exit Prevail It will take you back to the Prevail Login window Exit Quit Prevail Edit Menu e Undo Undo the last edit STEN THENE e Cut Copy the selected text to the clipboard and delete Ta the text EE Faste Etri X Delete Ctrl D el Select All Shitt Ctrl 4 Copy Copy the selected text to the clipboard Paste Paste the text from the clipboard at the cursor D elete D elete the selected text select All Selects all of the text in the selected input box 37 THE
135. n in my case calls you get from your clients can be answered with a quick glance at this page One of the most significant features of this page is the fact that you can define the steps in the process yourself When you first install Prevail it will contain the basic steps in the appeals process e g application denial request reconsideration await decision request hearing await hearing date etc That is plenty for many firms but others like to insert their own steps along the way using the Claims Utility specifics of which are detailed in a following section of this chapter The Claims Utility allows you to insert each of the actions that you think are relevant to a claim When your staff updates the status of claims along the way they choose from the steps that you have defined There are two ways to update the status of a claim The first is to simply click on the Update button and pick whichever of the pre defined possibilities is appropriate for the next step of the current claim For each step in the process Prevail knows all of the possibilities of what can happen next You simply pick the one that actually happened and you are done If there are any statutes associated with the step e g reconsideration has been denied and you have sixty days to request a hearing Prevail will automatically calculate the statute date and create a to do item 10 days ahead of time to remind you the case manager that the statute is ap
136. n it This can be helpful for organizing your sub reports The Data Tree To access this tool window select the View Toolbars D ata Tree menu option from the Report Designer main menu This tool window is dockable only on the left and right sides of the Report D esigner Standard Component Palette Standard Cor ponents RiVAAB ERB f Bz 130 THE PREVAIL REPORTER To access this toolbar select the View gt T oolbars Standard Components menu option from the Report Designer main menu This toolbar will assist in creating the most commonly used report components Label Used to display text Assign the Caption property to control the text value You can have the label resize automatically to fit a changing caption if you set the AutoSize property to True Memo Used to print multiple lines of plain text in a report To set the value assign a string list to the Lines property To dynamically resize the memo during printing set the Stretch property to True Use the ShiftRelativeTo property to define dynamic relationships with other stretchable objects RichT ext Used to print formatted text To set the value assign the RichT ext property or use the LoadFromFile orLoadFromRT FStream methods Use the ShiftRelativel o property to define dynamic relationships with other stretchable objects At design time you can use the ReportBuilder s built in RTF Editor to load modify and save rich text data stored in f
137. n the To do tab of the Calendar Then click the Print button at the bottom of this page Print a calendar Access the calendar by pressing the F8 key or by clicking on the Calendar button on the Prevail toolbar Next click the Print button at the bottom of this page Reschedule an appointment If you ve got an appointment scheduled and you want to move it to a different date and time simply double click on the appointment you must first be in the calendar and edit the date and time as necessary After you click the Done button the appointment will be moved to the new date and time If you need to keep records of rescheduled appointments you can cancel the appointment put a note in the description that denotes it as rescheduled then create a new appointment with the new date and time Schedule an appointment You can schedule an appointment by choosing File New Appointment from the Prevail menu You can also click on the Calendar button on the Prevail toolbar or press the F8 key The calendar will display the current day with any scheduled appointments Select the day you wish to schedule the appointment on then click the Add button on the Appointments tab Fill in the information about the appointment and click the D one button to save it Set a to do You can set a to do by choosing File gt New To Do from the main menu or by opening the calendar and clicking the Add but
138. nd broadcast system wide messages to all users running Prevail If the Control Panel has not been installed please see the chapter titled Installing the Software l he Prevail Control Panel is used to maintain the Prevail system At least Prevail Control Panel at F Pack Tables Auto Update t it Who s Using Change User A il Broadcast Message Clean Calendar Quick Backup Security THE PREVAIL CONTROL PANEL Reindex There may be times when you are using Prevail that the data will appear out of order or mixed up For instance clients will seem like there are not sorted the wrong to dos show for the wrong user or a case s status appears unsorted or completely wrong This means that the indexes have been corrupted This is similar to a libraries card catalog if any library still uses a card catalog being out of order Prevail can t find the data where it should be and thus shows arbitrary data The fix for this is simple After everyone has logged out of Prevail run the Control Panel by choosing Start Programs Prevail Contro Panel or double clicking the Prevail Control Panel shortcut on the desktop Click the Reindex button to start the Reindex When the Reindex has completed close the Prevail Control Panel Everyone can then log back into Prevail Pack Tables Packing the tables will remove all records marked as deleted When you delete a record in Prevail the physical record is not
139. ng Prevail 7038 Error This error is often indicative of corrupted indexes Have everyone exit Prevail run the Prevail Control Panel and click the Reindex button 160 TROUBLESHOOTING Clients not sorted A corrupted index file causes this error Run the Prevail Control Panel and click the Reindex button Make sure all users are logged out of Prevail Custom field labels disappeared More than likely they haven t actually disappeared Prevail 3 9 2 introduces separate custom field label sets for Social Security and Personal Injury Choose Data Bank Social Security gt Custom Field Labels If your old labels show up all you need to do is retype the labels into Personal Injury custom field labels by choosing D ata Bank gt Personal Injury gt Custom Field Labels Failed to save stream This error occurs when saving a record after an update First make sure there is plenty of free hard drive space on the server This error can also be caused by table record corruption Call PTI for a solution Local Connect Failed This is usually caused by a lack of resources allocated to the Advantage Local Server ALS or local database engine This problem has not been reported by anyone using the Advantage D atabase Server AD S A solution to this problem is to allocate more resources to the ALS To do this open the file called adslocal cfg found in the C Windows System directory for Windows 95 98 and in C Winnt Syste
140. notes time charged for the document Prevail can automatically bill the file every time a specific document is created and even the physical file name of the document When you are finished viewing the entry click on the Done button at the bottom of this window PE E Cesko mr ia F Pa ae E aT a a N E De Peary ae Pe Ta a u irie Feria M ire Li Since Prevail automatically saves all of your documents it also knows where to find them if you want to retrieve them later To retrieve any document listed in the history summary select the document and then click the View button on the navigation bar Prevail will automatically open the word processor and retrieve the document When you are done viewing the document you can either minimize or close your word processor and switch back to Prevail If you want you can leave both Prevail and your word processor running at all times If you want to quickly mm search through your eee document history entries to E Maree e cheer ee ee re find a specific document or Ao group of documents you can use the Limit feature by clicking the Limit button This will show the Text Search window Enter a keyword or text string i e the word you want to search for and specify which field you want to search in for that word Seemee After you have entered a search string and clicked on the OK button Prevail will limit the dis
141. nt button Next a standard Windows print dialog will appear If you need to change printers do that at this time then click the O K button Print client notes Pull up the client whose notes you want to print Then press the F4 key or click on the Notes button on the Prevail toolbar Click on the Print button at the top of this window If you want to print only a section of the notes select the text you wish to print click the Print button then select Selection on the Windows print dialog window Click the OK button to print Print client information Any tab in Prevail is printable To print a tab select the tab by clicking on it then choose File Print from the main menu Using the Prevail Reporter you can create custom reports that will allow you to extract more information from the Prevail database For more information on the Prevail Reporter see the Prevail Reporter manual Print a cost ledger First pull up the client whose cost ledger you would like to print Then access the cost ledger for that client by clicking on the Cost tab Once the ledger is displayed you can print it by choosing File Print from the main menu Re index files All database software needs to have the files periodically re indexed to protect the data and ensure that the program operates properly To re index files in Prevail you must first exit the program and have all other users exit the program as wel
142. nt History list you will be shown a detail of the treatment on the right This information includes treatment date range when records were last requested when they were last received whether your firm paid for the records and whether the SSA already has copies of these records There is also a detail field that lets you enter notes about this medial provider as he she relates to your client i e whether the provider supports the claim of disability etc Change a Case Number Go to the client that needs the case number changed and choose Utilities gt Change Case Number The current case number will appear in the message box Type in the new case number and click the OK button Close a case First pull up the case you want to close Then choose Utilities Close Current Case from the main menu Y ou will be asked to confirm the action If you click on Y es the current case will be moved to the closed file area 107 HOW TO Make atime entry Pull up the client for whom you want to record a time entry Click the Time tab at the bottom of the screen To add a new entry click on the Insert button Print a time sheet Pull up the client for whom you want to print a time sheet Then click on the Time tab at the bottom of the screen You can print the displayed time sheet by choosing File Print from the main menu The Prevail print options window will appear Select the options you wish and click the Pri
143. nt entries in the Related Parties grid corresponding contact information for the selected party will be displayed in the window below To add or change any of this contact information for a party select the party and click the Update button You can now modify the contact information fields as desired Remember to click Done button when you are finished to save the changes 26 GUIDED TOUR Damages Information The Damages Information tab is where you can enter an unlimited number of damage claims and_ lien information To add a new damage or lien click the Insert button and choose Damage or Lien from the drop down menu t m F a Damages Information Gpe jbiS pari m e If you choose to add a damage the Liabilities View window will appear _ There you can select a medical provider by clicking the Choose button enter the damage type dates of service the amount of damage description and any details related to the damage If you choose Lien the Health Insurance Lien Holder window will appear You can then select an insurance provider by clicking the Choose button and enter the policy number notice that the lien was received amount insured and amount paid Common Tabs There are a few tabs that are visible for all case types They have the exact same function for each law type Instead of explaining them for both the social s
144. o the field that you want to total Right click on the DBCalc component choose Calculations and choose the calculation type from the Calc Type drop down box If the calculation is part of a group and should be reset then choose the group from the Reset Group drop down box See the Simple Costs report for an example of how to use a DBCalc component in this situation Drill Down Sub Reports A drill down sub report adds a neat level of interactivity to a report Drill downs allow the report to show or hide a sub report by clicking on a component already on the report Since drill down reports aren t very practical for most cases this manual will not go into detail about how to setup a drill down report For an example of a drill down report see D rill down found in the Examples folder Groups Grouping refers to organizing data by a particular value Naturally if you do not explicitly add groups the Reporter treats each record as a group For instance if you have a Client report with First Name Last Name and Social Security number the natural grouping would be all of the fields in the report For instance if you want to create a report that displays each case and all of the cost entries for that particular case you would want to group your report by case number or client name By grouping on case number or client name the report would group the case and cost entries together instead of listing e
145. ode List and Options Print Prospect Field Code List These lists contain field code numbers and a brief description of the field so you can successfully merge information from Prevail into the word processor DOCUMENTS Creating a Prevail Template If you are using Microsoft Word we can create a Prevail document template to simplify the process That way you can choose File New from the menu in Microsoft Word select the Prevail template and immediately start creating documents without opening a document that already exists and editing it If Microsoft Word is not running go ahead and open it Choose File O pen from the menu and open the document X Prevail D ocs Word 0000 where X is the mapped server drive If you cannot find the file make sure you are looking at all files not just doc files Once the file is open select all of the text in the document and delete the text Next choose File gt Save As from the menu type Prevail Document as the file name change the Save as type drop down box to Document Template dot click the Save button and close the document The next time you choose File New in Microsoft Word you will see an item under the General tab called Prevail Document You can then select it to create a new Prevail document Create a New Document Microsoft Word If you are using Microsoft Word choose File New from the Word menu and double click the Prevail Document
