PracticePanther Legal Software

Kommentare: I bought this program when I first opened my practice about 2.5 years ago. I knew going into my own firm that I wanted a comprehensive client management tool. After spending hours online reviewing various programs, I decided to give the 30-day free trial a shot. I think I purchased the monthly subscription immediately after starting to use the program. Since that time, I have built on my knowledge, incorporating the MailChimp and QBO features first, then started learning how to streamline my document preparation through the template feature. What would have previously taken me multiple hours a week to manage, now takes minutes.

Vorteile: PracticePanther is intuitive and very user friendly. It has a ton of features that expedite minuscule tasks and free up admin time. It syncs with all my favorite resources, like QBO, MailChimp, and Box, making communication with clients a lot easier and keeps routine mailings operational. If you use a lot of form templates, the template builder is a major time saver and cuts down on user error and oversights. I use this program every day in my law office and am very grateful for how easy it is. Even better, the customer support team is phenomenal. I rarely have any issues with the program (it is easy to use), but when I run into something I need help with, a quick message to the PP team is responded to within minutes and the problem is solved or at a minimum I am given an update and expected time of completion. I couldn't recommend this program more to a solo or small legal practice.

Nachteile: Nothing, the team is constantly updating its software and programs that it connects to. They provide online videos to help and I frequently learn of new ways to use the program from regular updates by the team.

Kommentare: Easy to learn. Easy access to tutorials and the help area is full of information. It has been a great decision to switch. I know that i have been able to capture more of my time and reduce time needed for billing.

Vorteile: I like being able to bill, take credit/debit card payments, and tell clients their balance with the app while in court. There are simple reports and a great dashboard to see how much is outstanding, to be billed, and the amount in my trust account. Practice panther has cut down on the time it takes for billing and made my office more efficient.

Nachteile: I print checks directly from practice panther, which takes several steps, but it makes it easy to add the cost to the client's billing. I would like the software to allow a report of vendors/payees' payments over various time periods as it does with tags and categories.

Kommentare: PP has been very affordable and user friendly. Attorneys who have been in practice for 20 years who never entered their own time are now doing it themselves.

Vorteile: never any data corruption issues like Timeslips. Time consuming backups not necessary, can have users tracking time while billing is being run.
Web Based and can enter time tracking from anywhere on any computer or on your phone.

Nachteile: Some report features not available but over the past two years greater functionality has continued to be added

Kommentare: When you sign up, you'll get an invitation to a live webinar two weeks out. Totally unhelpful for someone trying to get up and running. I have been using PracticePanther for about one month, and I'm already considering changing to another PMS. The money I spent on PracticePanther is a sunk cost. I really think I should just cut my losses because if I don't, I'll end up spending a lot of time trying to manage and work around the software. I really don't feel like it's saving me any time at all. I would probably be better off with T-sheets, Quickbooks, and Law Pay only.

Vorteile: Clients can pay online.
I honestly can't think of anything else to say.

Nachteile: Where do I start? The time keeping function is terrible. You cannot edit start and stop times. You cannot start and stop multiple timers in the mobile app. The software auto-saves frequently, and when it does, it moves the cursor in the entry to the end of the text. This is annoying. You cannot start a timer and then add the client-matter without causing the time to round up. The syncing with G Suite is bad. The software will not sync with all the fields in Google Contacts, and the "custom fields" in PracticePanther do not sync into Google Contacts. This results in a lot of duplicate data entry, which is what I was trying to void with practice management software. The software does not sync will with Google Drive well at all either. Apparently, you can't have any folders in Google Drive with the same name. For example, Client_01\general and Client_02\general would result in an error and none of your Google Drive documents will be visible in PracticePanther. The software billing feature is terrible. First, you cannot have multiple companies or entities tied to the same individual. Thus, if you have a contact who owns multiple businesses that are clients, you will not be able to list all those businesses under the client's name. To make matters worse, you can only email invoices to individuals who are listed under the company. I had to create multiple dummy contacts called "Accounts Payable" just so that I could email my clients their invoices. I ran out of space.

Kommentare: I love that the invoices are sent out automatically via email. Intuitive software. Great support but some of the features do the same on the surface but accountingly-speaking may not be the same e.g. hard costs that you charge the client for. This has been explained to me 2 different ways and the accounting implications are different. Still cannot use invoice batch feature because not all invoices have money due to me (flat fee charged at beginning of case).

Vorteile: I like the ease of use. It's intuitive. Great support team.

Nachteile: Still cannot use the batch invoice feature because I do flat fees and when there is no money owing apparently it does not take this as an active invoice.