CosmoLex Review: Features and Pricing 2022

CosmoLex is cloud-based legal practice management software with built-in legal accounting, billing, email, and document management. Some of its most notable features include trust accounting, LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard) billing, matter management, and a client portal. CosmoLex costs $89 per user per month for monthly contracts. You can try it for free for 14 days before purchasing the program.

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What We Recommend CosmoLex For

We recommend CosmoLex for lawyers and law firms wanting a single solution to manage their legal practice and accounting instead of having to work with QuickBooks or any other bookkeeping program.

CosmoLex claims to be the only legal practice management software with a fully integrated law accounting package. While you’ll find some form of trust accounting in similar programs, they’re often limited to tracking trust balances and usually require QuickBooks to manage tasks like check printing and three-way bank reconciliation.

CosmoLex is one of our picks for the best law firm accounting software and is especially good for:

• Lawyers that need a fully integrated legal accounting package: CosmoLex’s built-in law office accounting system lets you manage all of your trust (IOLTA) accounting in real-time, without the need to close the system.
• Law firms planning to scale up that can’t afford to upgrade to an expensive solution: With CosmoLex’s single pricing plan, you won’t have to spend more as your firm scales up and requires more advanced features.
• Law firms accepting credit card payments: CosmoLex integrates with LawPay so that your clients can pay their invoices online.

When CosmoLex Is Not a Good Fit

• Law firms that want integrated payroll: CosmoLex has no built-in or integrated payroll system like TimeSolv. TimeSolv integrates with Xero to help you process your payroll.
• Law firms using QuickBooks Online: If you’ve been using QuickBooks Online for managing your books, you may want to keep QuickBooks and integrate it with LeanLaw instead of switching to CosmoLex.
• Lawyers that need client intake forms: Client intake forms are useful for onboarding clients, but CosmoLex comes up short in this area. You may need to look for specialized practice management software, such as Clio, that supports client intake forms.
• Lawyers working with poor or limited internet connectivity: As it’s cloud-based software, you can’t access CosmoLex without an internet connection. If you’re working in an area with a poor or limited internet connection, a desktop-based program like PCLaw is a good alternative.

Are you looking for something different? If you think general bookkeeping software might be right for your law firm, check out our guide to the best small business accounting software.

CosmoLex Compared to Competitors

CosmoLex Pros and Cons

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CosmoLex Pricing

CosmoLex offers a single plan at $89 per user, per month, when billed monthly or $79 per user, per month, when billed annually. With every account, you’ll get a free login for your accountant, unlimited file storage, unlimited training, free data migration, integrated credit card processing for no monthly fee, and an unconditional 90-day money-back guarantee. If your firm has more than 10 users, you can get tiered pricing to save some money.

The free 14-day trial gives you access to all of CosmoLex’s features, but you can only connect one bank account.

CosmoLex Features

CosmoLex combines legal-specific accounting and practice management in a single platform. It provides lawyers with a wide range of features and tools to help them manage different aspects of their firm, such as time and expense tracking, trust accounting, task management, and reporting. Below is a quick overview of some of its new and core features.

New Features in 2022

One thing we like about CosmoLex is that it’s regularly updated to add new features and make fixes. Below are some of the most notable new features of CosmoLex in 2022.

Enhanced e-Billing

CosmoLex now allows you to generate multiple bills in one go regardless of the format—whether it’s LEDES 1998B, LEDES XML 2.0, or LitigationAdvisor invoice format. If you use LEDES 199B, you have the option to set up the billing start date to the default date―first date of invoice month―or the date of the oldest time/expense card. Your e-bill files will be categorized by fees first, and then the expenses are grouped based on their respective date order.

Add Soft Costs and Hard Costs

With this new feature, you have the option to include hard costs, only soft costs, or both when generating a timekeeper’s expense report. Soft costs are indirect costs, such as long-distance phone calls and printing, that can be attributed to a particular client. We recommend including soft costs if you want to itemize these expenses for reimbursements. Meanwhile, hard costs are payments made directly to a vendor on behalf of your client, such as court fees and filing fees. Tracking hard costs can help you better track your income and expenses.

There are different options for adding soft costs and hard costs. You can do it from the Activities or Matters menu or matter details. The easiest way to add a soft cost is to use the Global Add shortcut button on the homepage. To do this, just click on the + button on the top toolbar and select Expense (Soft Cost) or Expense (Hard Cost).

Surcharging

If you’re charging a fee to your clients for processing credit card payments, you’ll find this new feature useful. Surcharging in CosmoLex allows you to set up your account where the system requires your client to pay a fee when processing payments by credit card.

File Type Restrictions

Data security should be a top priority among law firms. To help prevent malicious file uploads by users or clients, the new version of CosmoLex doesn’t allow the upload and download of certain file types within the client portal and document section. The image below shows all the file types that are restricted by CosmoLex. File administrators can change their restrictions on the Setup menu.

