What to look for in case management software for a small firm
Most buying guides are written by vendors and arrive at the conclusion that you should buy the vendor. This one is too, so read it accordingly — but the questions below are the ones that actually separate a system you'll still be using in three years from one you'll be working around by Christmas.
Ask every system you look at, including this one.
1. Can it hold the things your practice actually tracks?
Nearly every product says it's customisable. The word covers an enormous range.
Ask: how many custom fields, and what types? Three renameable text boxes is the common answer, and it isn't enough. A text box can't be sorted as a date, totalled as an amount, or picked from a list. If the thing you track is a retainer balance, a review date, or a referral source, you need a field that knows what it is.
Ask: can I hide the fields I don't use? A form with forty fields where your firm fills in eleven is a form people rush through. Hiding should mean gone — not greyed out, not left blank for everyone to skip.
Ask: can I move fields where they belong? The order fields appear in should follow how you work, not how the database was designed.
2. Will it tell you what changed?
Ask: if a date is wrong, can I find out who changed it and when?
Many systems record that a record was "modified" and by whom. That is not the same as recording what changed. You want the field, the previous value, the new value, the person and the time — and, if documents matter to you, the same for every file attached.
For a legal practice this is closer to core than it sounds. A file is a chronology, and "when did we learn this?" can matter a great deal later.
3. What happens when two people open the same record?
Ask: does it stop the second person, or does the last save win?
Silent overwrites are the failure that makes people distrust a system. If the answer is vague, assume last-save-wins and consider whether that's survivable.
4. Can you get your data in — and out?
Ask both.
In: can you import from the spreadsheet you already keep? Does it validate before writing, and does a bad row leave you half-migrated?
Out: can you export everything, at any time, without asking anyone? This is the question vendors like least and you should care about most. Software you can't leave is software that has stopped needing to earn you.
5. Who sees what?
Ask: can access be set per person, and per field?
A practice isn't flat. Some people should see everything; some should see only their own matters; some should be able to read but not change. And some fields — a fee arrangement, a note about a vulnerable client — shouldn't be visible to everyone with a login.
6. How long until it's actually running?
Ask: what does week one look like?
If the honest answer involves a consultant and a discovery phase, that cost is part of the price whether it appears on the invoice or not. For a firm of two to twenty, setup should be an afternoon: name your record type, set your fields, decide who sees what, import what you have.
7. What does it deliberately not do?
Ask what it isn't. A vendor who says "everything" is either selling something enormous or hasn't thought about it.
Systems that try to be case management and billing and accounting and document assembly are usually excellent at one of those and adequate at the rest. Knowing which one is which saves you finding out later.
8. Who answers when something breaks?
Ask who replies to support, and how fast.
With a small vendor you may reach the person who wrote the code. With a large one you'll reach a queue. Neither is automatically better — but find out which you're buying.
How BeornNotes answers
Since we set the questions: fifteen typed custom fields (text, date, number, currency and dropdowns) plus every built-in field renameable, hideable and movable across five nameable tabs. Full field-level change history including per-document trails. Records lock while open. CSV import that validates first and commits all-or-nothing, and export from any grid. Access per person and per field. Setup in an afternoon. Not billing, not trust accounting, not document assembly. And support is answered by the people who build it, not a call centre.
Judge that against the others on the same questions — that's what the list is for.