CosmoLex is a cloud-based practice management software with a robust feature set that includes a full law-firm accounting package. CosmoLex’s accounting features mean you don’t have to deal with migrating information to and from a general-purpose accounting software package like QuickBooks or Xero.
CosmoLex Highlights
Full law-firm accounting. Meeting your professional accounting requirements can be a challenge if you use QuickBooks or Xero, but CosmoLex will generate all the necessary reports in addition to the usual billing, check-writing, and bank feed features you would expect from accounting software. (You can control who can see your account information, of course.)
Document assembly. CosmoLex now has basic document assembly for creating documents from your client and matter records.
Credit card processing included. CosmoLex includes LawPay for no additional monthly fee, which makes it easy to accept credit cards from clients while meeting your trust accounting requirements.
Single-page application. Speed matters, especially when it comes to browser-based software. CosmoLex feels fast and responsive because the page doesn’t reload every time you click a link or button. Most of the time, it feels just as fast as desktop software.
Features
Website | www.cosmolex.com |
|---|---|
Starting Cost | $79/user/month |
Apps |
|
Installation |
|
Case/Matter Management | ✓ |
Client/Contact Management | ✓ |
Task Management | ✓ |
Calendar | ✓ |
Timekeeping | ✓ |
Conflict Checking | ✓ |
Email Client | ✗ |
Text Messaging | ✗ |
Document Management | ✓ |
Document Assembly | ✓ |
Secure Client Portal | ✓ |
Basic Bookkeeping | ✓ |
Trust Accounting | ✓ |
Full Accounting | ✓ |
Billing & Invoicing | ✓ |
Online Payments | ✓ |
Software Integrations | — |
Open API | ✗ |
Things You Might Want to Know
Include your accountant. If you intend to do your accounting in CosmoLex, it’s a good idea to get your bookkeeper and accountant on board before you switch. They shouldn’t have any objection—trust accounting, in particular, will be much easier in CosmoLex—but they will need to work with it, too.
Email integration. CosmoLex does not integrate with Gmail or Outlook. Instead, you can set up any email client (including Gmail and Outlook) to automatically forward emails to CosmoLex. When CosmoLex receives an email from you, it will attempt to automatically tag the email with the appropriate contact and matter. If it can’t figure out what matter to tag your email with, it will hold it in an Untagged folder for you to tag manually. You can also resolve emails that match more than one client or matter under the Multi Match folder. (You only have to organize the emails CosmoLex doesn’t recognize.)
Security. CosmoLex protects all data traveling between your computer and CosmoLex’s servers using 256-bit SSL encryption, which is often referred to as “bank-grade” security. All CosmoLex servers are located in the United States and, CosmoLex notes, are subject to U.S. jurisdiction. This may be a plus or a minus depending on your viewpoint.
CosmoLex has McAfee run a third-party security audit every 24 hours, and a third-party penetration test from May 2016 found “no exploitable vulnerabilities … that could compromise customer data.”
To its credit, CosmoLex is quite transparent about its security features.
Backup. CosmoLex backs up your data every four hours and keeps multiple, redundant, encrypted backups in several locations. However, there is no way to download a copy of your data.
Mobile apps. CosmoLex has apps for iOS and Android that have the features you are most likely to need while working from your phone, but it does not have the full functionality of the web app. Fortunately, the web app is responsive so you can use CosmoLex from your phone or tablet as long as you have internet access, but some features are not going to be very easy to use on a phone screen.
Migration. CosmoLex can help you migrate data from your existing law practice management and accounting software. Plan ahead, though; data migration takes longer than simply signing up for a CosmoLex account. For non-financial data (i.e., contacts, matters, and associated information), you will have to work with CosmoLex technicians. Depending on the complexity of the data migration job, it could even take days or weeks to complete.
CosmoLex provides instructions for migrating financial data yourself (or with the help of your bookkeeper or accountant), but you do have to wait until your non-financial data has been migrated. CosmoLex technicians or certified partners can also take care of migrating your financial data for a fee, or a minimum-term commitment.
Third-party integrations. In general, CosmoLex favors including features over integrating with third-party software and services. But there are exceptions. CosmoLex integrates with Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Calendar, and Office 365 Calendar, plus LawPay for credit card processing, Chrometa for time tracking, and Casemaker for legal research.
Workflows. Using CosmoLex’s Workflows feature, you can add a series of tasks that are triggered by the completion of the previous task or another time frame you set.
Who CosmoLex is For
CosmoLex is an excellent choice for firms that want robust accounting included with full-featured cloud-based practice management software.
On the other hand, CosmoLex probably is not a great fit for firms that need to link a number of software and services together, unless they are included in the list of third-party apps CosmoLex already supports.
Just left CosmoLex
We moved to CosmoLex a year ago after being unsatisfied with Clio, so (full disclosure) I’m not an easy-to-please client after working in technology and dealing with many user interfaces for years before starting a law practice.
CosmoLex has a great idea to integrate the GL and MMS, but the execution is flawed and clunky. There are too many pulldowns and checkboxes and eccentricities that hinder the great features. For example, email capture is great, and you could review the billable time from inside of the captured email. Still, it was impossible to go the other way and look at an invoice online and then get to the email for which you have billed from the billable time. We ended up inventing an elaborate description to include the date/time stamp of the email so we could trace it back.
Also, customer service was not impressive. The service reps always seemed to take a very ambivalent approach, so much so that we just gave up calling. I think they were probably happy to get rid of us, which is a valuable lesson for me in picking a vendor. Find that level of service that you need; don’t settle for less.
We switched to MyCase plus a cloud accounting system where it’s still a challenge to get things done, but it’s half the price, and MyCase doesn’t promise things it can’t deliver. I’m using the features of MyCase more than I ever did on Clio or CosmoLex, too, like tasks and client intake. My clients avoided the client interface on CosmoLex, but they use the MyCase interface daily.
We tried to make CosmoLex work, but in the end, it felt like we were feeding a giant machine that never gave us useful business data back and cost us a ton of time in lost productivity.
4.7 Rating - Great to have accounting and case mgmt combined
I’ve been using Cosmolex for over a year after experience with Clio and find that it pushes itself just over Clio. I also find it just slightly faster than Clio as well in toggling between tabs, matters, etc. Also, it is much easier to send reminders all at once for unpaid bills in Cosmolex than in Clio.
The main reason I like Cosmolex over Clio is that it handles my accounting too. I can link expenses to a matter to be reimbursed by the client. That way, the money I receive from the client is properly separated into reimbursements v. income. It integrates with Law Pay so that once I send the invoice, I don’t need to check back to see if the client has paid – it will automatically update as such once the client does so. I like having the accounting and case mgmt all together in one platform so I don’t have to purchase a separate software system for accounting.
The one downside is that if you want a bookkeeper- you need one who knows how to use Cosmolex. I haven’t started a bookkeeper yet because I want to understand exactly how everything works and comes together for this year’s books before turning it over to someone else. They do, however, have a list of accredited bookkeepers who have completed the necessary training, and I’m sure I’ll engage one of them in the coming year.
For both Clio and Cosmolex, I can always talk to a technician/helper anytime I want. This is big for me because I am really forgetful of how to do software tasks right. Clio also has the chat feature with someone always available and I can always call someone with Cosmolex, so they tie on this measure.
Robust Features
What I love above CosmoLex is the many case management options as well as the accounting capability. In addition, anytime I need to speak to a real person they are always available.