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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.
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.
Managing clients and other contacts is a core feature of law practice management software.
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.
As with email, this feature means a full calendar client, not just an integration with Outlook or Google Calendar.
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.
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.
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.))
Can you send and receive text messages and associate them with your matters?
Basic document management allows you to add documents and associate them with your cases/matters.
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.
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.
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.
Some software includes full double-entry accounting features, making additional accounting software unnecessary.
Does the software allow you to send bills or invoices?
Payment processing is increasingly offered either as an included or add-on feature, especially with cloud-based law practice management software.
Based on 2 Reviews
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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.
David M.
“”
April 2, 2018 1:07 PM
Needles has a robust task management system for every case making sure that you follow your customized protocol.
M. S.
“Limited Functionality”
March 17, 2021 2:33 PM
I have had this software for about a month. Lacks functionality. Commonsense features and functionality are not incorporated into the system. Template creation is cumbersome; bookmarks are 1-2 lines long, no way to test a template for formatting or bookmark issues. Calendaring within Neos is not practical as you can only invite other Neos users to calendared items, all other calendar entries have to be done via Outlook. All emails generated from the system have to be manually tagged by the user; they are not automatically stored within the system. There is no list of contacts prompt when emailing documents, so you will need to go back into the Neos file and look through 3-4 different tabs where various email addresses reside. Copy and pasting email addresses is not made easy by Neos either. All documents have to be saved to a computer before you can drag and drop it into the system. You cannot scan a document directly into the Neos. You cannot generate multiple templates at the same time, for example medical records requests have to be done at a time. In fairness, it appears that Neos has plans on implementing some of these issues I've described, but there is not a whole lot of functionality built into the platform. The display is completely customizable, which is nice; but overall the platform is lacking. I was sold on this software and had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, our firm will be switching to a different case management software platform on the expiration of our licenses.
REVIEWS (2 out of 2)