Needles is a good fit for firms looking to work with an on-premise software program, but it isn't cloud-based and its user interface is seriously dated.
Needles Rating:
3.8/5
Features
Customer Experience & Support - 5.75/10
5.8/10
Pricing & Value - 5.5/10
5.5/10
Security - 6/10
6/10
Innovation & Future-Proofing - 3.5/10
3.5/10
Comments Rating5
(1 review)
Details
Rating Breakdown
Our Rating: 2.6/5
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: 5/5 (based on 1 rating)
The community rating is based on the average of the community reviews below.
Composite Rating: 3.8/5
The composite rating is a weighted average of our rating and the community ratings below.
Needles is a good fit for firms looking to work with an on-premise software program. It’s also good for staying organized with its checklist and task manager. It’s probably not a good fit for firms that want a complete cloud-based option to work on the go or those firms that want full accounting features.
More About Needles
Needles is a practice management software program for Windows. Needles focuses on your daily tasks and schedule and opens immediately to what they call your Today Screen. You’ll be able to see your calendar events, alerts about any private messages, and a checklist of all tasks that are currently open. Users and management can customize task organization, view firm-wide tasks and follow up or collaborate on details within the task. When adding new contacts, their intake process lets you enter information about a potential client, and then decide if you want to accept their business or send them to a colleague as a referral. You’re also able to pre-populate simple or complex forms with client information. Stay on top of finances with their Value screen, where you can keep track of hourly rates, flat fees, and more. You can also track time and request checks through this feature. Although Needles doesn’t have a built-in email function, it does sync with Microsoft Outlook. When you hook up your Outlook account with Needles, you can save emails to specific case files and sync your calendar and tasks. Needles doesn’t have it’s own mobile platform, but you can access your calendar, tasks and contact list via your Outlook account and app on your phone.
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.
Needles has a robust task management system for every case making sure that you follow your customized protocol.
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