Case Studies
Liberate Practice Management – Canter Levin & Berg
Linetime’s award winning accounts and practice management system (PMS) has been in constant development over the past 25 years. To say it is the most comprehensive legal PMS system on the market is probably an understatement as testified by Linetime’s constant high standing within the Law Society’s Software Supplier’s Guide and its growing base of highly satisfied customers. For example. . .
Canter Levin & Berg is a large firm of Solicitors based in Merseyside with over 200 staff based in four offices in: Liverpool, St Helens, Kirkby and Skelmersdale.
The primary reason for moving from their existing software supplier to Linetime was the desire to significantly improve the efficiency and profitability of their various departments through the merging of all their practice management activities within the one industry standard Microsoft SQL database.
Louise Lunt commented, “After what we considered was a poor performance by our existing software supplier we began looking to upgrade our Accounts software to a 32bit system. Following detailed exploration of the marketplace we opted to invest in Liberate from Linetime as we were satisfied that this best complemented a practice of our size and diversity. After a smooth conversion and implementation, we found the system exceeded our accounting requirements whilst also providing an excellent management tool.
“The main features that have impressed us are the power of the financial reporting options along with the comprehensive nature of the accounts module in general.
“Apart from a wide range of standard reports Liberate also has an easy to use report generator. The provision of English language queries enables our managers to produce reports that are both secure and match their particular needs precisely. This feature along with the fact that the reports can be stored in a report library or distributed via email, plus the fact that they can be exported to external data management systems such as Excel, has provided us with significant time saving benefits over our previous systems. Saving time means improving efficiency and hence ultimately increasing profitability. In addition, the ability to set up scheduled automatic reports has given us a level of management control that was previously not possible.
“These features of this excellent system have delivered real benefits to the partners as they continue to grow the business. The obvious next step was to look at the Liberate Case Management System to enable streamlining of our business processes.
“There is no doubt that the convergence of these systems has enhanced our overall Practice Management and internal efficiency. This in turn has enabled us to take on more work, whilst providing an even higher level of service to clients and business partners alike.”
Liberate Practice Management – Features
Recognising the differing needs of accounts staff and fee earners Liberate supports all aspects of Practice Management, providing full Client Management, Practice Diary, Time Recording and Relationship Marketing functionality, together with a comprehensive legal Accounting System. It is an ideal choice for practices wishing to link ‘back office’ and ‘front office’ functions to improve operational efficiency. Seamless integration to Microsoft Outlook, Word & Excel is standard.
Liberate Practice Management includes:
• Client Ledger Nominal, Purchase & Counsel Ledgers
• Fee Earner Desktop & full Credit Control system with Time Recording & Automated Billing
• Money laundering & Conflict Checking – 3 levels & Automated Bank Reconciliation
• Management Accounts, Reporting and Enquiries
• Plain English Language Report Generator & Retrospective reporting
• Centralised Client Record – single database
• Flexible disbursement, fee and WIP limits & Open period accounting
• Multiple client, office & deposit accounts
• Budget analysis with variance reporting
• Daily audit trail on all transactions
• Multiple VAT categories – automatic VAT returns
• Client mailing & strong room registry
Liberate Practice Management complies with the Law Society's Solicitors Account, Deposit Interest & Franchise Rules and is Criminal Defence Service compliant.