Category: Uncategorized

KPIs. Spreadsheets. Cloud data. Go paperless. Lean practice. Text all customers. Data-driven decisions. Expense reports. Matter management. Collection management.

Let’s be honest that the ever-growing list of technical jargon is daunting. The ever-growing list of tech trends that the “experts” say you need is daunting. The ever-growing list of reports you can run is daunting.

Often, this ever-growing list of things marketed to simplify your firm can end up being a huge distraction. With distraction comes wasted time, wasted energy and increasing dissatisfaction with your law firm.

With the trend of trying to keep up with the ever-changing nature of legal technology, many lawyers feel like they are doing well just to keep their heads above water.

Rich Marvel, Marvel Law, P.C.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

We built firmTRAK to automatically do the things that will help your firm perform at its best. We built firmTRAK to make your life easier. We built firmTRAK to be so easy to use that you can work on analyzing your firm’s performance even while on vacation in Mexico (as pictured above).

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips.  Attorneys can work from remote locations and firmTRAK will be able to make sure that the time spent working remotely is effectively tracked and recorded.

You went to law school to follow your passion for helping people with their legal needs, not to become a business analyst.  That’s where we come in.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video: 

We are so confident that firmTRAK can help your firm, that we are offering you a FREE 7-day trial of our program. Please click here to register for your FREE 7-day trial today.

 

The American Bar Association recently released the 2019 TECHREPORT and Legal Technology Survey Report on legal tech trends.  There are many trends that are picking up pace regarding an attorney’s ability to work from somewhere other than the typical law office.

The report states that “most firms offer flexible working hours for their lawyers (77%). This percentage is roughly the same regardless of firm size and most lawyers report taking advantage of the flexible hours that their firms offer (75%), though taking advantage of flexible hours was less at firms of 500+ lawyers.

Roughly over 50% of lawyers across all firms report telecommuting. Among those who telecommute, most say the most common place they work is home (88%). The flexibility of the schedule and family obligations are the main reason for telecommuting, especially for younger lawyers (29% and 24% respectively). About 20% say telecommuting boosts productivity.

In fact, 11% of respondents that telecommute said they work from a public place and 10% from coffee shops/cafes. The numbers are down from previous years (14% in 2018, 16% in 2017 and 15% in 2016 for public places; and 15% in 2018 and 11% in 2017 and 2016 for coffee shops/cafes).”

Let’s do a deeper dive on a question that is confronting many firms now:  Could telecommuting/working from a remote location actually help your bottom line? 

A look at the data shows that over 50% of all firms report telecommuting, yet only 20% say that it boosts productivity.  This is alarming.

The issue that arises is record keeping and confirming that work is being done to the best of the attorney’s ability without distraction.  For those firms who are using spreadsheets and many non-digital records, the potential loss or use of records outside of the law office certainly presents an issue.

The reality is that firms who are looking to attract the best and brightest young attorneys are going to need to adapt to the benefit of telecommuting, while still ensuring that this serves the best interests of the firm.  Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a product available to help ensure that balance was being monitored?

firmTRAK was designed to solve these problems (and many more). 

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips. Attorneys can work from remote locations and firmTRAK will be able to make sure that the time spent working remotely is effectively tracked and recorded.

You went to law school to follow your passion for helping people with their legal needs, not to become a business analyst.  That’s where we come in.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video: 

We are so confident that firmTRAK can help your firm, that we are offering you a FREE 7-day trial of our program. Please click here to register for your FREE 7-day trial today.

It seems like every year there is some tech gadget or gizmo that is marketed as the next best thing. Often, it ends up being the next best thing to drain your working cash with little return on investment. Sometimes there’s a technology that actually comes along to deliver a return on investment that can turn businesses around for the better.

We actually have a case study to illustrate this. One of our test firms ended up earning $140,000 more in revenue over the year that they used firmTRAK.

How did this happen? This firm used simple, small steps that had a compound effect. They started by simply using firmTRAK and not just letting it sit there. Once the data from the practice software was synched with firmTRAK, the firm was able to realize what mattery types brought in the most money vs cost to administer. The firm was also able to see what matters had been waiting too long for action and they were able to make sure that action was taken on a continual basis. The other major change that was made was the ability to see where clients were in the collection process automatically.

All of these actions were automatically done without the need to figure out how to run tedious reports.

All of these actions were automatically done with the simple step of syncing data and allowing firmTRAK to work for you.

All of these actions were the result of the simple first step: taking firmTRAK on a test drive.

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips.

You went to law school to follow your passion for helping people with their legal needs, not to become a business analyst.  That’s where we come in.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video:

We are so confident that firmTRAK can help your firm, that we are offering you a FREE 30 day trial of our program. Please click here to register for your FREE 30-day trial today.

