Our rating is based on our subjective judgment. Use our resources—including our rating and community ratings and reviews—to find the best fit for your firm.
Community Rating: 1.7/5 (based on 6 ratings)
The community rating is based on the average of the community reviews below.
Composite Rating: 2.1/5
The composite rating is a weighted average of our rating and the community ratings below.
AbacusLaw is a good fit for firms that want access to a private cloud server and desktop software. It’s also great for firms that need a wide range of seamless features like contract management, billing, calendar, client history, and more. However, it’s probably not a good fit for firms looking to work directly from a fully functioning mobile app (although AbacusLaw does have a responsive website).
More About AbacusLaw
AbacusLaw provides tiered, cloud-based solutions for law firms, providing everything from case management to a full desktop in the cloud that could replace an entire IT department. With AbacusLaw—the base case management software—you’ll get a calendar that functions as a look-a-like Outlook, custom designed for people with task-heavy jobs. Like most case management software, Abacus Law links your matters to your calendar, your clients, your documents, and your emails. From pre-set matter styles to pre-written forms for many jurisdictions (that can also auto-fill certain information), Abacus Law can streamline the basic needs of your practice.
Upgrading to AbacusLaw Gold delivers more robust tools, including time tracking, billing, and accounting. You can bill directly from case matters and run detailed reports from your accounts, trust balances, aged accounts receivable, and more. You’ll have access to over 100 standard accounting and billing related reports, and can even have additional reports built out for an additional fee.
You can work within the Abacus Private Cloud, although it is possible to run it locally. The Abacus Private Cloud integration will give you far more robust backend support. Running everything in Abacus Private Cloud means you get nightly backups of your AbacusLaw database and all your documents and forms. You also get automatic updates and system enhancements. Integration will also let you link all incoming and outgoing emails from your Outlook account directly into AbacusLaw, so emails can be added to matters seamlessly. However, this integration might be cost-prohibitive for smaller firms.
For law practice management software, the following are essential features, and you should therefore expect to see a check in every box in this section.
Case/Matter Management
Matter management is the defining feature of law practice management software, of course. However, some software is targeted at specific practice areas and may implement case management in different ways in order to manage information specific to those practice areas.
✓
Client/Contact Management
Managing clients and other contacts is a core feature of law practice management software.
✓
Task Management
Basic task management includes creating tasks with due dates that can be associated with cases/matters and assigned to different lawyers. Some products stick to pretty basic task management, while others offer enough features to make any Getting Things Done devotee happy.
✓
Calendar
As with email, this feature means a full calendar client, not just an integration with Outlook or Google Calendar.
✓
Timekeeping
Timekeeping is a core feature of practice management software, essential for lawyers who bill by the hour but useful even for those who don't.
✓
Additional Features
Conflict Checking
An actual conflict checker is more than just a search box. This applies to software that actually has a conflict checking feature. Implementation varies, but at a minimum you should be able to search the entire database for matching names. It should check for conflicts accurately and intuitively, allow for a lateral hire to input their conflict database into the system, work quickly when new clients call, and comply with the rules of professional conduct for checking conflicts.
✓
Email Client
Does it include a full email client? (Alternative solutions that don't amount to an email client, like plugins for Outlook or Gmail, do not earn a check for this feature. See software integrations, below.))
✗
Document Management
Basic document management allows you to add documents and associate them with your cases/matters.
✓
Document Assembly
Loading your firm’s document templates into your law practice management software can save time and ensure consistency. This check means basic document assembly suitable for form letters, invoices, etc. For advanced document assembly, you’ll probably need additional software.
✓
Secure Client Portal
✓
Basic Bookkeeping
This means basic checkbook register–style bookkeeping, which is more limited than full accounting. You should be able to keep track of your operating accounts and reconcile your balances, but you may still need full accounting software.
✗
Trust Accounting
This means you can track your client trust accounts, including expenses and payments. It is normal to see trust accounting without basic bookkeeping or full accounting, in which case you will need something else for accounting.
✓
Full Accounting
Some software includes full double-entry accounting features, making additional accounting software unnecessary.
✓
Billing & Invoicing
Does the software allow you to send bills or invoices?
✓
Online Payments
Payment processing is increasingly offered either as an included or add-on feature, especially with cloud-based law practice management software.
The price is far higher than similar products, the product is technologically behind (despite promises when I signed up for the product over two years ago that they had a demo and would have a final product any day now of a fully functional app for calendar integration, they still do not, and their calendar has many glitches syncing with Outlook, the only way to sync their calendar to a phone), and their treatment of customers is DEPLORABLE. For instance, I paid to upgrade to a feature which they said would remove a problem I was experiencing with their program, and when it did not fix the problem, they refused to downgrade my monthly subscription to my prior price/ service or refund my fees. They also told me I needed another license when I took on another employee, then when I discovered I was already paying for enough licenses, refused to downgrade me back to the correct number so I continue to overpay for multiple uses I do not need. I pay almost $700 per month as a solo practitioner now for a subpar product. Stay away from this company!!!
