CosmoLex reviews

Practice Management and Accounting in One

Opmerkingen: One of the biggest things Cosmolex has done for us is allow us to bring out bookkeeping in-house. We went through 3 bookkeeping firms in 2 years and spent huge sums of money for our accountants to undo the mess they made. Our first year end with Cosmolex and in-house bookkeeping was a little rough but that was mostly cleaning up past mistakes.

Pluspunten:

The product is generally pretty simple to use. Sometimes you will encounter a quirk that makes you wonder "why did they do it like this?" but once you understand the logic behind it you pick up quickly. The software is updated quite regularly.

Minpunten:

They were purchased by Tabs3 about a year ago and the fact that they are not independent is a little concerning.

I am glad I found CosmoLex, I could not get through a day without it.

Pluspunten:

It's easy to use, intuitive, and the customer support is outstanding. I've occasionally contacted them with feature suggestions and they usually end up incorporating those suggestions - or they might show me how I missed something that accomplishes the same thing. The product works as advertised and I have no regrets.

Minpunten:

It had a little bit of a learning curve but I had nothing to compare it to. I now find it intuitive, so it's hard to say. Customer support is awesome, though, and they also have videos you can watch that explain most of the problems and issues I experienced along the way.

Very great Practice Management software

Opmerkingen: It has been very easy for me to create a matter, do my billing and invoicing, and the client portal is a nice touch that makes my clients believe that our office is sophisticated.

Pluspunten:

I love the instant live support chat function. It helps a lot when i have absolutely no idea how to navigate

Minpunten:

The pricing is very high compared to the Canadian counterparts

This App is Geared More Towards Transactional Law Practices

Pluspunten:

Cosmolex is easy to use and to implement. Initially, Customer Support was great, but now not so much. Customer support is still better than any other legal accounting product I have used from Lexis or Westlaw, even Clio. The company is generally pretty good about responding to its customers inquiries; but, you typically have to wait about 4 to 6 hours or the next day or two for a technical support person to call you back and sometimes they don't. The billing features are great for a small transactional law practice or family law practice, but not so much for a firm that handles heavy amounts of civil litigation for commercial clients, which requires reporting and data feed back. Trust accounting on Cosmolex is fantastic and allows for contingency fees in PI cases. Overall, its ease of use and simple interface is why we continue to use it. Compared to most legal accounting and billing software, training employees is easy and they offer tons of opportunities to attend free webinar classes and are great at assisting you in getting your employees up and running. Altogether, it is not bad if you have other software or services to cover document and case management, but is expensive considering its deficiencies in this area.

Minpunten:

The biggest Con is that there is a clear the lack of usable reports, no way to export client data for analysis and forecasting, third party integrations with Office is a work in progress for 2+ years and Cosmolex should absolutely not be relied on for Case Management in a litigation practice. If you are going to use Cosmolex, I would suggest doing so only for the accounting (w/ trust features) and billing for noncommercial clients. Cosmolex provides linking with your Drobox Account but is very limited when it comes to document management and your space is dependent what you purchase from other third-party companies for storage. We use the client portal for our clients to upload new case documents securely, but that is absolutely those are the only documents “managed” by Cosmolex. Docketing for litigation would be a nightmare if you depended on this software (especially for those that have midsize firms or handle multiple cases for companies). Reporting and data analysis is nonexistent. Cosmolex is absolutely not Microsoft Office friendly and has little to no integration with Microsoft products, despite the way it appears on their website. It will not integrate with on premises Exchange Server 2016, SQL or Power BI so you have to enter everything twice and have other software or services to cover its deficiencies. Calendaring features are worthless unless your firm uses Gmail as your firm email and calendaring system. The calendar may now integrate with 365 but does not have a way to customize jurisdictional presets for counting deadlines like most case management software that integrates with your calendar through Exchange. Altogether, the lack of even usable Excel or .PDF reports is the worst thing about Cosmolex. Report features, including AR ledgers and Invoice listing reports for a client with multiple ongoing cases is worthless. There is also no way to segregate your fees for fee recoverable causes of action, which is required in Texas when you are seeking attorney’s fees from the opposing side. Reports in Cosmolex could not be more unorganized. Trying to pull usable billing data over a period of time longer than one year is virtually impossible unless you want to do it by cutting and pasting from poorly formatted excel spreadsheets, which makes it difficult as hell to analyze client data over a period of time. Overall, all legal accounting software I have seen is terrible, Cosmolex is just less terrible than most. I think we are going to be moving on shortly to something else.