If you are like the typical attorney, your passion is in practicing law to better your clients’ situations. If you are like the typical attorney, more and more of your time is taken away by the business aspect of your law firm. This increased business stress can have disatrous consequences.

In fact, recent research from the American Bar Association suggests that lawyers are really unhappy. Twenty-eight percent of lawyers experience mild or higher levels of depression, 19% experience anxiety, 23% experience chronic levels of stress, and 20.6% of participants struggle with problematic drinking.

One of the main reasons cited by numerous articles is the increasing pressure lawyers face regarding business tasks associated with their firms.

What would it be worth to you and your firm if you had an easy way to complete business tasks automatically?

What if you could instantly see what aspects of your practice were the most profitable instead of going over spreadsheets of information on overtime or the weekends trying to figure it out?

What if you could instantly see what cases were on track and what cases were in danger of dragging on too long and being forgotten?

What if you could instantly have tracking for your billable hours and see how was on track with billable hours in the firm instead of trying to collate reports and excel spreadsheets regarding billable hours.

What if instead of hiring a consultant to help get your firm on track for $100+ per hour, you could have an automated system that worked with your current practice program to give you detailed reports that would give you a complete picture of the health of your practice?

What if you got your happiness back?

All of these are conditional, but the one thing that is not is the fact that firmTRAK can help automate aspects of the business side of your firm to help you get back on track.

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips.

You went to law school to follow your passion for helping people with their legal needs, not to become a business analyst.  That’s where we come in.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video:

We are so confident that firmTRAK can help your firm, that we are offering you a FREE 30 day trial of our program. Please click here to register for your FREE 30-day trial today.

Harvard Law issued an article (see link at the bottom of this page) that highlighted a simple format that firms follow that leads up to collapse. Interestingly enough, they were able to actually track major firm collapses and were able to derive a pattern the developed in nearly all cases.

The most surprising part? The firms were still profitable when they collapsed.

The other surprising part? This applies to law firms of all sizes.

An overly simplified synopsis is that firms make a profit. A year later, the profit margin goes down to 90% of what it was the year before. In the third year of the cycle, the profit margin goes down to 80%. The interesting part is that the firms are still profitable and still current on debt payments.

Harvard Law noted that this starts a cycle of decline that, once it hits the 80% threshold, ends up with catastrophic consequences for the firm. Upon analysis of the data provided, if you are in a firm with multiple partners, some of them will start to leave. Those who do remain will ask for increased compensation to remain. This spirals into debts going from current to behind – all due to a slight decline in profits over an extended period of time.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an easy to use reporting platform that would instantly sync with your current practice management software to help solve this problem and help you be aware of matter types that provide you with the most profit?

We thought so, too. That’s why we created firmTRAK.

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips.

You went to law school to follow your passion for helping people with their legal needs, not to become a software engineer.  That’s where we come in.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video: 

We are so confident that firmTRAK can help your firm, that we are offering you a FREE 30 day trial of our program. Please click here to register for your FREE 30 day trial today.

Link to the Harvard Law article:
https://thepractice.law.harvard.edu/article/why-law-firms-collapse/

Read that title again. Some may call that absolutely incredible. We call it just another day at the office.

The figure above represents one of our test law firms taking the amount of profit they increased over a year and figuring the return on investment with a year’s subscription to firmTRAK.

As you can see in the graphic above, one of the benefits of using firmTRAK is that the system automatically calculates your most profitable case types. Once you are able to harness that data, you can then point your marketing team toward recruiting more of those cases.

On the flip side, you’ll also be able to see that there are some matter types that are more busy work and are more draining to your profit margins. This is, perhaps, one of the most powerful tools that is automatically at your disposal. Once you know where your profits can be, you simply focus your firm on recruiting those matter types.

firmTRAK also helps you stay on top of making sure those matter types are addressed in a timely manner with our Matter Tracker feature. That feature lets you know what matters are in jeopardy (haven’t been addressed or finalized in a certain time period), what matters are in tolerance (making sure they are still on your radar), and what matters are as planned.

That one-two punch is a recipe for success in your business. Recruit the matters that are most profitable to your firm, then make sure that the matters are closed in a respectable time frame.

If your firm isn’t getting an outrageous return on investment from the firm software you are using, simply install firmTRAK to take your firm to the next level.

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips.

You went to law school to follow your passion for helping people with their legal needs, not to become a software engineer.  That’s where we come in.

Let’s be honest – no other business integration program can do this.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video:

Additionally, we have a special offer for Clio users. See more here: https://firmtraksolutions.com/clio/

An increasing dilemma that often threatens the survival of law firms deals with cash flow, or a lack thereof.

