All AbacusLaw Reviews

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Marie

Law Practice, 2 - 10 employees

Used more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

Reviewed March 2021

All the Bells and Whistles

User Profile

J. Michael

Verified reviewer

Legal Services, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2018

Customizable Software and Amazing Support

Every single person I've dealt with at Abacus, from initial sale to professional services to tech support, has been patient, professional, knowledgeable, and effective. I've dealt with too many companies who virtually disappear after making the sale. The people at Abacus are nothing like that; their service and support are first rate.

PROS

The software uses a customizable database structure, so you can create or modify forms and fields to make them relevant for the types of cases you handle. In areas where aspects of the program are not wholly intuitive, Abacus's knowledge base and online instructional videos are very helpful. Abacus tech support is amazing.

CONS

AbacusLaw links to MS Outlook, but not to any other email/calendar client (and I had to quit Outlook for another more reliable email/calendar solution because Outlook is extremely problematic in key, basic areas). I feel like I should be able to drop an email message from any email application -- or any file, for that matter -- into an AbacusLaw matter. I do wish the client portal (for exchanging documents with clients) were available.

Anonymous

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed July 2023

No more

PROS

Abacus worked fairly well initially as a server based small number of user platform. At the time, few system integrated accounting with the LPM main product. New features were overpromised and half-baked.

CONS

Tech support and customer support evaporated over time. Systems crashed routinely and Abacus had no reliable answers for tech updates from Microsoft.

Vendor Response

We're very sorry to hear that your experience with AbacusLaw did not live up to your expectations. We will be sure to pass along this feedback to our team and use it to continuously improve our services.

Replied August 2023

User Profile

Susan

Verified reviewer

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2018

The Goods and the Bads of Abacus

PROS

On the law side of Abacus it is substantially a good system to use. The organization, ease of use, and the multiple tools allow the law side to run smooth and easy with little to no problems. Things such as client entry, event posting, and much more have become much easier over time with the multiple updates and fixes. Overall the law side software is a well created system.

CONS

The Accounting side of Abacus has many little problems within it that overall cause the functionality of abacus to become less effective. Things such as tables not communicating with each other and the software crashing due to simple tasks such as voiding checks are some of the many problems that occurs. Without fixing these issues, the overall effectiveness and efficiency of abacus accounting will only continue to diminish.

Anonymous

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed August 2018

Abacus review

It's nice to always have our contacts and cases in one place. There are still many things we need to learn to use this program to its full potential.

PROS

Everything is in one program and able to access it all easily

CONS

We always have problems with our updates each year. Abacus is really good about fixing it but still a pain to have to call tech support to get it fixed.

Michelle

Law Practice, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

1

EASE OF USE

1

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

1

Reviewed January 2018

Worst Experience Ever. If I could give zero stars I would!

Do not make the mistake of believing that this product will do anything for you other than cause you countless hours of grief.

PROS

Any pros of this software are so far outweighed by the cons that they are not worthy of even mention.

CONS

This software is absolutely horrible. I had high hopes for this software after having been given rave reviews about Amicus Attorney and calling to get more information. The salesperson convinced me that after describing my firm's needs, we were better suited for Abacus, which was owned by the same company. After purchasing the software, it took more than 8 months for them to figure out how to migrate our data from our existing billing software, a process that they represented they were very familiar with during the sales calls. When we finally made the transition to this software we quickly learned that it is not at all user-friendly, they provide no guidance on how to use the software or how to set it up, large portions of data mysteriously changes by itself (today the originating attorneys on hundreds of our chases mysteriously changed to reflect the names of our support staff members). The calendaring system is supposed to be able to sync seamlessly with Outlook. This is a joke. Items randomly disappear from attorneys' calendars or appear on the wrong attorneys calendars, when entered. Some items sync from Abacus to Outlook and others don't with no rhyme or reason. Their call center is horrible. You cannot get the same person on the phone twice, and you cannot request to speak with a particular person so there is no consistency of service. Each time you call to describe a problem you are having, you have to start from the beginning because they do not keep any records of your past calls. The people who answer the phone have no idea how the software works and always tell you that they have to research your question and get back to you. Oftentimes you never receive a call back and when you do they still don't know how to assist you. I could go on and on...

