TeamConnect Essentials Glossary
Scroll through this list of terms or use the table of contents dropdown (far right side of the page) to jump to a specific section. If you know the term you're searching for, use the Ctrl + F keys on your keyboard to quickly search and find a term.
A
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Accounts | Records used for tracking various amounts of money allocated for specific purposes. | Budgets, Reserves |
| Appointments | Events, engagements, or meetings scheduled for a particular purpose at an assigned place and time with specific Resources. Appointments can be made only for Users who become the appointment's Attendees. Appointments can be easily associated with specific Matters if necessary. | Tasks, Activity, Calendar Invite |
| Approvals |
Authorization from one or more users (known as approvers) which is required for certain actions that are attempted by users. For example, posting an invoice. When you trigger an approval process, you are considered the requestor in the approval process. The attempted action is completed upon the final approval. Approvals are the major component of TeamConnect Essentials Workflow. |
Authorize, Approve |
| Approvers | Designated Users who have the authority to approve or reject certain actions attempted by users of TeamConnect Essentials. There can be several approvers at each level of the Approval process. This approval level is also known as an approval Stop. During an approval process, approvers may be able to send the approval request to reviewers for review before they make their decision. Approvers can view their approval requests on the My Approvals screen. | Invoice Approvers, Attorney |
| Assignees |
Designated Users who are assigned to Matters,Tasks, or Appointments. There can be one or several users assigned to a matter or appointment. The main assignee is by default teh first approver on invoices matter. In tasks, there can be only one assignee at a time. All assignees can be re-assigned, if necessary. Contacts who are Involved in the matter are different than assignees. For example, you select outside counsel to work on a matter; assignees must be users of the system while involved parties can be any contact in the system. |
Users, people involved with a matter or workflow, involved parties |
B
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Budget | Budget is a type of Account that represents a certain amount of money set aside by the organization or its individual departments to do business for a specific period of time, such as the fiscal year. | See Accounts |
C
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Category |
Items in the user interface that are associated with specific groups of fields displayed in a record. By adding or deleting categories in a record, you can display or hide the associated sections or fields in that record. |
|
| Check In or Check Out | A way to manage files that are uploaded to the Documents screens so that only one person at a time can edit them. If a file is checked out, no other users can edit the file. When the user is done editing and checks the file in, it becomes available for check out. | Put a document on hold, make a document un-editable for other users |
| Contact Card | Individuals or organizations either internal or external to your organization. External contacts usually conduct business with your organization and in one way or another and are involved in the records with which you work. For example, staff, claimants, opposing parties, witnesses, agencies, vendors, outside counsels, and so on can all be described by contact records. | Contact card, user contact, company contact, outside contact |
| Cost Center | Cost Centers allow users to divide incurred fees and expenses for a matter among allocated groups or entities (cost centers). Fees and expenses divide based on a cost center's percentage of financial responsibility and create a transaction history for analysis. | General Ledger Code, Invoice Code, Invoice Allocations, Invoice Entities |
| CSM | Collaborati Spend Management. An area within TeamConnect that enables the eBilling Admin to manage vendors and timekeepers. CSM and Collaborati sync information back and forth between the two systems. | CSM is not Collaborati |
D
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Document | A file uploaded to the Documents area of TeamConnect Essentials. These can be plain text, MS Word, MS Excel, PDF, image (JPEG, GIF, BMP), HTML, XML, etc. They are usually associated with TeamConnect Essentials records, for example, a picture taken of a car damaged in an auto accident. | Docs, PDF, Word, Invoice, Attachment, Excel Sheet, Spreadsheet, Auditing Rules, Billing Guidelines |
E
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Edit Mode | A state of a record in which you can modify it. In most screens, you can switch a record from Read- only mode to Edit mode by clicking the Edit button. | Edit, modify, change, adjust information |
| End-user |
A person who uses TeamConnect Essentials in a non-administrator or non-Solution developer capacity. This user type would typically not have rights to the Admin tab. For example, an end-user would typically work with Documents, Contacts, Invoices, and Matters. |
Users, contacts, outside counsel, IT personnel, system administrators, general counsel, attorneys |
| Entity | An entity is usually a part of the organization that inccurs legal costs. | See Cost Centers. |
| Expenses |
Costs of doing business in your organization, such as the cost of merchandise bought and the cost of services received. For example, office supplies, transportation, phone calls, meals, and employee training, could be considered expenses. |
Overhead, Costs, Incidentals, Expenditures, Regular Expenses, Charges, Bills |
| eBiling Profile | Your organization's business requirements for invoices. Rules allow the system to automatically check and validate invoices. | eBilling Rules, eBilling Guidelines |
G
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Global Search | Global Search allows you to search for specific record types or across All Records or All Projects. You can enter a few consecutive characters from any record's name or number, select the type of record, and the system will figure out what to search by, name or number, and whether the characters come from the beginning, middle, or end. | Search bar, Search |
| Groups | User groups contain users who have the same or similar responsibilities within the organization. Each user group has its own set of access rights assigned to it. | Users, User Groups, Security Groups, Group Memberships |
H
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| History |
Records that reflect chronology or history of the record to which they are related. History entries may reflect venue changes, assignment changes,outside counsel changes, progress/status, etc.