146. olbar select the View gt T oolbars A dvanced Components menu option from the Report Designer main menu This toolbar will assist in creating advanced report components a Icon D Pem O OO Used to logically group components together Use the ShiftRelativeTo property to move the M region in relation to another dynamically 133 THE PREVAIL REPORTER resizing component such as Memo RichText or child type SubReport SubReport IE Used to handle multiple master details create side by side reporting effects and hook reports together as one If you need a report to print within the context of a band use a child type subreport If you need to hook reports together use a section type subreport The PrintBehavior property determines the subreport type Standard Toolbar To access this toolbar select the View Toolbars Standard menu option from the Report Designer main menu This toolbar will assist saving the report layout accessing the print and print preview and cut and paste operations New Report oO Creates a blank report layout Displays the O pen dialog allowing you to open eon an existing report layout Save Report a Saves a report layout to file Displays the Page Setup dialog allowing you to Page Setup set the paper size and configure the layout for the report Displays the Print dialog before sending the report to the printer Print Preview a Displays the Print Preview window db Cuts t
147. olid grasp on the concepts mentioned earlier in this manual Adding Calculations to Reports Calculations are commonplace in reporting Usually some kind of calculation is used in every report whether it is counting records adding currency or concatenating two or more words such as a last name and first name Some calculations are handled at the query step and others are handle at the design layout step If you would like to concatenate a first name and last name so you only have to use one field for a person s name you would do that at the query design step Open the Report Designer and click the Data tab If you have already added a query click the E button to open the Query Designer Double click either the first name or last name field to move it to the Calculations list Change the Function to Expression by choosing it from the drop down box In the expression field enter the following text replacing First and Last with the actual field names NOTE RTRIM Last lt RTRIM First RTRIM is a SQL function that will remove all trailing spaces from the value of Last and First THE PREVAIL REPORTER Other types of calculations can be performed at the design step by utilizing a D BCalc component Such a calculation would be summing cost or fee totals Simply place a DBCalc component on the D etail Group D etail Group Footer or Footer band and set the field value t
148. om you want to add a claim Then click on the Claims tab at the bottom of the screen to access the claim history page for that client If there is no claim currently being tracked for the client the Chronology will be blank Y ou can create a new claim by clicking on the Update You will be asked to start a new claim Respond by clicking on the Yes button The system will then ask if this is a new i e initial application level claim or a pending claim i e the claim is already at some point in the process other than initial application If this is a pending claim you will be asked to select a current status for the claim If there is already a claim pending on this client s case you can add another one by clicking on claim number 2 or claim number 3 and adding a new claim as described above Add disability information Pull up the client for whom you want to add disability information Click on the Disability tab at the bottom of the screen There are two parts to this screen The top window contains a short listing of each medical problem the client has and the bottom contains a narrative description which allows you to in the client s own words detail his or her medical problems and how they affect daily activities You can print this information as an addendum to the SSA forms To add a new disability entry click the Insert button at the top of the screen you can also delete impairments by clicking
149. on Enabling this option will make this machine available to receive system wide messages and enable Prevail s Chat feature If you do not have TCP IP installed on all of your 12 GUIDED TOUR machines do not enable the Machine is on a Network option Doing so may result in error messages when you attempt to run Prevail The Network Path specifies where Prevail will look for the data If you are participating on a Network be sure you have mapped the server drive If you have not please see the chapter titled Installing the Software If you have mapped the drive click the Browse button next to the Network Path field and select the drive and directory where the Prevail data exists usually P Prevail The Local Path specifies where Prevail is installed This should usually always be set to C Prevail unless you are running an abnormal Prevail installation Terminal Server Metaframe etc The Merge Path is the directory that will store temporary files when merging a document This value is normally C Prevail unless you are running an abnormal Prevail installation Terminal Server Metaframe etc Select your Word Processor brand and version by using the drop down boxes Click the Browse button to find your Word Processor s path Prevail has the ability to launch your preferred mail client when you choose Mail in Prevail Use the Browse button to select your favorite mail client application When you have completed c
150. onfiguring Prevail click the Save button to save the settings and load Prevail Logging In Prevail 3 9 2 allows you to use Prevail from any machine in the office using your own login name gt Select your login name from the Login drop down box and enter your password If you did not enter a i j FRAEWAJL wares re password when adding your login to the system leave o _ e the Password field blank and click the Login button If you need to exit Prevail without logging ars paar into the system click the Exit button piace Once you click the Login button Prevail will load all necessary data files and take you directly to the first client data screen of the program Note that there is no main menu per se The first view you see is the first client record in the system or the last client record you were working with the last time you exited Prevail Most users if not all appreciate the quick access to client files without having to navigate through mundane menus or welcome screens Prevail comes pre loaded with several sample or test clients in the system Y ou can use these to learn your way around the system then close them after entering a few of your Own 13 GUIDED TOUR The Interface The main Prevail interface consists of seven parts The Title Bar is found across the top of the Prevail window Information such as the client s name social security and c
151. ooking for if you use the Limit button This button serves as a filter You set a filter criteria and tell Prevail where to apply it and Prevail will filter out all 7 documents that do not meet the criteria you specified displaying only those that meet the criteria For example let s say you are talking on the phone to someone from Dr Jones office about medical records you have requested Suppose they Say you have never requested medical records You could very quickly click the Limit button and put the word Jones in your search criteria for the description field Any letter to Dr Jones including requests for medical records will show up Incoming documents from Dr Jones including medical records would also be listed here You could very easily tell Dr Jones office when you sent the request what was received and what is still outstanding Let s try another example Suppose you want a list of all medical records you have received in a case You could click on the Limit button and search for MED in the Type field Since MED is the type for medical records received all received records would show up but nothing else would To print a list of all medical records you have in your possession you could simply print the history while the limit was applied Only those items matching the limit would appear on your printout SSA Forms Production Many people get hung up on the logistics of
152. options Settings Print Field Code List Print Prospect Field Code List Settings O pens the Prevail Settings to change information such as server type Prevail path word processor information and e mail application Print Field Code List Prints the field code list for open clients Print Prospect Field Code List Prints the field code list for open prospects Help Menu Prevail Network Opens the Prevail Network web site in the default browser Prevail Network what s Mew Abot What s New Opens a text file that has the latest changes and news regarding the version of Prevail About O pens the About window for information such as version number licenses and Prevail path 40 THE INTERFACE Toolbar The Prevail Toolbar located under the main menu allows simple one click access to common Prevail features To access a feature via the toolbar simply click on the button you wish ji Search eo es Oo Mew Call Calendar Prospects Forms Query Motes Rolodex Photo Update Search The search button will show the Quick Search window used to search for a client s first or last name New Call The new call button allows you to add a new prospect to the Prevail system Calendar The calendar button will show the Prevail Calendar Prospects Clicking the Prospects button allows you to view the open prospects list Forms The Forms button allows you to merge a letter or S
153. ore information on this Choose the date of the appointment by typing in the date or clicking the down arrow and using the calendar control Set the Start and End time by clicking the up and down arrows next to each field or using the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard The time will increase by the default time block setting in the calendar options If you want Prevail to generate an alarm notifying you of the event enter a number greater than zero in the Remind me field The Cancelled box is there to cancel an appointment while keeping a record of it If this appointment is associated with a case you can check the Attach to Client box and use the Change Client button to set the client When viewing the appointment at a later time clicking the Go To button will move Prevail to that 70 CALENDAR client s file Enter a description and detail if necessary It is a good idea to add at least a short description for distinguishing between appointments and search purposes Click the D one button to save the appointment Appointment Alarm Prevail can notify you when an appointment is approaching Make sure the Enable appointment alarms option in the Prevail Properties is checked before continuing When adding or editing an appointment change the Notify me field to a number greater than zero to turn on the alarm for that event When the specified number of minutes before the start
154. ormation in the window is automatically entered The only field that is not entered is the D etail field You can modify any of the information in this window The File Name field does not need to be modified if you are merging a document This field is more for entering incoming documents or documents that aren t created by a Prevail merge The Merge across query option allows you to merge the same document for all of the clients in the current query If a query is not set it will merge for all active clients Once you check the Merge across query checkbox another checkbox called Create batch document 1 file appears Checking this option will force Prevail to create one large document for all of the clients opposed to one document for each client If you are using WordPerfect and there are more than eight clients in the current query Prevail will automatically check the batch file option because WordPerfect can only have eight documents opened at the same time When merging a document across a query Prevail will create all necessary document history and time entries for each client in the query If necessary make the appropriate changes and click the Done button to begin the merge or click the Cancel button to stop the merge Your word processor will open and merge the file with the current client s information If the document needs additional information such as a medical provider defendant rela
155. ort by name or description Refresh Refresh list of folders and reports Reports Preview Toolbar The Preview Toolbar provides functionality and options that pertain to the preview of a report Action Icon Description Page View Lal Shows a full page preview of the report Full Size Width View B Displays the report at the width of the preview window E Displays the actual report size Zoom Changes the zoom percentage 1 G oes to the first page of the report 125 THE PREVAIL REPORTER artes G oes to the previous page in the report Page Number Skip to an arbitrary page number re iF Go to the next page in the report a Jump to the last page in the report Report Search As your list of reports grows looking for that one report may Se shier fe become more of a task than it wn Should While folders have more Last Reviewed Reviews 1172411999 11 27 23 upside than down one downside is E Cases by ALJ Cases by 11901999 a F g E Cases by Attorney Cazes by 117309 999 3 15 48 F that It makes looking for a single E Cases by Case Man Cases by 117234999 2 01 47 an a On Cases by Medical Pr Cases b 112341999 2 01 09 report more difficult Instead of EI Cases i Referral 5 Cazes 117301999 5 13 54 F clicking through folders use the F casu Lists vispaniaaa 3 ae Report Search by choosing Tools Search from the main menu The Report Search scans each report s name and descrip
156. ort to another location When the other location receives the report all they have to do is import it If you are creating a report but the report is not turning out like you want it to you can save the report as a file and send it to PTI for help To save a report as a file select the report choose File Save to File give the file a name and click the Save button The file will be saved with the RTM extension Using Reports from PTI Firms often request us to create reports for them or download reports available from our website http www prevail net Since the Prevail Reporter stores all of 149 THE PREVAIL REPORTER the reports in database tables the Prevail Reporter has to import the reports This is a little different than past versions of the Reporter In version 2 0 all that was necessary was copying the PVR file into the Prevail Reports directory then restarting the Reporter This new version of the Reporter scans for report files from PTI when it starts If there are reports that need to be added to the report tables it does so automatically and displays the number of reports imported via the status bar When you receive a report from PTI via e mail or a website download save the report file PTR to the local directory you are running the Prevail Reporter from default is C Prevail Reporter If the Reporter is running exit and restart the Reporter The next time the Reporter starts you will see a m
