AbacusLaw vs PCLaw: Which is a better fit?

Marie: My name is Marie. I'm the managing attorney and owner of a small law firm in a legal industry field and, out of five stars, I would give Abacus a five. This has been several years ago, but my first experience with case management software was Time Matters. The data import for the firm I was at when we migrated over to Time Matters had a glitch and we didn't necessarily discover it right away. As we began saving documents to client folders, we uncovered the issue that they would just go places we didn't know where to find them. We learned soon that there was a data import issue. It took several weeks to resolve that. I was not at that firm much longer after that and so I began looking for my own software, in the process of the move, and knew that Time Matters was not necessarily for me. At some point later, I switched from AbacusLaw, actually, to a different software that, at the time, was offering cloud-based software thinking the cloud would be helpful. This was before the Abacus Private Cloud. I quickly learned that Cleo, the software I switched to, was not for me. It did not have the bells and whistles that I was accustomed to with Abacus. The feature of being remote was definitely a perk. It did not have the other features I desperately needed and had grown accustomed to through Abacus, including the triple reconciliation that's required for trust accounting for attorneys. There were some document access features and organizational features. There were calendaring issues between the software and my Google calendar. And I never really felt like I had the true picture of what my day was going to look like because we were always checking and double-checking, including our manual calendar, with that software. So that was my experience with two different case management softwares, including accounting features with them. The main reason I selected Abacus is because it had a case management and an integrated accounting service, so the double entry was not an issue. For instance, when I set up a client contact in AbacusLaw, it automatically opened that same contact in accounting. By the same nature, when I entered in the matter and linked the matter itself with my accounting program, I didn't have to go into accounting and then create the matter anew. The two systems spoke together and they communicated with each other, so it saved time. It looked like it was going to be a pretty seamless transition and, in fact, it was. I ended up staying with Abacus over the years because it has everything a small office, and even a large law office, needs. I have colleagues that use it who are in larger firms and we all find the same benefits are available to us regardless of the size of our offices. The key is making sure that it meets your practical needs and that you know how to use the software. Learning how to use it as not difficult. I have found that Abacus offers all of those features. When I first opened my office, it couldn't have been easier to integrate Abacus. It was as simple as a download on a server and entering information. Starting a new firm with basic information and just migrating clients over from a prior firm was super easy. Migrating over to the Abacus Private Cloud similarly was very easy, largely because they handled that process. I just had to share some basic information and be available when they needed me. Both experiences have been very positive. What I would recommend if you are in the market for a case management software and if you're in the market for an accounting software that works alongside that case management software, you might be asking yourself questions about access to tech support, access to help resources should something go wrong. We don't think about that necessarily on the front end, but I can tell you that that would be an important feature to consider. I have found that Abacus has a very good support system. When I call with questions, usually because I've misunderstood something on my end, or misentered something, they quickly walk me through the problem and resolve it. I've been very pleased with that feature. Ease of use and just an intuitive program, I think, would be important as attorneys. We don't have time to get into outdated forms of technology. We need something that looks like a Windows base that we're used to seeing or something that operates much like an app that's ... Includes all of our features, including our emails, our calendars, our client documents and I have found that Abacus has all of these things. So if you're looking for one program that does it all AbacusLaw would be where I would go and start.

Martin A.: Hello, my name is Martin. I'm an attorney. I give PCLaw five stars. For more information, see below. Prior to using PCLaw, we were using other applications, including Tabs3 and a hybrid system where we were entering data into Word, and then importing it into QuickBooks. We found that neither of these methods really met our needs. They were difficult to use unwieldy and found it difficult to train our support staff in making the use of them effectively. We decided that the best solution for our needs would be to use PCLaw. I'd use PCLaw at a prior law firm and I found it very easy to pick up on and it had a tremendous amount of features, not just for entering billing, of course, but also for keeping track of productivity of the other attorneys and support staff. And we also found that the price of it was within our means and found it to be very cost-effective. I'd had some background with it. So I was able to personally train the support staff. If they did have any questions afterwards, they can either come to me or they could access the online help feature of PCLaw. Of all the billing applications I've used or researched it, it does seem to be the most user-friendly, it has a lot of customization features, and it integrates well with other software applications.