Actionstep reviews

Stick with it - it's amazing

Opmerkingen: Overall, it has been fantastic. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] was incredibly helpful, easy going, and keen to answer my questions. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] also incredibly knowledgeable and honest in his suggestions, I think he was one of the main reasons I decided to proceed with Actionstep - and I am very happy with that decision.

Pluspunten:

The features and functionality built in to Actionstep are amazing. This is a company that actually understands legal practice and legal software. I am impressed that Actionstep offer features that should be standard in every legal software, but aren't always included.

Minpunten:

It does take some time to get used to it and to actually make it work for you. The key is to actually spend time using it and customising it to your needs. This isn't a plug and play solution out of the box, and firms will need to take time to make sure that they have configured it to meet their needs.

Lots of Customization options, but lacking some basic common sense

Opmerkingen: Mixed. A number of positive features, but also a number of time consuming and expensive issues to set it up and keep going, and almost "TOO" much for our needs, since it is missing some simple features.

Pluspunten:

For a small law office, there is a lot of potential to customize the matter setup and use different workflows. Also as a supervisor there is complete transparency so I see everything my support staff is doing, I like that the system does a complete backup of saved documents and matters. The Home page is very workable. And the timekeeping functions are good. I also really like the Microsoft Outook integration, even if I keep having to reboot it.

Minpunten:

First, something simple. Make an "out of office" message available through the email system. When I set this up on my outlook, then even though it is integrated, if the client sends an email directly through the Actionstep platform,they do not receive that out of office message. Second, the billing system is not user-friendly. First, the billing templates are a lot harder to set up than they should be, even with the pre-made templates. Second, the trust accounting is difficult to integrate into the bills. Yes, it is there but not in a way that is client friendly. Third, this is so simple I fail to understand why it isnt in place. Make some simple billing features automatic like the ability to print aging on a bill. They have a form for it but it just looks weird! And why shouldn't you just be able to carry over onto a new bill in an easy way. Other case management software has this in a very easy format. Also, when we upgraded to the new billing format there are some ongoing and permanent glitches that make my bookeeper's job harder. Finally, this is a costly system compared to some others in the legal field. And we have received word that the cost is increasing. We will be in the process of reviewing other options. We may decide to stick with Actionstep since there are a lot of good features, but we don't feel strongly enough to keep it with a price increase down the road, even if we are "grandfathered" temporarily. We hired a consultant to help us get it set up.

A Great Case Management Concent but Lots of Bugs and Poor Customer Service

Opmerkingen: It has helped to automate case management and save time but the system is very glitchy and constantly "breaks". They offer little support and constantly direct customer to hire expensive "consultants" to address issues that their support should provide.

Pluspunten:

Workflow automation, task creation and automated emails

Minpunten:

Setting up the system to integrate with office procedures is difficult and very expensive. Setting up is not user-friendly and will cost over $20,000 for even the smallest of offices. They are constantly making changes to the system which always breaks something else. Their support is poor to none. Had we not invested so much already into this system, we would look for something else. Lots of "promises" with no delivery. This product could be the best there is if they would just make what they have actually "WORK".

Buyer beware

Opmerkingen: POOR.
I actually liked the system the Support and costs have sent me actively searching the replacement.

Pluspunten:

I liked the systems capabilities. The concepts are perfect and functionality outstanding, IF YOU HAVE AN IT DEGREE AND 1000hrs to set it up.

Minpunten:

VERY POOR SUPPORT. Their Business model -- purchase the product, they give you 15 hrs free education, then once that is used up you get charged exorbitant fees or referred to their affiliates, one that I was referred to had no idea and the templates were multi coloured font colours, then referred to another who was an "owner" of Actionstep... once I identified their business model ... signing everyone up, limited contact support, and the assistance you get is so generic, that eventually forces you to sign up to the outsiders that are actually insiders. DEPLORABLE ethics and business model in my mind. POOR XERO AND ACTIONSTEP integration SUPPORT and SYSTEM FLOWS WERE NEVER EXPLAINED

Excellent CRM for lawyers!

Opmerkingen: Overall, this is a terrific product worth purchasing!

Pluspunten:

We loved the ability to craft work flows based upon our specific practice. But we also had the flexibility to obtain pre-set work flows as well. The client management and task automation is incredibly helpful.

