Why This Firm Chose Clio After Sampling 3 Practice Management Solutions

With Clio, Easler finally found the best solution

In his search for a practice management software, Andrew David Easler, Esq, Managing Attorney at Easler Law, tried two other solutions before going with Clio.

The first product he tried was “okay to start,” but ended up being a hodgepodge of different applications. “It had one application that was web-based for billing, and then they had another application that was desktop-based. Sometimes the two didn’t function well together.”

“The other solution that we tried had an integration with QuickBooks that ended up not working the way we needed it to. It was very clunky. We found out very quickly it was not what we were looking for.”

Why Easler chose Clio

By the time Andrew and his team found what they needed with Clio, they knew a lot more about what they were looking for—and more importantly, what they were trying to avoid.

1. Easy and intuitive for the whole team

Andrew knew he had a task at hand when, after trying other solutions at the firm, his staff had much to complain about. Ultimately, it was about what would work best for the team.

“When we evaluate each program, I say, ‘I understand how this works, but how are my legal assistants, my paralegals, and my associate attorneys all going to look at, interact, and have fun with this program? And how long is it going to take them to adopt it?”

“We picked Clio up real quick. Everybody was happy because they already knew what a terrible experience they had before trying to learn and use those other systems. With Clio Manage, we don’t have that problem.”

“I was fortunate enough to have had a poor experience with the previous practice management softwares—so everyone was really ready and onboard for change.”

2. Seamless integration with QuickBooks for time-efficient bookkeeping

The team at Easler Law doesn’t have a dedicated accountant, so they wanted a solution that integrated and automated their accounting workflows to save time on bookkeeping.

“We don’t have the time to waste on that kind of stuff. Clio Manage has been really helpful, because it integrates with QuickBooks in a way that no other program seems to do successfully.”

“Billing is always a pain, no matter what firm you’re in. Being able to intuitively track time by entering it or starting a timer means it will automatically create the billable entry.”

“A cool thing I found out with Clio Manage is that you have the ability to do both client-based accounting and matter-based accounting. Most programs don’t give you both of those options. It’s been really helpful when you have that one client that has 20 different matters that you need to manage—and they want you to only spend so much money on the matter, and then so much on another matter. Or they just give you a bunch of money to deal with all of their matters, and then you can take it all out of that same trust account when you’re billing.”

3. All-in-one billing and payments

In addition to the billing and accounting functions at the firm, payment collection is an essential workflow central to managing the business.

“When you work with pretty much any other practice management software, they integrate with a third-party payments provider. But with Clio, it’s all together.”

“If you have a technical issue—let’s say your payment processor is down—when you call your software provider, they’re just going to say that it’s not their fault and they don’t know what to do. You have to call the third-party. If they’re not available, not answering, or they just say, ‘we’ll fix it when we fix it,’ then your payments are down, and there’s nothing you can do. How are you going to accept payments for consultations?”

“With Clio, you’ve got their support. If there’s a problem, the person on the line will be able to direct you to the right person without having to leave the organization.”

4. Well-thought-out workflows save hours

The benefit of working with quality products is that they open up opportunities rather than create barriers. With Clio, Andrew and his team have found countless opportunities to improve how they work.

“Under the other solutions, we spent a great deal of time—time that we didn’t have—on the minutia of individual transactions and bulk trust payments. Clio Manage is able to take all of your bills and submit them for a bulk trust payment all at once and record the transaction.”

“Some of these other practice management solutions either don’t have the bulk trust payment option or it’s not as intuitive as you would think.”

5. Comprehensive record-keeping and valuable data insights

Clio offers a robust system for managing important case details. It’s a comprehensive way to manage information—and it also opens doors to getting valuable insights.

“It sounds so simple you’d think other practice management software would have the option to associate contacts with a matter, but they don’t.”

“With Clio, you can add associated contacts to a matter—whether that’s opposing counsel, the judge assigned to the case, or the spouse of the client—you can identify who that person is, put their contact information in.”

“You can look at how many cases you have before a certain judge, how those cases ended up going, what the arguments were. You can do a little bit more research on the judge to know a little bit more about what statistically they’ve been deciding in the past. That kind of information and the ability to manage and control your data is extremely valuable.”

6. Accessible from anywhere

A major differentiator between solutions was the ability to access firm information through the internet, from anywhere.

“Some of these other programs have a web-based billing software, but the files themselves are hosted in the desktop app, and that creates a problem. Now you have to have a way to remote into that computer if you’re not already saving it into a cloud-based system or saving redundantly in multiple locations. Otherwise, you don’t have access to the information that you could have used at that hearing, or when you’re working from somewhere else, or at home.”

“With Clio Manage, it’s all web-based. That means as long as you can get to a web browser and an internet connection, you can get into your practice management software.”

“If you’re at a variance hearing or a code enforcement hearing, and you need to pull up some data real quick … Boom! It’s right there and available to you.”

“Right now we have one office and we work mobile. We work virtually throughout the state of Florida and we work in DC.”

7. Plug-and-play scalability

In just a few years, Easler Law has scaled considerably—and it still intends to grow. Having already switched from more than one practice management software, Andrew knows the value of being able to invest in a system that will scale with the firm as it grows.

“Having to transition between one practice management software that doesn’t give you everything that you need to something that’s more robust and intuitive like Clio Manage, it can be a pain—especially once you get three, four, five, six, seven employees who’ve learned a system and are not welcome to change.”

“Once we get everything set up in Clio Manage, it’s a plug-and-play situation. When we open up a new location, we literally just set up the contacts. You don’t have to worry about setting up new rules or installing applications on people’s computers—resetting all of these things and dealing with the accounting nightmares that come up with multiple locations.”

“Being able to scale our system was absolutely necessary.”

8. Putting more time back in everyone’s day

Like any law firm, everyone’s time is Easler’s greatest resource. Finding ways to open up people’s time ends up benefitting the firm’s bottom line.

“I would rather spend my time doing billable hours and focusing on making my job efficient and making it efficient for my support staff. The more time that they’re spending trying to figure out a system or repeatedly entering data in multiple places—which is the case with some of these other programs—the more we lose out.”

“We have a very strong value towards going with whatever the best thing is to make sure our staff are happy, our associate attorneys are happy, and that they’re spending their time on things that are actually going to make our firm money.”

“Less time on administrative tasks, less time on billing, less time on tracking all those things means it’s a higher margin for us at the end of the day.”

Taking pride in the team

Andrew has been focused on building a firm that provides excellent service to clients—but he’s equally focused on creating a positive experience for his employees.

“I’m super proud of my firm’s ability to become so professional and so responsive in an environment that is so competitive.”

“My team has been able to quickly adapt and learn new technologies, and take on what we have and still be happy and proud to do it.”

“It’s great to be able to say ‘I was able to help this person enjoy their life and their career better.’”

The benefit of trying before you buy

“Most of these programs are going to say they’re intuitive, and that they’re easy to learn. But you’re really not going to know for sure what that really means until you get into the application.”

“Clio Manage is the premier application in the industry right now.”