Granular User Permissions Gives Attorneys Complete Control Over Billing Record Access
NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. – July 23, 2014 – CosmoLex announced today the release of version 1.6 of its cloud-based legal billing and trust accounting software. The new version adds user access control, allowing law practices to safely share billing information without compromising client confidentiality.
Attorneys use law firm billing software to streamline office administration activities, improve billing efficiency and free up time to focus on the practice of law. Law firms need to be free to grant billing access to the firm’s staff or outside parties such as bookkeepers, but they need to do so in a way that safeguards sensitive information. CosmoLex administrators can now set finely-grained access permissions so each user has a clearly defined area of operation.
Administrators assign roles to each user. Each role has a set of permissions that indicate which billing areas can be accessed and what functions can be performed. For example, a billing specialist might be given full access to invoice generation and time/expense card entry but would not have access to bank reconciliation or software setup. An outside auditor could be given read-only access to financial records, but no permission to edit or delete entries, and no access to the firm’s contact list.
User permissions can be further refined on a user-by-user basis. Users can be restricted only to information relevant to specific attorneys or timekeepers. One attorney’s paralegal can be restricted to access the cases of another attorney in the firm. The partners themselves can be restricted to only their own cases in this way.
“User permissions are vital to legal software, and they have been at the top of our feature list for CosmoLex since Day One,” says company founder and CEO, Dr. Rick Kabra. “We wanted to be sure the permission system was robust and comprehensive enough for the legal industry before we added them to CosmoLex.”
CosmoLex is the first cloud-based legal billing program with a fully integrated trust accounting system. Other features in CosmoLex version 1.6 include automatic overhead billing, individual user preferences that override general settings, and highlighted balance figures that make it easy to see which matters can be paid immediately from retainer. The company has stated they plan to release new features monthly in response to their clients’ needs.