the data base:
keeping your business organized

Most definitions of a data base go beyond the simple notion of a "collection of data": the key is that it must be an "organized" collection of data. LawStream is a tool to help you organize essential data in your business, relating to time, money and information. With the use of custom variables, and with the ongoing enhancements to LawStream, there is virtually no limit to what you can organize with your LawStream program. For a start, if you need information about any of these types of data, then LawStream may be the way to keep that information organized in your business:

• contacts (prospects, clients, sub-contractors, agents, colleagues, banks, friends, relatives, ...)
• files (jobs, projects, tasks, or whatever else you might call them)
• preferences (to make LawStream work the way your business works, and the way each individual in your business works, and the way your clients/customers prefer)
• time records (billable or not, chargeable or not, at a flat rate, or a job/file rate, or a timekeeper rate)
• expenses
• bills (bulk bills, detail bills, descriptive/narrative bills, periodic bills, pre-bills, billing reports, ...)
• reminders (schedules, limitations, deadlines, advance reminders, alarms, groups of reminders, calendars)
• documents (including word-processing documents for the built-in word processor)
• accounting transactions (receivables, payables, general ledger, trust/retainer transactions, financial statements)
• notes (memos to file, inter-office memos)

LawStream's structure.

Because LawStream is an integrated application (a single computer program that can store and organize those types of data, and others), it can relate one type of data to another. From something as simple as creating a reminder based on a time record, to a complete report showing how time in your office has resulted in what you see on the "bottom line" of your financial information, LawStream can add value to the information you enter, by giving you extra data in reports.

Because LawStream has a hierarchical structure, you can count on LawStream to know which types of data are associated with which other types. That sort of structure not only eases the use of defaults and options for data entry (e.g., by having business defaults for billing, which can be modified individually for timekeepers or clients/files). It also reduces the time involved in entering data: if you have a client with many files/projects, and if that client gets a new address, you only need to enter the new address once, to have it apply to all the files for that client in your business.

the Omnis Studio data base engine:
the tool we use, to develop the tool you can use

We've been developing with Omnis for more than ten years. Every time we use Omnis Studio in our development work, we are reminded of why it is the choice for many professionals involved in large projects for sensitive, mission-critical projects. Hundreds of Omnis applications have been developed for Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. Even though LawStream is already a feature-rich application, we have hardly touched the surface of what Omnis Studio can do, and we are looking forward to continued enhancements to LawStream, using the tools available in Omnis Studio. You likely won't find Omnis Studio on the shelves of your local computer software store, and you likely won't see it being offered as a beginners' introduction to data base engines: Omnis is a powerful tool, and is not designed for "do-it-yourselfers".