157. ost After you have filled in the fields described above click on the Done button Y our new cost entry will be recorded and the total outstanding costs for this client will be recalculated to reflect the new entry Add a medical provider Choose D ata Bank G eneral Medical Providers from Prevail s main menu Y ou can search for an existing provider to see if he she is already in the database by typing in a search string You can also add a provider by clicking on the Add button You can also add medical providers on the fly when you are working with clients and adding medical history If in the process of adding updating medical information in a client you want to add a new provider the Add Provider or New Provider button can be used as well Add or edit client notes Pull up the client for whom you want to add or edit notes Then either click the Notes button on the Prevail toolbar or press the F4 key You will be placed into the notes edit mode Y our cursor will be placed at the bottom of the screen with a new entry that automatically includes your login the current date and the current time Types notes as desired and close the notes window or press the F12 key 105 HOW TO You will be asked to save the notes Click the Yes button and the notes will be saved Add a new client to the system You can add a new client to Prevail from anywhere in the system by clicking on th
158. ote that you can access this screen from any page in any client and it will pop up right on top of whatever page you happen to be working on at the moment NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS Client Information The first page you will see when adding a prospect is the Client iXtreme assamams an mammat Information page This page is used samme tH unas Las to gather personal information from ae the prospect such as name date of o gt CO birth address social security number s eres language and phone numbers This is Dee also where you specify the law typeof ee the prospect While a brand new call will not immediately have a case manager or attorney these fields are there to fill in at a later time when more information is learned about the prospective case The prospect can be saved at any time by clicking the Done button So if you happen to get another call you can save the prospect and come back to him at a later time Click the Continue button if you would like to continue gathering information from the prospect Important You must specify a law type on the Client Information page of the new prospect otherwise the system will not know what type of data entry screen to give you for the second page SS Information The first page of the New Prospect window is always the same no matter trferm what law type you select The second Tm mmm Cake at Cae fre aimi 4
159. ou do not want to save your changes click the Cancel button or press the Esc key aa Background Information The Background Information page contains additional information about the selected clients education and military background It also contains information about the client s income and assets CE OO eee ee ee Berrarg a Beret E Bem ae Frae T If you want to add change Sopa ea eee or delete any of the m fp 4 ma information displayed on this Febesaearot page click the Update 18 GUIDED TOUR button on the toolbar You can then click the mouse cursor on any of the fields you want to change adding or deleting information as desired When you are finished click the D one button in the upper right hand corner of the screen and your changes will be recorded Disability Information The Disability Information page lets you list specific impairments for the currently selected client In addition to listing detailed information on each individual problem this page also has room for a detailed narrative about all of the client s health problems You can list as many individual ailments as te Be tek ree Gees tame Pecos yee Gees necessary To add an ooo om romy ou Gey Mm ailment click the Insert oes ee button You can also delete ailments by selecting the ailment and clicking the Delete button When you select an ailment
160. page to select the appropriate judge and court information for this case This information is pulled out of system wide databases so once a judge is entered in the database he she will be available in any case At the bottom of the Court page are three large memo fields for Style information These fields are used for entering case style and caption information in your pleadings For example if your client is John Smith your pleadings might need to refer to him as JONATHAN MICHAEL SMITH individually and as husband of MARY ELIZABETH SMITH Plaintiff 59 PERSONAL INJURY Since Prevail has fields for the plaintiff name ie John Smith you can automatically insert that information into letters by putting the appropriate field codes in your letters Pleadings however require different text and formatting requirements so Prevail has separate fields for the style information By putting in the appropriate field codes you can have Prevail automatically create and properly format your case caption information You use one set of field codes for your letters and another set of field codes for your pleadings and each will pull in the appropriate information The Certificate of Service field on the Court page allows you to enter ALL names and addresses for parties and counsel of record in one place This will allow you to enter a single field code at the end of your pleadings that will pull in all the information from
161. parts to the installation The server installation and the workstation installation The server installation sets up the databases that will be accessed by the workstations The workstation installation must then be done on each computer that will run Prevail The workstation installation puts the actual Prevail program on the local hard drive of each computer on the network Remember if you are using Prevail on only one computer you must run both the server and workstation programs on that computer before you can run Prevail You must also decide at this point who is going to be the supervisor or administrator of the Prevail system This should be a responsible computer literate user who is going to be using the software on a regular basis There are certain features in the software that are reserved for super users Super users are those who are set up in Prevail with the highest security level You can have more than one super user but you must have at least one You can setup Prevail to allow only Super users to access certain features such as closing or deleting cases adding editing deleting forms and editing the claim process In small firms it is common to set every user up as a Super user as long as they are all reasonably literate That way you do not have to worry about who does or does not have rights to a particular function Basic Data Entry The most time consuming element of the implementation process is data entry Preva
162. play of documents so that only those documents that match your search criteria are displayed Notice that the grid turns purple and the Limit button now says RESET This is too let you know that you are in limit mode 31 GUIDED TOUR When you are finished with your search click on the RESET button and the view will return to normal When generating documents Prevail automatically creates the history entries for you You can also manually insert documents into history This is normally done if you want to track incoming as well as outgoing documents To manually insert a document into history click on the Insert button at the top of the screen An entry window will appear that lets you enter information on the new document e g description date etc There are pull down arrows on the Code and Description fields to speed data entry The code is simply a 3 letter category that lets you designate documents by type The description is a one line explanation of what the document is Note that there is also a detail field which gives you space to enter a brief description of the document Below the Detail is a field called File Name If your firm scans incoming documents for archival purposes you can link the scanned document to this entry by clicking the Choose button locating the file then opening it When you select this entry in the document history from now on you can
163. proaching The other way to update a claim is to simply use the Prevail forms generator to create whatever form is appropriate to move the claim to the next level For example if reconsideration has been denied in a case you can automatically move the case from the Reconsideration Denied stage to the Request for Hearing Sent stage by clicking on the Forms button choosing Forms from the drop down menu and generating a Request for Hearing form Remember to do one or the other but not both If you use Prevail to generate the form it will automatically update the claim status You do not need to do it manually If on the other hand you want to fill out the form manually instead of doing it in Prevail remember to click Update on that claim and advance the claim to the next level 46 SOCIAL SECURITY If you should happen to make a mistake when updating a claim status remember you can fix it by highlighting the incorrect entry and clicking the D elete button The last entry will disappear but the rest of the claim chronology will be left intact You can then click on the Update button again to update the claim to the correct level Multiple Claims You may have noticed that the Claims tab in Prevail has selector buttons for Claim 1 Claim 2 and Claim 3 Most of the time you will be dealing with a single claim even if it is a concurrent SSI DIB claim and tracking it as such There ar
164. propriate list After you have let Prevail make an automatic to do entry the reminder will show up on the specified user s To Do list on the date specified in the D ate field K eep in mind when selecting the response date that the to do entry will not appear on any to do list until that date has been reached For this reason you have to be careful with your dates For example if you received a document that requires a response from you within thirty days make the Response Date something less than thirty days so the warning shows up far enough in advance on the to do list for the user to prepare the response It is a good idea to indicate the actual due date in the Description field then set the Due date to something like ten days earlier than that date This way you can glance at the entry and see the actual due date but the reminder shows up on the to do list sometime earlier Just be careful when setting dates that you do not use today s date as the due date because Prevail will not set a reminder If you want the reminder to show up immediately or almost immediately set the due date to tomorrow s date 51 SOCIAL SECURITY Using Limit Once a case has been going on for a while you will have es quite afew documents listed 2 wos particularly if you are listing am sfeematien both incoming and outgoing documents You can very quickly sort through all these entries to find what you are l
165. r every user and all clients click the circle next to Everyone Depending on how much you have scheduled it may be difficult to view all the data This is a function you would want to use if you were scheduling a meeting for several people and needed to see when everyone was available Otherwise you may want to stick with using the User or Client view Tabs Like Prevail tabs arrange the different calendar views The Appointments tab will show you the scheduled appointments for the currently selected day in a list format The Daily View tab is similar to that of a daily planner It shows the entire day hour by hour or according to the chosen time block The D aily G raph tab will give you a graphical chart of up to ten user s scheduled activities for the current day The 5 Day View shows all appointments for the particular view for the current day and the next four days The Monthly View gives you a larger monthly calendar Days with scheduled appointments will have as many appointment descriptions that can fit into a day s box Resizing the calendar window will stretch out the width and height of each day Views The Views is basically the page content that is showing By clicking on the different tabs the content of the pages will change 69 CALENDAR Toolbar Each tab has a different set of buttons along the bottom of the page The buttons are used to add appointments and to dos as well as delet
166. r is using the Remote setting make sure all machines are using Remote if ADS is installed or Local If the Prevail Control Panel is re indexing or packing the database attempting to run Prevail will result in this error message Wait until the reindex or pack completes before running Prevail Error opening database PVUSERS Make sure the drive mapped for Prevail is not mapped root If it is mapped root mapped directly to the network Prevail directory Prevail will not load Remove that mapping and map a drive letter to the proper share Y ou may also use the UNC location of the Prevail directory in the Settings file Error opening database XXXX This could be caused by anumber of issues Try the following steps 1 Check the Prevail Path by running the Prevail Settings Make sure it is pointing to the correct set of data and the mapped drive is valid 2 Make sure the client application is the correct version for the server installation 3 If you are using the Advantage Database Server make sure you have the correct server mode set 4 Pack the database and Reindex There could be the possibility of corrupted data Call PTI Prevail did not exit correctly There is a setting that tells whether or not Prevail is running If Prevail ungracefully exited you will get this notification This is just for you to know that you either exited Prevail wrong or something happened that forced Prevail to fail Runni
167. r use during travel or a long day out of the office When printing remember that the printing options pertain to the selected View For instance if User is selected no matter what range you choose to print it will only print the appointments for the current user GENMISE Ramga 1o Print Whon bo Brant Click the Print button to view the Printing A al T Deserietion Options window In the Print Range 2 kinia E Deia hie section select the range of appointments AEE ji you want to print Choosing All will print all of the appointments for the selected view If the Everyone view is selected all tahma appointments in the database will be printed Choosing Today will print those gen Oma appointments due for the day selected in the calendar The Date Range option allows you to specify a range of dates to print Once you select the Date Range options the Date Range section below it will be enabled Type in a date range or click the down arrow to use the calendar control Finally the View option allows you to print only those appointments that are currently shown in the appointments grid Use the View option if you want to print the results of a search In the What to Print section check the box next to Description to print the appointment s description This is highly recommended for distinguishing between appointments If you would like to print the detail for th
