Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers an integrated billing, practice management, and trust accounting cloud application (see article below), an add-on for WestlawNext, an iOS app for creating diagrams, and a cloud time-tracking application. Don't miss the next issue.
LEGAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT FOR ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR BUSINESS
Last decade, integrated software was like an army that had advanced beyond its supply lines. It held a lot of promise, but the technology simply didn't exist yet to make it successful. From force of habit, many small law firms still use a smorgasbord of software products, but the times have changed.
CosmoLex … in One Sentence
Updated recently, CosmoLex is a cloud legal practice management application with integrated billing, calendaring, conflicts checking, task management, and trust accounting.
The Killer Feature
Integration of your law firm's finances and client work eliminates duplication and reduces errors. For example, CosmoLex handles the entire client intake process. You can use it to conduct a conflicts search, schedule the initial meeting on the team calendar, enter the initial retainer into a new trust account, assign the matter's initial set of tasks to you and your team, convert completed tasks into billable time entries, generate a bill, and apply the retainer to the bill.
"We knew that a simple but robust integration of calendaring, task tracking, billing, and trust accounting would solve the majority of operational efficiency problems at small law firms," CosmoLex CEO Dr. Rick Kabra told us. "The bonus of anytime/anywhere access to these capabilities in the cloud exponentially increases the productivity gains realized."
Other Notable Features
CosmoLex's 360-Degree Financial View is a one-page dashboard that displays a snapshot of important financial data across all matters, including fee advances in an operating or trust account, unbilled work, and unpaid bills.
You'll find support for any style of billing such as hourly, contingent, and flat fee. Time entry requires just three clicks or taps. The Shorthand tool expands abbreviations that you set up for faster entry. Built-in cost accounting enables you to charge for overhead. Billing features include invoice customization, batch billing into PDF or Word format, and the ability to email invoices and reminders for past due invoices.
CosmoLex handles any trust accounting scenario, including preventing common trust accounting mistakes such as ledger card over-draft, three-way bank reconciliation, an audit trail of all trust account activity for each client and matter, low retainer replenishment requests, check printing (standard and voucher-style), and statements for clients that comply with your governing ethics rules. Trust accounts are always audit ready and IOLTA compliant.
CosmoLex goes beyond traditional conflicts checking. For example, finding a matching name doesn't necessarily mean a conflict exists. For this reason, the Conflict Checking function shows you relationships (e.g., John Smith was a witness for opposing counsel in a case five years ago).
Law firms must safeguard client data from external threats, and limit access internally. CosmoLex uses only datacenters in the United States with the latest encryption and other security protocols. Your data gets backed up automatically every four hours. Role-Based User Security enables you to create groups of people to designate which functions of CosmoLex they can access.
What Else Should You Know?
CosmoLex features a responsive design that automatically adapts to smaller screen sizes, enabling you to use it in any web browser on any device. CosmoLex costs $50 per user per month ($43 if you pay annually). You can try it for free. Learn more about CosmoLex.
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