On one hand, some firms look to cut costs to preserve cash flow. This can sometimes backfire, as cutting costs leads employees at the firm to sometimes walk on eggshells, lest they become part of the cost-cutting.

On the other hand, some firms look at trying to earn more by having employees work more. This can sometimes backfire, as piling work on employees can sometimes build employee resentment and burnout.

What if there were a simple way to do both using a system you already have available to you?

Research has shown that a 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10% (Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet Murphy & Mark Murphy). Research has also shown that 96% of unhappy customers never complain, yet 91% will simply leave and never come back (1^st Financial Training Services).

What does that research have to do with your firm’s survival?

It’s simple – firms who handle a decent number of legal matters sometimes either lose track of matters or simply don’t have the capacity to adequately track the progress of the legal matters. If you lose track of the matters (cases), then your client will become unhappy. An unhappy client will often leave or tell others about the experience. If you aren’t adequately tracking your matters, then the reality is that clients may leave you and you wouldn’t have a system that would accurately be able to tell you that they are even gone.

The compound effect of the loss of money from poorly tracked matters is staggering, but there is a simple solution. firmTRAK.

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips.

You went to law school to follow your passion for helping people with their legal needs, not to become a software engineer.  That’s where we come in.

Let’s be honest – no other business integration program can do this.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video:

Additionally, we have a special offer for Clio users. See more here: https://firmtraksolutions.com/clio/

Do you send your invoices automatically at the end of each month?  Research shows that if you don’t have urgency behind your invoicing, your customers won’t have urgency in paying.  If you don’t track your billing as it is happening, you’ll have to go back and fill things in from memory.  That will usually result in you erring in your clients’ favor.  Additionally, when invoices go out infrequently, you’ll usually have to take the time to explain the invoicing to them. 

Let’s face it – time is money.  You need to be sure that you are billing when the work is fresh in your memory and your client’s memory.  When your client sees the professionalism in billing, they’ll usually step up to meet you on that level with payment. 

Let’s also face it – you are busy.  You entered law to practice your passion, not to keep track of billable hours and invoicing.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an easy to use reporting platform that would instantly sync with your current practice management software to help solve this problem?

We thought so, too. That’s why we created firmTRAK.

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video:
https://youtu.be/pz_5kpUZ2PY

According to studies compiled by Ann Guinn for the ABA blog, keeping track of time spent on matters is one of the top profit killers of a firm.  According to her research, if you don’t get your matters time marked by the end of the work day, you’ll lose 10% of your billable hours.  If you don’t get that tracked by the next day, you’ll lose 25% of your billable hours.  If you don’t get it tracked by the end of the week, you’ll lose 50% of your billable hours. 

The reality is that once you lose track of the hours you are spending on matters, you’re clients will sense that something is wrong.  Once they sense that the case isn’t a top priority, you will make it more likely that you won’t get paid, won’t get paid on time, or that your bill will be contested.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an easy to use reporting platform that would instantly sync with your current practice management software to help solve this problem?

We thought so, too. That’s why we created firmTRAK.

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips.

You went to law school to follow your passion for helping people with their legal needs, not to become a software engineer.  That’s where we come in.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video:
https://youtu.be/pz_5kpUZ2PY

Many law firms are using spreadsheets as a way to analyze performance data.  Let’s say that your firm does what the average firm does – you have a team of 4-5 people who analyze data on a spreadsheet.  Those five people spend an average of an hour per week updating the spreadsheets.  That’s five hours of work per week and 20 hours per month.  Assuming your people cost $50 per hour (once benefits are figured in), you are looking at $1000 per month spent solely on updating spreadsheets – and that doesn’t even figure in the cost of analyzing them. 

Additionally, issues come up within the use and updating of spreadsheets on a team.  According to recent research, 64% of law firms report that the use of spreadsheets results in the following issues: 
1.  Prioritization with tasks
2.  Missing information (multiple people updating a spreadsheet that may or may not be based on updated information)
3.  Unrealistic and unattained project goals

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an easy to use reporting platform that would instantly sync with your current practice management software to help solve this problem?

We thought so, too. That’s why we created firmTRAK.

firmTRAK will sit on top of your current practice management system to automate reporting and analysis of key performance indicators that will help drive the success and growth of your law firm.  No more spreadsheets to analyze using a team of people.  The information is instantly configured and available at your fingertips.

You went to law school to follow your passion for helping people with their legal needs, not to become a software engineer.  That’s where we come in.

To see how simple it is for us to help your law firm, please check out this short video:
https://youtu.be/pz_5kpUZ2PY