168. re not necessary for this report and may be removed Remove all joins from 141 THE PREVAIL REPORTER the list except Referral Source Referral Source Clients Referral Source This is the relationship we want to use to connect these two tables Click the OK button to establish the join and continue Click the Next button The next step is to select the fields we want to use in our report For this example we are just going to select all fields Select All Fields and click the Next button We do not want to add any numeric calculations so select No Calculations and click the Next button If we wanted to group our report by referral source we could do that at this step but for this example we do not so select No Grouping and click the Next button This is the step where we define the date range that will limit the resulting set Select Define Search Criteria right click on the white box and choose Insert Criteria Since we will want to show all cases that were added to Prevail within a date range we want to limit by the Intake D ate Select Clients Intake D ate from the Field list choose Between as the O perator and click the OK button By leaving the Value field blank we have told the Reporter to show an input dialog window when we run the report If you were creating a report that would run in a batch you do not want to show any pro
169. reated at the bottom of the Mah Design tab called SubReport1 Select the SubReport1 tab Mest Subter place a D BT ext component CA on the D etail band and set its field value to any available field Click the Preview tab to view the report with the sub report Try playing around with the sub report to get an idea of how the Header D etail and Summary bands work within a sub report The possibilities are endless Here is a short example of how to use a sub report Open a Tips and Tricks This chapter contains some common report designing techniques lesser known features of the Prevail Reporter and general tips for creating and maintaining functional reports Counting Records With a few mouse clicks you can add a running record count to your report Select the report you wish to add a record count to and click the button to run the Report Designer On the Design tab add a D BCalc component to the Detail band Position the DBCalc component to as you wish and click the Preview tab to check out your running record count Creating Batches As stated earlier one nice feature of folders is the ability to become a scheduled batch seheduednun JV Enable scheduled run Days of Week report By selecting a folder and choosing peje fray C Sinay I Monday File Properties you can enable the tm frm Erem g nere Scheduled Run options of a folder The me it
170. regate Functions An aggregate function applies to the results of a query rather than listing all of the records For instance the following SQL expression would result in one record with the number of records in the pvfees table SELECT COUNT FROM pvfees Function D efinition Example AVG expr Calculates the average of a set of values SELECT AVG amount FROM pvfees COUNT expr Returns the number of non NULL column SELECT COUNT lastname items that satisfy a query s search condition FROM pvclient COUNT Returns the number of records that satisfya SELECT COUNT FROM query s search condition pvclient 153 REFERENCE MAX expr Returns the maximum value from a set of SELECT MAX amount values FROM pvcosts MIN expr Returns the minimum value from a set of SELECT MIN amount values FROM pvcosts SU M expr T otal the values in a set of numeric values SELECT SUM amount FROM pvcosts Math Functions ABS num Returns the absolute value of a numeric ACO S float Returns the arccosine of float as an angle expressed in radians ASIN float Returns the arcsine of float as an angle expressed in radians ATAN float Returns the arctangent of float as an angle expressed in radians ATAN2 floati float2 Returns the arctangent of the x and y coordinates specified by float1 and float2 as an angle expressed in radians CEILING num Returns the smallest integer greater than or equal to num
171. removed from the database It is marked as deleted which means it will not show up in Prevail Unlike most database file formats Prevail uses a format that will sequentially overwrite records marked as deleted to conserve space instead of creating a new record However there still may be a need to pack the database to remove those deleted records or refresh the database for optimization After everyone has logged out of Prevail run the Control Panel by choosing Start Programs Prevail Control Panel or double clicking the Prevail Control Panel shortcut on the desktop Click the Pack Tables button to being the packing When the pack has completed close the Prevail Control Panel Everyone can then log back into Prevail Auto Update The Auto Update feature is used to automatically search and download the latest Prevail components You must have an established Internet connection before attempting to run the Auto Update De ee E pe ee E do mpi Cleo Be Tira ami gd Linda a ino To search for new components click the Auto Update button The Control Panel will download a file that iina contains the information of the latest version of Prevail and compare it to the list component version list If any components need upgrading the Auto Update window 117 THE PREVAIL CONTROL PANEL will appear with a list of components To download and apply the components place a check next to the components you wish to updat
172. report that lists all files that were last reviewed more than sixty days ago or 90 days or 120 or whatever you choose 55 SOCIAL SECURITY Because Social Security clients tend to call and ask what is going on so frequently it is very easy to become reactive instead of proactive when tracking their case Y ou never forget about the ones who call every week It s the rare ones you never hear from that are most likely to have something fall through the cracks and get forgotten Since the Date Last Reviewed update can only be triggered by a specific human action any case that is in danger of falling through the cracks will show up on the Date Last Reviewed aging report All of the Prevail reports are user definable so you can custom your aging report to suit your own preferences Prevail Reporter The data in your Prevail system is much more meaningful when you can create lists and reports to help you manage your practice The Prevail Reporter contains a variety of useful reports for this purpose You can print case lists sorted and counted by a variety of criteria claim status referral source attorney etc The reports won t mean much until you get all your client data in there but take a minute to look at some of the reports that come with Prevail early in your implementation process Y ou will get a feel for what Prevail can do and looking at the existing reports will give you ideas for others that you might wan
173. ription of the document Below the Detail is a field called File Name If your firm scans incoming documents for archival purposes you can link the scanned document to this entry by clicking the Choose button locating the file then opening it When Bima 89 DOCUMENTS you select this entry in the document history from now on you can click the View button to open it in the related application Click the D one button to save the entry Notice that there is also a Delete button next to the Insert button You can use this button to delete any history entries that were made in error If you enter all of your incoming documents into history you can easily glance at the screen to see what has gone out and what has come in You can also use the Limit feature described earlier in this section to limit the display to documents of a particular type e g doing a search for RCV in the type field would show only incoming or received documents Y ou can also sort each column by clicking on the title of the column An arrow will appear pointing up or down depending on whether the sort is ascending or descending 90 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS Chapter New Calls and Prospects N ew calls and prospects two staged approach to client data entry In most case management packages a client is entered into the system when they are accepted as a client They are then assigned a client
174. ror occurs when the document you are attempting to merge cannot be found Check the letter s file name by choosing Tools Forms Letters select the letter and click the Edit button Make sure the filename is exactly the same as the actual letter The most common cause is the word processor appending doc or wpd to the file name when it is saved Too many too few fields This is the result of the file Header doc in the local C Prevail directory not matching the actual number of fields created in the secondary merge file There are two files in the C Prevail directory called Header doc and Header00 doc If you are using Microsoft Word 95 or 2000 rename the file Header00 doc to Header doc If using Word 97 use the Header doc Word processor freezes This could be a number of things First make sure you have enough available system resources to have Prevail and the word processor opened at the same time Also if running a network install of the word processor try installing it local to each machine Check the manufacturer for updates or service packs 164 165
175. rt based on clients pvdient and wanted to show each client s ALJ you would set the relationship between pvalj aljoode and pvcient aljcode The Reporter will use these two fields to communicate to each other When the Reporter begins to build the report it will look at the relationships determine which is the master and proceed to go through the master table adding the fields it needs to the report database When it comes to a field that is in a detail table something in pvalj using the above example it will find the value of the relational field pvdient aljoode then seek into the detail table pvalj using that value If it finds the value it will move to that record then export the values it needs The Prevail Reporter uses SQL Structured Query Language to filter and query data for each report If you are knowledgeable of SQL you will have an easier time creating reports If you would like to learn more about SQL you can pick up a book from your local bookstore or online vendor or search the Internet for online resources 122 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Running the Reporter After the Reporter has been installed you can double click the Prevail Reporter icon on your desktop or choose Start Programs Prevail Prevail Reporter When the Reporter loads you will see a list of folders on the left side of the window These are used to categorize the reports If you double click on a folder a list of reports in that folder wi
176. s and the added column Closed Date All of the buttons in the Closed Prospects window do the exact same thing as their counterpart in the Open Prospects window The only button that differs is the Re open button Re opening a Prospect Once a prospect is closed you can re open it at a later time To re open a prospect select the closed prospect and click the Re open button The prospect will be removed from the closed prospects list and re added to the open prospects list 98 CUSTOM FIELDS Chapter Searching Searching Prevail Not only can you search by a client s name you can also search by an Opposing counsel related to a case a referral source a medical provider and much more If you have knowledge of SQL you can even create your own custom searches P revail 3 9 provides more searching capabilities than any previous version of Quick Search When you click the Search button on the main Prevail window hit the F2 key on the keyboard or choose Tools Search from the main Jonathan D Brown 456 78 5789 Pl Jon menu the Quick Search window ath will appear Quick Search is sm Bryant 571 119238 SS equivalent to the client name re F rea of search of previous versions Of Gre ree Prevail To search for a client s oe ewe last name type the beginning of r i a 549 13 4735 SS the last name or the full last name and click the Search button
177. s button serves as a filter You set a filter criteria and tell Prevail where to apply it and Prevail will filter out all bae that do not meet the criteria you specified displaying only those that meet the criteria For example let s say you are talking on the phone to someone from Dr Jones office about medical records you have requested Suppose they say you have never requested medical records Y ou could very quickly click the Limit button and put the word Jones in your search criteria for the description field Any letter to Dr Jones including requests for medical records will show up Incoming documents from Dr Jones including medical records would also be listed here You could very easily tell Dr Jones office when you sent the request what was received and what is still outstanding Let s try another example Suppose you want a list of all medical records you have received in a case You could click on the Limit button and search for MED in the Type field Since MED is the type for medical records received all received records would show up but nothing else would To print a list of all medical records you have in your possession you could simply print the history while the limit was applied Only those items matching the limit would appear on your printout Using the Calendar Effectively The Prevail Calendar has some very powerful search functions that will save you a lot of tim
178. s you have coming up in the next month you can simply pull up your calendar execute a search and print the results The Calendar search function works very much like the limit function in Document History You simply enter the search criteria and then tell Prevail which field to apply the search criteria to In the Calendar you have the additional capability to enter a date range for the search If you do not specify a date range it will default to one year from the current date Once you execute the search a list of all matching appointments will be displayed You can print the list by simply clicking on the Print button Remember that you need to be very consistent in your data entry for calendar searches to work effectively When Prevail automatically places a hearing on your calendar it uses the word Hearing If you put your own hearings on the calendar using the abbreviation Hrg instead of the word Hearing then you will run into trouble There is no way a single search could find both Hearing and Hrg you would have to do two separate searches to find them all You can avoid inaccurate searches or duplication of effort by simply agreeing in advance on the terminology your office is going to use and using it consistently Also keep in mind that when you do a search in the Prevail Calendar you are only the currently selected view For example if your View is set to USER and the name JOH