Thomas

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

1

EASE OF USE

1

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

1

Reviewed January 2017

Great Program for the 1970s law firm - Garbage if you are practicing law in present era!

Forced subscription model on an outdated program. The program had difficulty with a 4-person law firm. There were numerous issues with duplicate contacts, duplicate emails, multiple scheduling issues, and failed to easily integrate with other applications such as Outlook 2016. We also were forced onto a subscription model, costing approximately $300/month. We received zero updates during that time, despite numerous complaints to the sales team. We purchased a high-end server ($4,000) to run Abacus, thinking the hardware was the cause of the latency issues. This solved nothing. At the end of our contract, our salesperson told us that the software would continue to function, but support would be terminated. This was a lie. The software was restricted to read-only mode and we were locked out of our data. We were then given the option of paying a $275 reinstatement fee, plus increased monthly fees to get the software up and running on our own server again. This was the last straw and we migrated to a much better solution. Abacus is an outdated system that requires significant upkeep. The hardware requirements are not included in their pricing model. Their hosted solution was also garbage, as it failed to integrate with the local programs. Their software is incredible slow and simple tasks (such as printing an invoice) takes 5-10 minutes to accomplish. I would stay away from this product at all costs. One final warning, because their system is so outdated, once you start entering data, it cannot be exported to be migrated to a new system. Their poor design forces you to remain on their system or feel the pain of a weeks long migration system. Again, stay away from this outdated system at all costs.

PROS

Nothing. It is complete garbage. It is outdated and shouldn't be on the market.

CONS

Poor design, simple tasks are overly complicated, they force an over-priced subscription model, doesn't integrate with other programs, does not integrate directly with phone calendars, created duplicate entries for contacts, cannot migrate data.

Vendor Response

Capterra is a distinguished platform for users to share reviews of software products, and we respect the forum as a place for serious technical reviews made without self-interest or aggrandizement. The tone and tenor of your review indicates that you are very unhappy with our product, and while we would love to have you stay with us, we want you to make the best decision for your firm. We would be happy to help remedy your situation. At your earliest convenience, please contact us at 858-882-1794F. Cheers, Abacus

Replied January 2017

mary

Legal Services, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

1

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

2

Reviewed June 2023

The program has become worst than ever!

The program always had issues but over the last year or two, the customer service has been dismal and the problems have been increasing. When the problems have to do with accounting records, it is very impactful and time consuming to fix. It has been a disruption to our daily work without any resolution to the existing issues.

PROS

The program strives to assist with case management, billing and accounting - all within one program, but falls VERY short of achieving its intended goals.

CONS

It is the worst time-consuming inefficient and ineffective program I have had to work with. I've dealt with them for over 12 years and it is getting worst rather than better. It has cost me more money in lost time than I have paid for the program itself. Customer service is also horrible, with no responses being received as to emails, calls, scheduled appointments being missed, etc. The program glitches are a daily issue that slows down work productivity. Unfortunately having all of our records in the program makes the jump to another program complicated so best advice: do not use ABACUS!

Reason for choosing AbacusLaw

I am stuck with Abacus Law because of the volume of data already in the system.

Vendor Response

Hi Mary, we're very sorry to hear that your experience with AbacusLaw is not living up to your expectations. We will be sure to pass along this feedback to our team and use it to continuously improve our services.

Replied August 2023

Kate

Legal Services, 2-10 employees

Used more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

1

EASE OF USE

1

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

1

Reviewed May 2020

Abacus Law is not a good product

Really terrible. We have had an unworkable system and yet we are expected to still pay $860 a month and they have our prior cloud services and files held hostage and refuse to release files. DO NOT USE ABACUS LAW!

