Rocket Matter is robust, productivity-focused law practice management software that works great for solos and small firms.
Rocket Matter Highlights
Productivity-focused design. Rocket Matter puts productivity front and center. Like all law practice management software, Rocket Matter helps you organize information about your clients and your firm. But more than most law practice management software, Rocket Matter is focused on helping you get things done.
Email integration. You can connect your email, associate your email folders with client matters, and search your email from within the platform.
Firm-wide chat. Simple, effective chat makes it easy to discuss cases (or anything else) with other members of your firm without resorting to the clunkiness of email. Communicator is similar to Google Hangouts, with elements of Slack or HipChat, but built with lawyers’ needs in mind.
Single-page web app. Since Rocket Matter does not have to reload the page every time you click a button or link, the web app is fast and responsive to use in your browser.
Braavos. Rocket Matter recently released Braavos, a new edition of it’s Law Practice Management software that allows you to manage your practice faster and more efficiently. It features practice area-specific add-on modules, including one for Insurance Defense firms that allows for widespread LEDES code entry.
Rocket Matter Pricing
Rocket Matter pricing is $55/user/month. You can also purchase one-on-one training (as opposed to the free training available through Rocket Matter’s website) for about $125/hour.
Features
| Rocket Matter | Law Ruler | |
|---|---|---|
| Website | rocketmatter.com | lawruler.com |
| Starting Price | $55/user/month | $49/user/month |
| Installation | Cloud | Cloud |
| Apps | Web app iOS app Android app | Web app |
| Email Client | ✓ | |
| Calendar | ✓ | ✓ |
| Client/Contact Mgmt | ✓ | ✓ |
| Case/Matter Mgmt | ✓ | ✓ |
| Task Management | ✓ | ✓ |
| Secure Portal | ✓ | |
| Conflict Checking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Document Mgmt | ✓ | ✓ |
| Document Assembly | ✓ | ✓ |
| Timekeeping | ✓ | ✓ |
| Billing & Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Online Payments | ✓ | ✓ |
| Trust Accounting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Basic Bookkeeping | ✓ | |
| Full Accounting |
Things You Might Want to Know
Security. Rocket Matter uses 128-bit SSL encryption to secure the data traveling between your computer and Rocket Matter’s servers. This is sometimes called “bank-grade” encryption. For what it’s worth, most of the cloud-based practice management software options in our directory use 256-bit SSL encryption. Rocket Matter’s website also details a number of other security measures, such as strong physical security and a multi-point backup system.
Mobile apps. It’s mobile apps got a much-needed update in September 2017. The new apps include most of the features of the web app, plus the new Communicator, an in-firm messaging app. Communicator lets you send and receive files and associate messages with files. Plus, the new Rocket Matter Bot can help you create calendar appointments in your discussions.
Backup. Rocket Matter backs up its databases throughout the day to standby machines, copies those backups to a remote facility daily, and the data-center specialists keep backups as well. It also offers the option to manually download your billable time, matters, calendars, and contacts. After you get that information from Rocket Matter, you can back it up locally, but it is a clunky process, especially if you want to back up regularly.
Limited integrations. Rocket Matter does integrate with the software and services you are most likely to use, like G Suite, Office 365, Dropbox, Box, QuickBooks, and Evernote. But its integrations don’t go much further than those.
Accounting sold separately. You can bill clients directly , but if your firm’s billing needs are more sophisticated, you will want to connect it to QuickBooks—which works great. You will probably need to connect QuickBooks anyway since it does not support bookkeeping and accounting.
Who Rocket Matter is For
Rocket Matter is a good fit for most solo and small firms. It is an especially good fit for firms that want a productivity-focused dashboard. (Getting Things Done (GTD) aficionados will feel right at home.)
Third-party software integrations are limited, but most firms will be perfectly happy with the currently supported integrations.
Love it, with a few exceptions.
Disclaimer: I use Rocket Matter primarily for invoicing and keeping track of billing. I haven’t used any other case practice management software, so take this review with a grain of salt. I LOVE having all of the different reports that it generates, being able to calculate billing by client, by month (or other date), what the firm has been paid over a specific period of time, etc. The one complaint I have is that entering billable time can be a bit tedious. When I enter new time, I have to put something in both the task title and the entry for what’s going to show up on the invoice – since I just add my time before invoicing, I’d like the option for that to just be one entry. Also – the is the biggest – Once I enter, say, 10 entries, there’s no way to just add all 10 to the invoice at once time. And each entry takes about 5 seconds. So entering my time is half just sitting there waiting for the software to catch up after I click the switch to move something from “task” to “billed.” YMMV.
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