Best Attorney Software

Opmerkingen: Great program with easy customer support (even a chat feature). The prior legal platform software we used constantly had issues with an expensive yearly update that was required. Cosmolex is cloud-based so no need for updates. there is no need for an additional bookkeeping program for your office expenses as the program will handle that along with your trust accounting.

Pluspunten:

I like that you can handle your everyday office accounting in the same program as your trust accounting. There is no need for a separate program. Our clients love the client portal and they can upload documents directly to the client portal instead of having to bring them into our physical office. Cosmolex keeps each of your client files organized where you can save all of your emails, documents, and share the ones that you need to share with your clients through the client portal.

Minpunten:

We would like to be able to make one bulk deposit at one time instead of having to go through by individual dates and make individual deposits.

Great All in One Solution

Opmerkingen: Both lawyers & support staff are very satisfied with the switch to CosmoLex.

Pluspunten:

Onboarding/migration process was quite smooth; great team to work with.Easy to use all aspects of firm and trust accounting, quarterly reporting, Love the integration with Microsoft 365; getting closer to becoming 'paperless'.Can't wait to get the client portal in full use.The Live Support portal is the best I've ever used. They usually have the answer but if not the matter is immediately escalated and responded to.

Minpunten:

A bit of a learning curve moving from previous software. Don't switch during a busy period.Would like to see a client ledger which incorporates both trust and general expense entries on single page.

Best Legal Management Software

Opmerkingen: Cosmolex has increased the efficiency of my firm dramatically. From standard client letters to accounting, to tasks, the program has made all aspects of my practice easier. It is easy to learn and efficient.

Pluspunten:

Cosmolex is by far the best Legal Management Software on the market. The accounting is superior and specific to the legal industry and the client management options are unmatched.

Minpunten:

There are sometimes delays as information is being entered. It is relatively minor but something I expect they will improve on.

Great Program!

Opmerkingen: It's made reconciling accounts much easier and faster for me. I love the layout. It's also been a breeze to create invoices in (minus needing to edit them afterwards because the customization doesn't do what we'd like it to do).

Pluspunten:

It's extremely user friendly! I love that I can print all the cheques I need on a file at the same time, or all the cheques I'm using to pay invoices at the same time.

Minpunten:

The invoice customization tool is the only non user thing about this program.

Overall, I enjoy using Cosmolex.

Opmerkingen: Superb. I definitely have and will continue to recommend cosmolex to my colleagues.

Pluspunten:

On a lighter note, aside from the very important features. I like the soft display interface. It is easy on the eyes, the monthly graph and pie chart is very great for keeping track of income.

Minpunten:

Accounting, but that was an issue with my personal knowledge rather than the software itself. Cosmolex care assisted.

Cosmolex works well

Opmerkingen: I like Cosmolex in most ways better than my old software but Cosmolex could still take some steps to improve the functionality and robustness of the software.

Pluspunten:

I like the online nature of the software and how easy it is to use.

Minpunten:

There are some serious deficiencies with the functionality of Cosmolex especially for use in Canada. There are many reports that it won't generate. Trying to deal with GST is extremely difficult.

Leaving CosmoLex after 60 frustrating days

Opmerkingen: I manage 3 small law firms. One of my firms moved from Prolaw to CosmoLex 60 days ago because management wanted to be 100% cloud-based, which Prolaw is not. Unfortunately, my CosmoLex experience has been really frustrating, to say the least. As background, I have used Prolaw for over 20 years, which performs back and front office tasks (like CosmoLex). At another firm, I have used Clio with QBs for about 7 years with lots of success. At a 3rd firm, I use Bill4Time with QBs with lots of success. I really tried to make CosmoLex work for the last 60 days. As the manager of 3 small law firms, I am a stickler for efficiency and productivity. Making small firms competitive with larger firms is a big part of my job. But unfortunately CosmoLex was a huge step backwards in that goal.

