What do you like best about CosmoLex?
We are getting decent reviews as to the use of the accounting software, although recently we've had a major issue in which payments that were posted were not saved by the software. So I can't even tout that as being a positive thing right now. For the most part, it does simplify things.
I like the fact that this is an online program that allows us to work by simply logging into a website. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What do you dislike about CosmoLex?
1. First and foremost, at a minimum, when the email is forwarded into the Cosmolex system using the add-in, the email should sync. We have all sorts and types of emails that are not syncing. 2. The Add-in is not stable. In Microsoft Office 365, when moving between saving emails in the inbox and saving emails from sent emails, for example, the add-in glitches. This is not all the time. Originally I thought it was an issue of not using it consistently, but even going back and forth between these two one after another, it regularly goes down. 3. The settings on the add-in make little sense. The checkboxes for active matters and for the forwarding date cannot be defaulted. 99% of the time we are dealing with emails that are associated with active matters, yet we have to click on active matters every time we want to limit the search for the matter to active matters. I'm less concerned with regard to the forwarding date, but for the most part I want to use the email date, not the “today's date”. Again, no default choice. 4. Think about the use of the active matters check box. If we have to select whether we want to use active matters only, why is that checkbox below the matters box? This is not logical. Say we have multiple inactive files associated with a name, i.e. Smith. I am going along and I type Smith, which brings up 30 files, none of which are even active. That expanded box completely covers over the active matters checkbox. I have to back out of there, get that box to disappear, click on active matters, then go back and re-enter the name, and then there's only one or two to choose from. Not a logical progression, which would all be resolved if “active matters only” was a default choice. 5. Prior software that we used actually was able to guess at what matter a particular email was associated with. I don't know what information was used for that purpose. If the add-in was able to do that then this would also save quite a few steps.
Email issues: 1. Lack of control over the columns of information. Lack of a “to” column. There's a column indicating where the email was “from”, but no option for a column indicating to whom the email was sent “to”. So we have no way of trying to organize the emails so we can see all the emails sent to a particular email address. I don't want to take the time to filter. That's inefficient. 2. Having a column with a subject line is almost useless. Doing business with large companies, and insurance companies in particular, a subject line is always the same because it has to include lengthy information regarding the particular file name and number. These do not include the content of the email and frankly, would make the email look completely unprofessional. Similarly, we also receive multiple emails from electronic systems, from the court for example. These always contain the same information related to the caption and index number. Again, nothing as to the content or subject matter of the email. As a result, a subject column just contains the same file name and number over and over again. It should be known that this is a standard business practice. 3. This issue can be fixed with data that is already being generated. Once an email is moved to the CosmoLex system, a timecard can be added. If instead of the subject column there was a column that maintained the information added to the “description” portion of the timecard, then this would provide specific information as to the content of the particular email that was sent. 4. We should also note another problem associated with email. When a timecard is added to an email, the date associated with the email is not transferred from the email to the timecard. That date should be defaulted to the timecard. If we spend the time saving the email to CosmoLex for a particular date, why should we then have to put the date in again when we populate the timecard? It is an added step, and I don't think you realize how difficult you have made it. Since the timecard overlays the screen, it is difficult to go back and look at the CosmoLex entry without cancelling out the time card if you forget the date. Or you have to go back to the original email, which you may have moved on from, to try to determine what date. If I tell the outlook add-in to use a particular date, then that date should be carried all the way through to the time card by default, and then I can modify it after that. 5. Not to get off on a tangent, but the same issue happens when you are adding time cards to notes. This makes no sense, and is inefficient. if I want to record a telephone conversation that I had two days ago, and I save the date on that note so that specifically indicates that the conversation happened two days ago, why when I add a time card should I have to re-input the data two days ago. Again, inefficiency. Not to mention, every time you have to put in such information again, that is one more time that you could get that data point incorrect, screwing up timelines or billing entries and the like. 6. If you save a timecard, then go back in to change or insert the task code, it deletes the description Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
