Actionstep Reviews

The features and functionality built in to Actionstep are amazing. This is a company that actually understands legal practice and legal software. I am impressed that Actionstep offer features that should be standard in every legal software, but aren't always included.

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.

Thank you Daniel. Fantastic to hear you are making the most of the functionality built into actionstep - we pride ourselves on being an All-In-One solution. If you have any questions - please don't hesitate to contact our support team on support@actionstep.com or in our in-app chat.

For a small law office, there is a lot of potential to customize the matter setup and use different workflows. Also as a supervisor there is complete transparency so I see everything my support staff is doing, I like that the system does a complete backup of saved documents and matters. The Home page is very workable. And the timekeeping functions are good. I also really like the Microsoft Outook integration, even if I keep having to reboot it.

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...

Read more

Carol - thanks for taking the time to write the review. We really appreciate your positive comments about Actionstep - particularly regarding transparency and Microsoft Office Integration. You have a number of suggestions which I am going to take to our product development team - hearing feedback like this is really helpful for us in planning out future product development work. We will be in touch with you directly to discuss these further. Thanks again.

I have used the product in a number of different law firms and have been involved in the setup for those firms. It is easy to use and easy to adapt to your own requirements

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

Powerful and easily editable workflow engine. Really. Mass billing features. Customizable fields. Extremely powerful templating.

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...

Read more

Hi Damien, Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback, and I'm very sorry you haven't had a great experience. To address your feedback; we have expanded our support team and our support processes. We now have in-app chat direct to our team to help troubleshoot any issues that arise. Additionally - we have made numerous improvement to simplify our software. Thank you again for your response

The ability to build my practice management system my way, using tools available within Actionstep and also through the integration of other applications.

The need to manually link incoming emails to matter files. I mention this because I came to love the ability to create a unique email address for each and every matter, but I do acknowledge that the need for higher levels of security is the reason that this feature had to be retired.

Hi Peter, Thank you for your fantastic review. Its great to hear after all these years Actionstep continues to grow with your firm. As always, please do not hesitate to contact our customer success or support teams should you have any questions. Thanks

Document assembly tools are the most powerful of the many cloud based law practice management systems I have looked at. CLIO's document assembly comes close, but not quite as powerful. It is also the most customizable cloud based law practice management system I have tested.

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.

Hi Brahm, Thank you so much for your fantastic review. Its great to hear you are saving hours using our Document Automation functionality! Should you ever have any questions or would like to learn how how to get even more out of Actionstep, please do not hesitate to contact our customer success or support teams Thanks

Comprehensive features, simple interface

Like all similar programs out there, use of templates and other excellent advanced features requires regular use, or expense of consultants.

Hi Gary, Thank you for such a positive review. In regards to your comment on making use of templates & advanced features - we are making these more accessible to all users by producing more guides, videos, webinars & product tours. These are all free to access & will be kept up to date as we release & improve features. Should your firm need a more hands-on solution, we have expanded our Customer Success team who can help guide you to the right guides or put you in touch with a partner who can assist. If you need any help or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our team at support@actionstep.com Thanks again.

Workflows, workflows, workflows. They help us keep our law office on track and help us keep deadlines and make sure we do not miss a step in complicated transactions. We like that Actionstep seems to be trying to improve the product.

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...

Read more

That its online. That its simple (mostly) to use. That parts of it are customisable. The support.

The trust administration functionality isn't the best. Infinity was much better!!!

Hi Fiona, Thank you for such a positive review, we are delighted you to hear it has helped increase your firms' productivity. Fantastic to hear you are customising Actionstep to fit your firm. If you if have any question please do not hesitate to email support@actionstep.com or use our in-app chat. Thanks

The potential - it seemed like it was going to help me automate and streamline

The level of set up involved. The subscription basis meaning time put in not retained. The email functionality - non existant. The integration with Xero - very minimal and wont do the same standard of invoicing. The support in WA - customer support online not bad, although timewise for WA meant they were responding when I wasnt at work. When I requested local support they kept sending me to interstate firms. One very helpfully said he would fly over and solve all my problems - it would take three days plus travel from Qld - in the vicininty of $10,000

Hi Susan, Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback, and I'm very sorry you haven't had a great experience. We take pride in our software but understand implementing any CMS like Actionstep does take some time and effort. We have thoroughly revised and expanded our onboarding processes for Express customers such as yourself - meaning a much more structured & documented implementation lessening the need for a small business to employ an implementation partner. Once again, we are sorry you didn't get the most out of Actionstep. If you have any questions or to see how we can work together, please do not hesitate to contact our team at support@actionstep.com

Actionstep automates task and reporting. Having the ability to customize it via workflows is a huge advantage for us. We also use the document merge features very heavily.

