Up next in our 7-part series, is Timeslips. Timeslips is an old player in the law firm billing / timekeeping space with its desktop-installed software application.

1. Law Billing Software

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Is it still relevant in the age of cloud-based timekeeping and billing software? Let’s find out. Features Timeslips offers server-based timekeeping and billing software. This means that you must log in to your firm’s server (that you or an IT person have configured and set up properly) to add entries and generate bills. I’m not a huge fan of server-based software (I won’t reiterate what I’ve said, but I prefer the easiness, security, reliability, and accessibility of cloud-based software) so I’m hoping that Timeslips would really have a huge advantage over its competitors in terms of software capabilities. Well, let’s see what it can do.

In terms of features, Timeslips seems to do what most of the competitors do. It handles trust accounting, lets you create clients, matters, and bills. Related: Timekeeping and Billing Timeslips has several attorney-related features like conflict checks, scheduling, and LEDES exporting for invoices. One key feature of Timeslips is that it integrates (allegedly) fairly seamlessly with Quickbooks. It actually also integrates with Peachtree (yes most every law firm uses Quickbooks, but I appreciated that it works with Peachtree too).

In fact, Timeslips seems to be designed with accounting integration in mind. That’s a big bonus. The reason many lawyers use timekeeping / billing software over Excel is because it saves time that would otherwise be spent duplicating entries in accounting software.

Here are some more unique Timeslips features: Integrations: Excel / Outlook LEDES invoicing export Litigation Advisor invoicing export Scheduling Scheduling you say? Yep, Timeslips is fairly full-featured as far as law firm timekeeping / billing software goes. The ability to schedule meetings and integrate with Outlook are great features. User Permissions Timeslips is really most useful for a solo practitioner who wants their software installed on a single machine. While Timeslips appears to have some user permission features, setting up multiple users and permissions for them is much more difficult in Timeslips than any other application.

Drawbacks Timeslips isn’t all cool features though. Timeslips is a beast. It has a very steep learning curve. The user guide is 434 pages long. To effectively navigate Timeslips and all of its features, you need hours of serious training. There even seems to be a niche industry catering to helping people get set up with Timeslips, and for good reason.

No novices can navigate Timeslips alone. Considering how easy to use the competitors’ software is, Timeslips is a relic.

For an attorney user who wants to do simple time tracking, Timeslips may not be the right solution. It isn’t intuitive; in fact, it seems to go out of its way to complicate the timekeeping / billing process.

It’s quite possible you’ll spend more time entering time entries and creating bills in Timeslips than you’ll actually spend working on matters. Related: The Timeslips knowledge base is a mess, especially considering how many issues I imagine users will have with this software. This absolutely drives me crazy. If your product has a knowledge base, it shouldn’t be difficult to find an answer to your question. The point of the knowledge base is to make it easy to find an answer instead of calling tech support. With Timeslips’ knowledge base, I feel like I’d need tech support to help me navigate the knowledge base to find an answer to my question. Then again, since I’m already on the phone with tech support, let’s forget the knowledge base.

Since Timeslips is server-based, you have to install it on a computer, likely with an IT professional helping you. If you’re a solo practitioner, you can install Timeslips on your main computer. Timeslips looks like it was probably suitable for attorneys when there were no other competitors in the space, maybe save for PCLaw, and even then, users were probably clamoring for something better.

Pricing and Support Timeslips is server-based, so with Timeslips you pay for each user’s account as the software is installed on your server. $519 for a single user software installation $774.80 for 2 users $1,599 for 5 users $2,974.90 for 10 users It’s not inexpensive, but then again you may be thinking “Hey, $519 for one user isn’t bad. If I pay $20-30 per month per user for Ebillity or that will absolutely add up over time. Well, you forgot a few things. The Timeslips software alone costs $519 for the first user.

Now let’s factor in the server costs to buy install a system for your office to host your Timeslips database. If you have only one computer that you want to use Timeslips on, maybe that’s not such a big deal. Then let’s add in IT costs related to maintaining the software. Okay, so it’s starting to get more expensive.

The software crashed and you need to pay an IT person to work on your system? How much is your IT guy’s weekend / overtime hourly rate? In the end, I don’t recommend Timeslips. I much prefer a cloud-based, easy to use alternative like,.

Law Billing Software

Attorneys looking to keep time and bill clients need software that can work for them – enabling multiple attorney users to bill at different rates based on their matters and allow administrators to invoice clients, manage trust accounts, and receive payments. Many of the companies in the space have similar basic features. We spent the time to review six competitors in the space, seeing what they do better and worse than each other. But, when it comes down to it, every one discussed here has the following: 1.Create new clients 2.Create new matters (sometimes called “projects”) that are either billed hourly or flat-fee 3.Log time related to a matter 4.Create invoices related to a matter 5.Account for received payment (some, not all, of these actually allow you to receive payment online with a service like Paypal) 6.Assign users to particular matters and clients 7.Restrict user permissions as needed (e.g. Prevent users from billing clients, restrict users to see and bill certain matters only – though some are more robust than others) Practice Management Software vs. Timekeeping / Billing Software In the past we’ve including companies like, and.

