Downloads

IMPORTANT:

Individual dongles are not supported by this version. If you are one of the few users still using individual dongles, please contact our licensing department for details of how to swap your dongles for a product key or online licence. Network dongles continue to be supported for the time being.

This version of CostsMaster runs on 64 bit operating systems only. If you have a modern operating system this probably doesn’t affect you but users running something older than Windows 10 might want to check compatibility.

Files saved by this version will not open in version 5.6 of CostsMaster. Adding all the new features in this version means that the file format has changed. Please liaise with colleagues with whom you may share CostsMaster files before installing this version.

New in 6.0.17

1. Electronic Bills
a) Fixed and minimum part limitations are now supported in the Precedent S.
b) New option on the Electronic Bill Settings window to sort the bill in ways other than the default. Several presets are provided, but it is also possible to create a custom format. The default option remains “Template Default” which means that that template sorts in the same way as it did previously (which is different per template). Selecting anything other than Template Default will restrict you to exporting and previewing in XLSX only.
c) Categories and Counsel have a new field where the LTM ID can be specified. If nothing is entered then the LTMID is worked out automatically from the name as was previously the case. For Categories, this applies only where the option to export Fee Earner Info is not selected.
d) Precedent S v2 templates renamed to remove reference to “New Bill”.
e) New Disbursements page on the Electronic Bill Settings window. Existing option to prefer Date Paid or Invoice Date moved here from General page.
f) New options to show Counsel Name and Expert Payee as External Party name. There is also a further option to determine if this takes precedence if there is already an external party name.
g) New option to not claim success fee on Costs Draftsman’s fee as profit costs. Enabling this brings the bill into line with the way the column bill is calculated.
h) New field in attendances and disbursements called “Doc Ref” which is intended to hold a reference to a document such as an attendance note or invoice, relevant to the item in question. If this field is populated, the contents will appear in the exported Excel document as a comment attached to the description field.
i) On the Electronic Bill Settings window, Legal Team page, the option to export Fee Earner info has been renamed to make it clear it applies to Counsel info as well.
j) New option in Electronic Bill Settings > Legal Team Page to use Category Description 3 for the LTM Effective Period.
k) New simple export phrases for the text used for standard items when such items are grouped or where the item description in the grid hasn’t been altered from the default. There are additional phrases for Letters/Emails which are used for COP bills and for IP bills where the option to treat Emails as Letters is selected. The non-COP version by default has the text as “Letters” which should give the same result as previously, but the user is free to alter this to Letters/Emails or any other text as they wish. If the option to treat emails as letters is selected then the combined phrase will be used for letters as well as Emails in non-COP bills, as this will enable both types to have the same text, whatever it may be. In COP bills, the option to treat emails as letters is always implied, so only the combined phrase is used and the individual letter and email phrases have no bearing on the COP-E.
l) New option in Electronic Bill Settings to not export estimated markers.
m) New option to export a Disbursement Schedule to an Electronic Bill. This uses the applicable fields as set up in the Report Settings window and produces a document almost identical to the disbursement report but limited to the items exporting to the (first) electronic bill defined and optionally using the numbering from that document.

2. Costs Budgets
a) New option on the Costs Budget Settings window to include all parties in the title to the costs budget.
b) Anticipated Lump sums now export to the XLS spreadsheet.
c) Part limitations now apply to incurred costs in a budget.
d) Opponent Budget name and initials now appears in the space to the right of the client budget panel on the Costs Budget window.
e) New controls added to the Opponent budget section to allow you to record preliminary points which will appear in the row above the phases in the Precedent R.
f) New Option in Costs Budget Settings to include a Schedule of Experts fees in the Addendum. This groups all the expert fees by Expert Type.

3. Legal Aid Claims
a) The CCMS Visual Equivalent now flags up activities that imply a different rate from the CostsMaster Rate Type and which may result in pricing discrepancies.
b) VHCC CCMS Claims where the rate has not been specified now get flagged in red on the visual equivalent.
c) Time values in VHCC CCMS claims are now flagged as errors if the time is zero.

