I have used others, most recently Amicus Attorney, and Houdini is a better product in almost every way. They also have a fairly extensive knowledge base, which is a great source for ideas and learning the program in general. Busy day, phones ringing, I am not sure what I did, but I completely chuffed my installation. In desperation I called for help. (1) I am still a free user, no staff. (2) I was making changes without a good back up, even though they warned me. (3) I had a trial, so not a lot of time to wait around. I sent an email, they called back (a couple of times) and they spent literally a couple of hours saving me from myself. Not so many companies will go the extra mile to save one from themselves especially after having failed to heed their explicit warnings. Thanks again!

Houdini makes my life easier and my practice more productive and profitable.

I have been practicing law for almost a quarter century. I started with Houdini many, many years ago, when the project was still teething (I switched from Abacus). I can confidently say that even in infancy Houdini and its combination of logic, power and flexibility were head and shoulders above any other package on the market, many costing three times more. Since then, the management and development teams had nurtured and evolved this software into an awesome powerhouse with intuitive, user-friendly features, and absolutely unique capabilities, which other packages sorely lack. Magic has universal appeal, and Houdini is equally well suited for solo practitioners, who appreciate its instinctive simplicity, and multinational law firms, who take advantage of its infinite customization and industrial-strength features. I can wholeheartedly recommend Houdini to any law firm regardless of its size or practice areas.

I really had to scratch my head to identify any faults or weaknesses in Houdini. Still scratching .....

I used HoudiniEsq for about five months when I first opened my firm, and my experiences with it were a little mixed. The program itself is extremely powerful and has many features which can be used to automate a lot of billing and correspondence tasks... but only if you can figure out how to use them. Take billing, for example. Some of my clients are the typical "charge an up-front retainer, then bill by the hour" clients, and the billing settings were easily adapted to that use and would produce nice invocies relatively easily. However, a large portion of my clients are billed a flat-fee for my services, but I would still like to provide them with an itemized bill showing the hours I worked on their case. After days of experimenting, trying to make sense of the Houdini support documents, and just generally pulling my hair out I gave up. I couldn't make it work. Houdini does definitely excel in providing you with every option and feature under the sun. In my months working with it, I never came across a major feature which a competitor offered but Houdini didn't. But again, those features require you to learn how to use them. The user interface is, to put it kindly, dated and not very intuitive. The user experience, then, is more about learning Houdini's quirks of placement decisions and icon choice and adapting your use to it. Even after five months of use I still hadn't taught myself Houdini's interface well enough to really describe myself as "comfortable" with it. But then there's the feature that drew me in to begin with: The cost. For solo firms, Houdini is free of charge. Some people will warn you that you get what you pay for, but with Houdini that's not really true. You do, in fact, get a very full featured very powerful practice management suite for no cost at all to you. But you also get to adapt your working habits to its interface and workflow style, because it will not adapt to you. I consider myself quite computer savvy, I set up my own phone system for my office, but I still had a heck of a time figuring out how to make Houdini do some of what I knew it could do. So if you're a solo who's attracted by the price, but who doesn't have a lot of time to learn the quirks of the program, then you may be better off picking again. In the end, my final verdict on it is this: Houdini was, once, on-par with the other practice management options; but Houdini has failed to keep up with the times, and it shows in many ways.

Cons: HoudiniEsq has learning curve. This is not a terrible thing when all things are considered. The product is feature rich. It does a lot of things and does them very well but getting setup does take time. Since every organization has its own way of doing things it would be difficult to have a system that is customized to a particular preference out of the box. I think if there was a way to add custom fields or change labels directly on the forms instead of a admin panel it would really make the setup more intuitive. Pros: HoudiniEsq really shines when it comes to collecting data. You can customize the product. Fields can be added to Matters, Contacts and Events. You can have fields placed by the record's type, subtype and or status code. Fields only appear if they apply. This unclutters the screens. I love the fact that we can place fields based on a status code. As a case moves from one phase to another, new fields appear and the others are hidden. A huge benefit is the ability to create custom forms. Forms are child records of a matter. This enables us to collect a lot of very specific but repetitive information like injuries for each party without having to see hundreds of fields on screen. Each form neatly collects and displays this information. It deserves a mention that you can change practically any label in the system as well. Another area we are very pleased with is the ability to create templates that will merge data including custom fields. We can generate one document or several in a single shot. We like the ability to use these templates with the workflow automation feature to generate supporting docs automatically. The workflow automation feature isn't limited to docs. You can calendar events, send email, reminders and notifications. HoudiniEsq is worth a serious look. I would not suggest this product to a Solo although according to the HoudiniEsq LinkedIn group solos are very happy with it. HoudiniEsq isn't an entry level product like My Case or Clio. Simplicity isn't its mainstay it is the ability to handle the complex that sets it apart. If you wouldn't use Pro Law then you probably shouldn't consider HoudiniEsq. I'm not saying Solos should stay away, the solos who do use HoudiniEsq seem to be the enterprising upstarts who are growing their businesses quickly. Currently not for Solos, a con only if you need an entry level product. I give HoudiniEsq 5 stars overall because it really can do remarkable things.

