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Centerbase

Centerbase Rating:
3.7/5

Features

  • Customer Experience & Support - 9/10
    9/10
  • Pricing & Value - 8.25/10
    8.3/10
  • Security - 7.5/10
    7.5/10
  • Innovation & Future-Proofing - 9.5/10
    9.5/10
Comments Rating 3 (1 review)
Details

Rating Breakdown

Our Rating: 4.3/5

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: 3/5 (based on 1 rating)

The community rating is based on the average of the community reviews below.

Composite Rating: 3.7/5

The composite rating is a weighted average of our rating and the community ratings below.

Centerbase is highly configurable, full-featured law practice management software for small- to medium-sized law firms. Among its features is advanced workflow automation that can be customized for your firm’s needs.

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Who Centerbase is For

With all its features, Centerbase is probably overkill for most solos. It is best suited for firms of 5 lawyers or more that can take advantage of its advanced workflow automation features and are willing to invest time and money in training and implementation.

Centerbase Features

Centerbase law practice management software dashboard example
Website
 www.centerbase.com
Starting Cost
 $52/user/month
Apps
  • Android
  • iOS
  • Web
Installation
  • Cloud
Core Features
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.))
✗
Text Messaging
Can you send and receive text messages and associate them with your matters?
✗
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.
✓
Software Integrations
  • LawPay
  • LawToolBox
  • Microsoft Office 365
  • NetDocuments
  • Quickbooks Online
  • Stripe
Open API
✗

Additional Details about Centerbase

Some assembly required. Centerbase is powerful software that must be customized to your firm’s needs and workflows. It takes longer (and costs more) to set up than many other cloud-based law practice management software products, but the trade-off is that you get a system that works exactly how you want it to. Implementation and training is not included in the purchase price. The company partners with consultants on all their rollouts, and you must hire a certified consultant—who is not employed by Centerbase—for training and configuration. The fees depend on the consultant.

Mapped drive. Files can be opened and saved directly to a Centerbase drive that can be mapped to your network. 5 TB of storage is included with your subscription package.

Updated accounting tool. For an additional fee Centerbase offers a complete accounting package. You can bill clients, manage attorney and firm expenses, and create an accounting journal to better track bills and invoices, and pull in live bank feeds for all your accounts.

Continuous improvement. The company updates its software every 2-4 weeks, based in part on customer feedback.

Security. The company hosts its own servers, has multiple data centers, and owns its own infrastructure. They use 256-bit AES encryption for data at rest and 256-bit SSL encryption for data in transit.

Page edited by the Lawyerist editorial team. Last updated February 4th, 2020.

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1 Centerbase Community Review

  1. Avatar Paul M. says:
    April 8, 2019 at 11:07 pm

    Centerbase Customer Support is Appalling

    Centerbase is a powerful product but customer support is the worst I have ever experienced for any software product–I predict it will be their downfall. Perhaps they treat larger firms better, but their attitude toward a small firm is appalling and arrogant. Centerbase’s customer service model is to require you to use a third-party “partner” at $200/hour. The Centerbase system touts customizability as a key feature; however, if your customization causes a glitch (which is easy because documentation is primitive), Centerbase will charge you $200/hour to fix their system. Their attitude toward a small firm is “too bad”–even after you have invested hundreds of hours in implementation.

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