Case Studies
Hay & Kilner
LIBERATE PRACTICE MANAGEMENT – Hay & Kilner
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 Practice Management Software 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. . .
Hay and Kilner is located in Newcastle upon Tyne city with a branch office in Wallsend and offer a broad range of legal services both to individuals and corporate clients within the UK and overseas. In addition the firm offers both high volume bulk services to corporate lenders as well as more personalised bespoke services to individual clients.
“The key to choosing the correct Practice Management Software for your firm is to look forward” so said Hay and Kilner’s Tim Bennett. “The legal business has changed substantially over the past 10 years and it will undoubtedly continue to change over the next. Therefore whoever you choose as your legal software supplier must have in place the capability and the willingness to keep their software systems at the leading edge of technology. They must utilise the very best development tools and hence be able to deliver an almost constant stream of innovations to be the market.
“It goes without saying that the accounting and other management features must be there and that the system must be robust and easy to use, with seamless integration between the front office fee earning staff and the back office accounts and administration.
“Not only does the Liberate Practice Management system contain what I consider to the industry’s foremost accounts system, it also has the most flexible and user friendly management reporting and operational tools I have ever seen.
“For example, the Liberate Fee Earner Desktop software has proven to be extremely easy to use enabling us to increase the physical number of billings we can despatch each day whilst reducing the costs per bill. The ease of client and matter enquiries and the maintenance of the files has helped us to become far more efficient whilst the on-screen time recording system ensures that we track all client related activities – which itself has improved the accuracy of our billing.
“In addition, the various innovative online services that Linetime has developed have also had a significant impact to the efficiency of our business and the level and quality of client service - online cheque requisition is just one example of a Liberate development that we plan to roll out during 2008.
“Our firm’s risk management has also significantly improved since the introduction of Liberate and its comprehensive Conflict of Interest Search facility. In our particular case our new software also had to cope with a very varied workload and with a demanding and ambitious set of partners. I’m pleased to say that Liberate from Linetime has exceeded all our expectations.
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 & strongroom registry
Liberate Practice Management complies with the Law Society's Solicitors Account, Deposit Interest & Franchise Rules and is Criminal Defence Service compliant.