As readers of this blog will note, RocketMatter is also an advertiser here.  But before you jump all over me for shilling for dollars, let me tell you that I’ve been a fan of RocketMatter for far longer than they’ve been here.

More than that, the RocketMatter button on the site is an affiliate link – I get money from them only if someone signs up by clicking the link on the page.

So if you want to check it out and don’t want me to get a dollar out of it, go to the site directly.  I won’t make any money, and you will get a great system.

Anyway, back to the post at hand . . .

Objectively, it may appear that RocketMatter is expensive – way, way expensive.  Until January 1 the system prices out at $60 per lawyer plus $15 per non-lawyer staff member.  For a firm of 5, that comes out to $120 per month.  Annually, that’s $1,440.

Steep, huh?

Not so much, as the RocketMatter blog points out in a recent post.  As they say:

Think of all the costs involved with installations, upgrades, and training, and realize they go away if you use Rocket Matter. The true cost of a traditional legal practice management system, once you approximate the functionality of Rocket Matter, is very high.

For example, if you want to run Amicus Attorney in a multi-user environment, you need licenses, and you have 5 people in your firm.

For new licenses for Small Firm edition, they charge $499 for the first user, and $399 for additional users. There are annual maintenance fees of $295 for the 1st user, and $95 for each additional user. For training, it’s $399 for a bundle for 5 online training webinars. So for an average firm that would be $2,494 for the initial licenses and training, plus you would be paying $675 annually.

Pull out your calculator and add along with me.  By using RocketMatter instead of Amicus, you’d save $1,729 in the year alone – over $144 per month.

Wow.  Really puts it in perspective, huh?

So check out RocketMatter in one of two ways:

Via my affiliate link

OR

Directly to the site without giving me any credit whatsoever

Either way, you win big.  Just remember to let me know how much you love the system.

Related posts:

1. Introducing a New Web Based Case Management for Solo and Small Law Firms
2. Just Released: Online Practice Management System For Consumer Bankruptcy Lawyers
3. Daylite 3 as Case Management

You want to get untethered so you can escape the confines of your office chair.  There’s whole world out there for you – isn’t it time you actually took part in it?

I beta tested both Rocket Matter and Clio.  To be honest, at the time I didn’t think Rocket Matter was up to snuff.  The user interface felt nice, but overall the experience was like moving into a new home before all the wallboard was in place.  I signed up primarily to take advantage of some early-adopter pricing and let the system gather dust.  I figured I could either start using it or discontinue my subscription once I knew for sure if this thing was going to fly or go the way of the Apple Newton.

When I joined forces with my partner earlier this year I was shocked at his case management systems.  They were antiquated, limping along from day to day.  I decided right off the bat that we’d need to do some serious work immediately.  I had a few challenges:

• My partner has never used a full-featured case management system in the past;
• We needed to get up and running immediately;
• I didn’t have too much time to train the staff on a new system; and
• This system needed to do everything we needed, without customization or fancy-pants consultants.

What did we do?  We went with Rocket Matter.

Transitioning To Rocket Matter

Like I said, we didn’t have a prior system.  That having been said, we had spreadsheets with client data and multiple address books on our machines.  We had offers from some other companies to bring us on board, but they all came with headaches.  Did I seriously want to spend all that money on upgrades every year?  Did I want to hire a ridiculously expensive consultant who would show me which buttons to press when I wanted to get something done?

Yeah, I don’t think so.

We sent a few spreadsheets to the folks at Rocket Matter, told them what to do with it, and took one of their Rocket 101 webinars (they offer webinars more often than most people shower, it seems).  Within a day or so, the staff was limping along and getting work done.  You gotta walk before you can run, right?  Over time, things became more fluid.

Dear Client, Please Pay Your Bill

Rocket Matter didn’t originally have a stellar invoicing system and, to be honest, I’m still not in love with the functionality it provides for a flat-fee practice that bills up front and takes payment plans for the balance due.  But with only a minor amount of thought we got things to where we want them.  Now a client comes in, pays part of their fee and the money gets credited.  They’ve also got trust accounting and all that hoopla for those who use those things.

Every month we press a button, run a report and the system spits out all of our invoices.  Stuff ‘em in the mail (or send them by email) and money comes in from clients.

