Chances are you have multiple members of your firm working on a single legal matter. A single legal matter has multiple deadlines, events, and meetings that everyone needs to stay on top of. Utilizing a modern cloud-based practice management system makes legal calendaring and task management accessible so that everyone in your firm that needs to be aware of important … Read More
Tech Tip #138: Match Bills to Proper Client Matters
Managing which bills from which vendors should be attached to which client can be a difficult task. This can become more difficult when you have multiple legal matters for a single client and the vendor bills need to be appropriately tied to the actual matter. Utilize legal-specific accounting software that allows your firm to tie vendor bills directly to the … Read More
What ABA Opinion 477 Means for Lawyers Looking for New Software
The world and the way we communicate within it has changed a lot since 1999 when the ABA introduce Formal Opinion 99-413 to address confidentiality obligations for email communications with clients. Mailed letters, faxes and many phone calls are now often replaced by more extensive communication through email and other digital means; but the lawyer’s obligation to protect client confidentiality … Read More
Tech Tip #137: Holding Bills Is Necessary When Managing Your Cash Flow
Do all of your clients pay your invoices on time? Probably not. If they do you should probably write a book about it. For law firms, it is sometimes necessary to hold bill payments. By holding bills from vendors until clients have paid the firm, it ensures that the firm maintains a positive cash flow. Learn more about managing client … Read More
Tech Tip #136: Overcome the Challenge of Data Migration
Data Migration from a legacy system can be hard. Talk to a firm that has attempted to migrate their legal accounting data from one system to another and they’ll likely tell you a horror story. Fortunately for firms looking to move into the cloud now, CosmoLex has created set of procedures and tools to migrate legacy case and accounting data … Read More
Client Costs & Managing Accounts Payable: Why Quickbooks Won’t Cut It
Quickbooks is a great accounting tool for any general business but if you work for a law firm, then it is missing many of the key factors you need! Recording client costs properly requires a legal-specific chart of accounts that many general business accounting programs do not include. Generally, there are three types of Accounts Payable for law firms. One … Read More
Tech Tip #135: Lack of Resources and Personnel? Level The Playing Field With Technology
For small firms, lack of personnel and resources can make many administrative tasks challenging. The attorneys need to spend time with clients and administrative tasks like tracking time and expenses may fall by the wayside. There is no answer on how to hire more staff if your firm isn’t ready to do so, but you can employ technology that makes … Read More
Tech Tip #134: Why Are You Struggling to Capture Time & Expenses?
For many small firms, time and expenses that go untracked represent a substantial source of leakage for their business. Sure, they’re doing their job as far as practicing law goes, but they are doing their own business a disservice by not capturing all the work they are doing. Admittedly this can be a challenging part of managing a firm, but … Read More
Capturing All Your Time and Expenses
For many small law firms and law firms just starting out, limited resources are a major hurdle that needs to be cleared. Most often, carrying out administrative tasks is the most affected area of a practice. Think about it, most small and new firms have the legal expertise in place to be successful, that’s why they have decided to go … Read More
Tech Tip #133: Never Mix Client Funds
Most lawyers manage funds from multiple clients at any given time. It’s great to have retainers and funds on hand for work you have yet to complete, but managing these funds can be challenging. It is extremely important that your firm always makes sure that one client’s funds do not mix with that of another. This is called commingling and … Read More