I have used Houdini Esq on the Mac for several months now as a solo practitioner. I use it primarily for case management and invoicing. The great thing about this software is that the interface just makes sense, and it is feature rich and comprehensive. I have case and event management, document templates, and trust management and invoicing all in one place. In other words, I don't have to switch between multiple programs to get the job done, which is something I love, and it isn't hard to pick up . . . once you get it going. That's the speed bump. First, my set-up is probably not conventional. I have a single laptop, with a main user account, and a secondary user account that I use for my law practice. When I first installed Houdini, if I started my computer, logged into my law practice user account, and tried to open Houdini, in any web browser, I would get an error saying that the local host was not found. I finally discovered that I would first have to start up the file "HoudiniESQ_start" to fix this error. Additionally, I don't think that this install is doing the automatic backups as advertised, but I use Time Machine, so I'm not too worried. Second, I wish that there was more control over invoices. I would like to be able to list the start and stop times for events, the option to include tasks that are not billed, and include my logo at top. However, the controls for these are limited-to-nonexistant. Finally, there are some strange quirks with the interface. For example, sometimes I can't get menus to close unless I close the whole window containing the menu. Also, sometimes my events won't show up in the Dashboard unless I go to another tab and back. If they made a shift away from the browser-based interface, I would not complain at all. These are my main complaints, and none of them are deal breakers for me, especially when otherwise you are getting a comprehensive, easy to use software that should be enough for any legal professional. If you are on a Mac, it is just about the only real locally-based client management software worth considering.

Mostly time entries and reporting; we use a separate billing system.

The calendar shows work items at a glance which is convenient. You can change the time span of each item by moving the starting time or ending time of that item.

difficult to generate matter reports showing excel work narratives with time costs; this is important as we need to report to client regularly without billing. The matter number sometimes leaps and has to be manually adjusted each new matter is opened.

As a bookkeeper in a law firm, Houdini ESQ presents some challenges. The program is very user friendly overall, except for certain bookkeeping limitations. It is easy to teach, and the learning curve is small. There is no way to generate a true prebill, an invoice in invoice format prior to finalizing all information for invoicing. The prebill screen does not print the matter name, or balances due, or trust balances. If an invoice is generated to be used for reviewing prior to finalizing, it is necessary to delete that invoice, make any needed changes, then regenerate the invoice - a cumbersome, time-consuming process. If edits are made to events on a printed prebill (one of our partners prefers to review his invoices on paper and have me make the changes), it is necessary to "find" the event and make the edit in the system. If multiple events are to be edited, as often occurs, each time I save the changed event, the screen flips back to the top and I have "find" the next event for editing, rather than being able to continue chronologically forward to make all necessary changes. Either keeping the screen at the event just changed and being able to go forward chronologically, or being able to search by date/time, would make this process much easier. The Houdini generated statement of account lists every invoice, payment, and all charges ever generated for the client's matters. Our office prefers to generate statements indicating only the prior open balance, if it was paid when the payment was applied, and only for matters with activity during the prior 60-90 days. We have to generate a manual statement in order to limit the amount of information provided to the clients. When payment is received in a lump sum with more than one open invoice, Houdini does not automatically apply the payment back to the prior open invoices -- this has to be done manually, again a time-consuming, cumbersome task. We are happy with the program and its learnability. We'd just like some fine tuning to be done. Thanks for the opportunity to share.

