Job logs/record keeping

[Michelle DeSanti]

Attempting to streamline my record keeping and wondering what others do. I'm not talking about billing/invoicing the client or agency with QuickBooks and such, or journals for scheduling job coverage. I'm asking, as a reporter, at the job and afterwards, how do you keep track of jobs, the date taken, witness, exhibits, whether the job was ordered or is a hold or just excerpted, when it was sent out, etc., and then when the agency bills out and pays on the job. For example, I use Depobooks at the job but they are tedious to search through when someone orders a copy of a transcript that was transcribed a few years ago.

Also, do you all keep a log of the jobs that are on your computer, such as date translated, realtime or not, date printed or sent in, storage disk numbers, etc. Anyone use a searchable spreadsheet program and keep the log on the computer?

Basically, what methods do you use and how do they work for you?
Thanks.

[Adam D. Miller]

Spreadsheet.
Make as many columns/categories as you wish/need.
And they're searchable.

adm

[Mary Jo Cochran]

Exel spreadsheet is good. As a legal assistant, the most important "tool" I used was Outlook Calendar.
You have the date and time; job name (Depo - Smith v. Dummy). Go into the info part and put in therewhatever you want.

We even put into our info part "attachments" like Pre-Trial Notices.