Getting Started With BillTracker
Supporting Montana Public Users in Cooperation with Montana Legislative Services
We are very pleased to be able to offer legislative bill tracking in partnership with Montana Legislative Services and Bill Explorer.
On this page you can find some helpful tools to get you up and running with BillTracker. The videos below demonstrate how to add Preference Lists, two ways to begin tracking bills, and pointers on how to successfully create reports.
A Montana Legislative Services BillTracker account allows users to create up to 25 Preference Lists and track up to 200 bills. Up to 300 users can track unlimited bills. A premium, paid service is available for users who want to create more Preference Lists, add additional users to an account, or gain access to a wide array of additional features, including adding notes, tracking votes, sending and receiving review forms, and much more. Click here if you are interested in our premium services.
Adding Preference Lists
Adding Preference Lists is simple. Follow these three steps to create up to five Prefererence Lists. You can give them a custom name, add bills to the List, and run reports based on Preference List.
Tracking Legislation
Track up to 100 bills using a Montana Legislative Services public user account in BillTracker. Add one bill at a time, or add a batch of bills. Once you are tracking a bill, you will receive email calendar alerts when the bills are scheduled for hearings or votes in the House or Senate. This video will help you get started.
Running Reports
You can always quickly and easily see what is happening with legislation you are tracking. BillTracker includes 10 stock PDF reports and allows users to export their data into Excel. This video shows you how.
Advanced Features
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To view details about the bill, click directly on the bill number. Users will be able to view:
Documents - bill version, amendments, fiscal notes, and more.
History - includes a list of all actions on legislation
Meetings - all past an present meetings, including a link to add meeting to calendar and view meeting
Linked bills - allows users to connect two bills and toggle between them.
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Use Your Account to manage notifications and other application details
Select the check box to receive any of the following notices:
Third Reading Email
Second Reading Email
Daily Calendar Email
Amendments Email
If you select any of these, you will receive an email each morning that includes the selected information.
Keyword Email - Receive a daily email that identifies any new or recently amended legislation based on selected keywords.
Select the Keywords Email checkbox
Identify the maximum number of bills to be return in the daily message. Under 100 is recommended.
Create a list of keywords. Use a space to separate words and use quotes to identify phrases.
Example: revenue “health care” healthcare taxes
Results will be sorted by relevance.
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Tags are a great way of segmenting bills within Preference Lists. There are two types of tags:
System tags are tags that show up for every Preference List
List tags are tags that are specific to a Preference List
To create a System Tag you can either:
Type it directly into the Bill Tracking Queue/Wizard under the heading “Tag (Tags)” before selecting a Preference List.
Create a System Tag under the “Tags” heading in Your Account
To create a List Tag:
Type a new tag directly into the Tags field when you select the Preference List. Leave the System Tag (Tags) field empty.
Create a tag using the Tags option in Your Account