Pluspunten:

You ALWAYS get a live person in customer service and they are GREAT! I have spent hours and hours on the phone, chat and email with many people in customer service in the last 60 days. It is really easy to get a live person, which is great! And I have been impressed with every single one of them. But unfortunately their answer is almost always: "I'm so sorry, CosmoLex cannot do that, I will add it to the list of features we could add." I haven't been around long enough to know if suggestions are actually ever incorporated into the software. Truthfully, so many features would have to be added to make this a viable program, I just can't wait to see. There is a robust filter / search mechanism. Literally, those are the only good things.

Minpunten:

Everything else. CosmoLex is a great idea, but the execution completely fails at both the accounting and practice management components. Entering data in the software is ridiculously inefficient - from simple time entries, which you have to choose from pulldown, scrolling menus rather than entering data quickly and tabbing through (there is NO tabbing through any data!), to an accounting system that is set up in inflexible, awkward components that make no accounting sense (not a debit or credit to be found), it just doesn't lend itself to efficiency or intuitiveness like most online billing programs. If you are used to customizable columns (who isn't?); screens in which you can edit, print, manipulate multiple items at one time; check boxes to select all or multiple items; or screens that show you totals like hours billed in a day, week or month, account balances, CosmoLex is gonna drive you crazy. It doesn't allow any of the above. There are so many downfalls, I truthfully don't know where to start. Additionally, we purchased the migration service. Each person I worked with was amazingly knowledgeable and professional, but the actual migration was a disaster. After hours of work on my and CosmoLex's migration team's part, my non-financial data migrated into ComsoLex very unusable. Also, they do not actually migrate financial data. I was hoping to move at least 7 years of accounting, as well as, historical invoices from open matters, but that is not possible.

Noah's Review of Cosmolex

Opmerkingen: Overall, Cosmolex is easier to use than TABS. Certain elements are great, but the slowness of the website and lack of features regarding specialized billing can be frustrating. The single best part of Cosmolex is their customer support staff that is always quick to help.

Pluspunten:

The best features of cosmolex are A) The intuitive nature of the platform. The categorization makes sense, and makes searching matters, seeing outstanding balances owed, and viewing trust fund balances easy. B) The accounts payable section is well put together and easy to use. C) Customer service is great.

Minpunten:

I don't like how slow it runs - seems as if the website could run faster, also there are occasionally glitches and I need to close the browser and restart. Also, there is no feature for running bills for outstanding amounts due for clients without billable time for the month, and there is no feature for running courtesy bills for clients with no active time or amount due, but monies in trust.

Billing is great! Case management, not so much.

Opmerkingen: We are a two attorney firm with one paralegal. We chose Cosmolex for the trust accounting feature. We were looking for a program that could do it all - keep the books and manage the cases.

Pluspunten:

I love the billing and trust accounting features. Cosmolex really shines with maintaining the operating and trust accounts separately as well as generating invoices for our billable work.

Minpunten:

The software is cumbersome, taking several clicks to get to information. The features I need most on the case management side are contacts and notes. The contacts drive me nuts! If I'm in Bob Jones' case, I want to see a list of all the other people involved such as other attorneys, witnesses, or other relevant parties. With Cosmolex, one has to go to a separate contacts page and link them rather than entering the information directly into the matter. The note taking feature is improving now that more characters are allowed, but it still leaves much to be desired for those who are answering client calls and wanting to log the information right away. It seems like it would be fine for a transactional practice but it's less than ideal for litigation.