4. Case Plans
a) The following case plans have been marked as superseded: CCFS Single Advocate & Final Payment Form; SCU Events Case Plan – 2 Counsel v3.1; VHCC Events Case Plan – 1 Counsel v2; VHCC Events Case Plan – 1 Counsel v3; VHCC Events Case Plan – 2 Counsel v2; VHCC Events Case Plan – Solicitor Advocate v1; VHCC Events Case Plan – Solicitor Advocate v2; Family Case Plan (Extended Format)
b) On the Case Plan Settings > Events page the rates are now entered in a basic grid and additional rates can be added by right clicking on the grid. This allows you to record multiple rates for a single category if needed. In the Procedural Steps Events page, there is a new drop down box to the left where you can select which rate gets used for that step.
c) On the Case Plan Settings > Events page there are new fields to define the overall description for each of the solicitor, Junior Counsel and Leading Counsel sections. The Leading Counsel text will get changed automatically when changing the Event Type setting to 2x Juniors or Senior + Junior, but you can manually alter this or any of the other descriptions if you want. These descriptions are used in the exported documents as headers for the columns in the Schedule of Events and to identify sections, combined costs and totals in the Costs Summaries.
d) On the Case Plan Settings > Events page there is a new field “Bill As Sol” for Junior and Leading Counsel which, if checked, will result in those costs being treated as solicitor costs and included in a CCMS claim. This allows you to use the counsel columns for a second (or third) set of solicitor rates if desired.
e) Solicitor FAS claims are now included in the CCFS Leading Counsel Case Plan.

5. Breakdowns & Statements
a) New Fixed Recoverable Costs window, containing the controls to record details of fixed recoverable costs and the explanations that accompany them on the Precedent U. Corresponding control also added to Part Export Options.
b) New export Template “Statement of Fixed Costs (Precedent U)”
c) New option to preview a breakdown as a spreadsheet. Applies only to the Precedent U.
d) Changes to the N260 Schedule of documents which now will allow more than 18 categories in a single document by splitting the categories into different sections whose columns are shown one after the other. The program can fit up to 9 category columns on a landscape page without alteration. Between 10 and 13 the category columns are progressively reduced in size. Beyond 13 columns, the columns are split into two (or more) sections. In addition the layout of the columns generally is better with spare space allocated to the description where possible.
e) New option on the Breakdowns Settings Window, N260 page, to include a schedule of documents. This is ticked by default, reflecting the previous situation, but can be unticked where the schedule is not required.
f) N260A v2 and N260B v2 export templates marked as superseded.

6. Reports
a) Disbursement Report now exports to XLS.
b) Task and Expense fields added to Disbursement Report.
c) Report Settings window re-designed with a multi-paged layout.
d) New option on Report Settings window to show the FGF/FAS status of Counsel fees.
e) New option on Report Settings window to use the Shift & Ctrl keys whilst clicking to apply the change to all/subsequent items.
f) Disbursement report RTF now has a minimum column width for columns that can vary on export, but if the number of columns selected is too wide for the page then columns beyond the limit will be dropped in order to maintain the integrity of the document. The XLS disbursement report has no limitations on how many columns can be exported.
g) New Item No field added to Report Settings but applicable only to Disbursement Schedules.
h) New option on Report Settings window to show Counsel Success fees in Disbursement Schedules.

7. Phase, Task & Activity
a) New option in Presets Window, Activity Section to specify the default activity that will be used if none of the presets matches (or if the option to use the presets is not enabled). There are separate values that can be specified for Procedural Steps, Documents and Travelling & Waiting.
b) New option in Local Settings to determine whether Trial or Trial Preparation come first in drop down lists.

8. Import Work
a) Improvements to the way mappings are applied when importing work, to reflect the fact that most imported work is done via Excel or CSV:
– You no longer have to specify whether the file is in XLS/CSV or CM Format (XML). This is determined automatically from the file extension and content in the file.
– You no longer have to select a mapping before opening the file.
– CM Format files are not shown in the file selection dialog by default, but the Files of Type drop down box contains an entry that will show them if required.
– After selecting an Excel or CSV file the mapping window will open automatically giving you the option to apply a saved mapping or to create a mapping on the fly.
– You no longer have to manually load a portion of a test file to see data. The grid is now populated automatically with a few rows of data from the file you selected.
– A mapping no longer has to be saved before it can be applied. The changes you make in the mapping window will be used immediately by the import process, but won’t be available once it concludes. If there are unsaved changes you will be still asked if you want to save these for reuse in the future.
– After selecting a file (and applying a mapping if required) the file will be validated and if successful will advance to the next page of the Import Wizard automatically.
b) Lump Sum, Doc Ref, Recoverability and Print Out fields added to import mapping.
c) New option in Local Settings > File Locations to specify the default location for files to be imported.
d) In the Import Mapping window, only relevant items are loaded into the selection combo.