179. s you have just started to use Prevail and have not entered any clients The repercussions of deleting a step are missing and blank entries in claims To delete a step simple select it and click the D elete Step button If you want to delete a group make sure you do not need the group any longer Deleting a group will not delete the steps in the group However if you do delete a group the steps will not be available until the group is added again Select the group and click the Delete Group button Document History Another powerful tool for tracking what goes on in a Social Security case is the History tab You may have noticed from merging documents that every single document you create in a case is automatically listed in the document history for that client This is very useful in and of itself because you can instantly see who created what SOCIAL SECURITY documents when You can instantly retrieve those documents by highlighting the desired document description and clicking on the View button Prevail will get the document for you automatically You do not have to search through directories try to remember what the document was called or where it was saved Most effective use of the History page however involves tracking both outgoing and incoming documents Outgoing documents of course will take care of themselves Incoming documents on the other hand require a little bit of help from you
180. saying that the case was closed because of a conflict of interest Once the prospect becomes a client the Open Prospects window will close and the new client will be the current case Closing a Prospect Closing a prospect means you are denying the person legal services The difference between deleting a prospect and closing a prospect is that closing a prospect will keep a record of the prospect in the closed prospects table and deleting a prospect completely removes it from Prevail without record It is best to close a prospect to remove someone from your prospects That way if they return later on to become your client you can reopen their record without having to reenter information 97 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS To close a prospect select the prospect and click the Close button You will be asked to confirm your action Click the Yes button to close or click the No button to cancel Once closed you can view the closed prospects by choosing Tools Closed Prospects or pressing Shift F10 on the keyboard Viewing Closed Prospects Prevail now allows you to close E a f e prospects like you would Pisis ee ieee es Ges normally close a case To view the closed prospects choose Tools Closed Prospects from the Prevail main menu or press Shift F10 on the keyboard The Closed Prospects window looks almost identical to the Open Prospects window with the exception of a few missing button
181. scription Align Left Edges Used to align a group of components with the leftmost position of the component that was selected first Align Horizontal Used to center a group of components Centers based on the horizontal center of the component that was first selected Align Right Edges Used to align a group of components with the rightmost position of the component that was selected first Align Top Edges Used to align a group of components with the topmost position of the component that was selected first Align Vertical Used to align a group of components Centers based the vertical center of the component which was first selected Align Bottom Edges Used to align a group of components with the bottommost position of the component that was selected first Space Horizontally Used to space a set of components based on the leftmost position of the first component selected and the rightmost 137 THE PREVAIL REPORTER position of the last component selected Space Vertically Used to space a set of components based on the topmostposition of the first component selected and the bottommost position of the last component selected Center Horizontally Used to center a component horizontally in Band within a band Center Vertically in Used to center a component vertically Band within a band To access this toolbar select the View Toolbars Size menu option from the Report Designer main menu Shrink Width Determines
182. sert a field code for the second line Word will automatically eliminate the blank lines in your finished documents Once you have finished composing the document save it to your My D ocuments folder or save it to the X Prevail D ocs Word directory where X is the mapped server drive Corel WordPerfect Open WordPerfect and create a new document by choosing File gt New from the menu Before you can use any document as a merge document in WordPerfect you have to let WordPerfect know that this document is going to be a form letter Choose Tools Merge from that WordPerfect menu You will then be asked if you want to create a data file or a form file Click on the Form button This lets WordPerfect know that you want to create a form letter Another prompt will ask if you want to create a new file or use the file in the active window the document you are currently looking at Choose File in Active Window and the currently active document will be set up as a form file Next you will be asked to associate a data file with the current form file Prevail doesn t need or want a data file to be associated so choose None The merge toolbar will be displayed across the top of your document You are now ready to begin putting in composing the document Go ahead and start composing the letter or form like you normally compose a document in WordPerfect including any font changes formatting alignment etc When you get to a plac
183. sonal Injury gt Custom Field Labels 32 GUIDED TOUR When you view a social security or personal injury case the proper set of labels will appear on the Custom Information page according to law type Fields that do not have a label associated with them are not available for input All of the custom fields are character fields meaning you can enter any text into any of the fields To update the custom fields information click the Update button Fields that has a label next to them will change to yellow to let you know that the field can be edited To save changes 3 3 click the D one button To discard changes click the Cancel a 33 THE INTERFACE Chapter The Interface A dding a friendly user interface to a complex case management system Although this version of Prevail looks like a whole new program it still has the feel of previous versions Perhaps more than anything the interface has been cleaned and rejuvenated while adding important conformity features keyboard equivalents new menus and new buttons P revail has always been known for its simple point and click user interface Universal Interface Features There are a few new features that you will notice immediately and some that you cannot see One major non visual feature change from previous versions of Prevail is the keyboard equivalents that have been added to every window Before we begin to examine the Prevail in
184. system message place a check next to the user to receive the message or click the Check All button to check all of the users and click the Send Message button Enter the message to send and click the OK button To oes iren close the Users Logged In window click the X in the upper right hand corner or press the Esc key on the keyboard 118 THE PREVAIL CONTROL PANEL Change User There are times that you will need to reallocate a user s responsibility For instance if one of your case managers leaves the firm you will need to assign all of the user s responsibilities to someone else To do this click the Change User button Enter the old user s login making sure it is all capitalized and click the OK button Next you will be asked to enter the new user s login making sure it is all capitalized Click the OK button to start changing the users The status and the number of changes will be displayed as it scans the Prevail database Change Client ID Sometimes a client s internal Client ID is not acceptable especially in conversions from older versions of Prevail When a client ID is invalid such as contains an illegal character for a folder name Prevail cannot save notes or documents for that case Unless you absolutely need to change a client s ID it is recommended that you do not To change a client s internal ID click the Change Client ID button Enter the old
185. system will appear grouped by folder Utilities Menu e Assign Offices If the current case is a Social Security ca case the Assign Offices item will appear Choosing a Assign Offices will automatically select the SSA aac a Office DDS and OHA based on the client s zip code Dae a e Case Summary Shows the Case Summary window er irie Cleared fiar e Change Case Number Allows you to change the user u defined case number for the current case e Claims Utility O pens the Claims Utility to edit the claims process e Close Current Case Closes the current case e Export Database Exports the entire Prevail database to comma delimited text files e Load Closed Files O pens the closed cases for viewing 39 THE INTERFACE Index Closed Files Indexes the closed cases table Users O pens the User Utilities to add or remove users View Menu The View menu allows you to change the tabs for the current case type The image to the right shows the View menu when the M Beckaround Cii current case is a social security case The currently selected tab Employment Cis will appear bold Medical Ctri 5 HETE Options Help Disability Ctrl 4 Offices Chrl 6 Strategy Chrl Claims Chrl 8 Fees Ctrl 9 Time Ctrl 0 Costs Ctrl History Chrl Ctrl Custom Options Menu Properties Opens the Properties window for Eskia Hel user preferences such as prompting when memis exiting default queries and startup
186. t date with 1 based month Same as CURDATE Same as CURTIME with optional precision seconds CURRENT TIMESTAMP p Returns TIMESTAMP recision CURTIME for current local time with optional precision seconds Returns TIME for current local time with optional precision 157 REPLACE This is fun is IS would return ThIS IS fun RIGHT Hello World 3 would return rld RTRIM Brown would return Brown SPACE 4 returns lt SUBSTRING SQL is fun 5 2 returns is UCASE Hello World returns HELLO WORLD UCASE Hello World returns HELLO WORLD CURDATE returns the current date in mm dd yyyy format CURRENT DATEQ returns the current date in mm dd yyyy format CURRENT TIME returns the time in hh mm ss AM PM format CURRENT TIMESTAMP returns the time in hh mm hh AM PM format CURTIME returns the time in hh mm hh A M PM format REFERENCE seconds DAY NAME date Returns weekday name DAY NAME CURDATE string from returns day name such as CHAR DATE TIMEST Tuesday AMP DAYOFMONTH date Returns integer day of DAYOFMONTH CURDATE month 1 based from returns the day of the month such as 7 CHAR DATE TIMEST AMP 158 TROUBLESHOOTING Chapter Troubleshooting Troubleshooting the Prevail system Opening Prevail Access Viola
187. t day in the Appointments tab _ There are times when an appointment s description is too long to view in the grid To make sense out of the view you Fikia 12ers ESON AM 0 00 can right click on an appointment An Events window will i appear with the day name date time range client if Hearing at Orange County attached and the full description of the appointment Click 77 CALENDAR anywhere on the Events window to close it or click the X in the upper nght hand corner If you would like to print the view you can do so by clicking the Print button Once you click the Print button the standard Windows print dialog will appear If you need to select or setup a printer do so at this window then click the OK button to print Monthly View The Monthly View shows the memara Pils El currently selected month in a calendar format Days that have appointments associated with them will have a brief description of the appointment in the day s box D ouble clicking on a day will take you to the Appointments tab for that day Since there is limited space for each day not all appointments _ ess Toa will be visible for a particular _ a puema a day To view all of the i l tee appointments for a day right click on a day An Events window will appear with the full date and a list of al appointments If the current view is set to Cli
188. t to Prevail to make it available asa merge document Click the Forms button On the Document List window click the Add button The Document Setup program will appear allowing you to enter the document s description In the Description field enter a brief explanation of the document The Group is used for grouping documents together to make finding the Liss m document in the list easier There are no standard groups so this field is another decision your firm will have to make Prevail comes with a few letters already Y ou can use those group names or create new ones parae Tq ee OL are fer es eee ee The Law Type field is used to determine which law type will use the document If you do not want to limit the document s usage to a particular law type then leave this field blank If the document is for a social security case then select SS from 85 DOCUMENTS the drop down list If the document is used for a prospect then select PR from the list O ther types available are PI Personal Injury MM Medical Malpractice and WC Worker s Compensation The Level field is used primarily for social security cases Entering a claim level code in this field will automatically trigger Prevail to update the claim status on the Claims tab to this level For instance if you are merging a Request for Hearing and the document s level is set to HEART when yo
189. t to create Remember to check The Prevail Network at http jwww prevail net for new reports We do a lot of special reports for our clients and we generally put them out on our website so they are available for download If you have an idea for a report but can t quite figure out how to make it work give us a call Chances are we already have something very similar to it and can simply send it to you or post it on our web site 56 PERSONAL INJ URY Chapter Personal Injury Personal Injury and track personal injury claims and litigation management This chapter will address the capabilities of those tools and discuss in general terms how they can be used to manage your personal injury practice P revail contains a number of powerful tools designed specifically to process Keep in mind that Prevail itself is nothing more than a tool or more specifically a toolbox Any good mechanic relies heavily upon his tools but must know which tools to use for which purpose Managing your practice like fixing an engine requires that you know how to select the proper tool and use it appropriately Hopefully this chapter will give you enough insight into the tools that come with Prevail to figure out which ones your firm is going to use most often and how your firm is going to use them There will be no step by step how to descriptions in this chapter We are assuming that you can handle the logistics of mouse clicks and know your
