10 Best Legal Billing Software for Small and Large Firms
Previously, legal professionals had no other option but to draft their own bills. During that time, there was a lot of paperwork, calculations, filing, and spreadsheets just to create invoices. Creation of bills and calculation of taxes and discounts were a tedious and time-consuming process for a law firm.
However, with the rise of computers, the invoicing process has been simplified dramatically by law firm billing software. This article aims to provide you a list of best legal billing software with their features, pros and cons.
What Is Legal Billing Software?
Legal billing software is a program that lawyers, law firms and CA firms use to track their task status, case expenses, and bill clients accordingly. It simplifies and streamlines the invoicing process including expense and time tracking, bill creation, invoicing, trust accounting, collections, and payments.
Legal billing software enables lawyers & law firms to keep a track of legal activities, legal consultations & payments received against their services. The software offers capabilities like invoicing, time tracking & accounting.
10 Best Legal Billing Software for Large and Small Firms
Clio
Clio Manage is one of the most-used legal billing software that also works as a comprehensive case management system. Being a cloud-based solution, Clio allows you to manage your law firm from any part of the world. Using its centralized system, you can access, manage, and bill your work in one place.
The Clio law firm software lets you manage all aspects of your law practice, from intake to invoicing, including case management, clients, billing, documents, time-tracking, contact-tracking, schedule management, appointments, accounting, and reporting.
Additionally, its Clio Manage helps law firms manage their entire client journey as well as convert more prospects. While with Clio Payments, clients can conveniently pay their legal bills online and in person.
- Complete law management solution
- Suitable for small to large firms
- Easy to use and customizable
- Client management features can get better
Clio Pricing: Available for free for 7 days. The paid plan starts at INR 3142/user/month which includes features such as accurate time tracking and expenses, managing documents, tasks, and calendars, among other things.
MyCase
MyCase is an easy to use, web-based law firm management software designed for small or solo legal firms or law professionals. This software lets you track time, keep accounts, manage cases, manage contacts, and docket documents.
The legal invoicing solution allows users to a manage their documents and contacts, as well as communicate with clients, remotely. The Android and iOS application allows users to bill their clients even from smartphone.
MyCase enables users to sync and manage their calendars, enabling them to collaborate with co-workers and clients. With MyCase, you can pay your bills and receive notifications directly from your desktop or mobile device. Additionally, it offers QuickBooks integration.
- Accessible from phone, PC, Tablet
- Two-way texting feature within the software
- Excellent customer support
- Budget-friendly
- Difficult to create automated documents
- Limited third-party integrations
Pricing: MyCase offers a free 10-day trial. The basic plan starts at INR 3143 with access to client portal, task management, legal calendaring & more.
Smokeball
Designed for small law firms, Smokeball is an online legal invoicing system that enables document, email, calendar, and task management features. Also, it allows you to bill more hours via automatic time tracking.
With its library of over 18,000 pre-loaded forms and MS-Office integration, staff members can complete documents in just a few clicks.
Smokeball’s native iOS and Android apps offer users the flexibility of accessing practice information from anywhere, anytime. It also has offline access so users can work without internet connection. A law firm’s time and activity can be accurately tracked and recorded with the help of its automatic time tracking and timesheets.
- Great automation features
- Integrates seamlessly with MS Word and Outlook
- Responsive customer support
- A little buggy
- Cost is higher for individual law practitioner
Pricing: Smokeball offers a 7-day free trial. The paid plan starts at INR 2339 with access to features such as time and expense tracking, payment plans, document automation, secure client portal, to name a few.
TimeSolv
TimeSolv is a comprehensive and easy to use accounting, billing and practice management tool primarily designed for attorneys and legal firms.
The TimeSolv app helps lawyers bill according to hours and visits and get paid more quickly. It offers a variety of features including case management, client intake forms, contact management, calendaring, lead management, and time tracking. It is compatible with QuickBooks, Office 365, LawPay and more.
With TimeSolv, users can track billable hours and budgets in real-time by integrating project management functionalities like time tracking and task assignment with billing functionality. It also offers case management functions and document management tools. Plus, it offers a free trial of 30 days.