9. Exported documents
a) Notes now export to XLSX documents as well as to RTF documents.
b) The check prior to export for categories that have zero rates now lists the categories that are found.

10. Preview
a) New option to preview Costs Budgets and E-Bills as spreadsheets. Only one spreadsheet can be previewed at a time and if more than one is selected you will be given the opportunity to select which.

11. Disbursements
a) New Shift + Enter Shortcut in the Expert Prep Rate and Expert Time fields which calculates the amount from the Expert’s rate and time. This will not calculate the VAT unless it has already been set but you can do this by using Shift + Ctrl + Enter instead.
b) New Shift + Enter Shortcut in the Percentage field to recalculate the amount as if the figure that was entered was the amount after the percentage was applied. This is intended for cases where the invoice shows the amounts at the reduced rate. This will not calculate the VAT unless it has already been set but you can do this by using Shift + Ctrl + Enter instead.
c) New field “Explanation” for use with the Precedent U.

12. Dates
a) New Local Option to Warn when a date is entered that is not chronological with regard to the first dated item before or after it.
b) New Local Option to warn when a date is entered that is not complete. CostsMaster allows partial dates to be recorded, but this option will warn you if you only want full dates to be entered. This function is applied after CostsMaster has guessed any missing elements so it doesn’t preclude you from just entering part of the date and letting CostsMaster work out the rest from the previous item.
c) New Local Option to warn when a date is entered that is outside any start and end dates for the part. This function was previously carried out automatically and this option gives users the ability to disable it if required.

13. Case Details
a) The Division box is now enabled when the Family Court is selected with three entries for High Court, County Court and Family Proceedings Court. These values are used to determine the Court Level for CCFS Case Plans.
b) Added National Deprivation of Liberty Court

14. Grids
a) New feature allowing movement between items that match the current filter settings without actually having to engage the filter. Allows viewing of filtered items in context of the wider data. Shortcuts to jump to next (Ctrl-Shift-Y) or previous (Ctrl-Shift-Z)

15. Searches
a) As a safety measure, replace operations no longer act on dates unless the option to prompt the user for each replacement is selected.

16. Presets
a) New feature to copy a preset. The button to do this is to the right of the insert preset button. You get to choose the new name for the preset, but it defaults to “Copy of “+ the old description.
b) New feature to export and import presets. The buttons to do this are on the toolbar on the sections which allow it. The exported presets are saved in an XML file which can be shared between users. When exporting you can select which presets are exported and when importing you likewise get a choice of which presets in the XML file to import.
c) Minor redesign of the Presets window to add a splitter between the list of presets and the boxes on the right and to increase the width of the description boxes when the window is enlarged to the right.

17. Local Settings
a) The File locations settings are now stored in a separate file, “File Settings.xml”, to make it easier to share settings without messing up file paths.
b) The File Locations paths now accept Windows Environment Variables in the path and will resolve these to the relevant value for the user at run time.
c) New option for Fixed Recoverable Costs added to Spelling page.

18. Spelling Checker
a) New option in Spelling Options dialog “Capitalise the first letter of a sentence”. The option is off by default. When turned on, capitalises the first letter of the first word of a sentence, when typing live and via the ‘Tools > Check Spelling’ command.
b) Automatic correction of spelling errors is now also invoked when ending a word with a question or exclamation mark.

19. Abbreviations
a) As well as printing a physical copy, it is now possible to generate RTF, XLSX or PDF documents listing the items in either the current section or all sections.

20. Export Wizard
a) New page added to allow specifying the parts containing disbursements for the Precedent U.

21. Licensing
a) Individual dongles are no longer supported.
b) New button in Licence Management window to remove online server licence details.
c) The Admin button on the Licence Management window has been replaced by a checkbox labelled “Save settings for all users”.

22. Instructing Solicitor
a) New field Conducting Solicitor Status added to Instructing Solicitor window. Used for the signature section of the certificates.

23. Export Phrases
a) New export phrase “Certificate Signature Name” (for column bills and electronic bills) which provides a line giving the name of the person signing the bill
b) Export Phrase “Certificate Signatory” (for column bills and electronic bills) amended to show the status of the person signing as well as the firm name.
c) Export Phrase “Paying Parties Legal Aid” updated to replace reference to the Unified Contract with the 2024 Standard Contract.