There’s also a live timer that lets me bill hourly should I see fit to do so.  I use it to track how long it takes me to handle a particular matter, which helps me price my services more accurately.

Call Mr. Jones Back

My receptionist used to insist that I bought those stupid little message pads.  You know, the ones with fourteen carbon copies that come in little binders?  Very cute, but I’d end up with a stack of the damn things and a mess on my desk.  It was like the message fairy was sprinkling dust on my desk.

Screw that.  Now when a call comes in my receptionist clicks a little button that looks like an old-fashioned telephone and just types in the message.  It goes into the client’s file on Rocket Matter, I pick it up and respond.  No more annoying little slips of paper to piss me off!

Where’s That Letter I Sent?

Once again, Rocket Matter had sucky functionality when it came to document management.  Not because it didn’t work, but because I didn’t want to store my documents on their system.  It’s reliable and all, but downloading and uploading takes time.  I’m an impatient man, my friends.  So I used Dropbox.

Apparently, so does everyone else (rightfully so).  So Rocket Matter wised up and now integrates with Dropbox.  O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!  Save a file on my computer, Rocket Matter recognizes it as belonging to a particular matter, and I can access it as I please.

Court at 2pm, Intake at 3pm

The calendar was fine, but I’ve been using Google Calendar for two years.  So I didn’t use the calendar, either.  But not it syncs with the GCal for each of our staff members, eliminating the old double-entry problem.  I won’t go intro greater detail because you don’t care about that.  Suffice to say, it works with GCal nicely.

My Final Answer

Rocket Matter is awesome.  It’s no more expensive than sitting on the phone waiting for some “support person” to help with another needless upgrade (Rocket Matter does upgrades automatically, most often when normal people as asleep), so if you’re of the “wow, I can’t believe I’m spending money every month instead of just buying it outright,” crowd then you need to seriously review your long-term financial strategy.  Really.

I have my calendars, my to-do list, my tasks, messages, documents management and billing.  It doesn’t draft my bankruptcy petitions or let clients gain access to their files, but that’s fine by me.  It’s easy to use, they provide awesome support and training, and I don’t have to worry about maintenance anymore.

What Other People Say

Rocket Matter: It Is Finally Time For The FutureLawyer To Get In The Spaceship (FutureLawyer, February 2010)

Rocket Matter legal practice management software: still promising, still pricey (Lawyerist, July 2009)

A Quick Look at Rocket Matter (Criminal Defense Law With An Apple, March 2008)

Author’s Note:  This article was originally written on March 16, 2008.  The original article pointed out a number of flaws that Rocket Matter had at the time, but we’ve come a long way in the interim.  So I changed the post, which is now entirely new as of December 7, 2010.

Related posts:

1. Rocket Matter API: Merge Documents with Rocket Matter on a Mac
2. The Mac Lawyer Upgrades to Rocket Matter
3. More on Rocket Matter

Most solos and small firms have embraced the use of web based technology the last few years. By taking advantage of this trend, Rocket Matter has developed a web-based practice management software. It is accessible from anywhere with Internet access. You can use it on a Mac, PC, iPhone, or even a Linux machine. You can log on and bill time from the office, home, or on the road.

The crew at Rocket Matter designed it to be as simple to use as possible. Your calendar, contact manager, matter manager, and time and billing software is rolled into one integrated, enjoyable product. You can generate invoices for all your billable matters with a single click of the mouse.

Their “Bill as you Work”™ technology captures your billable time as you go about your day. There is no need to total up hours at the end of the billing cycle or to figure out where your time went.

Getting started is easy. You don’t have to buy servers. You don’t have to pay someone to install Rocket Matter. You don’t even have to buy licenses. You only pay for the number of users you want, and that’s it. Best of all, you can save the likely $8000 you’d have to pay for a traditional practice management setup.

With Rocket Matter, you can sleep well, knowing you have daily backups and security managed for you automatically. And since Rocket Matter’s servers are in a redundant, premier data center, you have an instant disaster-recovery plan.

I encourage all of you to explore this great new product further. Sign up for an exclusive invitation and view a preview of the product at RocketMatter. Subscribe to their Product Updates to follow RocketMatter developments.

Related posts:

1. Rocket Matter Introduces Web-Based Messages … And More!
2. How Can Online Case Management Save You Over $140 Per Month?
3. Is Marketing A Law Firm Easier For Solos And Small Firms?