The Technology Advantage: How Your Peers Are Maximizing Every Minute

The Technology Advantage: How Your Peers Are Maximizing Every Minute

8.5.2024

By Mary Elizabeth Hammond

How can you maximize every minute? Which features do you need to ensure long-term financial success while delighting clients? Below, we cover the top five technology features that can help you ensure sustainable growth at every stage of your firm’s journey.

5 Tech Features to Make the Most of Your Time

1. Online Payments

The MyCase Legal Industry Report surveyed 2,000 legal professionals, and 73% stated that getting paid was a challenge for their firm. Additionally, the report found that the collection rates for those who accepted online payments were nearly 10% higher than those who didn’t.

What are the benefits of online payments?

• Simplify the payments process

With MyCase, you can automate invoice creation and send bills with a clickable payment link—saving time while providing client convenience.

• Provide client-friendly options

Providing clients with multiple ways to pay allows them to pay on their terms. With Pay Later, offered through LawPay, your firm can even offer the option to pay over time while receiving the entire amount upfront.

What legal professionals say:

“I can create an itemized invoice that is transmitted electronically to the client. This has significantly reduced the time it takes to receive payments.” 

— Mark Brengelman, Mark R. Brengelman Law PLLC

2. Lead and Client Intake Automation

According to the MyCase Industry Report, 50% of legal practitioner respondents find lead intake challenging. Leveraging lead management technology allows your prospective clients to fill out their information on your site and request information with little to no work on your part.

What are the benefits of automation tools for client intake?

• Faster onboarding

Utilizing electronic signatures, or eSignatures gives you and your clients a convenient way to digitally collect legally binding signatures. This can speed up the client intake process, onboarding, and other case paperwork.

• Automated intake forms and workflows

Prospects can simply contact you by putting their information into embedded intake forms located on your site. You can then automate response messages to ensure prompt response times.

What legal professionals say:

“With MyCase eSignature, we cut client intake time in half—maybe more. We can do a lot more in an hour now than we could ever do before MyCase.”

— Kim Leval, Sorenson Law Office

3. Document Management

Easily create, share, and store documents in a single, secure location. Legal document management software ensures that your whole team has access to the most recent version of every document. This also enables remote and hybrid work.

What are the benefits of document management software?

• One secure place for all documents

With case management software, all documents can be stored in a single source of truth. Share, tag, and comment on documents in real time to easily collaborate with coworkers and clients. Also, you can determine who has access to view, edit, and share documents.

• Document automation

Create custom templates for documents and allow events (such as someone filling out a client intake form) to trigger an auto-population. This can save hours of time and reduce errors in documentation.

What legal professionals say:

“Having [all document versions] stored in one place chronologically infinitely helps. That’s probably the top thing that helps us collaborate. If someone is working from home or even if we’re all in-office, being able to see everybody’s versions is the best thing for our team.”

— Chelsea Wansley, Easterling Family Law

4. Time Tracking

The MyCase Industry Report determined that 61% of respondents struggle to capture billable time. Time-tracking software provides ways to make this process simpler, freeing up your time and ensuring that you get paid for every billable minute.

What are the benefits of time-tracking software?

• Automated invoicing

With time-tracking software, you can auto-populate invoices using time entries. This feature also automatically sends invoices and reminders on unpaid invoices.

• Set timers and reminders to accurately capture time

Rely on timers and automated reminders to log time, ensuring that every minute of potential revenue is recorded. MyCase allows you to switch between up to three timers simultaneously to record hours spent on billable tasks. If you forget to set a timer, you can rely on the MyCase Smart Time Finder for a list of completed tasks, such as a client phone call—jogging your memory of what you worked on.

What legal professionals say:

“MyCase has enabled us to keep better track of the time that we’re using. We can learn whether we’re using that time efficiently, and we can access our data in a much more useful way.”

— Nicole DeBorde, Hochglaube and DeBorde P.C.

5. Client Portal and Text Messaging

Leveraging client communication tools such as an all-in-one client portal or text messaging makes it easy to streamline communication and keep clients up to date—bettering the client experience and freeing up your time to focus on billable tasks.

What are the benefits of a client portal?

• Allows clients to communicate on their terms

MyCase provides a Client Portal and other specialized features that make client communication a breeze. You can communicate with clients in their preferred way, whether that be by text, email, or through the portal.

• Securely share sensitive information with clients

Easily share invoices and files, accept payments, and message clients in a secure, private location.

What legal professionals say:

“[Clients] don’t need to dig through email. And when we’re referencing multiple things, it’s easy for the client to go on that conversation journey with us […] Having everything we reference in one place is a helpful thing for them. For the client, it feels more professional to have everything at their fingertips, specifically [around] billing.”

— Chelsea Wansley, Easterling Family Law

Every Minute Maximized

MyCase practice management software boosts your firm efficiency, giving you the flexibility to refocus an extra 3+ billable hours daily on the things that matter most to you. Automate legal document management, create invoices quickly, and easily manage cases.

Ready to maximize your hours and minimize your cost? Request a free 10-day trial of MyCase today.

Mary Elizabeth Hammond is a Senior Content Writer at MyCase—the industry-leading case management software solution. She is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.