The home screen dashboard can use some design updates with relevant information.

Thank you Ozzy, great to hear you found the transition from Time Matters very positive. We love to hear users making the most of our customizable workflow as well. If you have any questions - please don't hesitate to contact our support team on support@actionstep.com or in our in-app chat.

Actionstep is very customizable, but you don't need a degree in coding to do it--just a little patience. I'm a solo, not a tech geek, but I set it up myself. Now, the integrations between web forms and the app and document creation and document management (connects with MS 365) save me so much time. I also love the (again, customizable) matter lists so that I can see at a glance where each of my cases is and what's coming up. It quite simply works.

The help section--the old user guide is still the most helpful thing (even though out of date for some things) but it takes some digging to find it. Also, I wish it did contingency fees more directly, but the work-around isn't bad. Finally, I really hate the help chat tool being always visible in the lower right. I'd rather go to a contact AS for help page than have that thing lurking there, but that's a minor complaint.

Hi Leslie Thank you so much for your response. We are so happy to hear you have dived into Actionstep and made the most of its customizable features. Thank you for your feedback concerning the help section and the chat, we are gathering feedback and looking to make these work great for everyone. It is also fantastic to hear how you have been using integrations across Actionstep to help you transform how you run practice. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact our support team (support@actionstep.com) Thanks

Actionstep allows you to build custom workflows that you can use to manage any aspect of your practice. We believe in workflows so much that we dedicated an entire podcast episode discussing our experience with another lawyer obsessed with workflows too. We have over 50 workflows that help us to structure processes within our tax-litigation files, as well as for administrative matters, such as asking...

Read more

Actionstep is unique and sophisticated. However, Actionstep falls behind its competitors and is underdeveloped in some key areas, such as budgeting capabilities, template user experience, graphical displays, mobile applications, and reports. Prospective users should not underestimate the commitment and resources required to build workflows and implement Actionstep. Building workflows requires time,...

Read more

- Workflows that are customized for different types of cases - Customized tasks that are automatically assigned to particular employees - Case dashboard: the "one stop shop" for all basic info related to a case (employees involved, clients, other important players in the case, calendar appointments, notes, etc.) - Contact records that exist independently of cases but may be linked to cases -- so...

Read more

- Challenging initial setup (customization of features) - Cumbersome process to unlock encrypted zip files after backup request - Previous difficulty with calendar integration caused problems with client scheduling and has made us skittish about returning to use of the calendar, even though we see this as a high-value feature of ActionStep

the display of the program is good and some of the support team is quite responsive

The invoice system is terrible as it is not able to add it back to the matter. Further, the invoice system does not accept other currency billing method - this must be changed asap. Other CRM can amend the invoice on the matter file - not like actionstep need to download and upload the documents manually - that's ridiculous

Hi Arthur Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback, and we very sorry you haven't had a great experience. We have made significant upgrades to our billing since this review and hope you have had the opportunity to try them. Additionally, we have recently released our Lawpay add-on which should help amend some of the issues raised here. Addressing your questions around implementation, our support team is available to answer any queries you may have to make the most of our software - support@actionstep.com Thanks

You can customize it according to your needs, including custom reports and exports. It's easy to use on a daily basis and has an attractive platform that is well organized. It has it's own document storage, so you don't have to use two different programs/services to get it to work (such as box or another doc storage service) It does conflict checks and syncs with e-mail so you can assign e-mails as you send/receive them to the matter they are relevant to.

The customer support is terrible. Response time has been poor. When there is a response, it typically is, refer to the on-line manual. My spouse is an IT person, so I'm fairly computer program savvy. So I don't contact tech support unless I've gone through everything in the manual and tried everything I can think of first. When that is met with "look at the manual" it's beyond frustrating. Once we get past that, it usually doesn't take them long to get the issue resolved or walk me through what needs to be done to achieve the goal. Also, in order to use the macros letters/documents where information auto-populates from your case into the letter or document, you pretty much have to be a computer programmer to get that to work.

Jennifer, thanks for your feedback. [Updated Aug 2020] - Over the last year, we have focused on improving our support teams response rate & the quality of their responses. We now see upwards of 90% positive feedback after customers have dealt with our team and strive to improve that even further. We apologize you had a poor experience with our team. If there is anything we can do to help you get the most from Actionstep, please do not hesitate to contact our team.