Great Product

Opmerkingen: My experience with Cosmolex has exceeded my expectations. I did a lot of research on what is out there in the market and Cosmolex came out on top, primarily because of the integrated backend accounting so that I did not have to deal with QuickBooks. Over the last couple of years, using Cosmolex, has been awesome. Being able to keep track of my time with the timer, bulk entry of Timeslips, ease of sending out invoices, invoices with a link to pay electronically, inclusion of law pay as a part of the subscription, etc., etc., etc., are all wonderful parts of the experience.

Pluspunten:

Super easy to use. Billing with a timer, bulk billing (was added after I requested), super responsive customer support/chat, great reports, full back-end accounting

Minpunten:

I can often think of new features I would love to see but obviously they cannot add everything I want immediately.

We chose Cosmolex because of the accounting feature

Pluspunten:

We chose Cosmolex because of the accounting feature along with the other case management features as well as its interplay with Lawpay.

Minpunten:

I would like to be able to search the calendar for a particular name. For example, if I am trying to determine when I met with a potential client, I would like to be able to search their name. To add to this, I would like to be able to add the potential client to the calendar entry when I add a consult so I can search the PC and determine when I met with them. As to the documents, I would like a way to search all the documents in the system. For example, I would like to be able to search for "Motion for Guardian ad Litem" and have all documents with that title, regardless of whose matter it is connected to. I would like to be able to pull matter balances from the app.

Cosmolex has reduced the time for billing clients...

Opmerkingen: Cosmolex has reduced the time for billing clients down from 2-3 days to 2-3 hours.

Pluspunten:

The ability to add charges on the go is a huge plus for the attorney. He can bill his time while in court.

Minpunten:

Old client invoices, there needs to be a way to unlock invoices to allow payment on outstanding debt. I've contacted customer service and we had a backdoor way of doing it but the newest update to CL has erased that ability. So now old clients who have no active charges are inconvenienced and must come into the office to pay. Would love to see more functions for old accounts!

Cosmolex

Opmerkingen: Everyday I learn more with Cosmolex. At first it is kind of confusing but once you learn how to use all the benefits it becomes easier.

Pluspunten:

The Pros with Cosmolex is once you learn all the features it is really easy to work with. I believe with entering the money portion on Cosmolex has been easier than any other system.

Minpunten:

The cons were getting use to usisng Cosmolex. After you go through the webinars they have and learning videos it becomes easier to work with. There is always someone available to actually help you if you do have a question about anything if the teaching videos do not help in figure out your issue.

CosmoLex staff know law and also know accounting.

Pluspunten:

We simply have not found anything else that integrates true accounting with timekeeping and related legal process workflow. Everything else we've used (I could make a list) fell short in terms of features or else required integration among multiple platforms (at a higher cost).

Minpunten:

There is a bug in the reporting of accounts receivable that is causing us problems. We are eager to see that fixed. CosmoLex does not seem to have an internationally focused law practice in mind. We work with clients in 70 countries, in multiple currencies. We struggle a bit to make that work well--there are some hiccups. Most other issues arise because our knowledge of accounting is poor, so we want to do things that should not be done (from an accounting perspective) or we don't know how to do them. Response time on our requests for help is sometimes slow. Our requests for additional features have not happened.

Accounting is more precise and up to date.

Pluspunten:

I chose CosmoLex primarily because it is both a client management system and accounting system in one solution. Additionally, CosmoLex pays my monthly LawPay access fee. All of this really helped my small, but growing practice save some money, while getting all the tools I need.

Minpunten:

I had to take down my website credit card payment link, but CosmoLex "prefers," and everything is recorded easier when, you process credit card transactions through their portal. There should be a way for me to accept credit cards on my website, like through native LawPay, or on the app.

Made specifically for law firms - cool!

Opmerkingen: For many years our firm used a number of different back office software products. For example, we used Easy Trust for trust accounting, Quick Books for financial accounting and payroll, and Timeslips for time and billing. These are all products that run on individual computers. About 3 years ago, the company that produced EasyTrust quit supporting that product. For the last 3 years we have basically been on our own regarding trust accounting. It has worked out okay to date, but at some point we knew that we would encounter an operating system problem or something and we would have had a substantial problem and the program would've stopped working and we would've had no support or help.

