OPSIS News & Info

Millennium Accounts V5.78

Millennium Accounts release 5.78 is now available, however the forthcoming release (5.79) will address the next Statutory Legal Aid Changes that are due in April.

Therefore Legal Aid firms may wish to wait until then rather than do two upgrades so close together.

The release features the following enhancements:-

Reporting Enhancements

• The Matter Listing Reports now include a Legal Aid Reference (UFN) in the selection criteria.
• The following new reports have been added:
• - Outstanding Bills Aged Report
• - Outstanding Bills Aged Report by Executive
• - Outstanding Bills Aged Report by Fee Type
• - Outstanding Bills Aged Matter Executive Summary Report
• - Outstanding Bills Aged Matter Fee Type Summary Report
• - Outstanding Bills Aged Matter Summary Report
• - Outstanding Bills Aged Matter Summary Report by Executive
• - Outstanding Bills Aged Matter Summary Report by Fee Type
• The Aged Accounting Report now includes a Work Finished Date range and a ‘Show ONLY those with NO Bills’ in the selection criteria.
• The Matter Listing Report has a ‘Matter Client Overdrawn‘ option available in the ‘Select where balances are‘ selection in addition to the original ‘Client Overdrawn Overall’ choice.
• The Purchase Ledger with VAT Report is now available on ADO version.
• The Time Worked Reports now includes a matter range in the selection criteria.
• The VAT Analysis Report now shows the client’s EEC VAT Reg number for use on the EEC Sales Form.

Miscellaneous Enhancements

• When posting a credit note you can now use the Pro rata button, on the fee earner allocation window, to allocate the credit amount between all fee earners in the same proportion as the original bill.
• When posting a bill the Miscellaneous charges the VAT now calculates automatically.
• There is a new Practice Option to keep Misc Charges, instead of deleting them, when archiving a matter.
• The police station Fixed Fees & Escape Fees are recorded at the current rate of VAT i.e. reverts to 17.5% from January 2010.
• The matter Archive Reference number field has been increased from a maximum length of 20 to 30 characters.
• There is a new Practice Option to enable Legal Aid users to Split the LSC Bulk Load, by date range, into manageable sections within an Accounting Year and Period, for uploading to the LSC. The LSC’s CMSF and CLR values are still for the entire period.
• There is a new Practice Option to enable the maximum matter code to be specified (like maximum client code)
• Text is now correctly shown on tabbed windows when running under 64bit Windows.

For more information, release notes and downloads of the latest Millennium Accounts software go to our website Software Releases page.

March 4th, 2010 | Tags: OPSIS Support, Releases | Category: OPSIS Support, Releases |  Print This Post |  Email this Post | Leave a comment

Career Opportunity

OPSIS is a young vibrant company that boasts a friendly mix of staff. At OPSIS we believe that our people are a fundamental investment and to date we have reaped the rewards of this policy. With offices located in the UK, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland we believe that OPSIS can be described as a local company with an international focus. We offer successful candidates the chance to build a career with a dynamic market leading company.

A position has become available for an Accounts Assistant at the OPSIS offices in Grantham, Lincs, which is part of the IRIS Legal Compliance Solutions business unit.

For full details of this career vacancy, including responsibilities, key relationships, qualifications, experience required and competencies please click the following link, then scroll down the page to the UK Job Vacancies section:-

Accounts Assistant job vacancy at OPSIS in Grantham, Lincolnshire

March 3rd, 2010 | Tags: Job Vacancies, Jobs, OPSIS News | Category: Job Vacancies |  Print This Post |  Email this Post | Leave a comment

OPSIS Starter Packs

OPSIS now has a complete selection of Case Application Starter Packs for all areas of law including Conveyancing, Criminal, Civil Litigation, Family, Immigration, Personal Injury, Debt Recovery, Mental Health and Wills & Probate.

OPSIS Case Starter Packs are fully integrated into OPSIS Small Practice System (SPS) and Practice Management System (PMS) products - so it couldn’t be easier!

These starter packs contain all the necessary workflows and legal precedents required for all areas of legal work, so if you are thinking of diversifying into other areas of law then please talk to us.

OPSIS Case Starter Packs allow:

• Improved efficiency using the flexible and easy to use work-flow tools
• Customisable precedents which can be changed easily
• Case automation so senior staff can off-load admin work to junior staff

Whatever the size of your Practice, we think you will be pleasantly surprised at just how affordable you will find our Case Applications.

For more information on any of our Case Application Starter Packs or for further details on upgrading to SPS or PMS please call Antonia on 0844 815 5570, or e-mail legal@iris.co.uk referencing “OPSIS STARTER PACKS” or please click the link below to complete and return the Faxback form;

OPSIS Case Starter Packs Faxback Form.doc - 232 kb

February 26th, 2010 | Tags: OPSIS Sales, PMS, SPS | Category: OPSIS News |  Print This Post |  Email this Post | Leave a comment

IRIS Laserform was the first to market with the launch of their new IHT400 Full system for probate practitioners who need to make the necessary submission of the deceased’s estate details to HMRC, and calculate inheritance tax payments.

The IHT 400 notes and its supplementary pages (IHT401 to IHT423) are used as part of the probate or confirmation process if there’s Inheritance Tax to pay or the deceased’s estate does not qualify as an ‘excepted estate’ (the form replaced the old form IHT200).

Both of the OPSIS solutions Practice Management System (PMS) and Small Practice System (SPS) integrate with the Laserforms electronic legal forms packages. In May 2009, Laserforms was greatly improved for the submission of inheritance tax forms. Please note Laserforms is an IRIS product (OPSIS is part of IRIS Software & Services).

