Software to create your contracts
Feb 06, 2023After doing all the research and figuring out the pricing for your prospective law firm client, you might wonder how you create a professional and elegant contract that will stand out from the rest.
Enter 17Hats software
In the past, I have been using 17Hats with great success. The hyperlink will provide discounted pricing via my referral or 50% off the first year. 17Hats has a wide range of features and is very robust in terms of functionality. The custom fields feature one of my favorites, as you can tailor the data set to fit the needs of your business.
If you have yet to hear about 17hats, it's a fantastic CRM (Customer Relationship Management Tool) with a low monthly fee. When you start using it, you will be able to track your clients and prospects and create templates so that you can follow up if the potential client doesn't respond or drops off. 17hats is a powerful software platform that helps businesses create, e-sign, and track contracts easily and efficiently. This all-in-one package enables you to write custom contracts quickly and manage them efficiently from one central hub.
17hats integration
One of my favorite things about this software is that 17hats can embed a contact form into your website. This means that whenever a potential client or lead contacts you, they get information from your website, which in turn lands in 17hats which enables you to build quotes, contracts, questionnaires, and so much more.
Once you have the software set up and linked to QuickBooks, you will be able to send your client an invoice for the contract deposit, and when it is linked to QuickBooks, it will automatically enter the sales receipt into QuickBooks for you.
Customization
Having said that, the beauty of this software is that it's a great tool you can customize to suit your practice. For example, I've created custom fields to align my questions with those we discussed during the discovery call.
The practice area, prior software, and payroll provider are all added as custom fields, so I know what software the attorney used. The practice area and prior software are great to have when building a contract, especially if they’re moving to something new.
Client notes
My experience has shown that client notes are a gold mine. I can’t tell you how many times I have spoken to potential clients or attorneys, and they do not follow through– because they get busy! It can take months or even years before they call me back. The clients are always blown away when I tell them how well I remember what we talked about during our original conversation with 17hats. Of course, I have written down everything we talked about in my notes so that I can refresh my memory further. I like copying and pasting these notes and details for my staff as we onboard the new client.
The NDA
We typically send out the NDA from 17hats because all the data is there. But you can also send it out from Liscio, a very secure platform.
17Hats workflows
Yes, I said 17hats has workflows! Those workflows are a huge time saver. I have created multiple workflows and even onboarding workflows. I have also templated the entire process. While we are collecting what we need to begin working on a data migration project, sometimes the client needs to learn more about using QuickBooks, so I will sprinkle that training in while we gather the information. You can set this up to be automated so the triggers happen with some scenarios depicted below.
Sample workflow
As you can see, it presents a beautiful result to the client and makes you look very professional.
Sample Contract
"And it has free e-signatures!"
Switching to Ignition
We have experienced exponential growth at our firm and have evolved to utilize Ignition as our primary tool when it comes to contracts. Due to our extremely busy schedules, and the fact that we are unable to keep track of all of our client payments or when the client's credit card does not work, we decided to move forward with this decision, as well as make sure we receive your payment and follow up with them.
In 17hats, there is a workaround for getting your client to pay you for ongoing monthly services. You can use the questionnaire feature, which is a good alternative to gather those credit card details. However, as I mentioned above, it can easily get out of control when you have multiple clients. With Ignition, everything is automated for you.
There are many good things on the "road map" that will help to make Ignition more user-friendly, except that you have to pay for it. We are encouraged by the fact that many good features are planned. I would recommend doing training with them to learn the platform. It will be time well spent.
Conclusion
Over the years, I have been using 17hats, I have had a great experience with it. I feel very fortunate to have bought a lifetime membership allowing me to take advantage of all its features. However, I understand that there are many other software options that one can evaluate and select from. I believe it is always important to take a step back and look at where you will be in the future. Perhaps investing in something that makes sense now might be more worthwhile in the long run.
Having 17 hats is a great benefit, but if you don't take the time to set it up from the get-go, it will become chaotic. I got busy, and I was saving templates on top of templates. It became messy when I got to that point, and I had to spend some time putting it together.
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