2011 review of CaseWare International Inc — CaseWare Time 2011
Depending on a user’s security settings, firm statistics in terms of productivity, performance, progress and time sheets can be viewed in the Status Panel, a dashboard of sorts, for a given time period. This dashboard can be set as the user’s home page. Web dashboards are also available with WebApps, a web collaboration product, which can be linked to the data on the SQL server. These web dashboards can show gadgets, including financial information, period chart, staff expenses and time, and they have a look and feel similar to iGoogle (a logged-in user’s personalized Google page).
Included in the software is a feature to allow staff members designated as “approvers” to authorize time and expense entries line-by-line before they are billed. CaseWare Time allows for highly customizable security rights for users in an easy interface with check boxes for commands grouped by category. Access rights may be defined individually or by specific security groups to which users are assigned.
Integration & Data Management: 
Time can export invoice, cash receipts, credit notes, and approved time and expense transactions to the CaseWare Working Papers general ledger. The program can import data from applications not supported by Time through Excel and ASCII files.
CaseWare Time includes a PDF driver, so documents can be converted to PDF and automatically sent by e-mail as an attachment without needing third-party software. CaseWare Today, an optional add-on for Time, is a two-way integration tool that synchronizes contacts, projects, clients and staff with Microsoft Outlook.
Help/Support: 
Accessing the built-in Help features in CaseWare Time is easily done by pressing the F1 key while in a particular menu item or field, and the Help screen will appear to provide guidance regarding that menu item or field’s function. CaseWare Time has a diagnostics screen that warns users about missing information and areas in the file that are not functioning properly, and also assists technical support to quickly identify and resolve error messages. The program includes tools for server maintenance and for backing up and restoring the SQL database.
CaseWare’s support website provides “QuickVids” (video tutorials) with helpful explanations of some of Time’s more complex features, such as the Equation Editor, project conversion and year-end close. Also provided are articles for performing other difficult functions, a list of enhancements for the latest version, and program updates available for download, which must be installed manually. However, CaseWare’s website offers little resources for training a new average user on the basic functions of the system and lacks an online community.
Summary & Pricing
CaseWare Time is a comprehensive practice management system able to handle multi-departmental and multi-location firms. The system is best suited to large professional practices, particularly those using other CaseWare products such as Working Papers because of the similar interface and integration. The cost is $1,000 for a five timekeeper license, which is annually renewable at 50% of the license value.
2011 Overall Rating 
