Introducing: Temporary Initiatives 🎉

Ever found yourself working on a new project that's not yet in the billing system? We've got you covered!

We're thrilled to introduce Temporary Initiatives into Laurel. Now, you can effortlessly track your time for new projects without the wait.

🎥 Wondering how it works? Check out the GIF below to see how easy it is to create and manage your Temporary Initiatives:

Quick Guide to Using Temporary Initiatives:

• Start by clicking the 'Add Entry'
• Choose the 'Matter' field
• Click on 'Create Temporary Initiative'
• Type in your desired name
• Confirm by clicking 'Save'

📝 Note: Temporary Initiatives are displayed in 6-minute increments. Once you reassign the entry to the appropriate Initiative, the increment total will adjust in line with the specific matter plan.

Reassigning Temporary Initiatives:

Using the Recent Initiative List

1. Select the entry
2. Click the plus sign next to the correct Initiative in the Recent Initiative List

Via shortcut

1. Select the entry
2. Tap 'a' on your keyboard
3. Search for the correct Initiative

Further Details:

• Users create their own unique Temporary Initiatives.
• With a grey shade and distinct labeling, it's easy to distinguish Temporary Initiatives from regular ones.
• Temporary Initiatives can be reassigned to regular Initiatives.
• Temporary Initiatives cannot be released.

Have questions or feedback? Let us know! help@laurel.ai

Happy Timekeeping 😀

We're excited to introduce the new 'Timeline Filter' 🎉 - a feature designed to simplify and improve your timekeeping process in Laurel.

The Timeline Filter is a reference tool that displays a list of your captured activities right next to your Timesheet. This layout allows you to cross-reference your activities with ease, ensuring that no tasks are overlooked and that your manually create entries are accurate.

The Timeline filter offers:

• 📋 A chronological list of your captured work
• 🕑 Activity logs with type, start time, duration, and title
• 🔍 Filters based on activity duration

You can turn this feature on/off through your Timesheet's search bar:

Launch Laurel now to see this new feature in action!✨

Continuing our commitment to refine Laurel, we've been hard at work creating new features and enhancing your workflows.

Here's a quick overview of our latest enhancements:

• Add entry on Timeline: You now can add entries directly from your Timeline view using our captured activity as a reference point to inform your Timesheet creation.

• Codes sorted alphabetically: Quicker code location and assignment is now possible with this logical change, minimizing search time and reducing scrolling.

• Updated Windows Assistant: Increasing reliability in our activity capture. You can get the latest here if your firm allows it, or ask your IT team to upgrade.

• Sidebar totals: The sidebar totals now reflect your entire day, irrespective of any applied filters.

• Customer validation rules: Your firm can now add validation rules that apply to all your entries to protect you from releasing non-compliant entries. See this article if you see your entries not ready for release.

We are always eager to improve, and your feedback plays a crucial role in enhancing our product.

Please feel free to share your thoughts with us at support@laurel.ai. Together, we can make Laurel even better. 🚀

Hi there,

It's official: Timekeeping has gone mobile with Laurel 🙌

Here's what this means for you:

• Mobile-friendly experience: There's no app to download - simply visit the Laurel site on your smartphone or tablet's web browser for a seamless mobile-optimized experience.
• Timesheet at your fingertips: Once logged in, your Timesheet is immediately accessible. You can create, edit, and release entries all from the same screen.
• Timekeeping on the go: Use those spare moments in your day to manage your time entries, whether you're commuting, waiting in line, or in between meetings.

How to access Laurel on your mobile device:

• There's no app to download - simply visit the Laurel site on your smartphone or tablet's web browser for a seamless mobile-optimized experience.
• The 'Overview' tab shows you a complete picture of your day and week totals, as well as the total time for each of your recent projects.
• The 'List' tab shows you your full Timesheet view. From here, you can easily create, edit, and release your entries on the go!

Pull out your phone and try the new mobile version of Laurel today! Timekeeping has never been more convenient. 🚀

Hi there,

Introducing: Open Time 🙌

This feature is designed to highlight those work instances that Laurel might not have picked up, such as tasks that are performed away from your computer.

Setting your Open Time threshold

You can select these thresholds from the filter options in the search bar, available in the Timeline view. If you've chosen an Open Time threshold, a filter badge will appear in the search bar. If you select 'No Open Time', no filter badge will show.