24. Certificates
a) New certificates added for the Legal Aid 2024 Standard Contract.

25. Costs of Assessment
a) Disbursements (including the Costs Draftsman Fee as a disbursement) without a Disb Type/LA Activity now export to CCMS claims with the “Court Assess Cost LA” Activity which ensures they are excluded from the statutory charge.

26. Documentation
a) User Guide & Help File Updated
b) The following Quick Start Guides have been updated: N260, Importing, Case Plan & Claim1, Electronic Bill, Costs Budget.

27. Misc.
a) Updated sample files.

Bug Fixes

1. Electronic Bills
a) Limited disbursements in Precedent S did not show the percentage or the original amount in the description.
b) OPG Estimate figure in COP-E RTF version not formatted correctly.
c) Exporting an Excel file containing a character with ASCII value 2 resulted in Excel failing to open. This is frequently found on pasted text where the #2 replaces a hyphen, so CM now checks for this and replaces it with a hyphen.

2. Costs Budgets
a) When Creating Opponent Budgets, the Excel Sheet names could exceed the maximum permitted by Excel.
b) When the option to show amounts in the supporting documentation is selected, lump sum entries, which already showed the amount, ended up showing the amount twice.
c) Opponent Budget tab names on the costs budget window did not escape ampersands.

3. Column Bills
a) Timed Counsel Attendances did not have any Counsel description when the relevant item was set to use Category 2 or 3
b) When the option to group work by fee earner was enabled, the summary of Timed Counsel Attendances did not mention the name of Counsel.
c) Showing the page number in the footer without any other fields caused it to align left rather than centre.
d) Leaving the name of a fee earner blank caused the fee earner info section to become corrupted.
e) The rate for Letters In didn’t show in the Rates Utilised section of the LA Schedule where it was set to be shown where work is recorded and where Letters In were not shown in the main bill.

4. Legal Aid Claims
a) Exceptional Funding box on Legal Aid Claim Settings window not hidden when CCMS selected.
b) Expert Other Costs Description did not show in the CCMS Supporting Documentation.
c) CCMS Supporting documentation not escaping RTF reserved characters for descriptions in disbursements, expert fees, hourly rate work & expert fees apportionment table.

5. Case Plans
a) Hourly rate case plans showed the part enhancement description with the part narrative rather than in its own section (where provided).
b) Counsel Events travel claims included any recorded VAT even if VAT was disabled.
c) Case Plan Settings Window caption appeared as “Case Plan Details”.
d) One of the options in the preset filter on the Case Plan Settings window referred to “LSC” rather than “LAA”.
e) Escaped costs for leading Counsel recorded as attendances rather than disbursements had the VAT on those costs shown under Junior Counsel.

6. Breakdowns
a) Missing closing parenthesis in Other Expenses sub-heading.

7. Reports
a) Totals for Amount and VAT in XLS Disbursement report and XLS Disbursement Schedule did not use formulae.
b) Figures for Amount and VAT in XLS Disbursement Report and VAT in XLS Disbursement Schedule were formatted as text rather than numbers.

8. Success Fees
a) Success Fees on Costs of Assessment did not appear in the bill (but were included in the totals) when set to appear in the Costs of Assessment section but where there were no other costs claimed in that section (e.g. because the success fee was set to appear in a different part)
b) Success fees on Costs of Assessment appeared multiple times (but were only included once in the totals) where the success fee was set to appear in the Costs of Assessment section, where two parts with different VAT rates were combined and where there were Costs of Assessment claimed in each of those parts.

9. Grids
a) Range Check error when clicking into a multi-line grid cell in a column with spell-checking enabled.
b) When entering an illegal filter value for a time column the program gave repeated error messages for each row in the grid.
c) Attendances and disbursements which are part of a procedural step in the Part Attendances and Part Disbursement grids did not update when the procedural step date and description changed
d) Adjusting the height of a row in one grid could cause other grids showing the same data to alter row height as well.
e) Merging and splitting was not possible when the grid was filtered.
f) History items were not created when setting properties in a grid in multiselect mode after viewing a modal window (one that has to be closed before you can proceed).
g) Very occasional AV when file is loading and grid has a message pending
h) After copying rows to the same grid, the newly added rows did not remain selected.
i) Clipboard error in some circumstances when pasting into a grid cell in non-expanded mode.
j) Tabbing through a grid Activity cell in COP mode set to “Other activity” reset it to “Unassigned”.
k) AV when deleting a party where either (a) a window is showing work for the party to be deleted and work for all parts is enabled or (b) occasionally when the part attendances or part disbursement windows are showing.

