Civil news: changes to CCMS based on your feedback
Further improvements are being made to the Client and Cost Management System (CCMS).
Three more improvements to CCMS have or will be made shortly.
These follow the recent introduction of the ‘urgent work’ flag which allows providers to mark cases as urgent on CCMS before submission – see linked news story.
Improvement 1
On 11 December 2014, we introduced a change so that advocates are notified when they can submit bills.
This applies to advocates who do civil (non-family) work. If you are an advocate using CCMS, a notification will be automatically sent to your CCMS Chambers Administrator by the system as soon as the acting solicitor has submitted their bill. So, you will not be dependent on the provider notifying you.
A quick guide is available on the CCMS website – see link below.
Improvement 2
On 22 December 2014, we will introduce improvements to the quality of our client address data. If you enter your address, instead of the client’s, we will send you a notification asking you to confirm the client’s address.
However, if you need to, you can still:
- enter a different address so that you receive letters on behalf of your client
- register clients as having no fixed abode
- keep address details relating to children and vulnerable clients secure
Improvement 3
On 15 December 2014, copies of bills are available for review before submission for those involved in our pilot to test the bulk uploading of bills.
They can now request a copy of their bill and review it before pressing the submit button.
Update on pilot testing the bulk uploading of bills
Bulk uploading will mean that you will be able to upload billing information from your internal billing software onto CCMS and will not have to input billing data line-by-line, saving time.
The pilot involves providers, advocates and software vendors and we’re currently exploring how we roll it out.
We recommend that you speak to your software vendor to get an update on when your case management system will be compatible with CCMS.
The software community has been working closely with us to ensure the future compatibility of systems.
We have published information on the pilot on the CCMS website – see link below.
Electronic remittance advice
We are gradually rolling out electronic remittance advice slips. These will be sent to the CCMS Firm/Chambers Administrator as a notification and will look the same as your paper copies. We’ll email you when you can benefit.
Introducing a forward button
In the New Year, we will introduce a forward button that will allow you to more easily navigate the system. We will provide details about how this will work next month.
More improvements scheduled for 2015
In January, we’ll publish a new list of improvements that we plan to make in 2015. These are part of our continuous improvement programme for CCMS and are based on your feedback.