- Simple, easy to use and customizable
- Clean and professional interface
- Prompt support
- Support service is not prompt
- Time and expense not visible at one location
Pricing: TimeSolv offers a 30-day free trial. The monthly pricing plan for one user starts at INR 3222. It includes features like unlimited document storage, clients & matters, ABA task and activity codes, among other things.
Zola Suite
Legal practice management software, Zola Suite, is an online law invoicing solution for law firms of any size. Its key features include document management, task management, built-in email, calendar, client portals, automation, contact management, analytics, and reporting.
The Zola Suite dashboard has all the features users need to track and manage legal cases at one place, including activity logs, calendar, emails, and upcoming events. Zola Suite automatically identifies client’s email makes it easy for users to create to-do lists.
As part of Zola’s document management capabilities, users can edit and tag documents, manage versions, comment on the documents, as well as email them as attachments. Zola Suite is accessible from any device, including iOS and Android.
- Built-in email integration
- Quick and easy billing solution
- Minor glitches and technical errors
Pricing: Zola Suite offers a 10-day free trial for you to explore unique case management capabilities. The core plan starts at INR 4759 per user/month with access to features like built-in email, contact management, billing and accounting.
SimpleLegal
SimpleLegal software is designed for corporate legal departments to streamline all the operations. It’s an intuitive legal invoicing software for managing finances, vendors, matters, and operations in an efficient and effective way.
This legal billing software offers spend management, e-Billing, vendor management, matter management, and analytics and reporting capabilities within an integrated platform. It can be integrated with other systems used by the legal department like ERP, accounts payable, timekeeping software, IP management, and more.
By simplifying the complex legal operations, SimpleLegal helps in-house legal teams streamline and improve their processes.
- Effective for managing multiple legal entities at once
- Easy to navigate
- Strong advisory team
- Only one year of data is available at a time
Pricing: The SimpleStart plan is priced at INR 48,410. It is a pre-configured solution well suited for a small legal team getting started with legal operations.
Juris
Juris is a feature-rich online billing software for law firms. Juris software provides a diverse range of e-billing, timekeeping, and accounting functions according to law firms need. It is extremely easy to use and provide an audit trail function to trace any transaction.
Juris is an end-to-end law firm solution to streamline the financial requirements of law firms and maximize profitability. It ensures timekeeping and maximum billing hours based on firm-specific rules.
Its prebill editing options let firms create custom or standard bills. In addition to tracking accounts receivable, the software gives a comprehensive view of payments, firm dues, and overall cash flow.
- User-friendly and organized
- A lot of filters to sort billing entries
- Offers a large number of reports
- Support service is slow
- It hangs at times
Juris Pricing: Pricing available on official website on request.
LawPay
LawPay is a payment management and processing system used by family law firms, bankruptcy law firms, immigration law firms, criminal defence law firms, CLE firms, and enterprise legal departments. LawPay integrates with more than 30 legal practice management software to form a standalone legal business management solution.
With the scheduling feature provided by LawPay, you can set up both one-time and recurring payments. You can send payment requests to clients via email and customise the built-in email templates with your firm’s logo or other branding elements. Alternatively, a custom page can be created for accepting online payments through credit card.
- Intuitive dashboard
- Easy to make and receive payments
- Integration with Clio and CosmoLex
- Reconciliation with QuickBooks is complex
- Transaction fee is high
LawPay Pricing: The monthly plan starts at INR 1615, which includes unlimited support through phone, unlimited number of users, customizable website payment pages, among other things.
CosmoLex
CosmoLex is a popular legal practice management software widely used by small and medium-sized law firms. If you prefer to handle both your practice management and legal accounting management needs in one place, CosmoLex is an excellent solution for you.
CosmoLex facilitates the automation of all regular tasks legal professionals to help them in expansion. These features include email and document management, accounting, billing, time-tracking, and reporting.
- Easy to learn user interface
- Integrates with other software for data import
- Fully integrated accounting and billing system
- Lacks advanced integration features
- The support team is not prompt
Pricing: Free trial is available for 10 days. CosmoLex paid plan starts at INR 6863 per user/month with features for legal billing, accounting and practice management.
Practice Panther
Practice Panther law practice management software is intuitive, easy to use, and secure. This lawyer billing software is used by thousands of law firms to streamline their work processes and improve productivity. It helps law firms to get paid faster, never miss a deadline, track expenses and billable time seamlessly.
