Accounting, Billing & Trust (ABT) and Usability are two core themes for Actionstep's development in 2021. We have been actively working on ways for you to use Actionstep more intuitively and effectively and have better experiences with our accounting functionality. Read more about our recent product updates, new integration partners, and other news below.

Quarter 3

Improvements to General Journals

ABT

Disbursements can now be set to bank and credit cards to allow you to deal with transactions like bank fees and any adjustments that touch your bank account. To ensure that the appropriate details are captured against these transactions, you can also add a linked contact to the debit or credit that is set to your bank account or credit card.

Disbursement Tracking

ABT

You will now find it easier to track expenses that you are waiting for your client to reimburse you for before you pay your vendor. This improvement adds four new functions:

• A new default disbursement/expense list view that will give details or all Vendor invoices that are unpaid where the expense has been billed onto the client and the client has paid
• New custom disbursement/expense list view options so that admins can incorporate more details about vendor invoice and bills their own list views
• A new message that appears anytime you process a client receipt to advise that a relevant vendor invoice can now be paid
• A new Vendor reference field on the disbursement/expense record for Express and Practice Pro users to make it easier for them to record vendor information on the record.

Quickly Access Your Matters on Your Home Page

Usability

Gain access to your recently viewed, starred and assigned matters, straight from your home page with Actionstep's updated matter view.

Sticky Document Sorting

Usability

Actionstep will now remember how you like to order documents inside a matter. Prefer to have the most recently modified document on top? Actionstep will make this your default across all matters and logins – no more changing the sort order every time you open the documents view.

Matter Appointments

Usability

All Matter Appointments are conveniently available to view. Matter Appointments makes it easy to see all appointments related to the matter by providing a dedicated view of the appointment list, accessed via a new calendar icon within the matter menu bar.

Selecting Matters Across Actionstep - More Intuitive Matters Lists

Usability

It's now easier to choose which matters you are tracking time and activity against in Actionstep. Matters that have been closed will no longer clutter up the matter Lookup by default. Additionally, we also now give immediate access to the matters you've most recently accessed – no need to go searching for the matters you are actively working on. This is especially useful when creating time entries.

Bulk Task Assignment - Easily Manage Multiple Tasks at Once

Usability

You can now select multiple tasks, and reassign them to another team member from any Task List view. For example, when you go on leave, you can bulk assign tasks to your colleague.

Early Access to New Features

Usability

Want to get Early Access to new Actionstep features before they become generally available? Watch the video below to learn how to turn on Early Access. Please note: Only users with Admin access have the ability to turn this on.

BundleDocs Integration Improvements - Matter Emails

Usability

Users of our BundleDocs integration will now have the option to be able to select emails within the generated bundles. This is a great way to be able to pull all the relevant documents and emails from a matter to share with a third party. 

Quarter 4

Trust Duplicate Check

ABT

To ensure accuracy in your trust records, Actionstep has introduced a duplicate check to any new trust transaction created. If the details of a trust receipt, trust payment, trust transfer, journal, or invoice payment from a trust match and the existing transaction in Actionstep, you will be prevented from saving that record. Instead, you will be given a warning message advising you of the duplicate, prompting you to review and change the details of the transaction you are trying to create.

A transaction will be considered a duplicate if the matter, amount, date, memo and trust account entered match an existing transaction.

Merge Fields to Display Outstanding Bills for a Matter

ABT

We have created a new set of merge fields that will allow you to list out the invoices that are outstanding for a client. The merge fields will list all invoices that still have an amount owing and for each invoice you can display the invoice reference, date, original invoice total and balance due.

These merge fields can be added to an invoice template, document, and email templates to help you convey to your clients what is outstanding for them to pay.

Invoice Deliver Settings on Step Change

ABT

Step changes are used to drive automation and user data entry. This feature update brings invoice delivery settings into step changes and matter workflows so you can streamline your intake process by deciding how you will bill your clients on a step change, improving your billing efficiencies and saving time.

Client Receipt Screen: Easily find and look up invoices that are addressed to multiple contacts

ABT

This update means that when you search for an invoice by contact, results will show invoices related to that contact, even when the contact is not the primary customer.

Every invoice will have at least one primary customer that the invoice is made out to but often you have multiple people responsible for a bill - this change means you can add any number of secondary customers to the bill.

With this change, it should be easier for you to find the invoice you need to record a payment against and additionally, unblock any potential issues when processing a payment against multiple invoices.

Publish Client Invoices to Matter Documents

ABT

Easily Share invoices with your clients or third parties, attach them to your emails, include them in document bundles, and push them into integrated documents systems.

This update will allow you to automatically save invoices directly to the relevant Matter. Once an invoice is finalized, it will be saved into a matter folder called "invoices" and you will then be able to provide external access to this folder, allowing you to share client invoices via the portal.

Assigning Draft Emails to a Matter Through Outlook Add-in

Usability

We have re-introduced the function, when you search and select a matter, an email will be assigned to you while drafting an email. When you do this, you will have the email automatically saved to a matter as soon as it has been sent. Functions such as applying an email template, adding a contact from Actionstep as a recipient to the email, and attaching a document from a matter will still be available to you.

Changes to Support

Usability

In November, we introduced a much better way for you to contact and engage with our Support Team. We have a new support platform to assist with resolving support queries and updating our customers on product features and improvements.

Our new support platform allows us to diagnose and prioritize issues more accurately, respond to and resolve issues faster and provide greater visibility across our team in relation to customer queries. It will also make it easier for you to quickly find resources that help answer regular queries without needing intervention from Support.

Introducing Our Help & Resources Menu

Usability

You will now see a new Help & Resources Menu in Actionstep (see the screenshot below). This menu will allow you to submit a ticket or access our Help Center and other resources. We will also be introducing new items to this menu over time, based on your feedback.   

Clicking on the ‘Contact Support’ option will take you to a form to submit a support ticket. Alternatively, you can email support@actionstep.com and a ticket will automatically be created for you.

As always, our focus is on delivering the best Support possible to our customers. These improvements are based on feedback from customers and in keeping with best practices in the industry. We expect them to significantly improve our overall customer experiences with Support.

New Integrations

Usability

Our Technology Partners have been hard at work building new connectors on our API, including integrations around billing, contact syncing, communications, and estate planning.

Keep Up to Date

Throughout the month we push a lot of changes and updates.