Actionstep reviews

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.

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.

Finicky platform - arbitratry and unpredictable pricing

Opmerkingen: Terrible. Would not recommend. Looking for alternative providers now.

Pluspunten:

Decent practice management software, but terrible pricing structure. Have changed pricing drastically in the last couple of years and just introduced new access fee component which drastically increased cost of subscription

Minpunten:

See above notes on costs. Do not recommend.

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)

Powerful and flexible practice management

Opmerkingen: I have used the product extensively over the last 5 years and would happily recommend it as a platform for legal practice management

Pluspunten:

I have used the product in a number of different law firms and have been involved in the setup for those firms. It is easy to use and easy to adapt to your own requirements

Minpunten:

I have no adverse comments as I have not found any aspect of the software to fall short of what is needed

Catastrophic customer service and lack of common sense - too bad, it's a promising software

Opmerkingen: Given these problems, we are preparing our exit. It is an economic disaster for us (losses in implementation and losses on invoicing).

Pluspunten:

Powerful and easily editable workflow engine. Really. Mass billing features. Customizable fields. Extremely powerful templating.

Minpunten:

Bugs in invoicing and accounting made me lose a lot of money. Despite corrections, some invoices do not appear at the customer level and we work in files with open balances. It's very stressful, too. Money flows are case centred, not customer centred. This is highly problematic (retainers go on a case and not on the client, so you have to open X tabs for X cases opened in this client to make sure you are not going to send an invoice to a client who has provisioned you...). User acceptance is difficult. It is complicated to require changes in workflows and field fills (this is not the responsibility of Actionstep, but don't think it will run by itself. You will need to coach your employees). Customer service is catastrophic. I screamed for help when the system started to double-deduct (!) the retainers. It took 4 months to get a solution. In the meantime, I have continued to lose a lot of money. I have doubts about their financial strength, since six months after I started using the software, I received a notice of license increase. When I asked for some help to switch to a cheaper license, I was told that it would not be possible to keep my data (!!!!).

Actionstep Workflows

Opmerkingen: We were using a very archaic system with Time Matters. Since Actionstep is completely cloud base and accessed via a browser we were able to deploy it to all our remote locations without the need of installing and maintaining software. It was the best move we ever made.

Pluspunten:

Actionstep automates task and reporting. Having the ability to customize it via workflows is a huge advantage for us. We also use the document merge features very heavily.

Minpunten:

The home screen dashboard can use some design updates with relevant information.

Small NY Metro Area Law Firm, T&E

Opmerkingen: We find it perfectly fits our needs.

Pluspunten:

Comprehensive features, simple interface

Minpunten:

Like all similar programs out there, use of templates and other excellent advanced features requires regular use, or expense of consultants.

Hopeless Customer Service - Technical Staff not technical - Accounts do not work

Opmerkingen: Poor experience. The salespeople were nice and I believe genuine. The techo people are not trained in real technical problems and use the excuse of putting something to the 'development' team. I am not sure the development team exists. Am on hold now for 25 minutes while I wait for someone with a small understanding to talk to me.

Pluspunten:

The system is a great concept. Great robust software that, if working properly, would allow practitioners to set up what they want by way of workflows and templates for each practice area.

Minpunten:

My accounts simply do not work. I cannot bill clients. I cannot receipt monies. I do not have an 'accounts' menu. The software has bugs and Actionstep are incapable of fixing them.

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!!!

Huge increase fees this year - Other than that, a great product

Opmerkingen: Was such a standout performer for a small firm. Loved all the functionality but the recent increase in costs is disappointing. I recommended this product to other firms and spoke so highly of this software. Their target customer/client may have changed.

Pluspunten:

Very user friendly and suited my firm perfectly. The time recording and accounting were great to use. There were always improvements, most didn't relate to my firm's needs but so good to see. Loved the product.

Minpunten:

The recent increase in fees. It appears that this will not be viable to small firms. An increase in fees is always expected by not by 300-400% in the one year. Customer service has gone downhill with its growth which appears common in software companies.

Lots to love about this program

Opmerkingen: Overall I recommend ActionStep to other law firms. It has vastly improved our office workflow, and the various customizable features enable our employees to address clients' needs more efficiently. The ActionStep support staff are accessible and responsive to any challenges we face, whether they involve addressing problems or learning how to implement new features. What we love:
- Workflows that are customized for different types of cases
- Customized tasks that are automatically assigned to particular employees
- Case dashboard: the "one stop shop" for all basic info related to a case (employees involved, clients, other important players in the case, calendar appointments, notes, etc.)
- Contact records that exist independently of cases but may be linked to cases -- so updating a contact applies changes across the board
- Newsfeed-style case notes with tag options to identify notes as "important," "call," etc.
- Document folders with powerful search feature to easily locate documents
- Integration with MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook) that allows case data to be merged into documents and e-mails and allows users to assign e-mails to cases
- Ability to create letter and other document templates that pre-populate cases
- Document portal that allows clients and other parties to securely exchange documents with the firm
- Fantastic support staff and easy-to-follow tutorials The most challenging aspect of ActionStep is the initial setup (hence my three-star rating for "ease of use"). There is no sugar-coating it: the downside of all those wonderful customizable features is that someone in your organization has to do all the customizing. It's a lengthy process, and the initial data migration can also be time-consuming, but the friendly support staff are available to assist throughout the process. For us the end result has been well worth the challenging setup process. The ActionStep developers are constantly working on improvements to the program, including ways to make it integrate with other types of software and responding to users' suggestions. Occasionally the updates cause hiccups in the system, but they are typically short-lived. We genuinely appreciate the drive to improve the product and the responsiveness to users' wishes.

