PCLaw vs. Rocket Matter

PCLaw is well suited for small to medium sized law firms with minimal accounting and bookkeeping needs. The software provides basic case management functions, and I've encountered issues with viewing or organizing new documents. The software crashes and freezes often, especially when multiple users are trying to access it at the same time. The user interface is a bit outdated but still very easy to navigate. You have to pay more for the cloud-based version of the software and it does not allow software integrations or workflow automations. I would recommend using this software only for billing/accounting purposes and subsidizing case management with more modernized products

Rocket Matter is excellent for billing and invoicing for hourly, flat rate, or contingency matters. It does a great job of ensuring time is captured and then invoicing. Trust accounting is vital and works very well indeed, which is always important from an ethical and business standpoint. The mobile app is still not quite where it should be, but the web-based version is excellent in office.

Incentivized

• Link to practice management software to synchronize clients.
• Provide structured and organized system for accounting.
• Excellent tool for capturing time entries and keeping employees accountable.

Incentivized

• Time capture - both via a timer and manual entry, makes sure you can get all the time entered on a regular basis in a quick and easy manner.
• Decent mobile integration. iPhone and iPad app typically work well and allow you to input time and expenses away from the office.
• Generating invoices and reminder statements is a snap, as are generating reports on income received and outstanding receivables as well as time worked.

Incentivized

• Generating bills sometimes comes with errors that are not easy to identify
• Troubleshooting errors in billing is sometimes tricky
• No other issues!

Incentivized

• While the Notes feature was immensely useful for keeping track of the last work completed on a matter or to keep a record of discussions with clients or relevant legal research, it could have been far more user-friendly. There is no way to export Notes saved to a .doc, .pdf, or any other format. To print or download Notes, I would have to painstakingly click on each entry and copy it into a word document, then go back to the previous page to click on the next entry to repeat the process as many times as there were notes. If printed directly from the website, the formatting spills off of the page.
• I am pleased with the amount which can be customized in invoice templates in Rocket Matter. However, to create your own template you need to use fields recognized by the program. Rocket Matter provides a guide and a list of available fields, however, it is a fairly complex undertaking for anyone unfamiliar with using fields in Word documents or using other code, such as HTML. It would be more intuitive for users if Rocket Matter employed a template customizing feature similar to that of QuickBooks, where text boxes and fields can be inserted and manually dragged to the desire area of the template.
• Rocket Matter can run very slowly and can slow down your computer quite a bit while it is running. I upgraded to a newer laptop with higher RAM after my first year of using Rocket Matter, and there was a noticeable difference in the speed and ease of use.

Incentivized

The software may not be pretty, but it works. It could use a facelift but the functionality is still there. Personally, I would like to see an investment to make it prettier, but again, function over fashion. It is not a client-facing application, so internal use does not need to be razzle-dazzle.

Incentivized

I've always had positive phone calls with PCLaw support. I usually have my questions answered within a few minutes of my phone call, and rarely have to go into very much detail

Incentivized

PC Law is quicker and cheaper. With CosmoLex, I found that I waited a little longer for reports and documents to generate and for transactions to be saved. In all other areas, I found CosmoLex to be better as it is more intuitive to use and the user interface is clean and easy to use. CosmoLex does not provide a receipt when receiving funds for some reason, which is something that I like about PC Law. When entering data, you can enter the data for multiple entries at a time whereas with CosmoLex, you enter the data for one transaction/billing/expense/etc, and then you have to save it before going on to do another entry. This doesn't take too long, but there is often a delay of a few seconds which is very frustrating when you are used to the speed of PC Law.

I currently use e-ImmigrationAir by Cengrade. I feel it is a better software for immigration law firms, as it can auto-populate USCIS and ICE forms with client data, saving time and reducing repetitive tasks. However, I feel that Rocket Matter stands out for the many billing and invoicing features offered.

Incentivized

• We are able to send out bills efficiently, which helps our cash flow and keeps receivables down (depending on the client).
• We are able to pull detailed accounting reports, which helps us populate our end of the quarter/year spreadsheet for partner's net income.
• Our attorneys are very comfortable with the pre-bill/billing process, so it saves them time, allowing them to bill more.

Incentivized

• Rocket Matter has streamlined tracking billable time, tracking funds earned from trust retainers, invoicing, and maintaining a detailed transaction record for IOLTA trust accounting. As long as I regularly entered payment and billing information to keep the data current, I could quickly complete non-billable accounting and invoicing tasks. I know it can consume huge amounts of time trying to recreate payment and billing histories, so using Rocket Matter to centralize these records greatly increased the amount of time I had for billable work.
• Using Rocket Matter to record upcoming tasks, deadlines and events provided a secondary system for calendar management. Using Rocket Matter with Google Calendar allowed me to easily keep track of how I should spend my time and reduced the possibility of missing a deadline.
• All of the data recorded in Rocket Matter can be used to generate reports for accounting and for analyzing how time is spent. Reports made it easy and fast to identify clients who were far behind in payments or who had funds available to invoice, without needing to manually check each matter.

Incentivized