190. take a minute to look at some of the reports that come with Prevail early in your implementation process Y ou will get a feel for what Prevail can do and looking at the existing reports will give you ideas for others that you might want to create Remember to check The Prevail Network at http memi new reports We do a lot of special reports for our clients and we generally put them out on our website so they are available for download If you have an idea for a 65 PERSONAL INJURY report but can t quite figure out how to make it work give us a call Chances are we already have something very similar to it and can simply send it to you or post it on our web site 66 CALENDAR Chapter Calendar A ppointments to dos and views oh my is where you can manage your appointments to dos and personal calendar The Prevail Calendar works at all times in the background without you even realizing it Whenever you update a social security claim Prevail automatically creates statute warnings as to dos Whenever you schedule a hearing as part of a personal injury case or a social security claim Prevail automatically adds an appointment to the attorney s calendar Whenever you merge a document that requires a response Prevail automatically creates a follow up to do When a Statute of Limitations date changes so does the statute warning to do A powerful feature of Prevail is its integrated calendar The Prevail Calendar While
191. ted party or employer information you will be prompted to select the appropriate information for the merge If you are merging a letter with a personal injury case and there are more than one hearing entries Prevail will automatically prompt you to select the hearing and judge information regardless of whether the letter uses the information Merging Forms To merge a form with the current client click the Forms button Select Form as the Merge Type If you are merging an SSA form be sure to select the claim 87 DOCUMENTS number from the Claims tab before clicking the Forms button Select the form you wish to merge The Merge across query option acts the same as they do for merging a letter Read the section above for information on these options Click the OK button to begin the merge The document information is automatically added to the Document History Document History In addition to creating form letters and SSA forms Prevail also keeps track of them When you generate a letter or an SSA form it is automatically saved and a record of that document is made in the document history for the currently selected case This history includes a description of every document sent or received for this case Each line in this summary represents an individual document The entry for each document includes the date of the document who generated it a narrative description of the document when
192. tended for attorney notes about the theory or strategy Sua MeO I of the case This is where mesm p n you can detail a blueprint of your case Where are you re st SE a ee ee ee Ee going with it What issues are you going to pursue It s helpful for your staff to know what you were thinking about a case when you signed it up It is also helpful if another attorney has to cover a hearing or deposition for you Another person should be able to read through these notes and get a good idea of what the case is all about They are unlimited in length if you type more than fits in the window it will scroll and 54 SOCIAL SECURITY there is a field code for this notes field so you can include them in a pre hearing worksheet if you want Sticky Notes Another kind of note available in Prevail is the Sticky Note which you can create in any case by pressing Ctrl F4 A Sticky Note in Prevail is analogous to putting a physical Post It note on the hardcopy file Whenever anybody pulls up a case that has a Sticky Note applied to it the note will pop up instantly regardless of what page of client data the user is trying to access You generally will only need to put a sticky note on a file if it is important enough for any person who does anything with the file knows whatever piece of information you are trying to convey For example if a client is mentally ill and has threatened to kill you and your entire staff
193. terface there are few things you should know about navigating through Prevail e Pressing the Esc Escape key on the keyboard will cancel and close all windows as if you clicked the X in the upper right hand corner It will also cancel any update For instance if you click the Update button to edit a client s information pressing the Esc key will cancel the update like clicking the Cancel button e Pressing the F12 key on the keyboard will save and close most windows that require input This is similar to clicking the D one button This is also true for the main Prevail window e Any button or menu item that has a letter underlined in the name of the item such as the Update button can be pressed or selected by pressing the Alt key and the letter or number that is underlined For instance pressing Alt U on the Client Information page would put the system in update mode for editing THE INTERFACE e When updating or inserting new information on the main Prevail window the input fields will change color to notify you that it is in update or insert mode When updating the fields will turn yellow When inserting the fields will turn green e When searching for keywords in appointments to dos document history costs and time if a match is found the grids will turn purple to notify you that you are in a limit mode To return to a regular view you must click the RESET button that used to be the Se
194. ters in str excluding trailing blanks LOCATE str1 str2 Return integer location 1based LOCATE Hello World T start of str2 in str1 with optional start returns 3 starting point If str1 not found in str2 0 is returned LTRIM str Returns string with leading LTRIM This is a sentence spaces from left side of string returns This is a sentence OCTET LENGTH str Returns length of string in octets OCTET_LENGTH Hello i e bytes returns 5 PO SITIO N stri1 IN Returns the position of str1 in POSITION Wo IN Hello str2 str2 World returns 7 REPEAT str cnt Returns a string consisting of str REPEAT Fun 3 would repeated up to cnt times return Fun Fun Fun 156 REFERENCE REPLACE str1 str2 str3 RIG HT str count RT RIM str SPA CE count SUBSTRING str pos len UCASE str UPPER str Replace all occurrences of str2 in str1 with str3 Returns a string of count characters of right part of str Returns a string with trailing spaces removed from right side of string Returns a string of space repeated up to count times Returns a portion of str starting at pos up to length len Returns a string with all lowercase characters converted to uppercase Returns a string with all lowercase characters converted to uppercase Date and Time Functions CURDATE CURRENT DATE CURRENT TIME precision D Returns DATE for curren
195. the Activate button You will be prompted for a case number Prevail will suggest a default and the prospect will then be moved to the open clients In order to activate a prospect you must have a valid onset date and a valid Social Security Number Add costs to the cost ledger First select the client for whom you want to make a cost entry Then click on the Costs tab at the bottom of the screen Previously entered cost entries will be displayed as well as a total below the entries grid HOW TO To make a new entry click the Insert button The Item Description field will change to green notifying you that Prevail is in insert mode Enter the following information e Date The date on which the cost was incurred e Code If your firm uses pre defined accounting codes to match the requirements of your general ledger software you can insert them onto this list and select the appropriate code each time you make an entry If you don t use or need accounting codes you can skip this field e Check If the firm wrote a check for this cost the number of the check that was written e Amount The amount of the cost entry e To Who the cost was paid to If the firm wrote a check this is the payee If no check was written you can leave this field blank or enter Firm e Description A one line description of what the cost entry is for e Detail An optional narrative description of the reason for the c
196. the Delete button When you click the Insert button the fields to the right of the list will turn green notifying you that the system is in insert mode The fields are used to list how long the client has had the problem any workload limitations caused by the problem and any treatment the client receives for the problem There is also a numeric field i e 1 9 for you to list your own subjective evaluation of the severity of each problem When you are finished entering specific information for a disability click the D one button To add information to the Claimant s Description of Disabilities field click the Update button Type the desired text in the window and click on the Done button when you are finished Attach an ALJ First pull up the desired client Then select the SSA office page by clicking on the Offices tab at the bottom of your screen This page displays names and phone numbers for SSA office Examiner ALJ and long term disability insurance 113 HOW TO provider You can view the detail on any one of these parties by clicking on the magnifying glass icon to the right of the name This will give you full name address and phone number of the party To add an ALJ to a case click on the Update button Then click the Choose button next to the ALJ field If the name you want doesn t appear on the list you can add it to the list by clicking the Add button Onc
197. the To Do tab Zip Codes Allows you to search for a city and state by entering the zip code Data Bank Menu General Contains a sub menu that allows you to add edit or delete case managers cost codes document types firm attorneys firm information 38 BEEE Feports U General Personal Injury Social Security THE INTERFACE languages medical providers medical provider types referral sources salutations suffixes and zip codes e Personal Injury Contains a sub menu that allows you to add edit or delete case statuses case types circuit courts personal injury custom field labels damage types insurance providers investigative agencies opposing counsels and related parties e Social Security Contains a sub menu that allows you to add edit or delete AL offices claim types social security custom field labels examiners federal district courts fee codes LTD providers and SSA offices Reports Menu e launch Prevail Reporter Opens lem Utilities View Options Help the Prevail Reporter if installed oo Co yf 6 Accounting etl Delete ENN Liit e Import Report Import reports af T E Cases by ALI EJ Counts Cases by Attorney created by PTI EO Examples Cases by Case Manager EJ Forms k Cases by Medical Provider e Refresh Reports Reloads the amp tebe by Referral Source Lists reports EJ Reviews Accident e Reports A list of reports currently in the
198. the corresponding field codes as follows Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Field 4 Field 5 Field 6 Field 7 Field 8 Field 9 Dear Field 1l Field 3 With these codes inserted in this fashion every time you merged this letter in Prevail it would automatically insert the appropriate information from the currently selected client into the finished document We just used a few field codes here for purposes of illustration make sure you read over the entire field code list to get a feel for the many fields of information that are available to be merged There are some things in your document which may be variable from one client to another but for which no field codes exist In these instances you can use the Keyboard command on the merge button bar to insert a prompt into your document This way when the end user is merging the document they will be prompted to enter the appropriate information directly from the keyboard while the document is merging For example if your letter tells the client about a scheduled appointment and you want to include the date and time in the text of the letter you can insert a keyboard command into your form letter This would pause the merge and prompt the user to enter the date and time of the appointment before continuing In the text of the form letter the keyboard code would look like this Your appointment has been scheduled for KEYBOARD Enter Date and Time 84 DOCUMENTS Howev
199. the current user only If the Everyone view is selected it will return all to dos that match the criteria for all users in Prevail Search fiunch earch for To search for a to do click the Search button Enter a keyword into the Search field The search is not case sensitive Don t worry about getting capitalization correct Select Client Name to search for a client s last name or select Description to search for text in an to do s description field ate Range From fi 21 r59 ha To fian 7 00 C Hates C Client Mame G Description 74 CALENDAR Choose a date range by typing in the dates or using the drop down calendar control Click the Search button The matching to dos will be shown in the To Do grid Notice the grid is now purple and the Search button now says RESET This is to inform you that you are in search mode Click the RESET button to return to the normal view Printing To Dos Sometimes it may be necessary to print a list of to dos When printing remember that the printing options pertain to the selected View For instance if User is selected no matter what range you choose to print it will only print the appointments for the current user Click the Print button to view the Printing Options window In the Print Range section select the range of to dos you want to print Choosing All
200. the detail will be displayed next to the Claimed Disabilities list displaying information such as how long the client has had the problem any workload limitations caused by the problem and any treatment the client receives for the problem There is also a numenic field i e 0 9 for you to list your own Subjective evaluation of the severity of each problem The Claimant s Description of Disabilities field allows you to list in the client s own words a summary of his or her disabilities When generating forms you can then merge this information as a claimed disabilities addendum to your SSA forms rather than trying to fit a detailed description of your client s ailments in the space provided on the individual forms Offices Information By clicking the Offices tab you can access name address and phone numbers of your contacts with the Social Security Administration for the currently selected client This page contains information on the district office Disability Analyst D D S and OHA ALJ It also contains contact information for a long term disability insurance provider Prevail 3 9 2 includes a list of all SSA offices Disability Analysts DDS and OHA ALJ offices in the United States When activating a prospect these offices are automatically selected based on the client s zip code If you need to update an existing client s SSA offices choose Utilities gt Update 19 GUIDED TOUR Offices fro
201. the minimum width of all the selected components and then sets the width of the components to that value Grow Width Determines the maximum width of all the selected components and then sets the width of the components to that value Shrink Height Determines the minimum height of all the selected components and then sets the height of the components to that value Grow Height Determines the maximum height of all the selected components and then sets the height of the components to that value 138 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Nudge Toolbar To access this toolbar select the View Toolbars Size menu option from the Report D esigner main menu Nudge Up Moves all selected components one pixel up Nudge Down Moves all selected components one pixel down Nudge Left ull Moves the selected component one pixel to the left Nudge Right Moves the selected components one pixel to the right Draw Toolbar To access this toolbar select the View gt Toolbars D raw menu option from the Report Designer main menu This toolbar will assist in setting the colors and borders of components Fill Color 5 For shapes lines and region components only Sets the brush color property To set the color of a textual component check the Highlight Color action of the Format toolbar Line Color F For shapes lines and region components only Sets the pen color property Line Thickness For use with a Line component only se