Used Abacus for five years. Clunky, confusing and not easy to use. I couldn’t find anyone to handle the billing and editing the bills was a pain. Numerous client complaints over bills; twice found myself in fee aribitrations where the arbitrators were confused by the bill format. Done.
Our office has been using Abacus for over six years now. We also us the cloud based services. I am not a techie person, but the program is user friendly and the IT/support staff invaluable. I honestly don’t know what I would do without the cloud based service. I am able to log on anywhere in the U.S. If I plan to travel out of the U.S., I need only notify the tech support and they will set this up for you. Bookkeeping and billing with Abacus billing is a huge time saver. There is no other program out there I would use other than Abacus.
This Company and Software are Horrible - Stay Away
This company is absolutely the worst. I had used Amicus in the past, and was a fan, but the virtual private cloud service is expensive, and the “implementation” of it was chaotic to say the least. I made the mistake of buying into their hype. I hope that this will warn others about the same. It started in April. At least four different people contacted me about various aspects of the service, an appointment was set with one person who never called. When I called him, he had no idea what I was talking about since the person who had made the appointment never informed him about it. When I was told after the fact that the service was not going to be available until November, 2018 (this was in April), I informed them that I did not want to proceed with the service, and requested that it be stopped. I heard nothing from this request, or anyone from Abacus, for the next thirty days. I was contacted by someone else who never acknowledged the original email to those with whom I had first been in contact. After telling that person, again, that I was not proceeding, I was passed on to a “customer ambassador”, who was extremely rude and threatening. I have since been hit with an ‘early termination fee’ of the full amount of the price of the service, even though nothing was started.
With all the other services out there, stay away from AbacusNext. I should have listened to the other warnings about the service that have since seen on Google reviews, and Michelle, above. I hope this keep someone else from making the same mistake.
This software has issues billing, losses calendared events, and repeatedly freezes up. Our office utilized the private cloud version which came with a steep price and poor support. If you prefer to spend more time on the phone with software support and less time on your practice, this is the software for you.
Horrific Company and Horrible Service
Promised to have my cloud system set-up in a week and lied. They are a horrible company. Buyer beware. Do not do business with them.
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Terrible service for out-dated product
The price is far higher than similar products, the product is technologically behind (despite promises when I signed up for the product over two years ago that they had a demo and would have a final product any day now of a fully functional app for calendar integration, they still do not, and their calendar has many glitches syncing with Outlook, the only way to sync their calendar to a phone), and their treatment of customers is DEPLORABLE. For instance, I paid to upgrade to a feature which they said would remove a problem I was experiencing with their program, and when it did not fix the problem, they refused to downgrade my monthly subscription to my prior price/ service or refund my fees. They also told me I needed another license when I took on another employee, then when I discovered I was already paying for enough licenses, refused to downgrade me back to the correct number so I continue to overpay for multiple uses I do not need. I pay almost $700 per month as a solo practitioner now for a subpar product. Stay away from this company!!!
Did you find this review helpful? Yes (6) No
Moved on
Used Abacus for five years. Clunky, confusing and not easy to use. I couldn’t find anyone to handle the billing and editing the bills was a pain. Numerous client complaints over bills; twice found myself in fee aribitrations where the arbitrators were confused by the bill format. Done.
Did you find this review helpful? Yes (6) No
Perfect program for our small office
Our office has been using Abacus for over six years now. We also us the cloud based services. I am not a techie person, but the program is user friendly and the IT/support staff invaluable. I honestly don’t know what I would do without the cloud based service. I am able to log on anywhere in the U.S. If I plan to travel out of the U.S., I need only notify the tech support and they will set this up for you. Bookkeeping and billing with Abacus billing is a huge time saver. There is no other program out there I would use other than Abacus.
Did you find this review helpful? Yes (1) No (4)
This Company and Software are Horrible - Stay Away
This company is absolutely the worst. I had used Amicus in the past, and was a fan, but the virtual private cloud service is expensive, and the “implementation” of it was chaotic to say the least. I made the mistake of buying into their hype. I hope that this will warn others about the same. It started in April. At least four different people contacted me about various aspects of the service, an appointment was set with one person who never called. When I called him, he had no idea what I was talking about since the person who had made the appointment never informed him about it. When I was told after the fact that the service was not going to be available until November, 2018 (this was in April), I informed them that I did not want to proceed with the service, and requested that it be stopped. I heard nothing from this request, or anyone from Abacus, for the next thirty days. I was contacted by someone else who never acknowledged the original email to those with whom I had first been in contact. After telling that person, again, that I was not proceeding, I was passed on to a “customer ambassador”, who was extremely rude and threatening. I have since been hit with an ‘early termination fee’ of the full amount of the price of the service, even though nothing was started.
With all the other services out there, stay away from AbacusNext. I should have listened to the other warnings about the service that have since seen on Google reviews, and Michelle, above. I hope this keep someone else from making the same mistake.
Did you find this review helpful? Yes (12) No (3)
This software is terrible
This software has issues billing, losses calendared events, and repeatedly freezes up. Our office utilized the private cloud version which came with a steep price and poor support. If you prefer to spend more time on the phone with software support and less time on your practice, this is the software for you.
Did you find this review helpful? Yes (20) No (2)