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QUESTION: I need to make rate changes on a matter by year, for example in Year 1, John’s rate is $500; in Year 2 it is $525, Year 3 it is $540 etc. Is there a way of setting a period for the change so that when I make the change effective Jan 1st of Year 1, that change is not updated to all dockets from said date to current?
RESPONSE: We have understood that you want to go back to Year 1 and rebuild the rate structure - a different rate for entries with a transaction date in each year. To build the history start will the oldest rate and apply it effective the start date (i.e. Jan 1, Year 1) and revalue all the WIP until today, then do the next value with a new effective start date (i.e. Jan 1, Year 2) and revalue all the WIP. This second revaluation will only affect entries dated the effective date of the rate change (i.e., Jan 1, Year 2). With each effective date being one year forward from the last you affect less and less entries. By the time you reach the current year, you have all entries valued at the corresponding rate for the year.
If you want to first see the impact, ask your IT team to update your AcuminTraining with a backup of Acumin production (if this is not something they do regularly) and try the process first.
Note that entries that have special rates are treated differently and will not be included in the above process. The rates are hierarchical, and special client and matter rates take priority over the rate included in the rate category assigned to the matter. Any change to make to the rate category will not apply to entries rated with special rates.
To revalue these entries, you will need to modify the special rates for each each member per year individually (the normal process for special rate change modification). You cannot use the global rate change tool which only applies to rate changes for rates in a rate category.
Alternatively, you can create a new matter with a rate category that includes all the rates per year for all the members and start to transfer the entries from the old matter to the new one. In this case, only transfer one year worth of entries at the time and confirm results before you proceed. Once all the entries are transferred, close the original matter, and proceed with the new one. Although this would present better rate management moving forward, we recommend that if you decide to move forward with this approach, that you try this first in AcuminTraining and not directly in production based on expressed concerns with entry volume.