How Legal Software Helps Tackle Commercial Pressure

Strategise and act early

Legal practice is a business and nowhere is that more apparent than in a small law firm.

 Like all enterprises, no matter their size, law firms face daily commercial pressures, from staying competitive in their marketplace to avoiding unforced fiscal errors. But when you don't have a big team backing you up, fighting these commercial pressures can seem like an insurmountable task. 

Today we'll discuss how smart investment in legal technology can help you run a tight ship and stay ahead of your competitors. 

Gaining a Competitive Edge and Hold Onto It

The market for legal services is not a monolith, it comprises a multitude of smaller, niche practice areas in which firms fight tooth-and-nail to attract and retain profitable clients. To out-compete your peers in today's legal marketplace, you need to execute well-targeted strategies, deliver consistently excellent client service, and set a price point that neither over-values nor under-values the firms' work...no pressure. 

Fortunately, legal software puts tools in your hands that can give, and help you hold onto, a competitive edge. Solutions like mattero collect and report valuable commercial data for your small firm across a wide range of metrics while making sure you're across all your matter related information and tasks. Consider the following examples of how an investment in legal tech helps firms compete:

• Tasks ensure that to-do's never slip through the cracks. The more you stay on top of your tasks the better your relationships with your clients will be. 
• Dashboards provide you with a global overview of your matters, time records, documents, tasks and WIP allowing you to quickly and easily access your work. 

By delivering these (and many other) competitive advantages, investments in legal technology routinely pay healthy dividends in the form of new clients and client-matters.

Master Financial Performance

Of course, attracting clients and earning their continued loyalty is only half the commercial equation in any successful law practice. You also have to execute on fundamental financial management tasks, from invoicing and collecting fees, to tracking time and expenses, and eliminating waste. There is nothing that clients hate more than being overbilled, and underbilling can put you in difficult situations. In these areas, too, legal software can give you powerful tools to succeed.

• Quality practice management solutions will give you flexible, intuitive means to capture and record your billed time on a daily, matter-by-matter basis, so that you don't "leak" revenue by failing to charge for legal services.
• You can simplify your billing process by creating invoices then synching them with Xero which will handle the rest. This will allow you to spend less time worrying about billing and more time practising law. 
• You can then use detailed reports that measure performance along a wide range of metrics. By integrating time-keeping and billing, legal tech can give insight into where you're spending the most time and where you're making the most profits. This can help you make smarter business decisions for the future of your legal practice. 

In short, legal software promotes savings and efficiencies in every facet of a firm's financial life and what's more, legal software doesn't have to break the bank. SaaS software has opened up many avenues for lawyers to take advantage of intelligent yet affordable software such as mattero which starts at as little as $30 per user per month.

Fight the commercial pressures

In this day-and-age if you invest early in smart and integrated legal software you will greatly increase the chances of your small law firm succeeding. To learn more about how mattero will help you succeed and keep your clients happy click the button  below.