Actionstep

• It does take some time to get used to it and to actually make it work for you
• The key is to actually spend time using it and customising it to your needs
• This isn't a plug and play solution out of the box, and firms will need to take time to make sure that they have configured it to meet their needs

• My biggest frustration is that we created a webform so with a couple clicks, staff can create a new potential client matter using that information as it integrates into the software
• However, 90% of the webforms are spam that has to be read every day because bots are completing the form
• Have not seen a remedy for this because AS just refers us to our own IT but we have filters and the bots are coming in through AS system
• This is a huge issue I've spent so much time on and it is the one issue that would make our work lives so much better if it could be remedied

The billing module could be easier and a live visit from technician would have bee wonderful at the start instead of having to learn everything online which took forever

• First, something simple
• Make an "out of office" message available through the email system
• When I set this up on my outlook, then even though it is integrated, if the client sends an email directly through the Actionstep platform,they do not receive that out of office message
• Second, the billing system is not user-friendly
• First, the billing templates are a lot harder to set up than they should be, even with the pre-made templates
• Second, the trust accounting is difficult to integrate into the bills
• Yes, it is there but not in a way that is client friendly
• Third, this is so simple I fail to understand why it isnt in place
• Make some simple billing features automatic like the ability to print aging on a bill
• They have a form for it but it just looks weird
• And why shouldn't you just be able to carry over onto a new bill in an easy way
• Other case management software has this in a very easy format
• Also, when we upgraded to the new billing format there are some ongoing and permanent glitches that make my bookeeper's job harder
• Finally, this is a costly system compared to some others in the legal field
• And we have received word that the cost is increasing
• We will be in the process of reviewing other options
• We may decide to stick with Actionstep since there are a lot of good features, but we don't feel strongly enough to keep it with a price increase down the road, even if we are "grandfathered" temporarily
• We hired a consultant to help us get it set up

• Options for integration with accounting and invoicing software is fairly limited
• Learning curve is a bit steeper than other cloud based systems
• They seem to have heard these concern and over the past four years that I've been using Actionstep, and their development team has making progress on these two fronts
• They aren't perfect yet, but they seem to be continually improving

• Search is terrible
• Searching for documents is useless
• Searching for contacts by employer/place of work is impossible
• These are basic things a law office needs to do, and this software is a hindrance to getting work done because of its awful search capabilities
• Also, the fact that you can only see so many results on a page is maddening
• Imagine that you want to search your contacts and get a list of contacts that live in a certain city
• You want to select them all and send an email or something
• NOPE
• Search results are limited to 200, no matter how many contacts you have from that city, and you can only see 10 per page, and the results are not sortable; they come in random order
• Also, there is no way to select them all and take any action like sednding them all an email within the program
• Copy and paste of contact info is also impossible
• I have many opportunities during a week to send one person the contact info for another person
• Actionstep has no way for me to easily do this
• There is no button to click, function to use or work-around for selecting a contact and getting that contact's info onto the clipboard for pasting into a document or email
• You can bring up the contact and drag your mouse over various places on the contact form to copy the address, then do it again for the name, then do it again for the email address, then do it again for the phone number, then do it again for the fax number
• But be careful not to *click on the(I ran out of space on this form)

I have no adverse comments as I have not found any aspect of the software to fall short of what is needed

• Bugs in invoicing and accounting made me lose a lot of money
• Despite corrections, some invoices do not appear at the customer level and we work in files with open balances
• It's very stressful, too
• Money flows are case centred, not customer centred
• This is highly problematic (retainers go on a case and not on the client, so you have to open X tabs for X cases opened in this client to make sure you are not going to send an invoice to a client who has provisioned you
• )
• User acceptance is difficult
• It is complicated to require changes in workflows and field fills (this is not the responsibility of Actionstep, but don't think it will run by itself
• You will need to coach your employees)
• Customer service is catastrophic
• I screamed for help when the system started to double-deduct (
• ) the retainers
• It took 4 months to get a solution
• In the meantime, I have continued to lose a lot of money
• I have doubts about their financial strength, since six months after I started using the software, I received a notice of license increase
• When I asked for some help to switch to a cheaper license, I was told that it would not be possible to keep my data (
• )

• 1
• Now, they do not have single use licence anymore (a very big downside for persons like me who are planning to have a single user licence)
• 2
• The creation of templates process can be easier and user-friendly
• 3
• The law-firms have Individuals and Companies as clients and also Family Trusts, Partnership Firms etc
• and there are only two options - for individuals and for companies
• which is limiting
• Many things can be improved proactively

• VERY POOR SUPPORT
• Their Business model -- purchase the product, they give you 15 hrs free education, then once that is used up you get charged exorbitant fees or referred to their affiliates, one that I was referred to had no idea and the templates were multi coloured font colours, then referred to another who was an "owner" of Actionstep
• once I identified their business model
• signing everyone up, limited contact support, and the assistance you get is so generic, that eventually forces you to sign up to the outsiders that are actually insiders
• DEPLORABLE ethics and business model in my mind
• POOR XERO AND ACTIONSTEP integration SUPPORT and SYSTEM FLOWS WERE NEVER EXPLAINED