I now have an almost complete solution to practice management. Before, I had no system, no way of keeping things straight. But then I started to become too busy to keep track of things in my mind, and it started getting chaotic. That's where Actionstep has saved my practice from disorganization. I track all of my time and do all of my billing from Actionstep. I keep my entire database of contacts on Actionstep. Trust ledger accounting is great. Tasks, calendar reminders, document storage, file notes. It's all great. When a client calls, I quickly pull up their file and *bam*, there's everything. There are many other useful features that I know I just haven't even tapped into yet.

- There is a pretty steep learning curve, and the user guides aren't always that helpful. Sometimes I find myself spending 20 minutes trying to figure out a very simple thing, like how to reopen a matter that I accidentally closed. - Before using Actionstep, I kept everything on Google Drive. Great, Actionstep integrates Google Drive. But not as well as I would like it to be integrated. I had to...

Read more

The best feature is the ability for everyone to enter their time contemporaneously. The customizable workflows are nice, though there is a bit of a learning curve to implement them. Also,it's nice to have practice management and accounting all rolled into one software.

Some of the reports aren't very good. The basic accounting reports, like the income statement and balance sheet, are fine. But some of the others, like the ones that look at time entries or payments by clients, are difficult to understand. They have some very fine nuances that aren't explained anywhere, and that makes it hard to make apples to apples comparisons if you have to use two different reports.

Hi Ashley, Thank you for such a positive review. Great to hear you have utilized Actionstep to make your firm more efficient and thus more billable time. We understand our product is comprehensive and it sounds like you have started to customize it to your needs. In regards to your custom reporting - I have put in a request to our Customer Success Manager who can help you create the reporting you require. Thanks

We like how we can use our workflows to track each client thru the process. The reporting we receive is great and helps us stay on top of our business.

The accounting reports cannot be changed and at times the accounting functions don't work the way we would want them to.

Briana - thank you for such a positive review. Delighted your experience with Actionstep has been great. Just wanted to mention that we continually make updates to our product, including to the accounting function, so if you do have specific requests or suggestions, do funnel them through support@actionstep.com so our product team can review them in light of upcoming development. Thanks again!

It was easy to integrate and allows all team members to access all information from anywhere with an internet connection. Including file notes, emails and documents as well as time records. You can set tasks and monitor the step a matter is on with ease.

Integration with Outlook is good but not able to upload documents or attach documents if using Office 365

Hi Tammy, Thank you for such a positive review. Great to hear you are using our add-in for Office 365. To you comment on being able to upload & attach documents - this is now a supported feature. We are continuing to improve the add-in but if you do have specific requests or suggestions, please do not hesitate to email support@actionstep.com so our product team can assess them in light of upcoming development. Thanks

The timekeeping functions, file notes, and overall organization into workflows are tremendous features. Once customized and part of daily practice, Actionstep makes task management much more efficient.

Gmail/G-Suite integrations are lacking. We are unable to automatically log emails that originate in Gmail. Emailing directly from Actionstep takes care of the record keeping, but we often lose the formatting of our email signatures despite best attempts to keep it true-to-form.

Hi, Wonderful to hear your firm is seeing tremendous results from Workflow within Actionstep. It's a common theme of from firms to see similar benefits once they dive into Workflow. If you do have specific requests or suggestions, please do not hesitate to email support@actionstep.com so our product team can assess them in light of upcoming development. Thanks

No pros were added to this review

No cons were added to this review

No pros were added to this review

No cons were added to this review

The product is easy to use. It provides many opportunities for making the running of a law firm a seamless process. The support is excellent. In our firm, we are able to keep tract of Matters, Clients, Calendars, and we are just starting to use ActionStep more in-depth with respect to storing documents, creating correspondence, and billing. I cant say enough about how this software helps to organize our small firm and keeps us on track with respect to keeping track of revenue goals, etc.

Integration in our firm was somewhat difficult only due to time constraints; nothing to do with the product itself.

Hi Maricatherine, Thank you for such a positive review. Great to hear you have had an excellent experience with our support team. We are delighted your experience with Actionstep has been great. If you do have specific requests or suggestions, please do not hesitate to email support@actionstep.com so our product team can assess them in light of upcoming development. Thanks

Ease of use, ability to automate a number of tasks, oversight of office time.

Inability to convert $ format to € format, for example $4,000.85 needs to be manually converted to 4.000,85€ and 1.5 hours manually converted to 1,5 hours. Inability to customise the automatic email that is sent to client portal users to grant them access. Inability to select size and font of text that will automatically be generated when copying text from Actionstep system to a word document. Sections of the system still refer to GST when using a different tax. Inability to change a matter type once a matter has been created, instead a completely new matter with a different matter type needs to be created.