How to choose legal practice management software in South Africa

1. Start with the trust account

Trust money is the client's, and the Legal Practice Act holds the firm to account for every cent of it. Software that gets the trust account wrong is a liability, however good the rest is.

• Does every client have their own trust ledger, and does the software refuse an entry that would put a ledger in debit?
• Can you reconcile the bank statement to the ledger as at any date, with deposits in transit and uncleared payments listed?
• Is interest on trust money split the way section 86 of the Legal Practice Act requires, between the Fidelity Fund and the client?
• Does it show money that is unclaimed, or has no known owner, and when it falls due to the Fidelity Fund under section 87(4)?
• Will it produce what your auditor needs for the annual trust audit, without a week of spreadsheets?

2. Fee notes, VAT and getting paid

• Are fee notes valid tax invoices, with VAT worked out correctly whether or not the firm is a VAT vendor?
• Does a credit note reduce the fee note and the VAT it carried, as the VAT Act requires?
• Can time be captured as the work is done, and turned into a fee note without retyping?
• Does it send statements and reminders, and can clients pay online?

3. Your data, POPIA and leaving

• In which country is the firm's data stored, and does the supplier say so in writing?
• Can you decide which people in the firm see which matters, clients and money?
• Can you export all of your own records yourself, in an open format, at any time?
• What happens to your data, and for how long, if you stop using the software?

4. Deadlines and the diary

• Does it count court days around South African public holidays, including days declared for elections?
• Does it keep a prescription register and remind you before a claim prescribes?
• Does the whole team see the same diary, on their phones as well as at the desk?

5. Price, and how you are asked to buy

• Is the price published, or do you have to book a demo to hear it?
• Is it charged per firm or per person, and what does the price become as the firm grows?
• Can you try it on your own matters before you commit, and how long is the contract?
• Will the supplier move your clients, matters and balances across from your current system?

6. Support

• Who answers when something goes wrong, in which hours, and how quickly?
• Is support given by people who understand a South African trust account and a VAT201?

A short checklist to take into any demo

1. Show me a trust reconciliation as at last month-end.
2. Try to pay out more than a client's ledger holds.
3. Issue a fee note, then a credit note against it, and show me the VAT on both.
4. Export every record of the firm, now, while I watch.
5. Tell me the price for a firm of my size, in writing.