10. Party Details
a) Recording routine items without specifying the task and activity when showing NFB Phase, task and activities caused the underlying attendances not to be grouped.

11. Dates
a) Trailing characters on a date (such as brackets etc) were not being saved.
b) The audio warning when a date is outside the range for the part only played when the option to warn if text was typed instead of a date was selected, but always played, irrespective of the setting for date warnings in Local Settings.
c) Entering a date with a date separator value after the last number caused the program to hang.

12. Searches
a) Search for blank disbursements did not include embedded disbursements within procedural step attendances.

13. History/Undo
a) History items were not cleared when a new file was loaded.
b) Undoing a grid row paste caused AV or Integer overflow.

14. Counsel
a) Changing the value of the Success Fee Percentage in the Edit Counsel window whilst the cursor was in the same field in the grid caused the changed value to be lost.

15. Licensing
a) Failure to store licence details did not result in an error, so the program would work with the licence only until it was next restarted and the user was unaware.
b) Possible fix for failure for some users to store licence details.
c) If moving from v5 to v6 and v5 was licensed for all users (via the “Admin” button), the licence details would swap to the local copy and subsequent Admin changes would not be picked up.
d) Licence details were only stored when the program closed leaving a small chance that they would not be saved if the program crashed before then.
e) Licence details were always written to the settings for the current user even when the Admin had requested they be saved for all users.
f) Setting the licence details for the current user did not produce any warning if licence details were also stored for all users that these would take precedence over the new settings the next time the program was started.

16. Import Work
a) CSV files using the CM Format were not correctly recognised on import and failed to bypass the Mapping window as a result.
b) In the Import Mapping window, it was not possible to specify the number of columns by typing in the box (as opposed to using the spin buttons) if the number was greater than 9.
c) Import Mapping Window spreadsheet tabs did not escape ampersands in the sheet name.
d) When changing the “Each Row Contains” box to “Either” on the Import Mapping Window, the help text now changes to better explain the two rows of drop down controls.
e) Importing a file that has a “%” in the file name caused an exception when displaying the results at the end of the process.
f) In order to make it easier to see long mapping names, the mapping box on the Import Mapping window is now larger and expands with the window and the controls on the transfer mapping window now expand with the window.
g) Importing work where the fields are quoted left a quote on any empty fields.

17. Output work
a) Option for never release New Bill XML visible in Output wizard (but not selectable)
b) CM XML output offered version 2.3 which was never released or documented.

18. Preview
a) Spreadsheet previews did not escape ampersands on the tabs showing the sheet names.

19. Profiles
a) Toolbars not updating after a new profile is applied (only updating fully after a restart).

20. Export Templates
a) Disbursement Reports, Front & Back Sheets and Documents schedules could disappear from the list of templates in the Export Wizard and Export Templates window until CostsMaster was next restarted, after exporting a file containing only inter partes or Legal Aid work and then either loading a new file that was set only to show the other type of work or manually changing the Show CLS/IP setting accordingly.
b) Budgets and E-Bills had the wrong icons displayed in the Export Templates window.

21. Exported Documents
a) Multiple receiving parties listed on the front sheets of bills had “and” separating them when there should have been a comma and vice versa.

22. Costs of Assessment
a) Changing the type of Costs Draftsman fee to an entry other than “Disbursement” did not clear the existing entries from the list of LA Activities.

23. Tools
a) Sort Attendances by date did not sort items in the party standard work windows.

24. Misc.
a) AV when closing CostsMaster after Embedded disbursement window had been opened from Edit Attendance window
b) No warning when exporting a document with a file path longer than 260 characters.
c) When starting the program without a settings file (because it is the first time or for some other reason) the main tool bar width was set such that the Parts toolbar appeared on a second row.

If you are using Network Product Keys, you will need to install this software on a non-virtual machine on the network.

The full user guide for CostsMaster version 6. This document covers both Draftsman and Quota.

The user guide for all forms of licensing.

This updates Dinkey Server and Dinkey Change to the latest versions. These are compatible with all existing versions of CostsMaster and with all network dongles.

The Licensing User guide is also updated to the latest version.