Actionstep Reviews

Pros
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 for client testimonials. We give our team peace of mind that nobody will miss anything as we have built in automated tasks, templates, checklists, and deadlines at every step of the process. We can make sure that the most appropriate team member performs each task. The workflows are also a great resource to help train new team members because we created detailed descriptions of how to complete each task with links to our internal knowledge base to give team members additional support where needed. In addition to custom workflows, Actionstep also allows you to gather custom data so that we can make more informed decisions.

Cons
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, money and, most importantly, grit. Not everyone is ready to make this investment in the future of their firm. Although you can outsource the technology aspect of inputting the workflows to the system, you need people within your firm identifying the steps and tasks that you want to build into the system. We are a very process-driven law firm with a lean focus, so Actionstep is perfect for us, but if you aren't familiar with process mapping it can be a daunting task. When you get over the initial investment of mapping your processes, you will see first-hand how quickly Actionstep improves your firm's ability to grow and deliver better value to your clients. We hope that Actionstep will continue to develop its product to address its limitations and bugs. Actionstep has promised that it is working to address the concerns that our firm and other users raise in the LinkedIn user forum and UserVoice feedback. We hope that Actionstep continues to improve the product, and we look forward to more progress. If so, we expect to continue to use Actionstep for a very long time.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
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.

Cons
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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 5/10

Pros
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.

Cons
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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

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

Cons
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 (!!!!).

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 2/10

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

Cons
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

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 6/10

Pros
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.

Cons
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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 6/10

Pros
This software is intuitive and easy to use. It is logical, very organized and user friendly - similar to using an app on your phone. The calendar is great too! This is miles above any other legal software I have used.

Cons
I wish the developers would figure out a way to import contact addresses to correspondence. Also, the accounting software can be a little cumbersome and has a learning curve.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

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

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

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
Actionstep does it all, from trust accounting to matter creation and workflows and firm accounting. Fully customisable matter and document templates.

Cons
Updates and user suggestions take a while to be onboarded

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The ease of integration between Actionstep and Office software has been very useful. The two programs work seamlessly with each other.

Cons
The only con is the lack of an integration between Actionstep and Adobe software.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Document Assembly. Outlook Integration. Integrated workflows and calendaring. Knowledge-base and Wiki built in. Ability to associate more than one contact of a given type to a file (I often have files with more than one client, i.e. husband and wife).

Cons
A bit more expensive. Steeper learning curve because of all the features.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
- 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 updating a contact applies changes across the board - Newsfeed-style case notes with tag options to identify notes as "important," "call," etc. - Document folders with powerful search feature to easily locate documents - Integration with MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook) that allows case data to be merged into documents and e-mails and allows users to assign e-mails to cases - Ability to create letter and other document templates that pre-populate cases - Document portal that allows clients and other parties to securely exchange documents with the firm - Fantastic support staff and easy-to-follow tutorials

Cons
- 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

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
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.

Cons
- 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 do a series of workarounds with Google Drive to get it *sort of* how I would like it to be. When you open a new matter, Actionstep creates a folder on Google Drive, but the folder is only the matter number. So if you're typing a document and want to use File > Save As > Google Drive, then good luck finding the folder. Instead every time I open a matter on Actionstep, I immediately find the folder it creates on Google Drive, then rename it to my matter name. - I would like a place to track mileage for business expense reimbursement. You can add things like this to matter disbursements, but I don't see a way to do it practice-wide. - I haven't gotten the Google email integration to work properly. Actionstep puts odd things in the subject lines of my outgoing email, so I stick to using Google's platform for that. - Document upload sometimes hangs when you try to do more than a couple files at once, but I'm not really using it because I'm keeping everything on Google Drive.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Its power, security and ease of use.

Cons
Can't think of any.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
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.

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

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Rating breakdown

Rating breakdown

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

Cons
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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
This software is an elegant solution for volume practices that categorizes matters in useful and dynamic ways, and is interactive so you can keep track of the progress of each individual matter.

Cons
It's expensive to customize because you have to pay for a consultant to work with you on it.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I think I trialed almost all of the major case management software companies out there and this company blew all of the others out of the water for me. The product is reliable and does exactly what we need. Before we purchased this product I had to do most of my work manually and things would slip through the cracks. This product has resolved that issue. I also love the document generation feature and how deeply the product integrates with Microsoft Office Suite. Not having to type each document from scratch saves so much time! I personally enjoy how highly customizable the product is. I'm constantly pleasantly surprised to find new features it has that make my life easier. Some may complain that you need a third party firm to get you off of the ground and running, but I set up the entire system for my team by just reading their User Guide and talking to customer support. The price was another selling point for us. We're a local county government agency operating on a small budget so this price tag works well within what we could afford. The customer support is phenomenal. They try very hard to make their customers (or potential customers) very happy. Having our cases in a secure cloud means that we can work from anywhere which has greatly improved the way that we work. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone who is looking to get away from paper files and who wants to learn how technology can make your life easier and more organized.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
What I like most about the software is that everything is in one place - past & present records, notes, time tracking & billing, tasks, etc. I find the File Notes feature EXTREMELY useful because myself AND any of my co-workers can create a File Note for record keeping when we speak to the client or need to keep current notes on a project. ActionStep is also very easy to customize.

Cons
It is difficult for me to find something that I dislike about this software. The only opinion I can offer is what I hear from our office book keeper - she dislikes the billing feature because it is not compatible with her Quik Books.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
We rely on tasks and steps to complete estate planning for our clients, and Actionstep makes it easy to keep track of where we are in our planning process. With Actionstep we can easily transition from one step or task to the next, eliminating the need for pen and paper. We use this program frequently throughout the work day. We can even email and upload documents through their secure client portals. We would be lost without it!

Cons
the only con to Actionstep is not having a local customer service rep, but they are good about getting back to you in a timely manner, so the lack of someone local doesn't usually come into play.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Flexibility. Whole most legal software packages bundle up what the provider thinks most law firms will want, Actionstep makes it possible for the lawyer to create precisely what the lawyer needs for their particular area of law and style of practice.

Cons
While flexibility makes this package extremely powerful, it does require decisions to be made, ideas to be developed and processes to be created. This can be hard work at times, which can become a burden in the early stages of setting up.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The program is very configurable. What that means is that there is a higher learning curve than other cloud based programs, but I am willing to spend the time to learn if the product provides what I need. I searched specifically for a program that would allow me to handle my front office (client and case management) and back office (financial accounting) needs, and this does the job. The Enhanced Billing Module was vast improvement over the previous billing capability. The user interface is clean and the response rate is rapid. My bookkeeper loves it.

Cons
The reports list needs to be more user friendly, and there needs to be more standard accounting reports available. The CRM features are not very well suited to my practice. The creation of a "workflow" is very complicated.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Very customizable!!!! This gives us everything we need to sort through as many files as we give it! We can sort via very specific criteria!

Cons
Although we are the kind of people that put a lot of time into things we want exactly the way we want them, we don't believe too many others are willing to put in the time to learn this program to customize it to their liking. The people that do put in the time will be greatly rewarded. This is the best program for Law Firms and Public Adjusters.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 5/10