Minpunten:

My biggest frustration is that we created a webform so with a couple clicks, staff can create a new potential client matter using that information as it integrates into the software. However, 90% of the webforms are spam that has to be read every day because bots are completing the form. Have not seen a remedy for this because AS just refers us to our own IT but we have filters and the bots are coming in through AS system. This is a huge issue I've spent so much time on and it is the one issue that would make our work lives so much better if it could be remedied.

Actionstep still the best but not yet perfect

Opmerkingen: Overall, I've been very happy with Actionstep. I get the most satisfaction when I get a new client and need to create a document that I have set up document assembly for, and am able to generate in seconds a document that would have taken an hour or more to create manually.

Pluspunten:

Document assembly tools are the most powerful of the many cloud based law practice management systems I have looked at. CLIO's document assembly comes close, but not quite as powerful. It is also the most customizable cloud based law practice management system I have tested.

Minpunten:

Options for integration with accounting and invoicing software is fairly limited. Learning curve is a bit steeper than other cloud based systems. They seem to have heard these concern and over the past four years that I've been using Actionstep, and their development team has making progress on these two fronts. They aren't perfect yet, but they seem to be continually improving.

Workflows Good! But Search, Integration with other software, and Document Generation need work.

Opmerkingen: We are happy with the workflows. We like that we are able to access our client data from anywhere with internet. We are disappointed in our ability to utilize all the data we have stored because of the terrible document and data search functions, limited document generation abilities and difficulty importing or exporting data to other software we use for drafting and client contact.

Pluspunten:

Workflows, workflows, workflows. They help us keep our law office on track and help us keep deadlines and make sure we do not miss a step in complicated transactions. We like that Actionstep seems to be trying to improve the product.

Minpunten:

Search is terrible! Searching for documents is useless. Searching for contacts by employer/place of work is impossible. These are basic things a law office needs to do, and this software is a hindrance to getting work done because of its awful search capabilities. Also, the fact that you can only see so many results on a page is maddening. Imagine that you want to search your contacts and get a list of contacts that live in a certain city. You want to select them all and send an email or something. NOPE! Search results are limited to 200, no matter how many contacts you have from that city, and you can only see 10 per page, and the results are not sortable; they come in random order. Also, there is no way to select them all and take any action like sednding them all an email within the program. Copy and paste of contact info is also impossible. I have many opportunities during a week to send one person the contact info for another person. Actionstep has no way for me to easily do this. There is no button to click, function to use or work-around for selecting a contact and getting that contact's info onto the clipboard for pasting into a document or email. You can bring up the contact and drag your mouse over various places on the contact form to copy the address, then do it again for the name, then do it again for the email address, then do it again for the phone number, then do it again for the fax number. But be careful not to *click on the(I ran out of space on this form)

Great Product

Pluspunten:

I use this for my estate planning, probate, and elder law practice. The system has built in workflows, which I appreciate, and it grows with my firm. I like the client portal very much and the way I can track documents that I share with my clients and vice versa. Very easy to track my paralegal's work as well.

Minpunten:

It does take time to learn and customize. Even with all that I use, I am not using it to its fullest capacity.

Actionstep Review December 2019

Opmerkingen: The overall efficiencies of the product are brilliant. Increasing productivity of fee earners and support staff.

Pluspunten:

That its online. That its simple (mostly) to use. That parts of it are customisable. The support.

Minpunten:

The trust administration functionality isn't the best. Infinity was much better!!!

You receive what you give

Pluspunten:

Almost all of our working processes have moved into Actionstep, with some changes and pruning along the way. Setting up the system takes a lot of thought and input, but you are rewarded for your efforts, as once your data is in place, it's very easy to manage and use. I particularly like the amount of customization that is possible - as well as the regular product updates, which add interesting features.

Minpunten:

It can be difficult to use data for reports, where some data does not interact usually within the system. It's necessary on our end to use other software to review statistics and to report. Exporting the data in order to facilitate this is very easy, however.

This software is extremely difficult to use. It pretty much requires programmers to manage.

Opmerkingen: None. It turned out to be too hard to use. When I wanted to move to a different software, I could not export any emails.

Pluspunten:

Nothing - I found it was more trouble than benefit. The software claims to manage emails, and it will manage them as long as you stay with that software. If you want to change to another software, you cannot retrieve your emails.