You may be wondering what’s the difference between their “practice management software” compared to this “timekeeping and billing” software. Generally, practice management software is more comprehensive. It includes things like organizing your matters and related correspondence and documents in addition to scheduling, task management, document creation and assembly. Oh, and on top of that these companies also do timekeeping and billing with trust accounting. But, some attorneys just want a way to keep time and bill clients without all the extra features that more comprehensive practice management software has.

And that’s fine. To each his or her own. That’s why JurisPage wrote these articles, to help you look at timekeeping and billing software for your law firm and see what’s the best fit for you.

Cloud-Based vs. Server-Based Timekeeping and Billing I took a look at six companies that stand out – Bill4Time, Ebillity, Freshbooks, Timeslips, PCLaw, and CosmoLex. Of these, PCLaw and Timeslips are the only services that are completely server-based; the rest have cloud-based solutions. What’s the big difference?

Server-based systems like Timeslips and PCLaw require that you install their software on a computer server that all users can access. With that setup, you may need an IT person to do the server setup and installation, also taking steps to make sure the server is secure. Let’s not forget that you’re a law firm with sensitive client information and the last thing you want is someone hacking into your server and stealing or deleting your user information because you didn’t know what you were doing or you hired someone unqualified.

It’s fairly well-known at this point that law firms are an looking to go after specific companies because law firms do not have the information security that their corporate clients do. With server-based software, you generally pay a one-time installation fee for each user license.

If your firm has 10 people, you pay for 10 user licenses. These licenses usually cost $800-$1,000 each, with some discounts for more high-volume orders.

With cloud-based software, you pay per each user per each month, generally anywhere from $20-$40 per user per month. While you may feel some sense of “ownership” by having server-based software in that you only pay a one-time cost to get the software and install it as opposed to ongoing monthly fees, the cost savings with a server-based system are deceptive as there are hidden costs. Hiring an IT firm to create, install, set up, and secure a server can be expensive. Oh, and what happens when your software is out of its service warranty (usually 1 year, if you pay extra for it)? Your software provider won’t take your calls unless you get an annual expensive service agreement. You may think that you’ll never need help with your software, but you absolutely will.

Then, let’s not forget that the software you bought will be outdated next year when the newest software version comes out and the company stops offering security patches to your software. So, you have to buy the newest software version. In short, the cost savings you think you’re getting from server-based timekeeping and billing software are likely nonexistent once all real costs are factored in.

Generally, cloud-based services are the most scalable and easiest to get started. Cloud-based services are secure (potentially more secure than server based) and they comply with all legal ethics rules when used properly (just make sure you have a good password!).

Cloud-based timekeeping and billing services automatically update when new features are added and do not require an IT professional to come to your office to set up / maintain your system. Also, with their monthly fee, you get unlimited support. Because of this, and because of the experience I had while testing them, I would not recommend PCLaw or Timeslips, or any other server-based timekeeping and billing software for that matter, for law firms. The Best Timekeeping and Billing Software for Law Firms Of the timekeeping / billing software tested, the ones that stand out are Bill4Time, Ebillity, and Freshbooks. Has a very user-friendly interface and integrates with a lot of third-party applications you may or may not use in your practice day-to-day. But, Freshbooks is not attorney-centric. It does not have trust accounting or ABA billing codes integrated (some lawyers want that).

Bill4Time and Ebillity were built with lawyers in mind and have many advanced features you may want to take advantage of, providing for significant time savings over any competitor’s software. In the next few weeks we’ll be sharing our reviews of Bill4Time, Ebillity, Freshbooks, Timeslips, PCLaw, and CosmoLex. Let us know your thoughts on timekeeping and billing software for attorneys. Great Article Andrew! I am a novice to the inner workings of technology that my colleagues and I can use for our firm, but I know that it is refreshing to see an article like this explaining practice management software VS.

Speciality software. Most articles I have come across seem to be promoting specialty apps and generic CRM like Microsoft Dynamics so I was starting to feel as if practice management software wouldn’t be the way to go, but the article made me realize that if I want ONE software with all the features my firm needs in one then I should get practice management software. I signed up for two free trials and plan to sign up for the ones you recommended, but I wanted to know if you were familiar with Practice Panther and Cosmolex and which do you prefer? Since comments are related to CosmoLex, I as CEO of the company would like to clarify couple of points.

First, CosmoLex is NOT just a time&billing software. CosmoLex is a complete law firm practice management software and additionally includes fully integrated IOLTA accounting not included in any other cloud product listed here. Very soon (by April 2015) we will also have fully integrated Operating Accounting also providing small law firms one tool for everything. Rick Kabra, Ph.D.

CEO CosmoLex Cloud, LLC.