PROS

We have had the worst customer service. The program has constant problems (not synching, billing is a nightmare, lost entries) and it has cost my firm $100k in lost billing and administrative time on hold trying to reach the support team.

CONS

Billing, mobile app, customer service,. In fact, I can’t think of a single aspect of this program that has worked well without issue or that I would say I liked.

Reason for choosing AbacusLaw

I have no idea other than we were lied to. They completely misrepresented the product and support we would get. It truly has been a nightmare and it is not an exaggeration to say it has cost $100k in billable hours that were either lost by their system failing to synch with the mobile app or by my staff having to be on hold with support. I cannot more strongly advise that no law firms use this product.

Reasons for switching to AbacusLaw

Abacus sold us a bill of goods, with “free” Laptops (turned out to be tiny red dell tablets that rarely work) and they promised simplified billing and full office automation with cloud integration, none of which was true. We had 18 calls to support within one week, and each call to customer service requires waiting on hold for 30 minutes and then you are promised a call back, which often doesn’t happen.

Vendor Response

Hi Kate, We are so sorry to hear you've had a bad experience. I have raised your concerns to our client services leadership team. We would like to make sure you are set up properly for success with our solutions. Sincerely, The AbacusNext Team

Replied May 2020

JAMES

Used free trial

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

Reviewed December 2015

ABACUS PRIVATE CLOUD - A GREAT COMPUTING PLATFORM FOR LAWYERS!!

For the last 20 months my entire law office has been run on Abacus Private Cloud. It has worked flawlessly, with great, responsive, USA-based tech support (for set up issues and as needed thereafter). APC enabled me to put my entire law office into a private cloud environment, in an industrial data center custom-built solely for this purpose, dedicated to the legal profession, and managed by top-notch professionals in the data center industry; this is something I could never have achieved on my own, or through another vendor. The benefits to my law practice from Abacus Private Cloud are: - - My data is secure and safe in the Abacus Private Cloud data center. No more local data backups, because all data is on the private cloud server, and is backed up there. - - My local equipment costs are drastically lower than before I switched to a private cloud. I eliminated the three desktop computers that I was previously accessing remotely. - - I don't need costly application software on each local access device. All law office applications can be run on the private cloud server, not on local hardware. The local devices are there simply to display and interact with the private cloud server. - - My private cloud server can run any software, whether related to Abacus or not. Therefore, I can run the application software that my meets the specific needs of my law practice, regardless of the vendor. - - My local IT and tech support costs are $0. - - My staff and I have become totally mobile, without sacrificing efficiency. This means that each employee, as needed, can work on their own schedule, and from any location with cell phone coverage, electricity, and an Internet connection. This creates a flexible, modern, and dynamic work environment, resulting in a better quality of life, happier attorneys and staff, and a better work vs. life balance for all involved. - - All law office applications and data are accessible 24×7 for each user via any device: desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. - - Private cloud technical requests (e.g., email configuration, remote access from a new device, etc.) are promptly resolved by the Abacus Private Cloud support staff. - - System reliability (uptime) is outstanding. In sum, this is a truly great product, at a reasonable price, with great customer support. I highly recommend you get it!! Thanks.

Vendor Response

Mr Farr: Thank you for being a valued Abacus client. We're glad that you have fully automated your practice Abacus Private Cloud, and enjoy your virtual workplace environment. We are committed to providing our clients with a comprehensive suite of fully managed legal technology products and services to help guarantee the integrity and security of their sensitive data, as well as to enable their success and ultimate performance. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you, we wish you much success! Best, The Abacus Total Care Team

Replied December 2015

Jane

Hospital & Health Care, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed May 2021

Good but could be improved in certain areas

We need to store a lost of data related to the health care sector. Abacus was not designed for our specific needs but we have incorporated our needed information into your field ranges. Its not perfect but works. We bought your product mostly because of the email feature. That has not worked well.

PROS

It captures all of the data we need. The queries work well. Your support team is fairly fast to respond and when they do respond most of the people we have dealt with speak English quite well. As a person with hearing issues, this is extremely important to me.

