In our last post, we mentioned that each of Easy Soft’s software packages are all-inclusive—in direct contrast to your standard legal software package. For one yearly cost (typically less than one hour of billable time), you get:

• Software Procurement.
• Complete Training for your attorneys and staff.
• Ongoing Educational Support geared towards your practice.
• Technical Support—crucial in the event of outages, breakdowns, data loss, etc.
• Personalized Service. During business hours, a human being always picks up the phone.
• One Nominal Yearly Fee, so that you can plan your annual budget accordingly.
• No Hidden Fees.

Today, we wanted to mention a few extras that add to the value behind Easy Soft’s legal software packages.

One. Although Easy Soft specializes in making life easy for lawyers, our Technical Support Team and Business Analysts can introduce you to further administrative efficiencies you haven’t thought of—and won’t immediately discover. Our Business Analysts live and breathe not just technology—but the art and science of increasing the efficiencies behind your specific practice and small business.

For example, for optimum utilization of Easy Time Bill (ETB) Software, straight hourly billing differs from retainer or fixed fee billing, and both differ greatly from contingency billing. ETB contains special features to be used in tandem with our Easy Trust Software. We set you up right the first time, so there are no errors—only ease, efficiency, and incredible convenience.

Two. We absolutely practice what we preach. Our company aims to create efficiencies for our customers—not just for the first three months after you give us your business, but for the entire life cycle of your software. Take our training webinars.

At the outset, we live-host weekly software training webinars for all products of Easy Soft. During each live hosting, there might be a few dozen participants. Typically, a recorded copy of the webinar is also available online—at your convenience, and the convenience of each of your attorneys and staff members. What could be easier than that?

Three. We don’t believe in off-shore outsourcing. All of our programmers and technical support personals are located in the same Easy Soft headquarters—right here in New Jersey. If a question arises that our skilled and able Tech Support Team doesn’t have answers for, they can turn immediately to our Business Analysts for more complete information. In other words, your call goes right to the source.  One way or the other, we are likely to have a speedy answer for you—with full comprehension of your issue, and without messy language barriers.

In our last post, we talked about the services triggered by new legal time and billing software: software training, software setup, and practice customization. Today, we’ll discuss how an all-inclusive package is mandatory for even the most technologically savvy of attorneys and law firms.

Most legal time and billing software companies offer you email only or limited # of phone calls type technical support. When this runs out, you procure your own—or use their—additional training and setup through a subcontractor typically charging $125/hour and up.

You might say this sounds adequate. But even if you yourself are technically savvy, consider:

1.       Your fellow attorneys, paralegals, assistants, and any new hires—an unknown factor—might need additional handholding.

2.       You’ll need to explore your new software extensively—through time-consuming trial and error—to figure out its particular efficiencies and special features. But why reinvent the wheel?

3.       You’ll never be in complete control of your PC. Machines go down, and when they do, you’ll need expensive contractors to recover systems and data—unless you have an all-inclusive software package.

In contrast to the standard legal time and billing software package, all of Easy Soft’s software packages are all-inclusive. For one low yearly cost, Easy Soft provides all of the technical support, educational support, and setup advice that you need for every piece of legal software you purchase from us.

We believe we are the only major legal software company in the U.S. whose prices include:

• Software License.
• Complete Unlimited Training for your attorneys and staff
• Unlimited US Based Phone/Email Technical Support—crucial in the event of outages, breakdowns, data loss, etc.
• Personalized Service. During business hours, a human being always answers the phone.
• One Nominal Yearly Fee, so that you can plan your annual budget accordingly.
• No Add-On Fees—ever for these services.

In total, your software costs for the year will probably add up to less than one (1) billable hour for a single attorney in your firm.

So you get a) the incredible price, and b) worry-free technology geared specifically toward making your legal practice the most easy and effective it can be. Click here to view our complete software catalog.

Legal software purchasers beware! The sticker price of a software package may look like a bargain. But if you base your choice of law office billing software on price alone, your final costs may add up to an unpleasant surprise.

Regardless of the ease and purpose of the legal software you’re choosing, or your own skill with technology, it’s important to grasp the price of ad hoc services, charges and other add-ons that make what sounded like a bargain a very bad deal indeed.

First, consider that all law office software requires the following:

• Software Training. Training teaches you, your fellow lawyers, and your staff a) the major features, b) how to adapt technology for your particular need c) the bells and whistles of your new legal software.

Say its legal time and billing software. Everyone that will use this software to enter their time tracking, setup matters, billing, payments, special rates and discounts, and the like (we’ll refer to them collectively as “administrators”) must be newly trained. Cumulative and repetitive training can be both time-consuming and expensive.

• Software Setup. You’ll need to set up your new legal billing software on all employee workstations. Again, cumulative setups—for new workstations, new attorneys, etc.—can get time-consuming and expensive.
• Practice Customization. Customizing your new software to the needs of your specific law office, practice, and state bar requirements is essential. We will cover attorney billing software customization specifically in another post this month.

In our next post, we’ll talk about the hidden costs of the above services.

If you’re a lawyer who bills, time is your inventory. This isn’t unique to the law, of course. But more than with any other industry, efficient legal billing systems are paramount. Why is this?

The more generic reasons for this are listed below.

REASON #1: It’s Just Good Business. Efficient billing tightens processes and introduces natural efficiencies into your business model. More than with any other industry, your legal time and billing software must be able to handle a variety of billing and fee arrangements.

For example, it should know the difference between straight and retainer hourly billing. It should also be capable of recording time by matter-not simply by client. In law, ‘matter’ informs everything: from billable rates (with premiums or discounts built into certain matters) to billing frequency, to staffing and type of case. It should have an easy repository for tracking and allocating expenses such as court fees, witness fees, couriers, and travel-as soon as they are incurred.

Carefully developed with a team of seasoned lawyers and other legal experts, Easy Soft’s Easy Time Bill Software does both these things and much more.

REASON #2: Time Is Money. This isn’t just true for you – but true for your client, too. Less time spent billing-and fixing complicated billing errors-isn’t just time in your pocket, its money in the pocket for your client. In one fell stroke, you can use effective legal billing software-such as Easy Time Bill-to dispel an important fiduciary duty-and spend less time on administrative matters.