Welcome to VineCalc™, a powerful and intelligent tool for automating interest calculations within your Filevine environment!
Filevine Core Customs Editor offers calculable fields, but these are static one-time calculations that only update when a variable field is manually updated.
Some firms or companies charge interest on their soft costs, case costs, or expense balances, and that interest needs to be regularly calculated across all projects. That's where VineCalc comes in!
VineCalc gives you the ability to "set it and forget it" to calculate either simple or compound interest on a regular schedule. These calculations are updated within your projects automatically based on settings you define. The system will calculate interest on every collection section item in the Org that passes your set validations!
Video Demo of VineCalc Settings, Logs, and Usage
Requirements for VineCalc
Minimum requirements to run VineCalc include:
A Filevine Org, a minimum of one (1) Project Type Template, and existing projects
A Collections Section with at least one (1) currency field on which calculations run (VineCalc runs exclusively on a chosen Collection Section)
A Filevine API Key and Key Secret (generated from your API Portal. Don't have an API Portal? Request yours by emailing api-help@filevine.com)
That's it! Insert your API Key and Key Secret on the Filevine API Settings page in VineCalc Admin, and you're ready to configure your job settings and turn this powerful system on!
Configuring Calculator and Job Settings
From the Calculator Settings page in VineCalc Admin, set the following required fields:
Your Org Name: Provide your law firm or company name.
Choose Project Type: Pick a Project Type Template from the fetched list.
Choose Target Collection Section: Choose which Collection Section you want to target the interest calculations on. You can only choose one (1) Collection Section.
Choose Field to Calculate Interest On: This dropdown fetches all fields within the template. You can calculate interest on text, integer, calculated fields, or currency fields.
Choose Total Interest Field: Optional. This allows you to select a field that will have the total interest charged on a running balance automatically updated in that field on every job run.
Choose Ignore Match Field: Optional. This setting allows you to select a field that VineCalc will parse for keywords to ignore for calculation purposes. Parsing works on text (string) fields, notes, and dropdown fields.
Choose an Interest Rate: Provide as an integer. Two-decimal places accepted.
Choose How Often You Calculate: Provide a choice of daily, weekly, or monthly.
Set Calculation Interval (Whole Number): Provide the interval number to apply to calculation period. For example, if you chose "Days" for how often you calculate, provide "31" in the interval field to run the calculator exactly every 30 days.
Optional Settings:
Include Archived Project Items: Check for YES
Add Calculated Interest to Original Balance (Compound Interest): To charge compound interest, check this box active. VineCalc will add the period's interest assessment to the original amount due for compounding, and the interest assessed will show the value for the period's calculation.
Keyword Ignore List
You may not want or need to charge interest on all Collection Sections Items in a project. This is where the Keyword Ignore List comes in handy. VineCalc will parse the values for the field you defines in the Standard Job Settings ("Choose Ignore Match Field") identifying any Collection Section Items that contain the keyword to ignore. When a match is found, the interest calculator does not run on the item.
Tips for Successful Data Calculation
Here's some tips for using VineCalc most efficiently and accurately.
Create specific fields for VineCalc. Using the Filevine Customs Editor, create a few fields that are specifically designated or VineCalc:
A Currency Field for calculating interest ("Balance Owed", "Balance Due"). Place instructions using the Customers Editor -> Widget -> Instructions to explain that this field is NOT to be updated manually. Any manual adjustment to this field of course affect the calculations.
A Total Interest Field ("Total Interest"). Creating this field will give the calculator a place to insert the total accumulated interest.
Consider "locking" or hiding these fields. This ensure only Project Admins can manually adjust the fields. Hiding the fields in the editor behind a "Yes/No" toggle will ensure the data calculates but isn't readily visible for someone to unknowingly change the field values.
When creating a Keyword Ignore Match Field, use a dropdown selector. This ensures accuracy in keyword parsing. Open text fields work too, but they are subject to human error and inconsistencies in how the field is populated from staff member to staff member.
Test First! Create a copy of your Project Type Template -> Target Collection Section and create a few fake projects. Populate a few collections sections for each project to be calculated with test data. set up a Filevine Report for "List of [collection] Items" to include the calculated and interest fields. Run the calculator over a period of days and compare the logs to your live Filevine data in the report. Only when everything is working as expected should you then turn it on!
VineCalc Billing
VineCalc is currently offered as a flat cost per month based on the number of active projects you have in your Filevine Org. Each VineCalc environment supports only one (1) Project Type Template. If you have multiple Templates, you will need multiple VineCalc environments - one for each.
A VineCalc license can be purchased on our Vinetegrate Marketplace here.