The Open Time threshold is flexible, allowing you to select the duration that suits your working style. The options available are:

• No Open Time: You won't see any open time slots in your Timeline view.
• 1 minute (Default): You'll see an open time slot if more than 1 minute pass without an activity. This is the default setting on your first login.
• 2 minutes: This setting shows an open time slot if more than 2 minutes pass without an activity.
• 6 minutes: This option displays an open time slot if more than 6 minutes pass without an activity.

Taking action on Open Time slots

You can interact with Open Time slots in three main ways:

1. Merge with the previous activity

If you select this option, the stop time of the activity immediately before will extend to cover the duration of the Open Time slot. For instance, if you had an activity from 10:10am to 10:25am (15m) and a 10m Open Time, your previous activity would now run from 10:10am to 10:35am (25m).

2. Merge with the next activity

Choosing this option will extend the start time of the following activity to cover the Open Time slot. So, if you had a 10m Open Time followed by an activity from 10:10am to 10:25am (15m), the next activity will now run from 10:00am to 10:25am (25m).

3. Create a new activity

You can also create a new activity from the Open Time slot. When you select this, a modal will open, pre-populated with the start and stop times of the Open Time slot.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our Windows Assistant's newest version (v41), an embodiment of our ongoing commitment to optimize your time management experience.

This latest release, now ready for download, provides a new set of enhancements. Please ensure you download the latest update if your organization permits, or kindly coordinate with your IT department to proceed with the upgrade.

The following improvements have been rolled out:

• Enhanced Website Capture: We have bolstered the functionality of website capture, allowing for seamless and accurate tracking.
• Outlook Email Reliability: Emails read and drafted in Microsoft Outlook will now be more reliably recorded.
• Idle Detection: Our improved system can better detect laptop inactivity, pausing capture to prevent unnecessarily prolonged activities.
• URL-based Activity Capture: We've shifted from page titles to URLs for tracking activities, making the process more precise.
• Pop-up Window Regulation: We have rectified the issue of multiple windows popping up during sign-out to ensure a smoother user experience.
• Microsoft Word Integration: To prevent freezing issues, we've strengthened the integration with Microsoft Word.
• New Website Capture: Our system now boasts the ability to capture new websites that are added to your company's website capture list.

Our promise to you is to continuously improve Laurel by building new features and enhancing your workflows.

These updates help to elevate the user journey, improve reliability, and result in a more streamlined and accurate timekeeping experience.

Here are the ones we think you should know about:

• Minimum activity duration as a Timeline filter: You can now swap between activity duration filters on your Timeline view quickly and easily to understand your day.

• Increased protection when entries don't meet validation rules: Laurel now disables the release day button when all entries within a day are considered invalid. This prevents any accidental submission of inaccurate data and ensures you can only release your time when all entries are correct.

• Improved reliability for Daily Release States: Daily release states tell you which days require your attention; we have improved this by ensuring that when you have released all your entries, it will turn green - it'll change back to yellow if your billing system sends a rejection.

• Pending entries factor into released totals: When you release your time, all pending entries will be considered and properly accounted for in the total hours released - unless they experience rejection.

In addition:

• Laurel now opens on calendar view

• Decimal places match up on the Recent Initiative Lists on Timeline and Timesheet

• Increased robustness in merging and unmerging entries

• The correct date shows when creating entries on past days
  ​

Hi there,

Introducing our minimum activity filter 🎉

With this feature, your activities are filtered based on their duration, giving you control of what is displayed on your Timeline view.

• Select a duration filter for your Timeline to display activities equal to or greater than 10s, 30s, 2m, or 6m.

• You'll find the minimum activity filter in the upper-right-hand corner of your Timeline view.

Hey there,

We are excited to announce the launch of our calendar view 🎉. From here, you can:

• 🕑 See total released hours on a day or month
• 📌 See total unreleased hours on a day or month
• 💰 See total billable hours for your month
• 📊 See total hours released per Initiative
• 📆 Navigate to any selected day

You can find out more here.

Hey there,

Create compliant Timesheets at speed with the help of our billing style feature. You can apply the following styles at an Initiative level or an entire day.

• Block Billing: Merge all your entries into a single entry per Initiative.
• Activity Billing: Merge all your entries by their activity type eg. all emails, all documents.
• Session Billing: Merge all your entries if their underlying activities have happened consecutively (without a break of 12 minutes).

You can find out more here.