202. then click the OK button to print 76 CALENDAR Daily Graph The Daily Graph view gives you a graphical representation of up to ten users daily appointments The graph usesa J5 534 i m pej M a F arean colored bar next to the users s D m ceu name to represent an gforemm ok E a faa a vere raaa appointment This view is useful Serie to see when people have CALLE anew Eo corresponding openings in their schedules for creating group F domha Telg a oe Dee E ss lm El Imm qf cA ei ee ee meetings 10 Fa aC Fd of ie deir Seer bE ed zj If you would like to print the n C graph you can do so by clicking the Print button Once you click the Print button the standard Windows print dialog will appear If you need to select or setup a printer do so at this window then click the O K button to print 5 Day View Selecting the 5 Day View tab ikrar Pil E will allow you to preview five p 4f J days of your appointments in the same view Each Jus iioo abs Mina appointment will appear with 77 7 the scheduled time the client if sss a attached and the description of fae a e 4 the appointment If the current a view is set to Client or abe Everyone the user s login will nit feat appear before the appointment s description Double clicking an m appointment will take you to tha
203. this field That is considerably easier than the alternative of entering a whole bunch of different field codes one for each part of each name and each part of each address for the same information Use this field to enter all names and addresses formatted exactly as you want them to appear in the Certificate of Service section of your pleadings Then when you create your pleadings you can drop in a single field code that will automatically pull all of the information Document History Another powerful tool for tracking what goes on in a personal injury case is the History tab You may have noticed from merging documents that every single document you create in a case gets automatically listed in the document history for that client This is very useful in and of itself because you can instantly see who created what documents when You can instantly retrieve those documents by simply highlighting the desired document description and clicking on the View button Prevail will get the document for you automatically You do not have to search through directories try to remember what the document was called or where it was saved Most effective use of the History page however involves tracking both outgoing and incoming documents Outgoing documents of course will take care of 60 PERSONAL INJURY themselves Incoming documents on the other hand require a little bit of help from you All you have to
204. time approaches Prevail will make a chime sound and an alarm window will appear Setting a Recurring Appointment A recurring appointment is an appointment emere that happens on a routine basis Setting an appointment as recurring saves a lot of time adding the appointments one by one Before en you can set an appointment as recurring you _ saw Geto Bi Weekty Options Sl Fadi interra 2n Fi T must first add the appointment Follow the Sunday C Sat this week instructions above to add a new appointment Sots G iat neod weet Once the appointment is set select it and veedineaciee click the Recurring button There are many C Thuretey options when settings a recurring e appointment Y ou can set the appointment to happen daily any combination of days a week en or bi weekly and any day of the month For this example select Bi Weekly as the fs SetRecurnal E cancer Interval and set the Ending Date by typing in the date or clicking the down arrow to use the calendar control The bi weekly choice allows you to pick any combination of weekdays to set the appointments for and whether to start setting the recurring appointments for this week or the following week Place a check next to Monday and Friday and select Start next week Since we don t want to overwrite any important appointments check the Do not overwrite conflicting appointments option and click the Set
205. tion When asked for a location choose C Prevail if you are running the installation on the server machine or if installing on a Novell NetWare system choose X Prevail where X is the mapped server drive Installing the Client Before installing the Prevail client application the server drive that holds the Prevail data has to be mapped to the workstations that will use Prevail To map the server drive on a workstation go to the workstation and run the Windows Explorer by choosing Star Programs Windows Explorer or Windows NT Explorer Choose Tools Map Network Drive from the menu Choose a letter for the drive We recommend using P if available Next using the Shared Directories tree view select the server computer and the drive that you plan on installing the Prevail server files to The UNC Universal Naming Convention path will automatically fill in when you select a drive Make sure the Reconnect at Logon checkbox is checked and then click the OK button A new hard drive icon will appear on the left side of the Windows Explorer with the letter you chose To install the Prevail client place the Prevail CD in the CD ROM drive of a workstation that will be running Prevail If auto run is enabled the Prevail Installer will automatically appear If you have not already read the Read Me click the Read Me button for the latest information regarding the installations Click the Install Client
206. tion after Loading This will occur if the Machine is on Network option is checked in the Prevail Settings and TCP IP is not loaded as a network protocol Prevail attempts to get an IP address from the system to use for chatting and system wide message broadcasting The error usually happens after all of the Prevail files have been loaded just before the main window appears Uncheck the Machine is on Network option in the Prevail Settings or load the TCP IP protocol Could not find Prevail directory This happens when there is a problem with the drive mapping First check to see that there actually is a drive mapped to whatever is specified in Prevail Settings Windows 95 sometimes arbitrarily removes drive mappings and they simply need to be re connected If there is a drive mapped look very closely at the Prevail Settings and make sure the path is correct and there are no extra characters If the Network Path is a drive letter such as P instead of a path like P Prevail the drive has probably been mapped to the Prevail directory instead of the root of the hard drive In this case you need to use the UNC naming convention Change the Network Path to server drive share prevail Where server is the name of the server machine and drive share is the share name of the drive TROUBLESHOOTING Error 7008 Conflicting server options causes this error If one machine is using the Local setting in Prevail and anothe
207. tion for a possible match The search is case insensitive and looks for parts of words or whole words When the search has completed click on a report and the report will be selected in the Prevail Reporter The Report Designer Interface The Prevail Reporter interface as you just saw was pretty straightforward The main objective of the Prevail Reporter interface is to provide logical organization for your reports and simple access to functionality such as previewing or printing a report The bulk of the Reporter s interface actually lies in the Report D esigner This is the interface that is used to create and modify reports If you can master the Report Designer you can surely master the art of reporting The following text has been taken from D igital Metaphors Corporation s ReportBuilder D eveloper s Guide 126 THE PREVAIL REPORTER Design Tab The design workspace is where the report layout is created This workspace contains all of the menus toolbars and dialogs that make up the Report D esigner Preview Tab The Preview workspace shows a representation of the report as it will appear when printed to the printer The iterative process of perfecting a report is generally accomplished by moving back and forth between the Preview and Design tabs of the Report Designer Print Dialog Page 1 of 1 Z Pile ES ReportBuilder ppOrderDetail File Edit View Report Help Design Preview RIAD BRSa eas
208. ton on the To do tab Enter the information about the to do and click the Done button The information will then be recorded and the to do will begin showing up on the to do list of the appropriate person on the date entered in the D ue field Documents Generate an SSA form If the current case is a Social Security case click the Forms button and choose Forms from the drop down menu A list of all available SSA forms is displayed You can choose a form from this list by clicking the form name Since Prevail can track up to three claims per client you can also choose which claim you want this form to be associated with Claim 1 is the default since there is seldom more than one claim filed concurrently for each client 110 HOW TO After you have chosen a form and claim click the Ok button and your form will be merged Y our word processor will be launched if it is not already running and your client data will be merged into the SSA Form If there is any information required by the form that is not included in Prevail you will be prompted to enter it as the form is merging After the merge is completed the document will be saved automatically If you make any changes to it after it is saved remember to re save it using the same name Prevail has already given it before exiting your word processor You can either exit your word processor at this point or simply switch back to Prevail using the
209. ts the Weight property 139 THE PREVAIL REPORTER For use with a Line component only sets the Line Style pen style property Drag and Drop Support ReportBuilder contains a Report Wizard that allows you to quickly create an entire report layout This is great for generating an entire report but what if you need to create only a portion of a complex report D rag and drop functionality is an ideal solution for this problem because it allows you to create a set of components within the context of an existing report layout In ReportBuilder drag and drop support is provided via the D ata Tree pictured below Data Tree Data tab The Data Tree has two tabs In the top tree view the Data tab contains a list of data pipelines to which the report has access In the bottom list view all of the fields for the currently selected data pipeline are displayed Fields can be selected from the bottom list view and dragged to any part of the report layout The data aware component which is appropriate for the given field will then be created along with a label and border Data Tree Layout tab The second tab of the Data Tree is entitled Layout This tab allows you to control the behavior of drag and drop By default a label and border are created for each data aware component You can turn the label off the border off control the color of the label or border and control the font of the label and data aware component from th
210. u are only the currently selected view For example if your View is set to USER and the name JOHN is the current user then you would only be searching John s calendar for hearings If you want to search all calendars make sure you have the Everyone view selected A Note about Notes Prevail has several kinds of notes available for each case Which ones you use depend on your purpose for entering them and your style of practice Case Notes The most commonly used notes are the Case Notes which can be T pei ee om mi accessed by clicking the Notes m Si JEJ u button or pressing the F4 key from pmse ma r ranam ouu mas eemey teresm ist et wtb any client data page This function impie eriden teste Hu nudba uedonianda baranina parun automatically plugs in the date the conser zaru sig merses netwrnstion aromis monty eens time and the user making the notes entry You are then given as much space as you need to type your note These notes are most commonly used for making comments about client contact or storing late breaking news about a case It is also helpful to cut and paste email and phone messages about the client into these notes since that allows you to record pertinent information without re typing anything Case notes are designed for general what s going on in this case type of information Strategy Notes 63 PERSONAL INJURY There is however another m
211. u merge this document a status entry will be made on the Claims tab that says Request for Hearing Sent on today s date The File Name field should contain the exact physical file name of the document You can click the folder icon button next to the field to use the Windows open dialog to browse for the file Using this method will assure that the file name is correct After you find the file and click the Open button on the Windows open dialog you will be asked if you want to copy the file to the Prevail documents directory If the file does not already exist in the X Prevail Docs or X Prevail Docs Word directory then click the Yes button to copy the file automatically If you want Prevail to add a time entry to the Time tab when you merge the document enter the time in hours 15 minutes is 0 25 If the value is greater than zero Prevail will automatically create the time entry The Postage field allows you to track the costs of sending documents in a case If the value of the Postage field is greater than zero a cost entry will be created on the Costs tab No entry will be created if the field is left blank or the value is zero If merging this document should post a reminder to the to do list then enter the number of days to post the reminder after the date it is merged You should always make the response day at least a couple days less than the actual response days you need This way the warn
212. u option of the Report Designer You can separate your report into different sections using groups A number of options are available to control the behavior of each group For example you may want each group to start on a new page or to reprint the group header when the group continues on additional pages Another powerful feature is the Keep group together option that can be used to ensure all of the information for a group fits on a page Groups RANTE a Group 0 Order CustNo Add Insert Delete Break On DataField Custom Field gt On Group Change IV Start new page IV Reset page number O New page when less than _ Keep arcup together IV Reprint group headers on subsequent pages Cancel Print to File Setup Dialog The Print to File Setup dialog is accessible via the File Print to File Setup menu option of the Report Designer This dialog is used to specify the format and content of the ASCII file that will be created if the report is printed to file Data Dialog Print to File Setup x File Name P RABldr4 DEMOS Reports dm01 File Type Comma delimited 7 Bands Header Footer Available Controls Selected Controls ppReportl DBCalc1 ppReportl DBT ext4 ea _ Eel The Data dialog can be accessed from the Report D ata menu Master Data Pipeline option of the Report Designer It can be used to specify
