Speaker 1: We've stacked up Practice Panther and Smokeball, feature for feature. Here's how they compare. As an attorney, you've probably found yourself juggling multiple responsibilities each and every day, from managing clients and cases to attending court appearances and more. With such a demanding workload, it can quickly become overwhelming to stay on top of your administrative tasks. Simple to-do items such as logging time and expenses or drafting an invoice can feel daunting when your number one priority is assisting your clients. If this scenario sounds familiar to you, don't worry, you're not alone. There are plenty of resources on the market that can make a significant impact on how your firm operates. Hello everyone, I'm Tanisha from Practice Panther, and I'm excited to be here with you today to delve into how legal practice management software can significantly simplify your daily work. Practicing the law is tough, and running a law firm is even tougher. I understand the significant time and effort required to keep your law firm organized. If you're watching, you're most likely considering finding legal practice management software to ease this burden. Today, we'll be taking a closer look at a few of the features of two popular options, Practice Panther and Smokeball, and comparing them side by side so you can make the best business decision for your law firm. But before we begin, let's take a moment to answer a fundamental question. What exactly is legal practice management software? Legal practice management software is a powerful solution that can revolutionize the way you manage your law firm. By automating many of the manual tasks that take place during any given day, legal practice management software can significantly improve the overall efficiency and productivity of any law firm. With the right solution for your business, organizing your law firm no longer has to be a time-consuming task. You can easily manage everything from client information, track billable hours, to generate invoices, all with just a few clicks. Now that we have a better understanding of the capabilities of legal practice management software, let's jump in and take a closer look at the key differences between Practice Panther and Smokeball. First, I want to talk to you about the solutions themselves and their ease of use. So how does Smokeball and Practice Panther stack up? Although Smokeball is well-known legal practice management software, the software itself is a desktop hybrid, meaning it does not offer the flexibility of a fully cloud-based solution that is accessible from anywhere. With the lack of flexibility, this can cause slow performance when bouncing between desktop and cloud features. Many users have reported experiencing a huge learning curve when first navigating the platform due to its complexity. If users aren't able to get comfortable with the software, they won't be getting the best ROI, as they'll be locked into either a one- or three-year contract. On the other hand, Practice Panther offers the advantage of being securely hosted in the cloud, granting you effortless accessibility from various devices such as desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and tablets. This means that you can conveniently review and sign documents, send invoices, collect payments, and perform other essential tasks while on the go. With Practice Panther, you have the freedom to manage your law firm efficiently from any location, without compromising on performance, accessibility, or security. You can access a full suite of easy-to-navigate and intuitive features that only require a few clicks to perform any function. Users have claimed they don't really require much training or support to get the hang of the software. In addition, users may choose to pay monthly or annually based on their needs and preferences. And most importantly, what makes Practice Panther a popular choice among users is its easy-to-use interface and customization options across the entire software. Another important aspect to take into consideration when choosing the right legal practice management software is its system compatibility, meaning whether the software will be compatible with your current devices. Smokeball, surprisingly, is not compatible with Google products or Mac-based firms, meaning it only caters to Windows-based law firms. If your law firm operates on a Mac or primarily uses Google products, you might need to consider changing your equipment and make new accounts to support the Microsoft systems. In contrast, Practice Panther's cloud-based software connects to the essential systems your firm needs without having to abandon your data or information from other software. Our software seamlessly syncs with Gmail, Outlook, Windows, Mac, and more to keep your communications and firm data in one single place. One major benefit of using legal practice management software is gaining the ability to generate custom reports. These reports can help you analyze everything from firm financials to the productivity of your staff. When choosing your legal practice management software, make sure these reports are available. Let's take a look at what Smokeball and Practice Panther offer. Smokeball's reports are lagging behind the rest of the industry when it comes to volume and customization ability. Smokeball reports are difficult to generate and don't allow users to use custom tags or other filters to aggregate data effectively. This lack of reporting functionality and customization can ultimately lead to poor reporting and can make it difficult to pinpoint problem areas across the law firm. On the flip side, Practice Panther offers users the ability to create custom reports directly within the platform, meaning users can create reports based on custom fields or tags. Better yet, Practice Panther allows users to apply custom fields and tags at a contact, subject matter, and activity level to enhance overall report generation. Additionally, Practice Panther also provides a wide range of native reports that are ready to use. From staff productivity reports to revenue reports, Practice Panther has a ton to offer right out of the box. Now, onto a big one. There's no doubt legal billing is one of the most tedious tasks for all attorneys. Not only do you need to ensure all billable hours are tracked, you also need to ensure you're staying compliant with all the rules. With Smokeball, the legal billing feature is actually separated from the platform through an integration. Users must configure several settings to ensure billing items are tracked and allocated to the proper matter. Meanwhile, Practice Panther keeps your legal billing and collections in one place, so you can quickly and easily track, monitor, and allocate proper bills to clients. You can easily customize your invoices and even send them in bulk to make the billing process as smooth as possible for you and your clients. Now, since we're on the topic of legal billing, let's look at online payments. Nowadays, people want convenience and easy access to pay their bills. Smokeball only offers a third-party integration for online payments. Using third-party services may involve extra monthly expenses and high transaction rates. In cases where users seek assistance or support, they might need to reach out to the third-party service provider instead of Smokeball directly. This can potentially create additional inconvenience and hassle for the users. On the other hand, Practice Panther offers a native payment processor, Panther Payments, to allow users to easily manage their collections. Panther Payments offers clear and transparent transaction fees, 2.9% for all card transactions and a fee of 1% per e-check. Practice Panther also offers a fast payment processing turnaround time, around 2-3 business days, allowing users to receive payments quickly and efficiently. Now, let's talk about the document signing process. Do you remember the last time you've mailed a document to a client for signature? How long did it take to get it back? Five days? A week? Well, with e-signature, you can eliminate wait time and obtain a signature within minutes. With Smokeball, if you want to send documents for e-signature, users will have to pay per document. Smokeball requires users to integrate with a third-party system to manage its e-signature feature. This pay-per-service can quickly add up if you need to send bulk documents for e-signature. Unlike Smokeball, Practice Panther offers a more robust and built-in e-signature feature. Law firms can easily and efficiently collect signatures from clients, with the ability to apply e-signatures to specific fields within the document. Additionally, you can also easily generate and add custom payment links to documents using Panther Payments to simultaneously collect e-signatures and payment. Pretty intuitive, right? Lastly, let's talk about integrations. It's important to ensure your legal practice management software works with the systems your firm already uses. At Smokeball, there are a limited number of integrations that are compatible with the software. Without an open API, your firm will have to hope for new integration releases that include your desired software. Additionally, Smokeball requires specific configurations to your operating system, including the suggested removal of third-party softwares and antivirus software, in order for their system to run properly. For Practice Panther, on the other hand, the software allows users to automatically sync your firm's trusted apps or software. With an open API and Zapier integration, your firm can seamlessly manage information in one place, without having to delete essential software, apps, or legacy systems. So, to sum it up, Practice Panther is the clear winner in this comparison. With its intuitive platform, transparent pricing, and top-notch features, Practice Panther exceeds Smokeball in every way. Plus, Practice Panther offers a wide range of customization options to meet the specific needs of your law firm. If you're interested in trying out Practice Panther for yourself, check out the free trial that you can access through the link in the description box below. And, if you want a more personalized demonstration of the platform, the Practice Panther team is here to help. Just schedule a time and we'll show you how Practice Panther can revolutionize your practice.