Contact Management Software/Database
The functionality of CounselPro that supports our members in the most profound ways is difficult to summarize, please feel free to contact us for a more detailed discussion about the benefits of using software this advanced! Members are thrilled to have the following database responsibilities covered in their practice:
- Stores all contact information including notes from anyone in the firm for clients, prospective clients, vendors, professionals, staff and more.
- “Communicate” feature allows users to send client appointments and emails to anyone in the database with a valid email address
- “Activities” feature is a handy “to-do” list for all staff, tracking all open items, action items by staff, allowing sorting by any field, and with reporting available.
- Document assembly of client estate plans for Revocable Living Trusts, Legacy Wealth Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Wills, Charitable Remainder Trusts, and more, all from the client’s main screen.
- Produces over 200 management or marketing reports. These reports tell the proper law firm staff:
- What marketing method was used for a speaking engagement, how many people attended, how many appointments were made, how many appointments were kept, how many new clients were retained and what type of work did they require. What were the expenses and revenue relating to that event?
- Where is the work now? How many documents are in production, how many are awaiting signing, how many were signed during a specific time period.
- Reports can be created to reflect a list of clients or prospects celebrating a birthday or anniversary this week or month.
- Reports can be created to list clients with a deceased spouse.
- Activity Reports display open activities, sorted by user, or by type of activity; also have one that displays Activity Items with Time (timesheet for clients).
- Consultation "no-shows", cancellations and retention reports can be generated.
- Company reports – list by category, by city, or run a company fax or email export.
- Marketing Budget Reports help members plan effectively.
- Sign-in Sheets for Events and Continuing Education Events allow clients to register when they arrive.
- Referral Source reports for particular periods oftime.
- "Age Group Total" and "Zip Code"Reports help in the planning process.
- Mail House and Email Exports provide the ability to export names, addresses, email and phone fields to CSV (Excel) filesfor use with other programs or mail houses.
- With well over 300 letters for specific purposes, members never have to draft a single letter; it has already been written and is ready and waiting for use inside the database.
- Mail merge feature: ONE record can be merged for any of these letters, or the letter can be used for specific filters of records inside the database.
- Quick letter feature: Send a letter directly from the client’s contact screen. You can customize the filters to add your own letters.
“I left an in-house counsel position at a large bank to start my own practice at a time that the bank was being prepared for a merger and my position was likely to terminate. I had no clients and only a sketch of a business plan in my head. I linked up with a couple of life insurance agents who were giving living trust seminars to prepare the documents for their customers. I was paid separately and had the clients sign a separate engagement agreement. I didn't know enough about what I was doing and needed a big jump start. I saw an ad for the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys and began to do a lot of due diligence. I borrowed the necessary money for the membership and to hire a very competent secretary, took the training, read the materials and started to do seminars almost immediately.
I now have a partner, an associate and a former partner who is of counsel with my firm. We are keeping 11 full-time and 2 part-time employees busy and manage to bring in close to $2M in revenue each year.”