Other New Features

Some other features have also been added, including making the CosmoLexPay receipt setting optional instead of required when processing payment and the ability to add e-billing attributes when exporting matter pages like client issues, matter ID, and billing type format. To get up to speed with the complete list of new features, you can check out CosmoLex’s new product features press release page.

CosmoLex Core Features

Dashboard

When you log in to your CosmoLex account, you’ll be greeted by a comprehensive dashboard with direct links to three tabs:

• Firm: Shows firm-wide information, including top-five clients, overdue and unpaid invoices, and billing activities
• Me: Provides information on practice-management-related items like upcoming events and pending tasks
• Recent Activities: Displays the user’s recent activities, such as logins, setup, matters, and transactions

Built-in Legal Trust Accounting

CosmoLex’s main feature is trust accounting, which is built into the system alongside general accounting, legal billing, and practice management. With CosmoLex, you can set up and manage individual client ledgers, print disbursement checks, import bank and credit card statements for automated data entry, and create a comprehensive set of trust accounting reports like trust ledger transactions and trust client balances.

Billing and Invoicing

The program supports various billing methods, including fixed fee, hourly, and contingency billing. CosmoLex incorporates all Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTBMS) codes to help make the billing process more convenient. You can create and customize legal-specific invoices, batch-generate invoices for all your clients with one click, and print invoices in bulk.

Before you can create an invoice in CosmoLex, you should have at least one time or expense card for a matter. To create an invoice, click on Activities, select Invoice, and then tap the Create Invoice button on top of your screen. From the Select Time/Expense cards To Include section, tick the box next to the entry that you want to include. You can also make changes on the fly by clicking Edit.

Accounts Payable

CosmoLex allows you to record the expense first and then pay using your credit card or bank account. You can add and pay bills through CosmoLex from the accounting module found on the left navigation panel. Unpaid bills can also be tracked using the system.

To create a new bill, select Accounts Payable under the Accounting menu, click on the Add button on the top toolbar and select Bill. The Pay Bills screen then opens, asking you to provide information, such as bill amount, payee, and due date.

Time Tracking

CosmoLex provides different options to track time. You can track time from the Global Timer and timesheet, from matters, from matter details, from Activities, from Money Finder, and from the Global Add shortcut button on your home screen. If you’re out on the road, you also have the option to track your time using your mobile device. Among the several time tracking options, we recommend using the shortcut button as it’s the quickest option. Click on the + button on the top toolbar of your home screen and select Time from the drop-down menu.

Matter Management

CosmoLex allows you to manage all events and items related to matters and cases. You can create trust transactions, timecards, expense cards, invoices, and trust transactions. CosmoLex makes sure that every document, billable item, and task is tagged to the proper client matter. You can add, edit, delete, and copy a matter from the Matters tab.

Document Management

Designed with built-in storage, CosmoLex provides a single platform to manage all your files, documents, case information, and compliance requirements, and you can create original documents. Because it’s cloud-based, you can locate and retrieve any file remotely. CosmoLex also integrates with third-party storage providers, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, NetDocuments, and OneDrive.

Client Portal

The client portal provides a two-way messaging system for you to communicate with your clients. Through this portal, your clients can send and receive files as well as view and pay invoices online. Items that can be accessed through the portal include messages, notes, events, documents, invoices, and tasks. All documents are stored within your CosmoLex Matter Records account automatically.

Calendar and Task Management

Lawyers need a streamlined calendar to manage and track important tasks and deadlines. With CosmoLex, you can create calendar events with descriptions and locations and invite firm members to add events to their calendars. You can also set up billing status, priority levels, estimated hours, and due dates for each task.

Reports

You can generate a comprehensive set of general accounting reports with CosmoLex, including profit and loss (P&L) statements, general ledgers, balance sheets, and accounts receivable (A/R). Trust reports include trust ledger balances, trust ledger transactions, trust ledger activity summaries, trust transfer records, and three-way reconciliations.

The CosmoLex mobile app includes almost all of the features of the desktop app. It allows you to enter time and expenses on the go; add contacts, tasks, and notes; and track tasks and events. You can download the app on Google Play or the App Store.

Customer Service and Ease of Use

One of CosmoLex’s strongest features is its simple user interface. Even beginners can find their way around the program easily. From the dashboard, you can access all the essential modules instantly, including Matters, Activities, Accounting, Contacts, Setup, and Reports. All functions can be completed through pop-up screens, so you don’t have to exit or leave the main matter page. One of the best features is its Global Add shortcut button, which allows you to instantly create entries, such as time and expenses.

You can seek help from CosmoLex’s support staff through phone or live chat support or by submitting a support ticket request through its website. You can also browse its online knowledge base of how-to articles, instructional videos, and GIFs. If you have complex needs, you can enlist the help of a CosmoLex-certified consultant.

CosmoLex Alternatives

Bottom Line

If your firm has been tracking legal matters and doing bookkeeping using two different programs, it might be time to switch to CosmoLex. It combines practice management and accounting in a single solution that’s moderately priced compared to similar programs. With CosmoLex, you get two for the price of one.