CONS

The emailing feature needs to be improved. Constant issues with trying to add links, photos, logos or graphics, can't add attachments. We do a mass newsletter monthly and almost always have issues. We want our newsletters to look better more eye catching but with this program we can only send boring basic emails with little chance of catching the readers attention. If we want to do something with graphics, logos, links, or add attachments we have to do a query and export the email addressing into an excel spreadsheet then do batches of emails in Outlook. This is our biggest complaint with Abacus.

Reason for choosing AbacusLaw

It was the cost and the email feature.

Reasons for switching to AbacusLaw

The switch was made because the product we were using became obsolete and was not being recreated.

Louise

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed August 2018

Ongoing diffciulties

As usual, Customer support was very helpful. He called when he said he would and did his best to resolve the issues over which he had control. Where the issues related to Amicus and he could not resolve them himself, he has pointed me in the right direction so that at least I can try to get them resolved in the future if he can’t do so whilst I am on annual leave. In my view, Customer support assistance is really the only redeeming feature of the support provided, with no one else showing any real interest in helping me. The product could be excellent but is let down by speed and support issues. Now I only bother to contact Customer support as he is the only person who has really shown any interest in trying to resolve issues.

PROS

The product has a number of useful features which make it good for use in legal work. The ability to store all documents and correspondences within a file and send them by email or move them to different files are excellent, as is the ability to generate template documents and amend as necessary

CONS

The product is often slow and cumbersome to use, with numerous glitches which never seem to get resolved. we are based in the UK and were told that we would have 24 hour support, but this simply hasn't happened. I have had some issues with Outlook, copying and pasting and documents not attaching to emails for three months now and, whilst Customer support has made every attempt to try and sort these out, he is only able to do so during US working hours (which means from around 3pm UK time) and, despite his commitment and many efforts, the problems are still not resolved which, I understand, is because there is a bug for which there is so far no fix.

M Patricia

Law Practice, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

OVERALL RATING:

1

EASE OF USE

1

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

1

Reviewed November 2016

DO NOT FALL FOR THIER EXCELLENT SALES PITCH

This was probably the worst decision I have made in my 38 year career. Our firm is still not operational and we've been working with them for six months. The main issue is that Abacus will not connect from San Diego to Colorado: the internet based program shuts down suddenly and your work is missing if you have not saved it on your server (outside of the Abacus program). This is a problem if you are on a deadline. When we brought that to Abacus attention, they blamed a third party connection. We had our IT guy call the third party but because we are not customers of the third party, they would not talk to us. So basically we are paying for a program that does not work AND Abacus wont fix it or even contact the third party with whom they contract for the connection. Furthermore, the migration of my billing program to Abacus billing was a nightmare as Abacus loaded the trust account into the operating account as a credit, i.e. zero in trust. Once they sorted that out, the billing program would not accept payments from clients. My bookkeeper was on the phone with Abacus techs for countless hours trying to work that out to no avail. Finally I sent them a certified letter terminating the contract for cause and guess what? Action! now I had ten technicians working on the multiple issues trying to get it all resolved. But that took time and my attorneys were required to spend literally hours on the phone with these guys. Billable hours lost, meant they did not get their bonuses this month, as well as the firm lost revenue. To make matters worse, the response from Abacus was that it was our fault because our attorneys were non responsive: a complete lie, unless you want to complain that sometimes our attorneys are in court handling actual client matters and cannot be on the phone with them while they are doing actual attorney work. Emails are still floating in cyberspace, not received. Printers don't work. etc etc. My choice is to litigate in another state -- completely untenable. Don't be stupid. Upgrade your server and stick with your current billing program.

PROS

Great sales pitch. If the program worked, it is a lawyers dream. It doesn't.

CONS

The program does not connect and shuts down. Then you cannot do anything. It does not operate.

