Brightflag vs. SimpleLegal

I already recommend Brightflag to anyone and everyone who processes invoices. There is a lot of information and data that comes on these invoices, and having a system that streamlines the information in one place has been extremely useful for a department that is a cost center and needs a quick way to justify every spend.

SimpleLegal is easy to use and easy to understand for everyone in the legal department. Their customer service is typically quick to respond and solve any issues that may arise on the customer side as well as the vendor side (CounselGo). There has been a bit of customer dissatisfaction since being acquired by Onit but the enhancements and roadmap continue to look promising.

• Easy interface
• Amazing customer service
• Measurable impact on bottom line

• SimpleLegal does a great job tracking expenses.
• SimpleLegal does a great job at creating, tracking and analyzing matters.
• SimpleLegal does a good job with reporting and analytics.

• More bespoke flags
• More benchmarking data

• Budget tracking.
• Admin independence (being able to make system improvements/enhancements/changes without needing a SL rep).

Super easy to set up and use. The interface is intuitive, but it's worth spending some time getting used to seeing where the different "file cabinets" are located. I recommend having one person dedicated to the day-to-day management of the platform (separate from the reviewers and approvers), someone who just manages to upload the invoices, setting up new vendors, liaising with BF Support, but cross-training everyone who uses it on the broad functions.

Customer support is spectacular. Probably the single best quality of this product. They are quick to respond, quick to troubleshoot, and quick to offer suggestions on workarounds for things that might still be in the works (or unique to us). That level of agility and can-do attitude is what I needed in a partner like this.

SimpleLegal was much easier to use and train users on than Time Matters. SimpleLegal had all of the functionality but not as many customizable features as Time Matters.

• ROI has been superb: saw a 30% drop in legal spend (based on invoice amount) due to catching items that shouldn't have been charged or charges that exceeded agreed-upon caps.
• Being able to add prior years' invoices to the system has been incredible since it allows for internal benchmarking and YoY comparison reporting.

• Able to track in real-time legal spend against budgets to hold outside counsel responsible while meeting our fiscal demands--rather than wait on Finance report monthly/quarterly/etc.