Time Matters Erfahrungen

User since 1998; the merge processing features are the best out there, true relational database

Vorteile:

As a long time computer user with 10 gig of forms and a general rural practice that covers most areas of law for small firms, the merge into templates is foundational to our practice. The calendar, separate matter and contact database with many to many relationships makes it possible to relate and connect important things. Customization of field names, visual record forms is superb. As a solo, we have huge contact database that allows for searches and organization. The sort select tabs allow you to organize by practice area. While having pre set codes and categories, you have the freedom to tailor the system to work the way you want. The customer support is beyond incredible, and they will take the time to get it right with you -- even escalating to a 2d level engineer if needed. The ability to go contact by contact, matter by matter, and then inside find the related data is huge. It also has a teaching and training history and materials that stand far above competitors. I have looked at other programs and find them to be "newbies" without the depth and sophistication of TM, that we rely on. I cannot forsee a transition out of TM to any other program that would work as well as it does TM has become my primary resource of my personal and business life, capturing and storing information that is accessible.

Nachteile:

There is a learning curve. The sql database and search is slow compared to google. The integration with outlook will crash sometimes, requiring exiting both programs. We also have intermittent document merge crashes in Word Perfect that fix themselves after exiting both programs. Sometimes the conflict search is a bit slow. These are minor compared to everything else that works well.

Stay away. Run. Don't look back.

Kommentare: Horrible. If I can't transfer it to my new laptop, it is of no use.

Vorteile:

Ease of installation. Customization and functionality.

Nachteile:

1. Worthless technical support. 2. Lexis/Nexis makes it impossible to transfer the software from an old device to a new one. I was quoted $5,000 to move my TM software and data from my old laptop to my new one, and that would only allow me access to a bot which might or might not be able to accomplish the transfer

Timematters has seen better days....RIP....was better before LexisNexis acquired

Kommentare: I have had Timematters for years, and initially it was great but has increased in cost while lacking in many features other programs have. If I wasn't so invested in it, I would change.
Don't get me wrong, it has some good features, but is now unreliable for us. We have had constant problems with the program when it idles (it goes into a perpetual freeze). It didn't use to do this, and many calls to support have not resolved it.. Oh, and speaking of customer support, that would be calling someone in the Phillippines. Now they modem in, and aren't all bad, but they haven't fixed our persistent problem. And good luck getting a hold of anyone in the US to make suggestions for product improvement, 'cause that's not going to happen---I've tried. Cost has increased significantly since Lexis Nexis took over. Now you have to pay yearly maintenance fees which are like purchasing the software all over again (ok, that's SLIGHT exaggeration, as I'm actually paying the same amount I purchased it for 15 years ago----I know, its inflation...whatever). We are actually exploring other options now for the reasons outlined above....

Bookkeeping review

Vorteile:

Ease of use, reports and documents obtained

Nachteile:

Customer support is very lacking, calls in are put on hold forever and e mails as slow to be answered

Love this program! Everything I need is all in one spot!

Kommentare: It helps us keep track of every attorney's busy schedule, whether it be for court conferences, in office client appointments, meetings with staff, meetings outside of the office, or any other appointment. It is easy to read and helps keep us organized as to where an attorney is and when. It also helps that all of our contact information can be stored all together in this program.

Vorteile:

There are so many different features to this program. It holds all client, attorney, and court contact information in an easy to find system. I can also easily calendar all matters and link the tasks to the appropriate contact. There is also an easy daily calculator to count a certain amount of days. It is especially helpful when counting specific days to respond to orders and motions. Each person can even set up "to-do's" for themselves, without it showing on the daily calendars. I love how we can enter new client information in and keep track if we have spoken to them or not with the "consult" forms. We can tailor each category to make it hold specific information we want.

Nachteile:

Sometimes the software can get tricky. It took me a little while to learn all of the ins and outs of the program. Sometimes certain tabs are missing when I open the program, so I have to take some time to find out where they are to open them again. It still takes me some time to find items in the program that I don't use every day.

Horrible Tech Support and Customer Service!

Kommentare: My experience with Time Matters, both for technical support, and in terms of my rep. (every client of the software is supposed to lodge issues with their specific rep.), has been horrible. Tech support could never solve the software's sync problems, and did not follow-up with me when they said they would, even when my ticket was escalated. Also, when I reached out to my rep. for help (as I must, per Time Matters rules), she never got back with me. I reached out by email, twice, to her, with no response. Then I wrote to corporate at PC Law/Time Matters, of the abject failures listed above, and they never got back with me either.

Vorteile:

The program is basic and doesn't require too much sophistication.

Nachteile:

The supposed auto-sync via the cloud, to other devices, is useless, with tons of missed records, errors, and more problems.