Pluspunten:

When we started looking for new trust accounting software, we saw that your product was made specifically for law firms - cool! It also combined trust accounting, financial accounting, time and billing, which was the most appealing aspect. But the fact that Cosmolex is cloud-based, cinched it for us. Because our office manager (who oversees and reconciles the trust accounting -- that is, the software is on her computer) telecommutes from her house. So every time I needed to enter credit card payments, Trust deposits, write checks, etc., I had to drive 3 miles to her house. So being able to do a lot of that work from the office, has been wonderful.

Minpunten:

Your product is intimidating! It encompasses several different departments and getting everyone on the same page took (and will continue to take) a good amount of time. But your training videos and free support have really helped us. As a suggestion, perhaps transcribing the training videos might be useful for a quick reference?

Best User Friendly Interface

Opmerkingen: I have a great experience with the program and use it most of the day every day.

Pluspunten:

I appreciate most the ability to correct errors in accounting when they are noticed and the integration with the trust account.

Minpunten:

Some of the deep user options are difficult to find but this is necessary with the level of customization allowed.

Client information and billing all in one place

Opmerkingen: It's made our overall processes more efficient, having client information and billing all in one place.

Pluspunten:

Ease of use and the checks and balances system - the setup doesn't really allow you to make mistakes, as so many of the accounting features are tied together. That's very helpful.

Minpunten:

The soft cost expense entry is confusing and seems needless - right now, if we have an expense for which we haven't yet written a check, we either enter it as a time entry flat fee or wait to enter it until the check is written so we can avoid the soft cost option all together.

CosmoLex has made running our office easier than ever.

Opmerkingen: I cannot imagine how much work we would need to duplicate if we didn't have CosmoLex. I would recommend it to any practitioner, but especially to those who are solos or small firms.

Pluspunten:

We chose CosmoLex for our firm because we liked the bookkeeping integration. The system is extremely easy to use and more intuitive than QuickBooks.

Minpunten:

Sometimes getting a call back on troubleshooting items can take a day or two. Usually my questions are not urgent, but if we ever needed something immediately, my worry is that it might not happen in time.

Cosmolex is very intuitive software.

Opmerkingen: My assistant and I have enjoyed using Cosmolex, and now feel spoiled by all the great features compared to other file management and accounting software. I have been asked by several lawyers in my city to show them the program, and I wish I was more proficient with it so I could do it justice.

Pluspunten:

It does everything you wish other programs would do. It's easy to fix any mistakes you make in your billing without having to contact the company for a complicated "work around" solution. If you do have an issue or a suggestion, the customer service department is very responsive.

Minpunten:

I would like if bills could be further broken down into taxable disbursements and non-taxable disbursements. My assistant and I registered for the training, but were unable to log on at the assigned time, but became too busy to follow up with this, so we have muddled through on our own for the last year.

I can't imagine practicing law without this essential tool.

Pluspunten:

My practice is focused primarily on residential real estate in NY and NJ and I represent a lot of lenders, so I have been relying upon Easy Soft’s hud-1 program and their billing/trust accounting program for years, so when I learned about everything CosmoLex had to offer, I was excited to jump in. What really separates CosmoLex from the others is that it’s completely cloud based and also offers a full IOLA/IOLTA accounting system. I’m able to login from the office, from home, and even on the road from my smart phone to add billable events, log and print checks, or search for anything I need. Because I’m a sole practitioner, I don’t have an IT department to help me install/upgrade my programs and the people at CosmoLex actually converted my existing data and had me up and running in about 15 minutes. Knowing that my data (and the programs) are off-site means less to worry about if and when a computer at my office should fail - and not having to worry about re-installing and restoring data (just knowing that it’s always safe and ready to access) makes sleeping at night a little easier. The controls are intuitively setup and searching for matters by client or other keyword or searching transactions by dollar amount, etc., could not be easier. I’ve already watched some of their online tutorials and when those did not help me understand something, I contacted tech support for personalized support and training that did the trick every time!

Minpunten:

Nothing comes to mind so far. It's everything I need.