Managing Your Firm Information and Users in Tracker

This is an important help topic that every firm administrator should read. This topic explains the five basic important concepts to understand for effectively setting up and managing firm users in Legal Tracker.

Your Firm's Information is Independent of Your Clients' Systems

Legal Tracker has a unique architecture with respect to firm and user information. When you edit profile information, you are changing only your firm's own database, which is separate from any company's database. When clients use Tracker to work with firms, Tracker "points" the client's database to your firm database.
The simplest way to understand the architecture is to think of each firm as having its own database that contains:
  • The firm profile (designates Lead and Backup System Administrators)
  • Office profile(s) (designates Office System Administrators and Backup Office System Administrators)
  • User profiles
Any changes you make to the firm profile, office profile, user profile, and user preferences will be visible to all your clients. The same is true if you create new users, or a user updates their profile information. If your firm is in a specific client's database, the client will have access to the updated information.
When you make updates, your firm's profile information is then automatically updated in the Tracker Worldwide Directory of Firms. Even if your firm is not connected to a company in Tracker, prospective clients can search for and find your information using the Tracker Worldwide Directory of Firms.
Features of the Tracker Architecture
The unique and proprietary architecture of the Tracker system has several important benefits:
  • Users need only one user ID and password for all clients on Tracker.
  • The Tracker architecture keeps your firm and user information automatically synchronized for all clients. When you, for example, update firm or office profile information or create new users, or when a user updates his or her user profile information, the information is instantly updated for all your clients. Thus, the Tracker architecture saves you from having to enter duplicate data and eliminates inconsistent data entry in multiple clients' systems.
  • Other prospective clients can search for your firm in the Tracker Worldwide Directory of Firms. Even if your firm is not connected to a company in Tracker, other clients and prospects can search for and find your information in Tracker. In fact, many companies have hired law firms because the firm is already in the Tracker system.
  • The Tracker architecture makes Tracker the easiest system to implement as your clients are onboarded to Tracker. Tracker is already the easiest system for companies to implement (implementations take one to three months while other systems can take more than a year). For example, as your clients are onboarded to the Tracker system, they can locate your firm in the Tracker Worldwide Directory of Firms, drag and drop your firm information into their database and start working with your firm immediately.

Company System Administrators Cannot Edit Your Firm or User Information

Only firm users in your firm with a Firm System Administrator system role can edit your firm's information. Company System Administrators cannot edit any of your firm's information or any of your firm's user information. However, Company System Administrators can create:
  • Firm users with a system role of Firm User. A Firm User has no special rights.
  • Offices for your firm.
If a Company System Administrator creates a firm user or an office, your firm's lead and backup system administrators are notified via email. However, the Company System Administrator cannot edit that user's information or the office information. The only exception is if the firm user was set up by a company with the wrong email address, the Company System Administrator can change the email address before the user signs in. Otherwise, all firm information must be edited by one of your firm administrators.

Each Firm has a Firm Profile and at Least One Office in Tracker

Each firm has a profile that contains information applicable to the entire firm. For example, the firm profile includes the complete firm name, a firm short name that is generally displayed in most pages in Tracker, the firm history, and the firm's lead and backup system administrators.
In addition, each firm creates an office for each office of the firm. Even solo practitioners have both a firm profile and one office profile. The office profile contains information specific to the office of the firm, such as the office address and billing address, areas of expertise of attorneys in the office and contact information for the office system administrator and backup office system administrators.
If a firm has more than one office, it can optionally designate a main office. It is important to note that the main office is not client-specific. It should only be selected if the firm designates a main office on its website and promotional materials.

Each Firm Has a Firm Administrator

A user with a system role of Firm System Administrator can update the firm profile information and all office profile information for any office of your firm.
A Firm System Administrator can also create users, deactivate users and reset users' passwords for any office in the firm.
Example
A firm has an office in Boston, Massachusetts and Buenos Aires, Argentina. A Firm System Administrator in the Boston office can:
  • Edit the office information for the Boston and Buenos Aires offices.
  • Reset the password of users in the Boston and Buenos Aires offices.
Some firm administrators are given special designations in the Tracker system. In the firm profile, at least one user must be identified as the lead Firm System Administrator and a different user must be identified as the backup Firm System Administrator. The lead Firm System Administratoris often the firm's Chief Technology Officer or other person in the IT department with significant responsibility, or head of the billing department. The lead and backup system administrators are the supreme administrators responsible for your firm's use of Legal Tracker with all clients.
In each office profile, at least one firm user must be identified as the Office System Administrator and another user must be identified as the backup Office System Administrator. These users may be the same persons as the lead and backup Firm System Administrator. The Firm Office Administrator is listed in the footer of each Tracker page as a support contact for firm users in the same office.
The Firm Office Administrator has similar privileges to the Firm System Administrator, but only with respect to that user's office. The Firm Office Administrator cannot create users with system administrator roles. TheFirm Office Administrator can post invoices for any matter, but their permissions may be restricted so they can only view invoices for matters in their own office.
More about Lead System Administrators and Office System Administrators
  • Once a user is designated an Office or System administrator, that user is an administrator from your firm for all clients on Tracker. Tracker does not support different firm administrators for specific clients.
  • Your firm's lead and backup System Administrators are shown in the Tracker Worldwide Directory of Firms to all companies in Tracker. These users are listed as the contact people for companies that may be considering hiring your firm.
  • Only your firm's lead and backup System Administrators can change a user's role to System Administrator. Office administrators and Company System Administrators cannot designate a firm's System Administrators.
Tip | Your firm should make careful and appropriate judgments about which users should be administrators in Tracker.

User Roles Determine Access to Matters and Billing

Firm administrators, firm office administrators and users with special billing rights do not have automatic access to matters, but can post invoices to any matter.
Firm users with a system role of Firm Administrator or Firm User + Billing have special billing rights in Tracker. These users can post invoices to any matter for any client. For example, a user with a system role of Firm User+Billing who is located in the Boston office of a firm can sign in to any of the firm's clients on Tracker and post an invoice for any office of the firm (for example, the Buenos Aires office). Depending on their privileges, Firm Office Administrators may be able to view invoices to any matte, or they may be restricted to matters only for their own office.
Users with special billing rights do not have automatic access to matter information and matter details in Tracker. Note that users who are designated as Client Responsible Users can request all matter access from the client.