Law Practice Software Has Different Modules to do Different Things

Top of the class law practice software can help with many things that lawyers have to do, like case management, law practice accounting and law firm payroll. In specific terms, it can help:

• Monitor and control the progress of cases,
• Account and bill for the time and expenses law firms incur for clients,
• Maintain accounts and payroll,
• Manage law firm finances and
• Communicate easily with all parties.

Managing and Controlling the Progress of Cases

This is the core module of law practice software. Managing cases includes such things as keeping track of the various activities involved in winning a case, such as:

• Discussing the case with your client and understanding the exact situation
• Referring to relevant statutory provisions and case law interpretations
• Complying with the court formalities and making submissions
• Assembling documents and other kinds of supporting evidence to support your arguments
• Attending to court hearings and other engagements

A busy law firm would also be handling many cases at the same time. Consequently, they would have to keep track of matters like the above for all the different cases. Without the help of good case management software, things could soon become quite chaotic and uncontrollable.

Billing for the Time and Expenses Incurred

Lawyers will be spending a lot of time for doing the kinds of work mentioned in the last section. They will have to keep track of the time spent for each of the several clients. In addition to billable time, they would also be paying expenses that are recoverable from their clients. These also need to be accounted.

Good law practice software will not only make it easy to enter the time spent on each case but could also keep track of time automatically in some situations. It would then monitor and report unbilled time, in addition to facilitating billing for the time and expenses when due.

Maintaining Accounts and Payroll

Billing does not automatically result in cash. You have to keep track of pending bills, record payments received and remind clients about past due balances. The accounting module of legal practice software will help you do all these.

The accounting software also helps you keep track of your assets, liabilities, expenses and revenues, and generates formal Profit & Loss accounts as well as different kinds of profitability reports.

The payroll module makes it easy to compute employee dues, keep track of their leave and other entitlements, and comply with statutory formalities under tax and employment laws.

Accounting software would also typically have facilities to produce reports needed to manage your finances, such as cash flow forecasts and statements of past due client balances.

Facilitating Communications

The law practice software can integrate with office suites like Microsoft Office and provide facilities for handling emails. Additionally, filing of court forms can also be made online with the help of the software. Communication becomes easier and faster all round with these kinds of facilities.

Can you imagine a modern law firm doing case management, accounting, billing, payroll, and all the other things manually, and still remaining efficient and competitive?