When it comes to managing your employees, your projects, your workflow… and keeping all the information organized and in the right folder, what do you consistently use?  Are you using a legal practice management software for this purpose? Or are you stepping out of the practice management software arena and finding solutions in apps? Is everyone on your team engaged and active?

If there’s one thing that the new generation of workforce has in common, it’s the use of the smartphone for everything. Word processing, calendaring, texting, chatting, collaborating, multi-tasking, the former communication only device is now used for just about anything you can think of in your business. Finding the right day-to-day task software to increase your efficiency, your productivity and your profitability in your law firm may be less about tethering it to your practice software machine and more about expediting and consolidating communications.

In our company, we love Evernote and Slack, but that doesn’t mean that the literally hundreds of other options are not great! Azendoo, Fleep, Jostle, Moxtra… there are many other options for you depending on what you want to get out of your practice. The question becomes: Just what do you actually use the software for? Other than having it sit on your smartphone or tablet with the proverbial answer “well, I downloaded Evernote two years ago but didn’t have time to get into…”

Let’s take a minute and talk about the five benefits of task software we love!

1.  Your team will be more organized. Want to stop misplacing things or being on the wrong page with responsibilities? Visualizing what is actually going on in your business can be a powerful option that tools like this enable you to see. Collaboration tools can be an incredibly powerful tool for you to use and enable you to take your organization to the next level.

2.  Real time task management. Tired of having an outdated task list? Frustrated when your team members forget to update it? Put it in list or a chat or a workflow in any of these software tools. If your receptionist sends out the new welcome packets to your new clients she can check off that the work was done in real time so you can get the update and keep the pulse on how things are getting done in your office.

3.  Stop the email madness. These tools allow you to put your whole team in one conversation. Say goodbye to miscommunication and extensive e-mail threads. Now your team can find everything they need to know in one location. No more shuffling through e-mails to find files.

4.  You can share any type of document with your team at any time. Keep in mind, not all apps have the same functionality. You want to choose a tool with access to whatever information you use in your business. PDF’s, docs, videos, photos, powerpoint presentations, whatever it may be…you can share it with your team! Sometimes it is hard to attach certain documents over e-mail or they get lost in the shuffle, but these tools solve this problem.

5. Relatively low cost. The costs for most programs like these are based on users or business level. Be sure to consider the free trials available and take the time to use them. Want to learn how to use one of these for free? With Slack there is free trial for an unlimited amount of time!  Why would you not want to take advantage of a free app that will make your business and team more organized? If you want to upgrade Slack you can pay a cheap $6.67 monthly, and you can receive Slack credits which will give you benefits.

Communication, project management and task delegation are a vital part to every business. Don’t wait to try these out to keep your law practice moving in the right direction because, at the end of the day, you hold the keys to your own success.  Need help getting started? Let us know! You can give us a call at 850-933-5072, send us an email at yourpractice@practice42.com or fill out a contact form so we can contact you!

Are you one of the many people who want to learn how to use Adobe in their law practice management, but just don’t know how? The numerous features that Adobe has makes it very appealing to the customer, but it also makes it a complicated tool to learn quickly. Teaching yourself and your law practice Adobe without any assistance can be a daunting (see multi-hour) task. The good news? There are a great quantity of resources, support and community forums out there for you to get the most out of Adobe, even from the company itself on the Adobe Support website.

Looking for law practice management enhancements to add? Adobe offers multiple products; InDesign for design work, PhotoShop for your photos, and Document Cloud (DC) for your workflow, just to name a few. You can license one or multiple products in your office. Specifically in this article, we are discussing getting started and the use of Adobe DC.

Here are our 9 Law Practice Management Best Practice Tips to help you gain a better understanding of how to use Adobe and its most versatile tools.

1. Take time to learn. Accept the fact that learning how to effortlessly use Adobe will not happen overnight!  Any new skill takes practice, and the same is true for using Adobe. It will take several times to learn each tool and master it correctly. Be prepared that the product may update as well, requiring a realignment on your end when that happens.

2. Break the learning into pieces. All of the Adobe products have feature after feature after feature, all layered on top of each other. This is excellent news for your office efficiency and productivity but can be a hard learning curve initially. Instead of tackling the whole software at one time, create miniature goals for yourself. Make a list of the key features that drew you to the program and decide which one you want to add each week. Set aside an hour or two each week to work with the software until you are comfortable using it every day.

3. Learn the integration from Microsoft Word to Adobe Pro. For professional offices, being able to save a word processing document into a PDF is essential. It is also important to be able to take a document out of PDF format and into a word processing format. Keep in mind, word processing isn’t the only Adobe exporting feature. You can also export to picture files, Excel and other file types you need in your office. To start, make sure both software programs on your computer recognize each other and then try the functionality out.

4. Don’t forget security.  You may not want to send or use an unsecure PDF. Adobe DC has security functions that allow you to set password, control user access and lock the original PDF. Using the Publishing Sensitive Information feature is a tool you want to become familiar with and then decide how you and your team will use it in your office.

5. Learn to create a document ready for e-signature. One of the best features of Adobe DC is the ability to create a document that is ready to sign. After you have exported your document from your word processor into Adobe, you can use Adobe Sign to prepare it for signature. Adobe intuitively fills in the signature boxes for you within the tool.

6. Master the Pen Tool. The Pen Tool allows you to create many different designs and graphics but for attorneys you can also use it to write, comment and highlight important parts of an Adobe document. This multi-purpose tool is a good one to learn from the start.

7. You can edit PDFs in Adobe as well. (This is a different part of Adobe, it is called Acrobat DC) Through Adobe you can add text boxes, remove language you do not want and edit text within your PDF. This can make your PDFs more useful and comprehensive in your practice. Learn more by clicking this link.

8. Learn to save your documents. One of the most fundamental parts of using Adobe is knowing how to save your documents. After all, you don’t want to spend hours of time just to find out it saved to your computer incorrectly and is unable to be viewed. When saving your document, you need to make sure you save it as the correct file type. For example, you do not want to save a .doc as a .pdf. Make sure you pay attention to these details and train your team.

9. Use it anywhere! Gone are the days when you or your employees need to be tethered to a desk. Adobe DC can be used across multiple-devices including tablets and smartphones. Decide how this feature can best support your practice and train your team. When using a tool like this, don’t forget to address device security in your technology procedures manual.

There are so many resources and tutorials out there for beginners using Adobe. If you don’t master something within the first week, keep trying and push yourself, and you will succeed. Remember, at the end of the day, you hold the keys to your own success! Need helping getting started? Give us a call at 850-933-5072 or email us at yourpractice@practice42.com.