213. urposes Exporting the notes will copy the notes to file and store them in the cases history folder as well as create a document history entry Rolodex The Rolodex is used to store all of your contact names addresses and phone numbers Along the top of the window are a series of buttons with the letters A Z These buttons are used to navigate through your contacts by a last name or company name For instance to view a contacts whose last the last name begins with A click the A button Noticed that the button remains in the down position This signifies that you are viewing the clients with a last name that begins with A Click the N ew button to AEE ELLER HITLER BER ER EDL eee ek add a new contact Fill in the information then click Save button to save the contact Click the Cancel button to cancel adding the new contact To delete a contact navigate to the contact select the contact and click the D elete button User Utility The User Utility is where you add and delete users from the Prevail system In order to add or remove the user from the system you must have Super User 43 THE INTERFACE security The Prevail Users list located on the left side of the window displays a list of all users currently in the system To add a new user to the system click the New button Fill in the information then click the Save button to save the user or click the Canc
214. usted primary insurance amount In addition to the date and amount fields there is a history section that allows you to insert entries into the fees tracking ledger To insert an entry into this ledger simply click the Insert button A window will appear allowing you to enter specific information on this fee tracking entry The top line is the Description field for this entry Click on the pull down arrow to the right of this field to select one of the pre determined entry categories to add a category to the drop down list press the Insert key After you have selected a category move to the Entry Date field and enter the date for which this item is applicable usually this will be date of award date of approval etc whatever date is pertinent to this entry The next field is a Paid Date field which will determine when the fee has been paid It is a good idea to use this field for reporting purposes to know which fees have been paid and which have not The next field is an amount field to specify a dollar amount for this fee item There is also a memo field to enter detailed information or notes about this fee entry Keep in mind that you can have as many fee entries as you want in the History section so you can break the fee history for this claim down into individual components if you like e g benefits approved fee approved DIB fee received SSI fee received etc 22 GUIDED TOUR
215. utton Prevail will gather up all required information on the currently selected client load your word processor if it s not already running pull up the selected form letter merge your client information into the form letter and save the finished product for you If the letter requires any information not already entered into the system the merge will be paused and you will be prompted to enter it manually 111 HOW TO You can make any changes you like to the letter at this point If you make changes remember to re save the document with the document number that Prevail has already given it before exiting or minimizing your word processor Y ou can switch back to Prevail using the ALT TAB keys whenever you want As long as you have sufficient memory you can keep Prevail and your word processor running concurrently Every letter you create in this manner is automatically saved for you on the History page for this client Viewing documents Pull up the desired client and click on the History tab Select the document you would like to view and click the View button The document will be opened in the appropriate program Personal Injury Add a new defendant Click the Defendant tab of the case you want to add a defendant to Click the Insert button Fill out the information about the new defendant and click the Done button to save it Prevail will then perform a simple conflict of inter
216. vail If you click on the Srna FA http www prevail net text the Prevail Network web site will open in your default web browser a _ 35 THE INTERFACE The Prevail Window The Prevail window is main window of Prevail It contains a title bar main menu toolbar page name navigation bar and all of the tabs for the different information views Every possible window or function can be reached via the Prevail window Getting to know the Prevail window will greatly pay off in the long run Title Bar q i mj Main Menu Beech Ri Cal Calero Proopedig Forma Query Client Information Cor wt oo Toolbar or a i Page Name Navigation Bar Page Content Sikh park pin S cher Freee Drie oa Frm Onf mm pie Tabs Led Eo BIE pores bar Pree ep ees Title Bar The Title Bar displays information such as the current case number the client s name or case name social security number and if viewing closed files the date the file was closed Main Menu The main menu houses access to nearly every function or window in Prevail Some functions in Prevail can only be accessed via the main menu File Menu A MES Edt Tools DataBank Fer e New Client Add a new prospect to the system FY ven Cieri a New Appointment Crrl a e New Appointment Schedule a new appointment oe il Save F12 Update Info Ctrl U e New To do Create a new to do Attach Image to Client impart test tro
217. vail will have the capability to create and save searches without having the manually do it Only experienced database users should perform this task Please read the warning below before continuing Warning Data corruption and severe data loss may result from attempting to perform operations on the database without consent from Practice Technology Inc If you choose to use an extemal program to view the Prevail database any loss of data that might occur is at your own risk Practice Technology Inc reserves to right to refuse service to those that have attempted to use an unwarranted piece of software or operation on the Prevail databases If you do not have the ARC32 program installed see the Prevail CD for information on installing it If it is installed run the application Choose File O pen Table from the main menu O pen a file called pvsearch adt found in your network Prevail directory Look at the data in the file before attempting to 101 NEW CALLS AND PROSPECTS create a new record Click the insert record button a plus found under the grid to insert a blank record See the following table for a description of each field Field SQL Table Source NonCase Z o i OQ z cD Widths The SQL field determines whether or not the search uses the SQL language The table value is used to determine what table should be used if the search does not use SQL Tables are named by replacing the pv
218. vail will not merge documents nce the server and client portions of Prevail have been installed there Adding a User Before running Prevail we must first add your user name to the Prevail system Run the Prevail Control Panel by double clicking the Control Panel icon on your desktop wl Click the Users button on the Prevail Control Panel You will be prompted to enter a login name Enter DEMO with all caps and click the OK button Next you will be prompted for a password Leave the text blank and click the OK button Click the New button on the toolbar and fill in the information for yourself Be sure to fill in the Login field This will become your nickname in the Prevail system Whenever you create a document time entry cost entry to do or appointment your login will be attached to these items It is used to let other users in Prevail GUIDED TOUR know who did what The login can only be eight characters We recommend using first names last names or initials for logins If you have more than one user with the same first name last name and initials let them make up a name to differentiate from another user If you want to tighten security in your office use a password to protect unwarrented people from logging into the system Since you are the first user in Prevail and reading this manual we will assume you are going to be the Prevail administrator Set your Securit
219. with a city that matches your keystrokes If this is the correct city hit the Enter key on the keyboard to select the city If the city is not stored in the zip code list just continue to type the entire city name After you have entered the firm information click on the Done button to save changes From now on when you merge any document that contains the field codes for the firm information your firm s name address phone numbers etc will be inserted to the document Firm Attorneys Now that you have entered your firm s information it is time to enter the firm s attorneys Prevail comes with a few test attorneys already in the system but these are for demonstration and testing purposes only This step is not necessary at the moment but eventually all firm attorneys will need to be added to the system Note that adding a user that is an attorney and adding a firm attorney are two different things An attorney must be a Prevail user to be able to login and use the Prevail program However not all attorneys use the Prevail program If an attomey is going to use Prevail then that attorney needs to be added as both a user and a firm attorney 15 GUIDED TOUR To add a firm attorney choose Data Bank gt G eneral Firm Attorneys from the main menu A window will appear that will eventually become very familiar As you can see a few test attorneys are already in the system If you wish delete sms ms them at this time b
220. y and click the Done button to save it Next on the Prevail window click on the Custom tab to view the custom fields If you are on a social security case the first custom field will say Holiday Party If you are on a personal injury case the first custom field will say Holiday Card Now click the Previous and Next buttons to move to the next and previous cases As the case types change so do the custom fields So in essence you really have thirty six different custom fields to work with but only eighteen per case For more information on custom fields see the chapter titled Custom Fields Claims Utility If your firm practices social security the Claims Utility is perhaps the most important customizable feature in Prevail The Claims Utility is used to create modify and remove steps from the Social Security claim process Prevail ships with a default set of steps but few firms find the need to tailor this process specifically for their firm If you are a new user to Prevail it is recommended that you first plan how your firm will handle claims and then edit the claims process to reflect your needs before you start to add clients into Prevail Once you begin to enter clients into Prevail it becomes increasingly difficult to process all clients in the same manner We will not go into the Claims Utility at this time but this is something you should be thinking about while you are becoming famili
221. y by choosing Super User from the drop down box This will allow you to add and edit users in the system Click the Save button to add your login to the system Click the Cancel button to discard changes Click the Done button to close the User Utilities and exit the Control Panel If you would like to learn more about the Control Panel read the chapter titled The Prevail Control Panel Running Prevail for the First Time Run Prevail by double clicking on the Prevail icon P on the desktop or choose Start Programs Prevail Prevail The first time you run Prevail a window called Prevail Settings will appear This window will only appear the first time you run Prevail on each workstation Let s configure Prevail so we can continue with this tour Configuring Prevail In the Login ID field enter the login we just added to the system The Database Server option specifies how Prevail will retrieve the data If you have purchased and installed the Advantage D atabase Server then choose Remote to take advantage of the Client Server environment If you do not have the database server and are participating on a LAN Local Area Network select Local If you have purchased installed and configured the Advantage Internet Server then choose Internet If this machine is part of a network and the TCP IP network protocol is installed then enable the Machine is on a Network opti
222. y relate to this case Commonly used categories for this page include witnesses court reporters additional insurance providers co counsel attorneys private investigators and mediators You are not limited to these however You can add more as you start to use Prevail 7 li m 3 F af Tem Fi ey C Cee Fei em Ty wim Parties fermaia Eir wo SS pi E Gee To add a related party to the currently selected case Click the Insert button Select a category F 3 for the Type field If the type you need isnot in the list choose Data Bank Personal Injury Related Party Types and add the type n a fer you need To select a party click the Choose smau button to the right of the Company field sm This will allow you to search the database for t a entries that have already been made If the party you want to enter is not in the database Zom click on the Add button You can then select the name and click the Done button to select the party for this case There are some additional fields for policy and claim information if the party happens to be an insurance carrier but you can ignore them if it is not Notice that there are additional fields for contact information below the Related Parties grid These fields allow you to enter the name and phone number for your contact person within the company or organization that is currently selected As you highlight differe
223. y selecting the attorney and clicking the D elete button To add a new attorney click the New Ce eT button Fill in the information IMPORTANT Make sure you fill in the Login ID field Prevail uses the login ID in drop down lists to assign attorneys to cases If the attomey uses Prevail make sure the Login ID is the same as his her user Login ID or else to dos appointments etc will not show up for the attomey when using Prevail Click the Done button to save the attorney or click the Cancel button to discard changes Case Managers A Prevail case manager is any person within your firm who has day to day responsibility for handling files Usually the case manager is a paralegal or legal assistant but some firms enter their attorneys as case managers as well Prevail defaults many automatic reminders eg document follow up statute of limitations etc to appear on the case manager s to do list It is very important to assign a case manager to a case To add a case manager choose Data Bank G eneralCase Managers from the main menu A few test case managers are already in the system If you wish amen _ fam st delete them at this time by selecting the pui 7 case manager and clicking the D elete button To add a case manager click T the New button Fill in the information Lome Tuk IMPORTANT Make sure you fill in the Login ID field Prevail uses the

v3 - Prevail

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