The Pros: The price. The power and flexibility. The ability to integrate. Continuous improvement. These guys are constantly working to make a better product. The support staff. I was a bit cranky with the way the whole flash problem went down, but I get the impression that was a significant stressor for Houdini, as well. They seem to have worked hard to overcome that, and since then have continued to provide "on the spot," "out of their way," profoundly dedicated service. The cons: The learning curve is significant. Houdini is anything but plug and play. It takes significant time to get comfortable with the various modules, which are not always, and especially not at first, intuitive. Integration ability generally limited to microsoft products. Would love to see the ability to integrate with something like libre office and Mozilla's Thunderbird (not sure if the coding time is worth it for Huodini, but I would love it.) Buggy - weird things happen from time to time, like already added events or contacts "disappearing" from a matter. They tend to reappear after one (or a few) restarts, or after a patch, but they keep me in constant fear of losing some important data. The way ledgers work could be much smoother. I hate having to generate a bill to give a discount, and then having to produce a statement to reflect the discount, and then give the client two sheets of paper with an explanatory letter because without an explanation it won't make much sense to the client. It can be even more painful when generating the statement brings up every matter I have handled for a client that is still open, even though I only want to provide 1 bill for one matter at the time. Overall, I stick with Houdini because it provides what I need, appears powerful enough to provide what I will require as I grow, and, most importantly, because it is constantly improving. Houdini appears genuinely interested in what its users want and is continually working to provide just that. Once a person gets over the learning curve, Houdini is hard to beat.

pros: Integrates with so many different programs easy to navigate and user-friendly Very easy to customize and add specific categories, types, color customize a calendar, etc. Runs in the background - keep it open all day long w/o slowing down computer and other programs Creating and sending invoices is incredibly simple. Trust Account, Billables, and Accounts Receivable is always available so it's easy to keep track of money. Individual client ledgers makes accounting for each client's expenses, fees, payments, and trust easy to track and very clear and understandable. Keeps everything up to date daily, instead of just at end of month. Ability to link to matters from integrated programs allows maximum billing and the process is quick and painless Support is great - can read articles and topics on any issue related to the program and telephone support is great. cons: Requires patience at first until you understand how the program thinks and operates. Every now and then there is some small glitch that requires me to visit the support page or make a phone call. Have had to install approx. 2 updates in past year - I guess it's a good thing they update the product, but taking the time to install the update is somewhat annoying. Overall: Great product that includes everything you'd need to manage your practice, all in one place. Can create memos while on phone, while the timer is on - takes the burden out of billing time because you're using it throughout the day as you work. Has increased income through ability to "capture" time by linking events, e-mails, documents to matters. For me, it somewhat takes away the panic at the end of the day I used to feel when trying to recall and write down everything I'd done that day. Now, it is all recorded for me as I work throughout the day and contributes hugely to overall organization.

It just isn't as "clean" as some other programs that I've used. Again, it serves it's purpose but it's nothing to write home about.

Inexpensive cloud option. Minimal technical skill required. Good integration with Outlook, though the plugins often had issues.

Difficult user interface, it seems disorganized and not very intuitive. It's difficult to switch from one area of a file to another area (ie documents to billing and back to contacts). The web URL is complicated so if you don't have it bookmarked you're screwed.

The degree of customisation that can be applied. it is designed for US based lawyers but i work in the UK in the specialised area of commecial rent review dispute resolution. I was able to customise the software to cater for my specialist needs and to generate invoices in UK pounds.

Bespoke customisation is time consuming, but once it is done, it's done. Once you have a basic framework set up, adding categories is very easy.

HoudiniESQ is by far the most feature rich law practice management tool for solo firms. I am very impressed with the robustness of the application and the ability to maximize billable hours and tracking. I initially installed HoudineESQ because it was a 'free' (for Solo Firms) management tool and I was looking for a system to merge case related information. After a few hours I immediately knew that this was a keeper. Setup was incredibly simple and I can access Houdini on any internet connected computer, tablet or smart phone. I can now keep my Google calendar (using Outlook and Google Sync) updated from within Houdini (and vice versa), client communication, and documents all in one place. Using the downloadable plugins I can now merge Houdini data fields into my own custom documents in Microsoft Office. (Huge time saver!) Also, Houdini provides a way to keep clients updated using Remote Client Access (RCA) that allows the client to login to Houdini and review their case.

