1. Your teams rely on spreadsheets and workarounds
Spreadsheets often appear when legal practice management software cannot support a firm’s processes or provide the information people need.
Individual workarounds may seem harmless, but they can lead to duplicated data, inconsistent processes and limited oversight.
Look for:
- Separate spreadsheets for WIP, billing, profitability or matter tracking
- Information being copied between systems
- Teams maintaining their own unofficial records
- Reports being manually compiled each month
2. Reporting takes too long
Senior leaders should be able to access reliable information about financial and operational performance without waiting for someone to extract and manipulate the data.
Your existing legal practice management software may no longer be suitable if management reports require significant manual work or regularly produce conflicting figures.
Look for:
- Reports taking days to prepare
- Different teams presenting different versions of the same metric
- Limited visibility of WIP, lockup and matter profitability
- Leaders making decisions using historical information
- Reports that cannot be adapted without technical support
3. Your systems do not work together
Growing firms frequently add new tools for document management, payments, CRM, identity checks and other specialist tasks. If these systems do not integrate with your practice management software easily, staff may have to re-enter information or switch repeatedly between platforms.
Look for:
- Duplicate data entry
- Multiple versions of client and matter information
- Manual transfers between finance and operational systems
- Integrations that are unreliable, slow or expensive
- Important data remaining trapped within individual applications
5. Billing and financial management are becoming harder
Processes that worked for a smaller firm may become inefficient as matter volumes, teams, clients and billing requirements increase.
Look for:
- Delayed billing cycles
- High or increasing WIP
- Difficulty tracking matter budgets
- Limited visibility of write-offs and realisation
- Manual invoice approval processes
- Challenges managing client money
- Limited insight into performance by matter, department or fee earner
These problems can contribute to higher lockup and make it harder to understand the firm’s true profitability.
6. The software cannot support the structure of your firm
Your firm may now operate across more offices, departments, entities, jurisdictions or currencies than the system was originally designed to manage.
Ask whether your software can support:
- Multiple offices and legal entities
- Different teams and practice areas
- Role-based permissions
- Complex billing arrangements
- Multi-currency transactions
- Remote and mobile working
- Consistent processes across the firm
If expansion requires a growing collection of separate systems and manual controls, the underlying platform may no longer be suitable.
7. Users are frustrated with the system
Poor user experience affects more than staff satisfaction. It can lead to incomplete data, inconsistent time recording and low adoption of firm-wide processes.
Warning signs include:
- New starters require extensive training
- Fee earners avoid using parts of the system
- Staff regularly complain about slow or complicated processes
- Important information is recorded late or not at all
- Teams complete work outside the system whenever possible
9. The system is influencing business decisions for the wrong reasons
The clearest sign that you have outgrown your software is when its limitations begin to determine what the firm can do.
This might include rejecting a new billing model, delaying an acquisition, avoiding process improvements or postponing the introduction of new technology because the existing system cannot support it.
Technology should enable the firm’s strategy, not constrain it.
Practice management software assessment checklist
Score each statement in the boxes below from 1 to 5, where 1 means strongly disagree and 5 means strongly agree.
Interpreting your score
- 41–50: Your current software is broadly supporting the firm.
- 31–40: Some limitations require further investigation.
- 21–30: The system is likely creating operational inefficiency.
- 10–20: Your firm should consider reviewing its legal practice management software.
We have one reliable source of client and matter information
Leaders can access real-time financial and operational reporting
Our core systems integrate effectively
Routine processes are automated where appropriate
Billing and financial controls scale with the firm
The system supports our offices, entities and departments
Fee earners and business services teams use the system consistently
We can configure workflows and reports without extensive development
We can access and use our data easily
The software supports our plans for growth
FAQs
Legal tech insights from the Tessaract team
Mid-size law firms flock to the cloud: Why cloud native software is now your best bet
The legal sector is entering a new phase of digital transformation. What was once considered a gradual shift toward cloud technology has now become a clear industry movement.
What is legal practice management software and what should it actually do?
Choosing legal practice management software is one of the most important technology decisions a law firm can make. Yet many firms still evaluate systems based on feature lists alone.
Is technology becoming a deciding factor for potential employees?
Recruiting and retaining talent remains a persistent challenge for mid-size law firms. They are competing with larger firms that can often offer higher salaries, structured career progression, and more established remote working options.
What processes are mid-market law firms automating and where should you start?
One of the greatest benefits of modernising your practice management software is the ability to automate more processes across your firm. Automation helps streamline operations, eliminate workarounds, and reduce manual tasks that otherwise occupy fee earners and support staff’s precious and often, expensive time.
Building the perfect tech ecosystem: Why a best-of-breed stack often beats the all-in-one myth
It’s easy to understand the appeal of the one ring to rule them all software: one partner, one login, one support contact, one magic piece of kit that delivers everything you ever wanted…
The hidden cost of workarounds. How legacy legal practice management systems are quietly holding your law firm back
A workaround is a temporary fix to a process that's been used by permanent staff for years. It’s when three systems, two spreadsheets and a very patient person do the job of one piece of software.
Beyond features: How to choose legal practice management software that delivers real outcomes
When it’s time to choose a new Practice Management System (PMS), it’s tempting to start with a checklist of features. Every demo looks impressive, every vendor promises the world — and before long, you’re comparing dashboards instead of results.
Is your legal Practice Management Software holding your SME law firm back? 16 questions to make sure your PMS is pulling its weight
Before diving headlong into new legal practice management software, it’s probably a good idea to first gauge if your PMS is in line with modern standards and expectations to highlight any glaring challenges worth worrying about.
Essential types of analytics and reports for your law firm's success
According to “Big Data: The Management Revolution” by Andrew AcAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, the success of a business depends largely on how it is able to collect, process and interpret data from a multitude of sources. Due to this, organisations are now using technological tools to explore how their data can be used for good. One such essential technological tool in the legal industry is analytics and reports.
Demystifying data migration, it’s not as scary as you might think
In our discussions with SME firm leaders, nervousness around the daunting challenge of data migration–or so it is perceived to be–is often the reason given for not considering a move away from a legacy legal Practice Management System (PMS) to a cloud-native solution.