Software

[Case]

Not sure if this sub-forum is active at the moment but I thought I would start a thread on software because it's annoying for me and with how busy I always am I never have the time to follow new apps/software or new trends. 

Does anyone have any strong recommendations for:

1. practice/client management software 

2. real estate software

3. corporate software 

4. wills/estates software 

 

Asking because most of what I have tried is not amazing or not sensible given the costs. Estate-a-Base costs are pretty wild and we only handle a few simple estates at any given time. I don't see many or any benefits from using Unity for real estate so if I can not pass a $240 disbursement on to my clients that helps competitive pricing. I used CLIO for a few months but dropped it, I didn't love the subscription model and having to pay per staff member per month and it also just was not perfect. I have not explored any software on the corporate side - we do basic corporate stuff for mostly small potatoes clients and store physical minute books. 

Currently just using PC Law for billing and I guess that would be our file/client database of sorts. But still doing physical files stored for 15 years. Word templates FTW, baby.

[Mountebank]

18 hours ago, Case said:

Not sure if this sub-forum is active at the moment but I thought I would start a thread on software because it's annoying for me and with how busy I always am I never have the time to follow new apps/software or new trends. 

Does anyone have any strong recommendations for:

1. practice/client management software 

2. real estate software

3. corporate software 

4. wills/estates software 

 

Asking because most of what I have tried is not amazing or not sensible given the costs. Estate-a-Base costs are pretty wild and we only handle a few simple estates at any given time. I don't see many or any benefits from using Unity for real estate so if I can not pass a $240 disbursement on to my clients that helps competitive pricing. I used CLIO for a few months but dropped it, I didn't love the subscription model and having to pay per staff member per month and it also just was not perfect. I have not explored any software on the corporate side - we do basic corporate stuff for mostly small potatoes clients and store physical minute books. 

Currently just using PC Law for billing and I guess that would be our file/client database of sorts. But still doing physical files stored for 15 years. Word templates FTW, baby.

Hey friend.

For practice management, I use Cosmolex (having switched from Clio), which I highly recommend because it's LSO-compliant and produces all the reports you need. It's subscription based per user. You'll have to get over your issues with the subscription model because that's how it is now. I've raved about this to you before.

For Estates, I'd recommend Estateably. They charge per file. Better support than Estate-a-base and fulfills the same function. A bit more intuitive as well.

I left Unity after the initial hikes. I'm currently using Closer, which is perfect for sales. It's OK for purchases. It needs work for private mortgages. But it's getting better and it's relatively cheap.

All the above programs are browser-based.

For a client directory, I host this on an internal SharePoint site through 365 and use Azure for endpoint security. Everything exists electronically, although I do keep (relatively thin) physical files while matters are ongoing.

I can't help you on the corporate side.

[Case]

2 hours ago, Mountebank said:

Hey friend.

For practice management, I use Cosmolex (having switched from Clio), which I highly recommend because it's LSO-compliant and produces all the reports you need. It's subscription based per user. You'll have to get over your issues with the subscription model because that's how it is now. I've raved about this to you before.

For Estates, I'd recommend Estateably. They charge per file. Better support than Estate-a-base and fulfills the same function. A bit more intuitive as well.

I left Unity after the initial hikes. I'm currently using Closer, which is perfect for sales. It's OK for purchases. It needs work for private mortgages. But it's getting better and it's relatively cheap.

All the above programs are browser-based.

For a client directory, I host this on an internal SharePoint site through 365 and use Azure for endpoint security. Everything exists electronically, although I do keep (relatively thin) physical files while matters are ongoing.

I can't help you on the corporate side.

Wicked. Thanks for this. 

I am out of touch and have never even heard of Estateably and Closer. 

Cosmolex, I have heard good things about from one other practitioner. PC Law is also trying to get us to go cloud based so that's the alternative. 

How is your practice doing? 

[Mountebank]

43 minutes ago, Case said:

Wicked. Thanks for this. 

I am out of touch and have never even heard of Estateably and Closer. 

Cosmolex, I have heard good things about from one other practitioner. PC Law is also trying to get us to go cloud based so that's the alternative. 

How is your practice doing? 

Busy, but tiring of late. I've actually been pivoting a bit into a new, sort of adjacent, practice area (which is fairly niche and I won't mention for pseudo-anonymity reasons). I enjoy it but it's one that lends itself to large receivables so it has come with new challenges. My practice is still mainly Wills, Estates, and real estate, but this new area is my fastest growing so things are changing a lot on the business side (doing business development, which I haven't had to do for a while; adopting new procedures, when I was previously all set up for my practice; planning for cash flow, which I really haven't had to worry about too much for the last few years). But I'm enjoying the change and it's also getting me out of the office a bit and I'm liking the change of pace.

My contact info hasn't changed, though - feel free to give me a shout sometime.

[LMP]

 

Obviously my experience is a little limited but I've seen Centerbase gain some popularity as a replacement for PC Law. Not sure how well it would scale down but maybe worth a peek?