It allows me to manage my cases from just one application that allows all aspects of the case to be housed under one umbrella. (Emails, document archive, document creation from templates, integration with Microsoft Office, billing & BIRT reports.)

I would like to be able to 'customize' some of the client communication forms to my liking. (ie Invoice layout, client email notification for RCA.) I would also like to have pre-made BIRT reports and a better billing / collection management module.

I have used HoudiniEsq for over 2 years now in my office. It was recommended to us when we were looking for a cloud solution, we chose it because it offered all the features we needed at the time, and there was no contract so we could cancel at any time if it didn't work out. Pros: It was easy to learn and navigate the system, I especially like the multiple workspace and window features so I can perform multiple tasks at the same time. Integration with office is very good. All my email are now neatly organized by matter, time entries are auto recorded with emails and documents. All matter information are centrally located, search works really well, very easy to find what I am looking for. Knowledge base is very useful, hardly ever need to call the support staff. But the few times I did call, it was a very pleasant experience. Document automation is a huge plus for us. No more copy and paste, it literally saves us at least one day a month on repetitive work. Cloud version works great, have not experienced any down time. Cons: We used some of the advanced features in the last year and it took us sometime to figure it out, but we had it working the way we wanted with the help from the support. Overall, it's a great product. It's much better than other user-friendly and simpler alternatives out there, especially after you learn how it works and can customize it so it works the way you want it to.

The ability to customize some fields within the software to specific file types, because not every personal injury file requires the same customization.

The ability to track documents and due dates for things that come in, such as discovery deadlines seems to not be there as previous users have said this was something that you could do.

The product I find to be useful. It has easy to read billing. It is great that it is cloud based. That is the biggest asset for me. It is also multi-faceted that you can do other things with it aside from billing. The fact you can not only track revenue but also store documents is great. What I have found frustrating in learning to use the system which I am by no means an expert is that the customer service I have found to be hasty and sometimes a bit rude. I have in a pinch had to talk to various people and they have acted like they are pushed for time or slightly condescending. I always feel like the dummy calling the techy. Believe me if the attorneys are calling the tech firm directly for billing we have tried multiple times to get the question done with first picking up the phone. I also have had long response times in waiting for call backs or no call at all returned. I have considered changing billing but I have decided as of now to keep my business with Houdini in the hopes that I 1. won't have major questions that require phone calls or 2. Get someone in the office that can assist in learning the fine nuances of the program. It would also be great if there was a single cheat sheet for frequent questions/Hints rather than looking through a library of videos and parceling through a page worth of articles.

The product is good and becoming great. Keep up the hard work. The customer service is excellent and it is obvious that all employees and member care deeply about their service and product. The billing functions are outstanding and offer all the functionality and customization one could hope for.

Full blown sophistication required for lawyers Speed much faster than 1.9 version.

At the beginning, there were some kinks but at this point mostly addressed as far as I can tell.

"The future of legal case management is HoudiniESQ... The HoudiniESQ team understands how case management software is supposed to improve a law firms workflow. What is different about HoudiniESQ is that everything you do is an event. Everything is an event that is billable. Read an email, it gets billed. That's right, as you read your email it gets billed. If you draft a document it automatically gets billed. Schedule an appointment, not only is it automatically billed, click a button when you schedule it and an email is sent telling the client the date and time of the event. I can go on and on. This application is the future of PMS. This is the way to practice.

Tight integration with Microsoft Office. If I don't have access to my own computer I can still work because HoudiniESQ includes its own integrated tools for Email, document management and assembly, billing , invoicing, contact and matter management.

None that we care about but it would be nice to have integrated document annotations.

I downloaded HoudiniESQ after opening my own firm six months ago. I appreciated the ability to download it immediately without having to go through a service rep, the fact that it was free to a solo like me, and that there were plenty of instructional videos to accompany the download. However, the system just did not work for me. No matter how many instructional videos I watched and how much time I invested into figuring it out, it didn't make sense. Nothing was intuitive. I have been a practicing attorney for seven years, so I have worked with case management systems before - it's not that I don't understand the concept, I just don't understand Houdini. After a few weeks of trying to figure it out, I gave up and went with a paid version.