Alissa

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed May 2020

Abacus Law is not user friendly, but it is very usefull

Overall, I use it daily and rely on it. I have had some frustrations with it's interaction with outlook and emails. I have had frustrations as outlined above. I do like it, but wish it were more intuitive and usefull in that way.

PROS

I like the ability to track action and save emails and contact for each client. Also, to track deadlines and tickles on the calendar.

CONS

Use of the reports (figuring out correct useful report or creating report), integration with merging letters and documents, and customizing the screens is extremely cumbersome, difficult, time consuming and is not intuitive. I spent several hours as well as time on the phone and on the learning video figuring out merging form letters and documents. However, when I did figure it out, I found out that some of the Word Documents will not work with abacus. I am still not able to determine why some work and some don't. I don't have time to spend on additional document creation. I also had a deadline not show up on the DEADSOL report because it was coded slightly differently. This is major problem if minor coding error makes the deadline invisible.

Reason for choosing AbacusLaw

At the time I started my practice, Abacus gave me the best up front price and maintenance price. It was a cost decision, as well as I had used it before and knew the basics of how it worked and I could track cases and calendar deadlines.

David

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

1

EASE OF USE

1

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

1

Reviewed May 2017

Worst Customer Service Ever. Overcharged me. Kept charging me after I cancelled service.

It allowed us to move from a paper calendar to a electronic one. I cannot think of anything that is an upgrade from paper files except that.

PROS

Our needs were minimal and this software met most of those minimal needs.

CONS

Screens are not customizable. We asked repeatedly for the ability to make custom buttons so that we could execute tasks on each Client without going through their rigorous protocols. After several years and release updates, custom buttons never made it. It seems they don't want users to alter the product so that it best fits the users needs. They are very rigid. At the term of our contract they began billing me at 4 times our agreed rate with no notice. Not once did they disclose the amount they were going to charge and it cannot be found anywhere in their emails, website, etc. For that matter, they could have charged me $1 million a month. In any event, when I told then I did not want do business with such a dishonest company and cancel any service agreement with them, they kept charging my bank card. I finally had to cancel my bank card to stop the charges. Worse than AOL and Comcast.

Michael

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed June 2017

Been with them for almost 10 years and each version gets better and better

Most important... CONSOLIDATION! Abacus Law integrated the case management, "tickler" by rule, forms, contacts, matter, ACCOUNTING AND BILLING, all into a single easy to use and learn package. Changes in one area and iterated throughout the software. We almost never and disparate or duplicate data. Well Done!

PROS

Ease of use, consistency in operation, great support. In nearly our entire use, different versions and our transition to the "cloud" last year, our up-time has been nearly 99%. I was worried about transitioning to APC (cloud), but the support and transition and setup was painless and well executed. Our employees barely noticed the difference, but for, the Remote Desktop link... Very well done!

CONS

There are a few very minor custom things, but overall, nothing worth mentioning. As I said, I have been a happy customer for about 10 years, seen the growing pains, and various upgraded and improvements, each being better than the previous. We've been quite pleased.

Vendor Response

We appreciate your enthusiasm and thank you for your feedback! It has been a pleasure to serve you over the past decade.

Replied June 2017

Sharenda

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed September 2018

Abacus - a comprehensive program

Overall Abacus has saved me a tremendous amount of time. Prior to its use, we were using three programs to do the work of Abacus, which meant entering basic information in three different programs and inputting data from one program into another to run reports, do billing, etc. Abacus has saved us a great deal of time.

PROS

I like the fact that Abacus Law and Abacus Accounting work so well together. Everything integrates nicely which saves me a lot of time. I also like the fact that tech support is local (in San Diego), speaks English, and is (almost) always available.

CONS

Our software developed a "glitch" quite some time ago and neither tech support, nor the engineering staff, were able to resolve it. It's still there, and it keeps throwing me error messages, but the program works in spite of it. Our main complaint is that we would like to upgrade to the new version of Abacus, but it does not work offline, so we've had to stay with the older version. (Internet in our area of town goes down frequently, and our practice is very Abacus-dependent.)