Pluspunten:

- Workflows that are customized for different types of cases - Customized tasks that are automatically assigned to particular employees - Case dashboard: the "one stop shop" for all basic info related to a case (employees involved, clients, other important players in the case, calendar appointments, notes, etc.) - Contact records that exist independently of cases but may be linked to cases -- so updating a contact applies changes across the board - Newsfeed-style case notes with tag options to identify notes as "important," "call," etc. - Document folders with powerful search feature to easily locate documents - Integration with MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook) that allows case data to be merged into documents and e-mails and allows users to assign e-mails to cases - Ability to create letter and other document templates that pre-populate cases - Document portal that allows clients and other parties to securely exchange documents with the firm - Fantastic support staff and easy-to-follow tutorials

Minpunten:

- Challenging initial setup (customization of features) - Cumbersome process to unlock encrypted zip files after backup request - Previous difficulty with calendar integration caused problems with client scheduling and has made us skittish about returning to use of the calendar, even though we see this as a high-value feature of ActionStep

Great Features with Not So Great Service

Opmerkingen: Overall it's been a decent system. There is room for improvement, but ultimately it does give you a lot of customization for a better price than a lot of cloud based services out there.

Pluspunten:

You can customize it according to your needs, including custom reports and exports. It's easy to use on a daily basis and has an attractive platform that is well organized. It has it's own document storage, so you don't have to use two different programs/services to get it to work (such as box or another doc storage service) It does conflict checks and syncs with e-mail so you can assign e-mails as you send/receive them to the matter they are relevant to.

Minpunten:

The customer support is terrible. Response time has been poor. When there is a response, it typically is, refer to the on-line manual. My spouse is an IT person, so I'm fairly computer program savvy. So I don't contact tech support unless I've gone through everything in the manual and tried everything I can think of first. When that is met with "look at the manual" it's beyond frustrating. Once we get past that, it usually doesn't take them long to get the issue resolved or walk me through what needs to be done to achieve the goal. Also, in order to use the macros letters/documents where information auto-populates from your case into the letter or document, you pretty much have to be a computer programmer to get that to work.

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.

Great Productivity Tool but Additional/Improved Integrations Needed

Pluspunten:

The timekeeping functions, file notes, and overall organization into workflows are tremendous features. Once customized and part of daily practice, Actionstep makes task management much more efficient.

Minpunten:

Gmail/G-Suite integrations are lacking. We are unable to automatically log emails that originate in Gmail. Emailing directly from Actionstep takes care of the record keeping, but we often lose the formatting of our email signatures despite best attempts to keep it true-to-form.

Just Okay

Pluspunten:

This was my first practice management software. I liked the price and the ease of the setup. Since this was my first experience, I don't have anything to compare it to.

Minpunten:

Sometimes the software has glitches and looses things like notes that you put on the scratch pad. If there are multiple windows open with the program, it doesn't always save the information that you enter on one page. Customer service is absolutely terrible. There aren't clear cut customer service hours and I can NEVER reach anyone by phone. If I'm lucky I will get a response via chat a few days later. I am looking to make a change.

Actionstep evaluation

Opmerkingen: We've been able to somewhat streamline our practice administration, and we like how all case information can be contained in one place

Pluspunten:

e-mail integration is easy and seamless highly customizable excellent document management

Minpunten:

steep learning curve weak online training materials requires a consultant to truly make it work our version does not yet sync with Quickbooks

Great for law office

Pluspunten:

It was easy to integrate and allows all team members to access all information from anywhere with an internet connection. Including file notes, emails and documents as well as time records. You can set tasks and monitor the step a matter is on with ease.

Minpunten:

Integration with Outlook is good but not able to upload documents or attach documents if using Office 365

Legal Asst opinion

Opmerkingen: Before ActionStep, our office was using DropBox as our inter-office storage, which was not very reliable for record keeping. We needed everything to be in ONE place and ActionStep has solved that issue. Our office has been using ActionStep for about 3 years now & I personally love it. It's easy to customize.

Pluspunten:

What I like most about the software is that everything is in one place - past & present records, notes, time tracking & billing, tasks, etc. I find the File Notes feature EXTREMELY useful because myself AND any of my co-workers can create a File Note for record keeping when we speak to the client or need to keep current notes on a project. ActionStep is also very easy to customize.

Minpunten:

It is difficult for me to find something that I dislike about this software. The only opinion I can offer is what I hear from our office book keeper - she dislikes the billing feature because it is not compatible with her Quik Books.

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.

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.

Customizable

Opmerkingen: I do like the billing feature and being able to see who needs to be invoiced.

Pluspunten:

I like that it keeps all of our records easily accessible without having to pull each file.

Minpunten:

It is so customizable it makes it hard to set up and use the software. I had to watch several hours of videos to design one matter type and invoice. I also wish that the HOME section of each matter had "sticky note" capability.

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

Easy to learn Case Management System

Pluspunten:

Actionstep makes it so easy to manage our hundreds of cases, by use of customizable overviews and matter data.

Minpunten:

Sometimes our emails do not come through to the inbox in actionstep- mostly internal emails and sometimes emails from outside parties go straight to the case.