I switched to HoudiniESQ from PCLaw after getting tired of constantly having to pay for Lexis Nexis's "Annual Maintenance Plan" to get any technical support. The cost was really adding up and the product was not that user friendly. I spent hours researching the best systems that would also function with my Mac and settled on HoudiniESQ for its ease of use and fully integrated workspace. I love that it has all the features I need, with the exception of business accounting, in one program. I have had some difficulty relating to emails with attachments (the receiver cannot always see the actual attachment, even though it is clearly attached on my end, and sometimes I cannot open attachments from senders). Other than fixing that problem, the only thing that would truly make the system better is to have fully functioning accounting as part of the program so that I can track all of my non-client business expenses within the same program instead of needing to use quickbooks.

I am an advanced legal software consumer. I have been using Lexis Nexis TimeMatters / Billing Matters for over 15 years. Ever since Lexis Nexis began their policy of charging a "reinstatement fee" to their loyal users that had dropped off the annual maintenace plan, I have been looking for a replacement LPM solution. This is it! It has all of TimeMatters features and a whole lot more! And the best thing of all, it is FREE for solos like myself. I am seriously considering paying the $792 to have ALL of my TimeMatters data imported over to this platform, but for now I'm just moving over the current years data. So instead of paying Lexis Nexis $2,100 in reinstatement fees for a 3 user setup (I don't use 2 of the users) I can still save over $2,000 that I can spend on other necesities.

Document Automation, Workflow triggers, INTAKE FORMS completely relational database across all record types.

Nothing so far!

HoudiniEsq is a well thought out. We use the product to centralize five district claims offices. The product is very flexible. We can customize the product easily. We have added new fields in seconds with rules and validation. This has proved to be a very valuable feature for us. In the past important data was stuffed into memo fields making the recall of this data almost impossible. Another really great feature is the workflow automation and how it is linked to the document automation feature. We are very document heavy. Being able to generate the necessary documentation automatically was a real selling point for us. HoudiniEsq does have a learning curve, but once you are familiar with just a few concepts, everything else starts to fall into place real quickly. Our staff love this product.

As a newly licensed, solo practioner, I was very excited to learn of Houdini's existence. When I first embarked on using the program, I thought, now I see why they named it Houdini. It was not very user friendly to me. I had a very difficult time maneuvering the system. So I would ask for more instructions for use for first timers and if there are differences in use for those with macs. There are so many other things going on for a newly licensed atty, everything is new. So it can be a deterrence to learn about a great exciting system, download it and not have any guidance as to how to use it and maximize that use. Overall, once you know how to use the system it is great, but be mindful of not making that a Houdini trick that you have to spend hours trying to master.

The best part about using Houdini is that there is no charge for a single user, solo practice setup. The program logic is straight forward, but the learning curve is a little steep. But since MOST attorneys have passed the Bar exam, this shouldn't be a problem! There is comprehensive documentation and many how-to videos, but a 1-2-3 setup guide including better descriptions of the various options would be extremely helpful. I prefer reading documentation rather than watching a video, just a personal preference. The Quickbooks connector is great and the Evernote integration is also a big plus. After reviewing all our other options, Houdini ESQ seemed like the best and least expensive place to start and grow.

Pros: it is clear you guys are serious about creating a good product and doing right; flexibility for those of us who are willing to take the time to customize; guys were great when I got them on the phone Cons: integrations with Microsoft and Quickbooks tended to lose their "links", so we were redoing the mapping fairly regularly; configuration was difficult in that it required many steps and alterations of many tabs; sometimes difficult to get someone on the phone and the fix often required a remote programmer/dba who never ultimately fixed the problem. Overall, I think the software is well on its way to be a great solution for law firms. It wasn't quite there for us.

We tried to use this but were constantly on phone with tech support. When we pointed out deficiencies it was met with a angry responses. We asked to try it a gain one year later thinking they would have worked out the kinks. Instead of getting another shot Frank the owner emailed me and said he would not set us up again. Presumably because we were to intense for their software and it's flaws.