With AJS you can rest assured that you are making a sound purchase decision. Today, more than five hundred law firms of all sizes trust AJS to manage their money. You'll also be pleased to know that AJS has been around for nearly thirty years, which means that teething problems have long since been ironed out and the system has been enhanced over time to meet the unique needs of any law practice. However, that's not all that makes AJS the right choice for your firm. It is a known fact that accounting departments in law firms are often criticized for their trust accounts being out of balance. That's why AJS makes use of a seven column ledger, recommended by auditors throughout South Africa for accurate trust and business accounting. It may also be comforting to know that AJS has passed nearly thirty years of trust audits through its clients - an achievement of which we are justifiably proud.
In addition to the time saving features in AJS accounting such as direct debiting, on-demand invoicing, batch imports, bank reconciliations, electronic invoices/statements, and single-screen enquiries, AJS also saves time through its smart functions. For example, the document attachments module ensures that all information pertaining to a matter is stored with that matter, including letters, faxes, emails, invoices, statements, and SMS messages. The contacts module ensures that you don't need to re-capture client information for new matters, which saves time and improves accuracy, and the FICA module helps the firm to simplify your compliance requirements. Last but not least, for case management and processes such as Debt Recovery and Litigation, AJS not only produces the documents on-the-fly, but it also records the next action to be taken in its electronic diary, saving time and ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks.
AJS incorporates a number of powerful fee-increasing aspects. For example, by debiting fees and disbursements as they happen rather than guessing at an invoice at the end of the month, firms ensure that no billing is forgotten. Through the use of direct debiting codes, firms are also able to extract the maximum fees from an invoice. And, by using AJS to produce invoices and statements rather than typing them on Microsoft® Office Word, firms also ensure that no fees are forgotten. With AJS, fee-earner performance is monitored via the system, which invariably increases productivity.
There are a number of ways in which AJS assists law firms to reduce costs. In addition to the more conventional savings such as telephone, printing, postage, time, etc., AJS also reduces costs by storing all information pertaining to a matter or client directly in the AJS system, so that fee-earners and bookkeepers won't waste time searching for missing documents. You'll also save money by emailing your invoices and statements to your clients instead of posting them. And, since client contact information and FICA information is kept on file, information doesn't need to be re-captured each time a client brings a new matter to the firm, which saves time.
Through the use of work-in-progress (WIP) billing, AJS ensures that your firm won't pay VAT or PAYE prematurely, and since firms can print invoices or statements on demand, client invoices can be raised well before month end, which improves cash flow. In addition, the descending order age analysis helps firms to manage their debtors. And, since invoices and statements are stored with each matter, copies of invoices and statements can be sent to clients instantly via email, ensuring that clients can't use 'missing invoices' as an excuse for non-payment of their account. Another useful feature is that bookkeepers can add notes to the client or matter file - for example, reasons for non-payment. This assists bookkeepers with the firm's own debt collection. Another way AJS assists firms to improve cash flow is through a no-movement report which identifies potential fees forgotten in the trust account. All of these aspects help the law firm to optimise their cash flow.
Partners or directors with access permissions can use AJS to view the fee books of all fee-earners in their department or across the entire practice. This allows partners to monitor fee-earner performance and to forecast fees for the month. AJS also provides a number of management reports which assist partners and directors to stay in control. For example, the fee-earner report, which shows the fees written by all fee-earners or departments, and the descending age analysis report, which will highlight which of the firm's clients owe it the most money. Using the powerful tools in AJS, practice management becomes a reality.
The AJS contacts system helps you to manage the people-relationships in your client base. The system stores detailed information about each contact, and can be used for sending various communications such as marketing letters, invitations, birthday greetings, and newsletters to clients. In today's economy, law firms have to do all they can to retain clients and grow their practices, and it is a known fact that strong relationships with clients invariably brings repeat business from existing clients as well as referrals to new clients.
The diary in AJS ensures that fee-earners don't forget to attend to various tasks on their to-do list. This ensures that tasks are completed on time, and that nothing slips through the cracks, which improves client service. Another great aspect of the system is that the contacts system keeps client information on file so that you won't need to recapture it next time the client makes use of your firm. Archived matters are also kept on file, and even dead-files management is handled by the system - so you'll save time by re-using information. The system also offers a powerful conflict-of-interest search facility, regardless of how many client or matter files you have on record. With AJS, 're-use of information' won't be just another cliche.
Salaries remain the biggest cost for any law firm. So it makes sense that productivity is an extremely important aspect of practice management, and this is where AJS will make a real difference. Properly trained fee-earners and bookkeepers know how to get the most out of AJS, which not only helps the firm to increase fees, but also to reduce costs. To ensure that all users remain productive, should a problem be encountered with the system, users can log the problem via the Internet, or they can call the AJS helpdesk for assistance. More often than not problems can be corrected via remote login which significantly reduces the cost of ownership.
AJS is so flexible that it can be configured to work the way you do, which saves time on training and ensures that the system is able to handle your firm's unique requirements. For example, automated reports can be created for the firm's major clients, such as banks, and custom information fields can be added to AJS so that the system suits any type of law practice.