Rocket Matter for efficient invoicing and trust retainer management
September 24, 2018
Rocket Matter for efficient invoicing and trust retainer management
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Rocket Matter
I am not using Rocket Matter in my current role, but I used it previously when I worked as an office manager and billing manager at a solo-attorney law firm. Rocket Matter was used to store case notes, track billable and non-billable hourly work, as a secondary calendar management system, and as a secondary method of IOLTA trust accounting. Since the office consisted of only myself and the attorney, Rocket Matter was used office-wide.
- Tracking billable and non-billable hourly work is one of Rocket Matter's best functions. There is a timer that can be used to track work as it occurs, or billable time can be recorded manually after work has been completed. A complete record of time worked per client, per matter, and per staff member is created. I used this data to generate invoices and also to analyze how time was being spent on billable and non-billable tasks by myself and the attorney.
- Rocket Matter offers ample features for invoicing and managing client payments, all of which are highly customizable. Billable work, costs, fees, and client payments are all recorded per matter. An invoice can be generated from this data, based on a template provided by Rocket Matter or a customized template. Though I did not use the client portal feature, users can invite clients to an online portal to view invoices and submit credit card payment via LawPay. Alternatively, invoices can be printed and mailed or emailed to clients. Billing structures, such as monthly installment payments and evergreen retainers, can be set up per matter, as well.
- By recording billable work, expenses, and payments, I was able to use Rocket Matter as a secondary IOLTA trust accounting record. When a client deposited into a trust account, I recorded the payment in the client retainer in Rocket Matter. Each time I transferred funds to pay for earned work, I recorded the transaction when I invoiced the client. This record demonstrated why, when, and in what amount earned funds were moved from client retainers.
- While the Notes feature was immensely useful for keeping track of the last work completed on a matter or to keep a record of discussions with clients or relevant legal research, it could have been far more user-friendly. There is no way to export Notes saved to a .doc, .pdf, or any other format. To print or download Notes, I would have to painstakingly click on each entry and copy it into a word document, then go back to the previous page to click on the next entry to repeat the process as many times as there were notes. If printed directly from the website, the formatting spills off of the page.
- I am pleased with the amount which can be customized in invoice templates in Rocket Matter. However, to create your own template you need to use fields recognized by the program. Rocket Matter provides a guide and a list of available fields, however, it is a fairly complex undertaking for anyone unfamiliar with using fields in Word documents or using other code, such as HTML. It would be more intuitive for users if Rocket Matter employed a template customizing feature similar to that of QuickBooks, where text boxes and fields can be inserted and manually dragged to the desire area of the template.
- Rocket Matter can run very slowly and can slow down your computer quite a bit while it is running. I upgraded to a newer laptop with higher RAM after my first year of using Rocket Matter, and there was a noticeable difference in the speed and ease of use.
- Rocket Matter has streamlined tracking billable time, tracking funds earned from trust retainers, invoicing, and maintaining a detailed transaction record for IOLTA trust accounting. As long as I regularly entered payment and billing information to keep the data current, I could quickly complete non-billable accounting and invoicing tasks. I know it can consume huge amounts of time trying to recreate payment and billing histories, so using Rocket Matter to centralize these records greatly increased the amount of time I had for billable work.
- Using Rocket Matter to record upcoming tasks, deadlines and events provided a secondary system for calendar management. Using Rocket Matter with Google Calendar allowed me to easily keep track of how I should spend my time and reduced the possibility of missing a deadline.
- All of the data recorded in Rocket Matter can be used to generate reports for accounting and for analyzing how time is spent. Reports made it easy and fast to identify clients who were far behind in payments or who had funds available to invoice, without needing to manually check each matter.
I currently use e-ImmigrationAir by Cengrade. I feel it is a better software for immigration law firms, as it can auto-populate USCIS and ICE forms with client data, saving time and reducing repetitive tasks. However, I feel that Rocket Matter stands out for the many billing and invoicing features offered.