Past user

Kommentare: Horrible

Vorteile:

Nothing, there was not 1 feature of time matters that I could use i liked using

Nachteile:

it is not simple to use. it kept freezing, renaming my letters, kicking me out while I was in the middle of drafting letters, etc

Never talk to a human ever

Kommentare: Overall it's garbage. The third party firm wasn't able to transfer the old software database over, so now we have 2 systems working side by side.
Support is garbage.
Internal code does not work from time to time.

Vorteile:

At this points months into the agony, there is not one thing to like about this software. We support over 200 live applications and not one generates in a whole year what the support demands are for Time doesn't Matter software.

Nachteile:

Chat only support that ends the instant they find out that you have this installed on a Virtual Computer. What a joke. There are viruses I would recommend to my close friends and associates before I would ever tell them to use a Lexis Nexis product. The company consumes smaller companies and then "re-organizes" them. There is a pudgy corporate middle manager someplace that is justifying his bonus by never letting purchasers ever talk to a tech support professional.

Antiquated program with zero customer support

Kommentare: As you can tell we're very unhappy with our Time Matters experience. We've had the program for a number of years, but will be moving on to an alternative system soon. Lexis/Nexis has ruined the program and seems uncaring about its users.

Vorteile:

Reasonably easy to understand, with all the basic features needed for a general law practice

Nachteile:

Very clunky to use, poor document management, no client portal (they used to have one but abandoned it when it didn't work). Technical support is miserable and uncaring

Great Software for 1997, Not ideal for today

Vorteile:

It has much of the functionality a law practice would need to function. It manages Matters, and allows the user to link documents, notes, emails, etc.

Nachteile:

The software functions like it is still the year 1997. It has buggy plugins to Word, Adobe and Outlook that crash a lot. It needs a constant connection to the server and can't handle any internet connectivity issues. It doesn't work with mobile devices well.

Oh Time Matters for you? DON'T USE TIME MATTERS

Kommentare: Slogan: Any other law software - for when time REALLY matters. If you value your business time or your employees time, don't ever install this software. If you're an IT company and a prospective client uses this software, RUN AWAY. Or hopefully guide them away from this godawful software.

Vorteile:

Uninstalling it, and moving to another product. As the administrator of this product, we found our service calls reduced by about 80% for our law clients.

Nachteile:

Constant problems. Database issues, slowness, data loss, installation issues, lack of deployment options, hundreds upon hundreds of service tickets related to the inability to use time matters effectively.

We have used this software since 2000. Extremely customizable. Could not practice law without it.

Kommentare: Please see my review. This program is at the heart of our practice. We have a significant investment of time and resources in this program and to replace the customization and document creation would cost plus a significant amount of time and energy.
If I were starting out new and picking a case management program for a plaintiffs personal injury practice I would probably pick a different case management program such as Houdini or Needles. However, whatever program I picked would have to allow me to have the program and my data reside on my own server. Online only data would be a deal breaker.

Vorteile:

Program is better than negative reviews. We are plaintiffs P. I. firm with 8 users. All events, documents, notes, e-mails & contacts can be related to individual cases &/or each other. Since we have had this software since 2000 (Ver. 3) we have been able to customize the Time Matters entry forms for different cases, contacts & events which allows for customized document creation from each form. When event is entered it can create the appointment letter/e-mail to the client or participant, or the Notice of Deposition & subpoena, or the tickler for deadlines related to the event, etc. From the case screen we create all letters and pleadings for the case with the case particulars inserted into the documents. When documents are created they also can create "To-Dos" &/or "Mail" forms to track responses. All documents in a case or contact can be associated with & accessed from the program. All actions &/or contacts with anyone involved in the case can be tracked in the "Notes" forms which are tied to each case & contact. We are currently running Version 13 (even though we pay yearly support fee (AMP) which allows upgrading to the newest version at will). We use about 1/2 of the program features. We do not use the e-mail client or the billing features. The yearly support fee is less than we would have to pay if we went with cloud based solutions. We have called support less than 10 times In the 17 years we have used this program. Use a consultant when 1st installing program.

Nachteile:

Steep learning curve for most. Once mastered not a problem. Need to use Consultant (C.I.C.) when 1st implementing and installing software, this will save you money down the road. TM Messenger does not work as documented and must be manually started on workstations. We do not use for telephone messaging as it is too cumbersome. Use program called Phoneslips instead. Only 1 attorney needs timekeeping and billing, she has stayed with Timeslips which predated Time Matters use. We do not use Billing Matters. Most of the web based complaints over the year have been about the e-mail client which comes with the program and Outlook integration. We do not use for e-mail, so we have not had these problems. For mobility use with mobile telephones need a hosted exchange server. When working remotely need to use a remote desktop program such as Log-me-in or Windows RDP and remote in to workstation. We have found that when we are having problems with Time Matters on a workstation, we need to exit all software and turn workstation off and let it sit for several minutes. Upon restart of the workstation the problem is usually gone. Do not upgrade to new version of Time Matteers until new version has been out for 6 mos. We will soon be upgrading to Version 16.3, as it now appears stable.

