Keeping a Bikram Sambat court calendar without the spreadsheet

Most Nepali courts and offices work in Bikram Sambat. Most software does not. The result is a familiar routine: the hearing date is written in BS on the order, converted to the English calendar in a spreadsheet, and converted back every time someone asks when the next date is. Somewhere in that loop a date slips.

Keep dates in the calendar they were given in

Okil shows dates in BS with the English date beside them, so you can read a date the way the order states it and still match it to a diary or an email. The conversion uses a maintained calendar library covering BS 2000 to 2099, not hand-typed tables, which is how conversion errors creep in.

Record what happened, not only when

A hearing is not finished when the date passes. Something happened: it was adjourned, evidence was taken, an order was reserved. When you record the outcome of a hearing in Okil, three things follow from the one entry:

• A note is added to the case timeline, so the history reads in order.
• The next hearing is created with its date, so it is not left to memory.
• If the outcome moves the case forward, the stage can advance with it.

Reminders that do not depend on one channel

Reminders go out in the app, by email and by SMS, according to each person's own settings. If a delivery fails after its retries, a backup is queued on the next channel down, from SMS to email to the app, so a missed text does not mean a missed hearing. If the reminder was for a client and it still could not be delivered, the advocate is told.

Each member can also receive a short summary of their day every morning at 7:00, with the same hearings, tasks and deadlines that appear on the Reports overview. A quiet day sends nothing.

Deadlines that are not allowed to be forgotten

Limitation and filing deadlines are the ones that cost the most when they pass. If one passes without being marked done, Okil warns the advocate, the person who created it and the firm owners every morning for 14 days. Overdue tasks get a similar nudge for 7 days.

None of this replaces a careful clerk. It gives the clerk a system that remembers the same things on the days they are away.