Angela

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed June 2017

Abacus makes accounting easy.

PROS

Abacus has everything we need for our daily functions and makes basic accounting easy. We can access our client's many different ways (i.e.: name, matter, ID). I love the way the top bar is set up. The icons are used daily. I can print out reports for the partner within seconds. Easy transfer of funds from one client to another.

CONS

Sometimes when updates are made, there are problems with the monthly billing and client payments. After inputting the time tickets, sometimes the program freezes up and we need to shut down the system a couple of times and even need to call customer services for help. Also, when printing the invoices, even though I put them in alpha order, when they print out, they print out numerically or even one time recently just printed out (255 bills) in no methodical way. The same thing happens when inputting client payments. Instead of allowing me to input what I want to input, if I mark an invoice or invoices.

Anonymous

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed January 2018

Ugh. I use it because I don't feel I have a better option...

The cost vs other comparable software is the primary reason why this software was chosen. Additionally (just as important to us) is that the data is stored on our network and not the cloud.

PROS

The legal billing and trust accounting functions are great. However, the rest of the accounting functionality really stinks. I like how for billing, you can schedule a bill to e-mail or print and it automatically does it (e/m or print) when you finalize the bills.

CONS

I'm used to QuickBooks. I hate that I can't drill down to detail from reports. I hate that I can't type a vendor's name when I tab to the field when entering A/P (you have to open the search window and search for the vendor...there's no way to fully navigate through data entry without taking your hands off the keyboard). Data between the "Law" program and the "Accounting" program becomes "out of sync" frequently. There's a script to run to attempt to fix it, but it takes hours to run.

Brandie

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

2

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

2

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed May 2020

Abacus Law has its ups and downs.

I do not think I would recommend it. I would change software but for the time consuming nature or changing billing software.

PROS

Adding billing entries to a client's account is easy and very user friendly.

CONS

There are issues with the accounting features, and sometimes adding a credit or correcting a mistake made in prior billing cycles compounds past issues.

Reasons for switching to AbacusLaw

Time Matters kept crashing our system.

Laiba

Law Practice, 51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed May 2023

AbacusLaw

PROS

For me, the software runs without a hitch. There are many functions, some of which I haven't yet fully utilized.The scheduling tool is fantastic and very flexible to my needs. Most functionalities are simple to learn how to use. You can carry your job everywhere you go thanks to it.Additionally, the application has a fantastic client database with notes .

CONS

This software usage is effective. apart from The only drawback I can mention is that updating can occasionally be a horrific experience.

Vendor Response

Laiba, thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review of AbacusLaw. We love hearing from happy customers like you!

Replied May 2023

Schawnne

Legal Services, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed January 2020

The Best Legal Software

Our intention was to keep our law project as paperless as we could and AbacusLaw plays a big part in allowing us to achieve this goal.

PROS

What I like most about AbacusLaw is how user-friendly it is and how we were able to use it to keep the project organized on a daily basis. It is a complete package.

CONS

I think I liked everything about AbacusLaw. I cannot think of any problem that I had with the software.

Reason for choosing AbacusLaw

We went with AbacusLaw because of how the software offered a complete package at a price we could afford. It allowed us to accomplish our goals and did not hinder our work in anyway I can think of.

Vendor Response

Thank you so much for your thoughtful review, Schawnne. We're glad AbacusLaw has helped your organization meet its goal of going paperless, and that you've found the product easy to use. We appreciate you sharing your experience with us and the Capterra community! All the best, The team at AbacusNext

Replied January 2020

David

Law Practice, 1 employee

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed May 2021

Solo practitioner using Abacus

When I consistently enter time, the software works smoothly for me. Creating invoices is easy, as is correcting time entry errors. If I fall behind the software has no impediments to catching up on time entries. I've looked at switching to another program and concluded that the benefits of functionality I will not use are not worth the learning curve.