Rather than using different applications to manage your cases, clients, invoices, billable time and more – simply you can use Practice Panther. With its mobile app, you can work anywhere and on any device.
Pros and Cons of Practice Panther:
- Simple and easy to use
- Wide range of functions
- Ideal for small firms
- Slow customer support
- Poor integration with QuickBooks
Pricing: 7-day free trial is available. Practice Panther paid plan starts at INR 3955 which includes access to features like internal chat, daily agenda email, document templates, real time notifications, to name a few.
Why Use Legal Billing Software?
The legal profession relies heavily on monitoring and capturing billable hours. Legal professionals don’t have enough time to keep track of billable hours and produce invoices due to the complexity of the industry. That’s why law firm billing software programs were developed to overcome this problem. Here are some uses of lawyer billing software:
- Best law firm billing software helps you maintain electronic records for faster access of information. Also, it saves you from losing or misplacing the data.
- Helps manage clients and the time spent on every client’s tasks for accurate billing.
- Ensures secure access to any legal billing data from any device
- Creates an electronic record of data, which can be rederived instantly
- You can bill multiple clients simultaneously with quick access to electronic case records
- Allows setting recurring invoices for automated sharing
- You can easily bill multiple clients and keep track of their bills and financial records in just the click of a button.
What are the Benefits of Law Firm Billing Software?
A legal billing program offers the following benefits:
Database: It lets you create lists of clients and contacts. The software also permits you to create invoices based on the time spent on each client and task.
Remote Access: All records are accessible online from any computer that has an internet connection, making it possible to update records from anywhere.
Easy to use: Most of the law firm billing software requires minimal training and is easy to use.
Instant data access: You can also use these programs to search client’s information faster by just typing keywords into them.
Security: Legal billing solution ensures that personal and financial information is protected with strong passwords. In addition to this, data backup feature is also available in billing software to prevent data loss.
Bulk Billing: It becomes easier to bill multiple clients simultaneously with legal billing software. The ability to generate bills at the touch of a button and share via email and other channels.
Automation: Invoices can be automatically created and sent to your regular clients every month based on the contract. If certain tasks or attorneys at your firm charge different fees, the software can also be adjusted to automatically reflect these differences on bills.
Key Features of Legal Billing Software
The following are some of the key features of legal invoicing software:
Time Tracking: Many advocates charge their clients on hourly basis. Law firms need a legal time management software or feature to accurately keep track of their time so that they can bill clients accurately.
Flexible Invoicing: The lawyer’s invoicing software allows users to add logo, digital signature or even terms and conditions on the invoice. Also, it offers features like automatic interest and tax calculations. Furthermore, when billing subscribers or recurring fees, users can specify how often to charge each month, quarter, or year.
Detailed Reporting: Generate viable business reports by using custom filters such as time duration, clients, projects, etc. for better insight into company’s financials.
Plan projects and Assign Tasks Online: Task scheduling and project planning help lawyers keep track of your team’s daily activities and task allocation to maximize productivity and ROI.
Suggested Read: How Law Firms Can Benefit from Adopting Cloud eSignature Software
FAQs
Which software is best for billing?
You can choose Clio or Practice Panther if you want to do more than tracking billable time. They schedules your work and track your client-related tasks so that you know when and whom to charge. These solutions also give you detailed case information and help track outstanding balances and late payments.
Which is the best legal billing software for solo practitioners?
TimeSolv and CosmoLex are some of the best legal billing solutions for solo practitioners to manage case, clients, billable time and invoices. These are affordable and easy to use for individual practitioners.
Which is the best legal billing software for large firms?
SimpleLegal, Clio, CosmoLex and other such solutions assist large firms in tracking the contributions of staff related to a client or a case. From tracking billable hours to generating invoices and ensuring timely payments, these solutions assist at every step.
Which is the best free legal billing software?
Some of the best free legal billing software are Practice Panther, Clio, BillQuick and SlickPie.
Related Categories: Legal Compliance Management Software | Risk Management Software | CA Office Management Software
A digital marketer by profession and a writer by passion, Vineet takes great interest in staying on top of business technologies. You ask him, and he knows it! Not a single news in the SaaS world has ever skipped his attention. He believes in SaaSifying his readers with... Read more