Was good many years ago before Lexis took over. Now, not so much.

Kommentare: Few , if any. Yes, it keeps track of matters and clients.-when it works well. Billing is cumbersome.
I enjoyed avoiding work by having to spend hours on the phone with tech support.

Vorteile:

It is powerful-if and when it works. It is a bit complicated on some tasks.

Nachteile:

Crashes and hangs up often. Numerous "sql server issues". I tried to renew my annual maintenance agreement by clicking on the renew button before the end of the term Wouldn't work so I called and always had to leave a messages for weeks. Finally got through about 30 days after expiration They forced me to pay a "late renewal fee" on top of the annual fee even though they would never call me back timely to avoid late renewal. When I called to install most recent upgrade they had me install 16.2 (up from 15.1) that is buggy and known to cause issues-and they had removed it from their web site as a download. So, I had to call back and spent 3-4 hours on the phone with tech support. They had me remove TM and had me install and roll back to 16.1. Great-but, it wouldn't restore my last backup and now many records are incorrect-for example, all invoices and list of payments all shows the same name for all records. Why they had me upgrade to a known buggy version ( and then have me remove it) is a real mystery. Every program that I have had that was taken over by Lexis has become buggy and very expensive. Will look for something else. Too bad, before Lexis took over it worked well and was reasonably priced. Everything Lexis touches turns to expensive junk. Still waiting for "Engineer" to call back so I can use the program. Won't hold my breath. I fear I have lost many records that cannot be restored due to bugs in the program.

Stay Away

Kommentare: Customer Service is the worst. Just try calling the phone number for the support line, it doesn't even work

Vorteile:

No pro comments. Just try to call the Customer Support phone number and you will see what I mean

Nachteile:

Zero Customer Service, constantly changing things which causes issues, the price keeps going up significantly. But mostly there are so many bugs that can ruin entire files with important deadlines which can have serious consequences. JUST DON'T

Unreliable, Inaccurate, and Non-Responsive

Nachteile:

This program advertises a ton of features, but (1) you pull your hair out trying to make it work, because it is not intuitive; (2) when you finally figure it out, it still doesn't work (see bugs, bugs, bugs below); and (3) even when there are no bugs you are left with a ho-hum, is this all? To this, add the fact that the software is full of bugs, bugs, bugs. The company has been alerted to some bugs for a decade and never fixed them. There are forums of users talking about bugs going back 5 or 6 version nos. This is the only program I know that cannot make a scroll bar work! Numbers are off - including in your trust account balances! The heavily-touted document merge feature has never worked reliably. The whole program crashes daily, multiple times. These crashes are very disruptive because you have to restart everything and figure out where you were. Sometimes the restarting takes 15 minutes and multiple tries. And that brings me to the central problem: This company making software for lawyers doesn't seem to understand software or lawyers. Other software makers will fix bugs before you even tell them. This one says, live with it. It really thinks lawyers can live with a mistake here, a mistake there? A missing comma? a few dollars off in a trust account? And the worst thing? You're stuck. Changing to another program is horrendously expensive, after all your sunk investment, training, and consultant fees. Best to just stay away.

Pricing has jumped to Cloud based, without being in the Cloud

Kommentare: It was great when everyone worked in the office, but doesn't work for us today with people working remotely and wanting access to information everywhere. We customized things but over the years the automatic document generation would break. Every time adobe reader updates, you have to call tech support to fix the Time Matters save function for pdf documents on every workstation! The recently upped the price of the annual maintenance plan to similar to cloud service providers, but there is very limited cloud access, so the quadrupling of the price without a corresponding increase in functionality has led us to leave Time Matters. If we are paying for cloud access we should be receiving it.

Vorteile:

I liked the customizability of this software.

Nachteile:

This is a premise based software. If you have an active maintenance plan you can access a bit of information through a browser or app, but this is limited to the client name and document names under that client. You can email a document to someone, but cannot view the document. We experienced constant problems accessing even this limited amount of information away from the office, as the software seems to crash a fair amount and you have to call tech support to get it back online.

What else is there?

Kommentare: I support the product and have for over 20 years. I've gotten periodic demos of other softwares, but none are as flexible as Time Matters.

Vorteile:

Time Matters is fully customizable. If you don't want to do the customization, you can get a consultant to do it for you, but you need to provide input. If you don't want to customize you might consider another product. Customization is critical to form development which is critical for document production.

Nachteile:

Since Time Matters was migrated to PCL/Time Matters, the owners of Leap software, many of the long time bugs have been fixed. The billing and case management are seamless and the link to QuickBooks is a bonus. Not always perfect if you use the tax feature and get partial payments, but I have never had a problem with it.