PROS

The bottom line is that Abuscu does everything that I need and has added bells and whistles that would be valuable in my practice. Once I figure out how to use a function it works well for me. Learning how to use most functions easy. Beyond basic time tracking, adjusting my working style to Abacus Law has been an obstacle. The problem is mine than the software. I've learned to use certain functions that would be valuable to me, but I have not been able to adopt them. I don't think another application would be better. The bottom line is that Abuscu does everything that I need and has added bells and whistles that would be valuable in my practice.

CONS

The software feels like it was written 20 years ago and not updated to a better user-interface. I wish that there were a simple to use app for my smartphone. Abacus may have that for its cloud product, but the cost difference made me lose interets. The online help is daunting, but the telephone support is terrific. It's an adequate balance. I wish there was a way to export billing data to Quickbooks. My accountant knows QB. I can't impose on him to learn Abacus accounting. I'm using a program that tracks my computer use by app and even collects screenshots. Something like that would be a wonderful addition.

Reason for choosing AbacusLaw

I thought the price was better for my needs. I am still happy with the cost.

Grayson

Law Practice, 11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

2

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

1

Reviewed May 2020

Mixed Bag

It's a mixed bag. It could be great software if the people who developed it had real experience using it in a practical environment. And if they spent more time testing stuff to make sure it worked. And if their tech support people were more helpful and less evasive.

PROS

Part of what attracted us to this software was that it advertised that it allowed us to integrate WordPerfect forms that we already had into the document preparation feature. We also like the group calendar that allows us to color-code each attorney making it easy to determine who is where. They also did a fairly decent job of integrating old data from a previous practice management software to allow more thorough conflict checking. The interface for most things is reasonably intuitive. It has features that can make it a good all-around practice management program if you use all of them.

CONS

Technical support is sad. So many of the people we get have no idea what the problems are or why the program is doing something it should not be. Correcting an error often becomes a lengthy boondoggle that takes ridiculous amounts of time. Features that they promise are part of the software are often not fully or properly functional, or the support staff seems to have no idea how they actually work. When trying to work with WordPerfect integration, for example, they did not seem to have any tech support personnel who actually knew how to use the program or how it was supposed to integrate and could not answer questions about it, so we were on our own. It does integrate, for the most part, but some things we try to ask about they just don't know an answer for . They promised us integration with LawPay and then backed out instead pushing a program they had developed to take payments. After seeing how they have been with other features, I don't want them to experiment on me and my clients with some "new" software they have halfway developed. We sometimes found that we knew more about the program than some of the tech support folks we were on calls with, and quite frequently we never receive explanations for why something was not working right, even though we WANT to know so we can avoid the issue in the future. I suspect sometimes it's a bug on their end that they do not want to confess to. It also does not double-check deletions and changes-leading to lost data.

Reason for choosing AbacusLaw

Basically, the group calendar and WordPerfect integration - ProLaw was moving away from WordPerfect support and we already had a substantial number of documents and preferred this software.

Reasons for switching to AbacusLaw

Moving to a new firm that already had Abacus and wanted to integrate

Mary

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed May 2020

Thought it would be better

I really thought Abacus was a better product than it has turned out to be. It can't do basic things that an accounting system can do. It's a so-so product.

PROS

I liked that it could integrate with our business systems as they are.

CONS

The add-ins do not work consistently and have more cons than pros. The reporting is not very good and making deposits that are not client checks makes no sense. The system is good for basic legal clients, but anything more complex and there's issues. You can't just double click on a number in a report to get more information on it like many other software programs. If you print a check, you can't change anything about it with an edit; you have to delete the entire thing to make small changes. There is also no way to track time reductions truly. Entering time takes forever because you have to go into each matter separately and enter your time instead of a large platform to enter time for each matter on one sheet. Editing bills takes so much longer than it should because of how it has to be done.

Reason for choosing AbacusLaw

I thought it was the best product for it's money at the time.

Reasons for switching to AbacusLaw

The software was never setup right from the beginning and it had been too long running it at about 25% of what it was worth.

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