CARET Legal vs. Orion Practice Management System

Well-suited to a small to midsized law firm setting. Would also recommend for management seek easy ways to keep track of a large volume of business and to track which staff are doing what. The software isn't the best suited for running a lot of complex reports--we can obtain simple information in the reports, but sometimes we find ourselves pulling certain data from Zola and working with it in other software environments instead.

Incentivized

Entering billing time is a breeze. It is also easy to keep up with all billing through the Time Manager screen in conjunction with Fee Entry. It works great as a calendar, with the ability to designate entries as tasks, events and other topics. The calendar program synchs with Outlook, no need to enter deadlines in two separate programs. It is a breeze to run conflict checks and the Smart Timers Management option is very user friendly.

Incentivized

• Provide me with instant list of assignments.
• Easily record billable hours.
• Monitor the work of colleagues whom I supervise.

Incentivized

• Billing
• Synchs well with other programs
• Contains massive contact list
• Keeps up with client payments by user

Incentivized

• The email integration feature has never consistently worked.
• I can't toggle easily between viewing all time and just my time, have to use the filters.
• Pulling reports to capture certain notes/details not perfected yet.

Incentivized

• When multiple users utilize the program, it can sometimes slow down
• Doesn't always synch with other programs
• Occasionally a little bit difficult to perform a search

Incentivized

I didn't have the ultimate decision-making power to choose Zola. Clio was more expensive and may have offered a more robust platform, but with some options we didn't need. Westlaw was good for case management, but we would have likely still needed separate software to patch together something like Zola. Zola support isn't that great, but we rarely need it.

Incentivized

• Collections have been better overall.
• Verifying staff work has been made much easier, potentially leading to more efficiencies.
• The software itself is costly.

Incentivized

• Provides accurate billing information for submission to clients for payments
• Ability to run financial reports
• Contact database is ongoing with new entries and updated information

Incentivized