Here’s how your Current Matter List saves you time and effort every working day.
Your Current Matter List (CML) is your best friend in the fight against minutes and hours wasted filling in timesheets. It gives you a simple, filterable snapshot of the clients and matters you’re currently working on and lets you Assign and Re-assign relevant Activities to them in just two clicks – easy and efficient.
What is the Current Matter List?
The CML is your shortcut to everyday convenience. It’s a personalized and customizable daily list of all the Matters you’re currently working on, always available on the right-hand side of your Timeline.
The CML’s purpose in life is to enable you to assign, re-assign or filter matters at speed – and save you a whole lot of time and effort in the process.
It’s also a great place to get a snapshot of how long you’ve spent working on any Client / Matter each day. The total is shown in hours, minutes and seconds to the right of the Client / Matter name and will automatically update when you add, edit or remove an Activity. At the top of your CML you’ll also see your total Unassigned Time for that day.
With your Current Matter List you can:
- Quickly see what you’re currently working on
- Quickly Assign and Re-assign an Activity to a Client / Matter
- Quickly add and remove a Client / Matter from the CML
- Filter Activities in your Timeline by Client / Matter and Unassigned Time
- Create a Temporary Matter and assign time to a Client / Matter that’s not yet in your firm’s Practice Management System (PMS)
Top Tip: We recommend you keep your Client Matter List up to date so you can always find Client / Matters at a glance.
What can I see in my Current Matter List?
Client / Matters can exist in your CML in one of two primary states:
- Permanent – You add a Client / Matter from your PMS to your CML where it remains each day until you manually remove it.
- Temporary – TBP predicts an Activity is related to a Client / Matter in your PMS but not on your CML and so assigns it. This will remain on your CML for that day only, as long as it has Activity time associated with it.
There’s also a third ‘Temporary’ state where a Client / Matter you’re working on hasn’t yet been added to your firm’s PMS so you create a Temporary Matter to assign your time to. You can easily re-assign your time to the correct Client / Matter later, once it’s been added to the PMS, and remove the Temporary Matter from your CML. See Reassign time from Temporary Matters to Current Matters.
If you try to remove a Client / Matter with an Activity assigned to it for that day from the CML, it will remain only until the end of that day.
If you want to check whether a Client / Matter is temporary or permanent, or convert one to the other, here’s how:
- Make sure you don’t have any Activities highlighted in your Timeline so your CML is in ‘filter mode’
- Hover your cursor over any Client / Matter in your CML:
- If you see a
, it’s permanent. Click on it to remove it from your CML if there’s no time assigned to it, or change it to temporary if there is time assigned to it - If you see a
, it’s temporary. Click on it to make the Client / Matter permanent
Top tip: If you see a Client / Matter which has been ellipsized, simply hover over this name and you'll see the full Client / Matter name
How do I use my Current Matter List?
In short: easily. We’ve made it simple and intuitive to use your CML and manage your timekeeping for the clients and matters you’re currently working on.
Assign or re-assign an Activity to a Client / Matter
This is super quick. Simply click on any Assigned or Unassigned Activity or Activities in your Timeline and your CML will switch to Assign mode, still on the right of your TBP window. Find the Client / Matter you want to Assign or Re-assign the Activity to and click on it.
Search for and add a Client / Matter to your CML
If a Client / Matter isn’t in your CML, there are two ways to find and add it:
- A local search – Click on
in the top right of your CML and, in the search bar in the pop-up window, type in the name of the Client / Matter you’re searching for. The search is dynamic, so as you type it will reveal any relevant client or matter already loaded into TBP from your PMS. - A firmwide search – If you don’t find the Client / Matter with a local search, click on ‘Search Firmwide’. This will search the entire PMS and show you any relevant client or matter that matches the search query. A good tip here is to be as specific as you can with your search as that will help narrow the results TBP gives you.
Once you’ve found the relevant Client / Matter either via a local or firmwide search, just click on 
next to it to permanently add it to your CML. It will also appear on local searches from now on.
Remove a Client / Matter from your CML
If you’re not currently working with a certain Client / Matter and want to remove it from your CML, you have two options:
- Make sure you don’t have any Activities highlighted in your Timeline so your CML is in ‘filter mode’. Hover your cursor over any Client / Matter and click to remove it – simple.
- Or you can click in the top right of your CML to bring up the ‘Edit Matter List’ window. Here, just click next to the relevant Client / Matter to remove it.
If you try to remove a Client / Matter with an Activity assigned to it for that day from the CML, it will remain only until the end of that day.
Filter Activities in your Timeline via Client / Matter or Unassigned Time
The filter function helps you quickly find all the Activities related to a specific Client / Matter or that are as yet unassigned:
- Filter by Client / Matter – Make sure you don’t have any Activities highlighted in your Timeline so your CML is in ‘filter mode’. Check the Client / Matter box you want to see Activity for. Every unrelated Activity in your Timeline will collapse but still show their Client / Matter for context, while related Activities will remain in chronological order.
- Filter by Unassigned Time – Just check the ‘Unassigned Time’ box at the top of your CML. Again, every Activity with time assigned to it will collapse and every Activity as yet unassigned will remain expanded. Even after you assign an Activity, TBP will continue to highlight all remaining Unassigned Activities so you can quickly see what needs to be assigned.
What’s a Temporary Matter and how do I create one?
A Temporary Matter is a quick way to assign time to a temporary Client / Matter while you’re waiting for a Client / Matter to be added to the PMS. To create a new Temporary Matter, simply:
- Click at the top of your CML to bring up the ‘Edit Matter List’ window
- Click on the Temporary Tab and then ‘Assign to New Temporary Matter,’ name the folder and click ‘Save’. You’ll now see your new Temporary Matter under the Edit Matter List on the left-hand side of the window and, when you close this window, in your CML.
- \
- The Recents tab in the Edit Matter List modal shows a list of all recent matters (including Temporary) that are not permanent members of the CML.
- The Temporary tab isolates all of the temporary matters a Timekeeper has created into a consolidated list
If you need to Assign Time to Temporary Matters, click on the cog to open the Temporary Matter settings and edit the name.
Once the Client / Matter in your Temporary Matter has been added to the PMS, carry out a firmwide search (as we described above) and click to add it permanently to your CML. You can then re-assign all your Activities in your Temporary Matter to the right Client / Matter.