The new HMRC IHT 400 Full is an adapted Laserform that combines all 25 forms and schedules into 1, which you can use if you want to save time, have several supplemental forms and you want the form to carry out the calculations for you. This 25-in-1 form will populate the information into all of the forms supplemental to the IHT400.

IRIS Laserform Sales Director, Mike Boynes, explained:

“The IHT400Full is both easy to use and a great time saver. Users simply navigate through the hyperlinked index to locate and select the forms necessary for completion. After the information for the deceased has been inserted into the IHT400, this information then automatically filters through to all the relevant supplemental forms.

Similarly, as the matter progresses and additional information regarding the value of assets becomes available or the values change and the information needs to be modified, you enter data or make changes only once on the relevant schedule, and this will automatically update the IHT400 and the IHT400Calc.

Many Laserforms clients have already signed up for the IHT400Full. Users are elated at the amount of time saved by the automatic flow through feature, which significantly increasese efficiency of the firms probate departments. The IHT400Full really is a “no brainer” for probate solicitors who demand more than just the standard IHT400 forms. We are inundated with requests for the IHT400Full as we continue to roll it out to a large proportion of our client and prospect base.”

February 19th, 2010 | Tags: iht400, OPSIS News | Category: OPSIS News |  Print This Post |  Email this Post | Leave a comment

Two new brochures are now available on the OPSIS Sales web site on the product pages detailing our PMS Legal Case & Practice Management System, and the main features of the OPSIS Small Practice System.

Use the above links to learn more about our software and services, or download technical specifications.

If you are interested, please use the following download links for these brochures in Adobe PDF format:-

OPSIS PMS Data Sheet

OPSIS SPS Data Sheet

February 11th, 2010 | Tags: OPSIS Sales | Category: OPSIS News |  Print This Post |  Email this Post | Leave a comment

The Legal IT Show 2010 will see the launch of the new IRIS Legal Software Solutions Guide, which features the OPSIS range of legal practice management solutions.

Entitled “using technology to improve practice and chambers performance”, the new guide aims to outline the changes in the industry that IRIS see impacting businesses for the long term, including the increasing need for remote access and web enablement.

It also contains valuable input from industry experts who explore:

• the requirements of law firms and barrister chambers for comprehensive IT strategies to support their long-term business plans,
• integrated workflows and how they can be tailored to gain maximum advantage,
• the latest trends in hosting/cloud computing and
• why CRM can be a colossal waste of money unless you are prepared to put the effort in to make it work.

The guide also includes the products and services offered by IRIS Legal Solutions and some of their premier partners.

To learn more read the press release at the IRIS News feed, or alternatively you can download the IRIS Legal Software Solutions Guide for 2010.

February 10th, 2010 | Tags: Exhibitions, OPSIS News | Category: Exhibitions |  Print This Post |  Email this Post | Leave a comment

Martin Leuw, the Group CEO of IRIS, the UK’s largest private software house, and owner of OPSIS has launched a new blog at http://www.irisblogs.co.uk/

Commenting on the blogs launch, he said:

“This decade, more than ever before, technology will be a key point of competitive differentiation for all commercial decision makers in all businesses and in all markets, whereas in the past the firm’s IT strategy, if there was one, has not always underpinned a business strategy, if there was one. They need to be integrated, not dislocated.

This recession has been and will be a Darwinian experience for many businesses and everything will happen faster than ever before. The winners will be those who know where they are going, challenge the “status quo” and look for ways to use technology to do things quicker and more cost effectively than their competitors, whilst significantly improving the customer experience.

This blog is dedicated to those who love to question and its aim will be to stimulate, provoke and encourage feedback and interaction”.

January 13th, 2010 | Tags: Iris, OPSIS News | Category: OPSIS News |  Print This Post |  Email this Post | Leave a comment

Welcome to the Winter issue of OPSIS News!

The Winter Editions of the Ireland and UK newsletters were emailed to our customers last week, but if you missed it or are new to OPSIS you can find the on-line version of the OPSIS Newsletter by clicking the link below……

2009 Winter Edition of OPSIS News

Headlines are as follows:-

• Recent News
• - Lexcel Precedent Packs
• Latest Releases
• - SCM V5.4.7
• - MA 5.77.1
• Additional Services & Upcoming Workshops
• - NEW PC INSTALLATION/ SERVER MIGRATION
• - CONSULTANCY OR MANAGED DAYS
• - WORKSHOPS
• - CPD POINTS
• OPSIS Support Resources
• VAT Changes

You are also welcome to send feedback to us about any of the articles contained in the Newsletter. Just use the feedback form found at the bottom of the newsletter pages.

January 7th, 2010 | Category: OPSIS News |  Print This Post |  Email this Post | Leave a comment

OPSIS recently provided information relating to the 1st January VAT Rate changes and what needed to be done in our flagship products Millennium Accounts and Solicitor Case Manager.

The Law Society recently announced they have updated their Practice Notes in advance of the return of the VAT rate to 17.5 per cent on 1 January 2010.

The notes advise on charging the correct rate of VAT on the services you make both before or after 1 January 2010 and how to deal with those services that you started before but completed after the rate change.

Some queries have been raised by law firms to the Law Society in relation to paragraph 7.1 of the Practice Notes, and whilst the Law Society are seeking to clarify the position with HMRC Stamp Taxes and HMRC VAT you should refrain from making claims for repayments of SDLT. This will be resolved in the new year.

This does not currently involve any further changes in OPSIS products.

Click here to read the Law Society news article

January 6th, 2010 | Tags: Law Society, OPSIS Support, VAT | Category: OPSIS News, OPSIS Support |  Print This Post |  Email this Post | Leave a comment