|
Audit trail, version report, document version, timeline, progress notes |
| Home Page | A screen which is displayed when you first log into TeamConnect Essentials, containing portal panes of useful links and information specific to your role in your organization. Users can access various types of information or do different actions from Portal Panes that are available on the Home Page. | Home screen, login screen |
I
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Invoice | Invoices are typically billing records for goods or services provided by 3rd party vendors to TeamConnect Essentials customers. Bills sent by Vendors who provided your organization with their goods or services. | Bill, Charge, Check, Bill To, eBill, eBilling |
| Involved | Contacts involved in Matters, such as claimants, witnesses, policemen, plaintiffs, defendants, and so on. Unlike matter Assignees, involved parties are not TeamConnect Essentials users. The information about the contact's involvement is displayed both in the contact record and the matter record. | Involved party, Assigned party, Assigned person, Assigned Firm, Outside Counsel, Firm, Vendor |
| Invoice Workflow |
A request to post an invoice will automatically be routed from staff members for approval before it is posted. Once the operation is complete TeamConnect Essentials ensures that the users responsible for the next operation receive the data they need to execute their stage of the process. |
Invoice Approval Workflow, Custom Routing Template |
L
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Line Item | An item used to list the goods or services specified in an Invoice. The details of each line item, such as the type (fee or expense), price, quantity, and dates must be entered in the Line Items screen of the corresponding invoice. Line items must be created from an existing invoice. | Invoice line |
| Lookup Table |
Dropdown lists like contacts' roles, types of address, phone, fax and other contact information, etc. In TeamConnect Essentials, the content of lookup tables may be edited. |
Drop-down, button, radio button, search bar, lookup area |
M
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Matter | Types of records that are specifically designed to meet the legal needs of an organization. | Project, Legal Matter |
| Matter-specific Rates | Timekeeper billings rates that are approved for specific matters. | Matter rates, Matter-level rates |
P
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
R
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Record | A record is a collection of data about something or someone with reference to a particular matter, such as a lawsuit, meeting, or financial transaction, saved in the database. Records have a number and a name assigned to identify the record in the database and help you search for it. | |
| Record Security | Access protection set at the level of individual object records. For example, you may grant the rights to read, update, and delete a record to other Users or Groups. This level of security can be set only on the Security tabs of individual records in the user interface by Admin users in the system. | Matter Security, Security Groups, Group Memberships, User Groups, Permissions |
| Relation | An association between one record and another. Relations are used to define invoice approver threshold relationships. | |
| Related Records | Associated records that can be accessed from within other records by clicking hyperlinks. For example, appointments, tasks, histories, expenses, documents, involved, and budgets are related records within Matters. | |
| Report | A collection of data displayed on a dashboard or widget within the Reports tab, Matter page, or Home page of TeamConnect Essentials. | Reporting, TCBI, Dashboards, Widgets |
| Request | An attempted operation by a user that is not completed until it has been approved by the approvers in a specified approval route. A request can be tracked by the requestor, the approvers who receive the request, and possibly a Process Manager, if one is specified for that approval process. | Submit for approval, invoice approval request |
| Reserves | A type of Account where the money is allocated from the Budget for the settlement of matters, such as paying outside counsel fees and other costs accrued while working on a matter, or an amount set aside for claim payments. | |
| Routes | A defined path of users whose Approval is required to authorize an operation in TeamConnect Essentials, such as posting an invoice. The path can consist of one or more Stops, that can each contain one or more members who can approve or reject the operation. Routes are used for Workflow purposes, to enforce and automate your business processes. |
S
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Stop | An Approval node, or check-point in a Route within the TeamConnect Essentials Workflow. Each stop consists of a certain number of Approvers, whose authorization is required for a pending action. Each approval route may have several stops. If you are an approver, you receive the approval request when it reaches your stop. | Workflow stop, Approval Stop |
T
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Tab | A user interface element that is displayed at the top of record screens. When clicked, each tab opens a new set of information from the record. | |
| Task | Internal assignments for TeamConnect Essentials Users. For example, preparing reports, reviewing documentation, and other activities could be considered tasks. | Action item, Activity |
U
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| User |
Persons who have access to TeamConnect Essentials. Unlike Contacts, each user has his or her own username and password, which is recorded in his or her user account (accessible only by the Administrator). Users have Rights assigned to them according to their roles within the organization, which allow them to use the appropriate areas of TeamConnect Essentials. Unlike contacts, users can be assigned to tasks and matters and can be attendees of appointments. |
V
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |
| Vendor | Outside Contacts with whom your organization conducts business. These can be suppliers of goods or services, hotels, travel agents, outside counsels, independent consultants, etc. | Outside Counsel Firm, Independent consultants |
| Volume Discount AFA | In TeamConnect Essentials, AFA Vendor Volume Discounts refer to multi-tiered volume discount AFAs where billing analysts can apply a range of multiple volume thresholds and discount percentages to each vendor. This assists with ensuring the invoices that come from Collaborati have the correct discounts applied. | Volume discount, sliding discount, AFA, Alternative Fee Arrangement |
W
| Term | Definition | Also known as... |