Minpunten:

The description of using "work flows" sounds like a very good and useful idea. It is not. The company wants users to hire a "partner" company to set up the software or purchase pre-programmed workflows from third party vendors. "Partner" companies are extremely expensive, if they return your call at all. You pretty much have to hire a third party company to program the software just to use it. As far as I can tell, the workflows are so detailed that you will spend every minute typing data into the software system instead of doing legal work. When I got rid of the software, none of the thousands of emails flagged into the system could be exported into another system. It was very difficult to transition away from the program.

Too expensive, too much work involved

Opmerkingen: I spent a long time deciding on Actionstep, and in that time the monthly price doubled. Apparently because it was an immediate start process and I could do everything myself. $139/month and once signed up it turned out that without putting my business on hold and spending one month setting it all up myself i was left in the same position as previously - paying an Actionstep provider to do it for me, with my input to tell them what to do. Plus the higher monthly fee. I spoke to 3 provider companies and all were charging more than $5,000, and the day I stopped paying my AS subscription all that work would be lost. So getting off the ground is fairly prohibitive, unless you dont actually have any business and the time to do it. Within AS the email system didnt really ever work and involved a lot of double handling and diverting and didnt address any of the automated email issues we needed. The invoicing in AS does sync with Xero but you have to send invoices from Actionstep - so you need to build a new template, then you cant add a Stripe pay now credit card link for people to click on, (and theres no alternative product available in Aus) and you cant do a basic, include-and-show GST calculation on the invoice. Incredibly frustrating. Customer support they would get back to me within 24 hours, often to say no, or "thats coming in the next upgrade". I lasted 2 weeks and after about 5 days total work with minimal progress I decided Office 365 could do all the same and more.

Pluspunten:

The potential - it seemed like it was going to help me automate and streamline

Minpunten:

The level of set up involved. The subscription basis meaning time put in not retained. The email functionality - non existant. The integration with Xero - very minimal and wont do the same standard of invoicing. The support in WA - customer support online not bad, although timewise for WA meant they were responding when I wasnt at work. When I requested local support they kept sending me to interstate firms. One very helpfully said he would fly over and solve all my problems - it would take three days plus travel from Qld - in the vicininty of $10,000

Awesome Product!

Opmerkingen: Overall, our experience with Actionstep has been great and has made the office much more efficient so that our clients receive top quality work.

Pluspunten:

We like how we can use our workflows to track each client thru the process. The reporting we receive is great and helps us stay on top of our business.

Minpunten:

The accounting reports cannot be changed and at times the accounting functions don't work the way we would want them to.

Worst support

Pluspunten:

Easy to use, intuitive, and in many ways better than Leap

Minpunten:

It has the worst customer service. No one responds and when they do, they don't get the problem and you have to explain yourself again and again. I hate their service. I hate their support. There's no phones number anywhere to contact them. I have an urgent issue and they don't care.

Why I love ActionStep

Opmerkingen: We have realized many benefits from ActionStep with respect to not only just organizing the firm's information but the fact that it offers so much more regarding document saving (cloud), billing, and portal capabilities. This, in turn, will save the firm a lot of money.

Pluspunten:

The product is easy to use. It provides many opportunities for making the running of a law firm a seamless process. The support is excellent. In our firm, we are able to keep tract of Matters, Clients, Calendars, and we are just starting to use ActionStep more in-depth with respect to storing documents, creating correspondence, and billing. I cant say enough about how this software helps to organize our small firm and keeps us on track with respect to keeping track of revenue goals, etc.

Minpunten:

Integration in our firm was somewhat difficult only due to time constraints; nothing to do with the product itself.

Effective and Efficient Law Practice Management

Pluspunten:

I now have an almost complete solution to practice management. Before, I had no system, no way of keeping things straight. But then I started to become too busy to keep track of things in my mind, and it started getting chaotic. That's where Actionstep has saved my practice from disorganization. I track all of my time and do all of my billing from Actionstep. I keep my entire database of contacts on Actionstep. Trust ledger accounting is great. Tasks, calendar reminders, document storage, file notes. It's all great. When a client calls, I quickly pull up their file and *bam*, there's everything. There are many other useful features that I know I just haven't even tapped into yet.

