On-Line Information Services, Inc.

[stephenfspringfield]

Before the advent of AlaFile and AlaPay, the documents prepared would tell the accounting software who to write a check to, for what, in the correct amount and then post the charge to the correct file. Now, we have stepped into a bold new world where we pay the court costs and an additional "convenience fee" (which is not a court cost to my knowledge) for the convience of filling out information (which was previously done by the Clerk) to file our court documents electronically. The only way I know to pay the costs for electronic filing is with a credit card through AlaPay. Maybe it's my VISA statement, but none of information on the "Payment History" matches up with any of the information on VISA bill, save the amount of the total charge (the court costs + the "convience fee.) I find myself printing out the AlaFile "Payment History" and trying to match charges against my VISA bill which is made more difficult by the fact none of the information is the same, including the transaction dates. Once I do my best to identify the files to post the VISA charges to (by process of elimination + using the "billing reference" in AlaFile [heaven forbid I forget to fill in the billing reference or I'm off to search AlaCourt by the case number]) I then tackle the challange of deterining the breakdown of total charge between the court costs and the "convience fee" which is displayed on neither the "Payment History" of AlaFile nor my VISA bill. Once I complete this additional task, I then must post the charges (2, not 1) to the individual file since one charge is a court cost and the other is, I guess, a payment to the folks at AlaPay for my convience in having all this fun.

Someone, anyone, tell me it ain't so and that I'm missing something. This can't be as good as it gets.

[Christoph]

Thank you for your feedback. We will look into breaking the payment history down to give the details of the total amount charged to your credit card. Could you please explain in more detail what does not match on your credit card bill? We will try to address these issues if possible.
Also, please let us know of any further improvements that would make this process more seamless to the end user.
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Christoph Kemnade
alacourt.com

[stephenfspringfield]

Christopher

That's the point! Nothing but the "total amount" matches.

1. The transaction date does not match (Visa reports the transaction date one day after AlaPay reports the transaction date).

2. The Visa record does not contain: (a) the County, or (b) the Case Number, or (c) the same transaction date, or (d) the filing type, or (e) the Billing Reference, or (f) the breakdown between the "filing Fee" and the "convience fee". Zero for Six there!

3. The AlaPay record does not contain: (a) the same transaction date or (b) the transaction reference number used by Visa.

Leaves a lot to the imagination in trying to match the Visa Statement to AlaPay records! Then, to throw a little salt in the wounds, I have to manually post 2 transactions instead of 1 (since the 'convience fee" is not a court costs) after I finally match the transaction to a particular file.

You ask what would make this easier from my end. That's easy. Give me an electronic invoice when I file something and I'll pay that invoice with a check the same day. If for some reason I don't pay you within 30 days, charge my Visa.

Option 2: Create some type of accounting interface where my machine can talk with your machine and handle the accounting in the background.

I don't mean to complain and I want to be supportive of this change, but the creation of a system which forces the lawyers to do the clerks' work and which creates a mountain of accounting nightmares for the lawyers that they didn't have before, all for the incredible price of only 4% additional charge to the lawyer (which causes an additional manual posting and is not recoverable?!?!) - well, that's a pretty hard sell.