Works Great at Office but Lacks in Mobile & Outside Office Abilities.

Kommentare: Overall I absolutely think that Time Matters delivers a wonderful product with tons of great features that are useful for everyone from Paralegals to Attorneys. The problem is nowadays it is not convenient or practical to only work in one's office or during regular business hours Mon - Fri, which means that other than with the limited online access I cannot utilize any of the terrific features without being at my computer in the office. And even with TM Mobility, while a huge help, is nothing more than remote access some docs, calendar viewing and to do tasks. This is definitely a huge shortcoming of the legal software and given how expensive it is there needs to be a serious expansion of features that can be accessed remotely and synced with mobile devices. I still give TM Four Stars because it is a very in-depth program but the fact I'm having to seek out additional software vendors because TM is woefully lacking in some crucial areas should give Lexis concern for future clients. I recommend this program still but have to ensure the (current) ways in which it fails completely / falls short.

Vorteile:

File Specific Features allowing a wide range of possibilities with every case matter opened.

Nachteile:

No way to work from home or out of the office. Even the (limited) mobile access is woefully lacking in functional features. Not saying I expect the ease and integration of programs like Clio but there practically nothing at this moment.

doesnt need to be easy, needs to display law info, which it does effectively

Kommentare: i use this to enter documents and link them, it does its job without too much fluffm and i need the job done pronto, which it does

Vorteile:

It is easy for lawyers and paralegals to use because they are trained for that type of stuff, its hard for a joe-schomo because they dont know anything about law

Nachteile:

triggers take a long time to activate, program integration with outlook and adobe acrobat is usually good, but when you try to scroll down while your are linking the pdf to the time matters case, it closes. software integration for outlook take a while to load.

I've had to use this software for work before.

Vorteile:

TimeMatters is a good way to easily track the files and data required for legal cases, and makes legal practice management a fairly easy task.

Nachteile:

TimeMatters has a very steep learning curve and requires a high level of training before usage can commence. Additionally, it can be hard for users to fix problems on their own, and various issues frequently require outside intervention.

Easy enough to keep track of billing, but is this a solution we need?

Kommentare: If you really want an elaborate, automated system with detailed records to keep time, this program has got you covered. Maybe I'm old school or not, but the rest of us can just enter our time at the end of the day without any applications.

Vorteile:

Being able to set up a list of tasks for the day and start them and stop them as I worked on them. The phone app also made it easy to get time into the system when my computer was otherwise busy.

Nachteile:

This is micromanagement on an unnecessary level - just keep time! Having to fix things after the fact because you fat fingered something is flat out annoying. It tracks metrics on all users, but what is the point of all the data? If you have time to read all that, you should be billing hours.

It used to be the way to go....not so much anymore

Kommentare: I am a formerly small firm, now solo. I have run the enterprise version on my own Windows SQL Server for the past 15-20 years. Setting the program up on the server took a little doing, as did several upgrades over the years, but I assume that has gotten easier now (maybe not though). The problem is I work a lot out of the office, and now that I don't have a dedicated staff member to enter in all my information (case, calendar, clients etc....) it has gotten out of date. Setting up the sync feature with my laptop never quite worked right, and as other reviewers point out there is no mobility. Frankly, I don't have time to spend monkeying around with the software. I need the software to assist me function, not the other way around. So, I am moving on to one of the cloud based services. I'd say Time Matters days are numbered.

Vorteile:

Your data remains on your own server(s) and you can isolate it from the Internet thereby increasing security. However, that is also one of the flaws, as working remotely becomes an issue.

Nachteile:

Lack of remote access, mobility, etc... It can be a complicated program to master.

This program is mostly terrible.

Kommentare: Tracking lots of deadlines.

Vorteile:

It is very future rich. Most things that I wanted to do, I could. There are a lot of keyboard shortcuts.

Nachteile:

My god, where do I begin? First, the interface looks like it was designed in 1998. Second, it frequently crashes, causing you to lose variable amount of data. Third, it has terrible integration with other programs, and doesn't easily interface with outlook, word, or acrobat. Although you can do a lot of different things, the way you do it is really counterintuitive.

It’s okay

Kommentare: For the most part it works well but it also has a lot of glitches and is not in the cloud.

Vorteile:

I like that it is highly customizable, and for the most part user friendly.

Nachteile:

That it’s not cloud based and the accounting is not built in.

Great Run With Product!

Kommentare: I had a great run with this software and would recommend it to other law practices but it's phasing out and won't be around much longer.

Vorteile:

There were a lot of features I enjoyed in this product. It was very easy to navigate, find pertinent information on cases, the tabs were very functional and can separate the cases how you like, just a great software.

Nachteile:

It could get really slow moving from one case to another, and I do mean slow. I just hate that this product won't soon be around and is phasing out.