Bill4Time

Avantages

The program is clean, simple, and available anywhere through the web and various applications for mobile devices. New users are easy to setup and manage. Reporting functions are easy to manage. Downtime is a non-issue. Reports are easy to run and provide the information we need to keep a pulse on our firm's billings, collections, and associated compensation models. There are also easy reports to provide for accountability of time keepers. Invoicing is easy as well and so is receiving payments. We also use the trust accounting functionality which helps us keep on top of retainers. Another popular billing program we looked at tried to charge us about 5 times the cost of our average user, merely because one report regarding collections was critical to our internal compensation model. We've used Bill4Time for our billing needs for over 5 years, and many of our attorneys used it before we formed our firm. Its solid, simple, and easy to use.

Avantages

It is cloud-based, super user friendly (everyone's learning curve has been quite small), supports electronic billing, and gets the job done effectively and efficiently. If you have to follow billing guidelines that require a separate entry for every discreet task, the "batch" entry feature CANNOT be beat. Being cloud-based, I able to start working on getting my billing up to date within 48 hours of being hit by a CAT-5 hurricane. It has also let our team work remotely during the pandemic while having full access to our billing platform (my billing admin continues to work with us even though she moved out of state!). To put my review into context, after 25 years I opened my own law firm. My clients are mostly multi-national insurance companies that require I submit bills with ABA task and activity codes. I absolutely needed a billing platform, and I did not have the money to pay close to $10k in a server, "traditional software" (I grew up on one of the main legal billing programs out there) and IT setup. This costs me less per year that what such a program would cost, back-ups are taken care of, I can access from anywhere, and I don't have to cough up a pretty penny every five years to upgrade a server or the program. BTW- It has a very decent iOS app to boot (a proper app mind you; not browser based). I have no relation to Bill4Time; I'm just a very happy customer preaching its benefits as the practice of law evolves.

Inconvénients

Even diamonds have flaws (at least most of them). I have only two items I yearn for, which I will share in order of importance:
1. When I look at a case and below I see all the time entries, I can see the activity code but I cannot see the ABA task code unless I click on the entry. It adds a step I would love to see erased when I am correcting our invoices. Not a dealbreaker for sure, but adding this small item would make a difference.
2. Much farther down the list: as far as I know, no Dropbox integration. I want to beg for it and did when I first subscribed to Bill4Time, but at present I am not sure I would even do much with it. Honestly, by now I don't even miss it.
Being cloud-based, your session can hiccup (it's rare but it does happen) and its a nuisance. This is not on Bill4Time; any platform you use via the internet is always subject to this. But the benefits of a cloud-based program (which I mentioned in the "Pros") exceedingly outweigh this, at least for me.

Avantages

We love the ability to have live billing numbers, the opportunity for look-back, and the ability to attach client expenses to the billing.

Inconvénients

As of now, I'm not sure of anything that I would change.

Avantages

That it was supposed to integrate with QuickBooks

Inconvénients

After an update in November the two programs stopped communicating

Avantages

The software has a lot of useful features such as allowing you to bill by the hour, flat, or contingency. I use all three fee arrangements so this feature is crucial.

Inconvénients

In terms of the user interface, it is not the most appealing software. Everything is basically blue, white, or grey. There is a helpful dashboard, but overall, it might benefit from some redesigning.