Setup (general)

Staff setup overview

Use the Staff screen to track firm employee information such as identification, rates, security permissions, contact information, and so on. The firm administrator should initially set up each staff’s information, including security permissions for the application.
To open the Staff screen, choose Setup > Staff. You can also open the Staff screen by right-clicking any staff information drop-down list.
note
  • The Staff screen is a user-defined terminology screen. Your firm may refer to it by a different name. You can view the default names for user-defined items by choosing Help > Enable Default Terminology (or by pressing CTRL+Shift+H).
  • Only staff with security permission will be able to view professional data such as billing rates or cost in the application.
  • If you do not have security permission from your firm administrator for this screen, it will be unavailable.

Staff selection list

To select a staff member, click their name in the Staff selection list.
note
To move the Staff selection list to a different part of your screen, choose View > List Pane and then Left, Right, Top, or Bottom.
To search for specific staff members or staff information, or to narrow down the list of staff, use the
Search
 and
Filter
 fields at the top of the screen.
  • Click the Down arrow button in the
    Search
     field to specify your search criteria. You can restrict your search to specific fields and choose from a variety of search methods.
  • Select a filter from the
    Filter
     field, or click the More button and create a filter using criteria that you specify.

Main

Use this tab to enter staff identification information, track educational requirements, assign the staff member to groups, set up user preferences, and include a staff photo.
If you are licensed for Digita NetFirm, you can also enable Digita Practice Advanced Mobile access for the selected staff member. Digita Practice Advanced Mobile is a mobile app that lets you access Digita Practice Advanced firm, staff, and client data on your Apple iOS devices.

Contact Info

This tab includes staff personal contact information such as address and phone number. It can also be used to set up additional contacts such as a spouse or an emergency contact.

Benefits

Use the Benefits tab to activate staff benefits and enter effective dates for the benefits.
note
  • Before you can activate staff benefits on this tab, you need to first set up comp time on the Firm setup screen and/or set up accruable benefits on the Activities screen.
  • If your firm uses the security feature in Digita Practice Advanced, staff access to this tab can be restricted or limited to view-only.

Skill Set

note
This tab is available only if your firm is licensed for the Staff Management module.
Use the Skill Set tab to describe a staff member’s proficiency with various types of work performed by your firm. Defining skill sets will help you assign work items to the staff members who are best qualified to perform them based on their skill areas and skill ratings.

Rates

Use the Rates tab to set up billing and cost rates for staff. The Rate Table shows the current staff’s cost and billing rate(s) as of the date shown in the
Effective date
 field.
note
Staff members are not required to have rates set up; however, they must have a rate set up in order to enter time in the application.

Targets

note
This tab is available only if your firm is licensed for the Staff Management module and if you have sufficient security privileges to edit or view target hours.
Use the Targets tab to enter staff target work hours. You can:
  • Set different targets for different times of year
  • Specify the percentage of hours that should be billable
  • Establish a total billable amount target for the staff member

Security

The Member of groups list contains all security groups. When you mark the checkbox for a security group, the staff member will receive all security permissions assigned to that group. There is no limit to the number of groups a staff member can belong to. If no security groups are selected, the staff member will not be able to log in to the application. The Privileges tree shows all permissions assigned to the selected groups.
Click the Reset Password button to reset a staff member’s password. The next time the staff member opens Digita Practice Advanced, he or she will be prompted to enter a new password.
note
The Security tab allows you to add, edit, or delete security groups on the fly. Right-click in the list of groups and choose the appropriate command from the context menu.

Custom Fields

Information on this tab comes from custom fields you have set up in the Staff Custom Fields screen. To add or edit custom fields, choose Setup > Custom Fields > Staff.
Digita Practice Advanced allows you to create your own custom fields and field names for offices, staff, activities, clients, engagements, projects, tasks, and time & expense entry. Using custom fields enables you to track additional information in the application. You can create checkboxes, date fields, numeric fields, text fields (up to 4000 characters long), lists, and staff lists. To create custom fields, choose Setup > Custom Fields and then Offices, Staff, Activities, Clients, Engagements, Projects, Tasks, or Time & Expense Entry, depending on where you want the custom fields to appear within Digita Practice Advanced.

Notes

The
Notes
 field lets you enter any information you would like to track for the selected staff member.

This article applies to:

  • Product: Digita Practice Advanced