Minpunten:

- There is a pretty steep learning curve, and the user guides aren't always that helpful. Sometimes I find myself spending 20 minutes trying to figure out a very simple thing, like how to reopen a matter that I accidentally closed. - Before using Actionstep, I kept everything on Google Drive. Great, Actionstep integrates Google Drive. But not as well as I would like it to be integrated. I had to do a series of workarounds with Google Drive to get it *sort of* how I would like it to be. When you open a new matter, Actionstep creates a folder on Google Drive, but the folder is only the matter number. So if you're typing a document and want to use File > Save As > Google Drive, then good luck finding the folder. Instead every time I open a matter on Actionstep, I immediately find the folder it creates on Google Drive, then rename it to my matter name. - I would like a place to track mileage for business expense reimbursement. You can add things like this to matter disbursements, but I don't see a way to do it practice-wide. - I haven't gotten the Google email integration to work properly. Actionstep puts odd things in the subject lines of my outgoing email, so I stick to using Google's platform for that. - Document upload sometimes hangs when you try to do more than a couple files at once, but I'm not really using it because I'm keeping everything on Google Drive.

Turnkey solution for legal practice management

Pluspunten:

ActionStep runs a variety of reports and queries from our data tables very quickly, and we can customize views and reports as needed. The financial software and G/L is included, which is rather rare. Trust accounting is treated as it should be with separate reporting and functions. Their development of the APIs to connect to Microsoft and Outlook has given us a lot more efficiency in workflows. The support staff is very responsive and will try to thoroughly understand and address the issues for us.

Minpunten:

Some of the accounting functions need some work to run smoothly and to be more intuitive. Also the Outlook add-in and Microsoft Plug In are nice to have but the average user cannot properly install them and maintain them it seems on their own, there are too many steps to the install and updates.

Love this Legal Practice Management Software

Opmerkingen: Everyone in our uses Actionstep daily - from saving emails to a matter to organizing documents in folders, to linking appointments in the calendar, to emailing bills and tracking unbilled or unpaid items.

Pluspunten:

This software is intuitive and easy to use. It is logical, very organized and user friendly - similar to using an app on your phone. The calendar is great too! This is miles above any other legal software I have used.

Minpunten:

I wish the developers would figure out a way to import contact addresses to correspondence. Also, the accounting software can be a little cumbersome and has a learning curve.

Florida Hurricane Adjusters

Opmerkingen: We are very please with the results and organization this program gives us!!!!

Pluspunten:

Very customizable!!!! This gives us everything we need to sort through as many files as we give it! We can sort via very specific criteria!

Minpunten:

Although we are the kind of people that put a lot of time into things we want exactly the way we want them, we don't believe too many others are willing to put in the time to learn this program to customize it to their liking. The people that do put in the time will be greatly rewarded. This is the best program for Law Firms and Public Adjusters.

Watch out for this company

Pluspunten:

Works on Mac. Functions well most of the time.

Minpunten:

Annual subscription went from $1,306.80 in 2023 to $5,794.80 in 2024 - that's 450% in 1 year. An absolute joke! For a sole practitioner it's unaffordable. Have been using the platform since 2018 and the entire practice is structured around Actionstep - trust accounting, bank accounts, Xero and all clients. To migrate to another platform will cost a fortune. They've baited customers at a low price, then taken advantage of them. Also, terrible customer support.

One Stop Shop

Opmerkingen: Trust accounting is very easy and efficient along with creating and managing matters

Pluspunten:

Actionstep does it all, from trust accounting to matter creation and workflows and firm accounting. Fully customisable matter and document templates.

Minpunten:

Updates and user suggestions take a while to be onboarded

Excellent Practice Management Tool

Opmerkingen: I believe this is one of the best practice management programs available at a reasonable cost.

Pluspunten:

I have found that the combination of file management, ticklers, calendar and ability to operate across the law firm by our users was very helpful

Minpunten:

As an Internet cloud-based program it is subject to the rims of the various Internet providers use across the firm. That being said, in four years I have only had one problem which lasted more than half a day, and it was probably addressed by customer service

ActionstepReview

Opmerkingen: Great software!

Pluspunten:

It is all inclusive - with the exception of acouting

Minpunten:

Accounting! it does't work for us - we are still using QBO

Lifeline

Opmerkingen: My overall experience with Actionstep is excellent.

Pluspunten:

ActionStep is easy to use and maintain as a central portal for keeping up with client files and work between staff.

Minpunten:

I wish the software had better search functions including an ability to look up contacts by phone number.

Actionstep is Ace

Pluspunten:

I like the ease of use and intuitive format of the software. I have worked in a number of different law firms with a number of different software packages, and Actionstep is by far the best. Opening a new matter is super easy, which is important.

Minpunten:

I can't think of anything right now but will come back to you if I do.