Custom law firm management software: delivered in 30 days for €105,000

A 50-person law firm managed its cases on Notion, handled billing through a dedicated tool, and tracked its staff in Excel. The result: daily data re-entry, inconsistent data, and reporting that was impossible to generate. Like many firms, it was looking for law firm management software that truly met its needs. A custom ERP system was delivered to them in 30 days for €105,000, compared to a competitor’s quote of €388,000.

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What standard law firm management software doesn't cover

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Law firm management software must address specific needs: tracking client cases, managing project phases, coordinating between partners and associates, time-based billing, and reporting by practice area. The SaaS solutions available on the market cover 80% of these needs. These are needs shared by most law firms.

The remaining 20% is how you work: your internal approval process, your method for evaluating a case, and your client follow-up process. These 20% are not covered by a standard tool. They never will be, because they are specific to your firm.

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You've learned to work the way your software allows, not the way your job requires.

In practice, this results in Excel exports alongside the software, data having to be re-entered between tools, and data that doesn’t match up. And a question that keeps coming up in meetings: isn’t there a law firm management software that actually does what we need?

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The Hidden Costs of SaaS Software for Law Firms

A SaaS provider builds its product with the majority of its customers in mind. As a result, you end up paying for features you don’t use. On average, 60 to 70% of the features in SaaS software are never activated. And the features you actually need are often missing or incomplete.

What the sales demo doesn't show:

• Per-user licenses: the cost increases with each new hire

• Additional modules billed separately from the basic subscription

• Integrations with your existing tools: complex, costly, and often incomplete

• Migration if you want to switch tools: €6,000 to €30,000, depending on the vendor

• Internal time lost on workarounds in Excel—unbilled but very real

Over a three-year period, the total cost of SaaS software for 20 users (licenses, integrations, modules, internal time) often exceeds €114,000. At the end of those three years, you own nothing. The code belongs to the vendor. If their prices go up or if they go out of business, you have no recourse.

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A custom-built ERP system for a law firm, delivered in 30 days for €105,000

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A law firm with 50 employees contacted us with this problem: its projects are structured in phases, involve multiple team members, and billing is tied to project progress. No off-the-shelf tool could centralize all of this. Generating reports was impossible.

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The situation before

The firm was using four separate software programs: one for project management, one for tracking stakeholders, one for billing, and Excel to fill in the gaps. Every day, data had to be manually re-entered from one tool to another. The figures didn’t match up. It was impossible to monitor operations in real time.

A traditional vendor had provided a quote for custom law firm management software with a similar scope: €388,000, with an estimated delivery time of 12 to 18 months.

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WhatIT SYSTEMES

An ERP system covering the entire project lifecycle: project phases, stakeholder management, billing, and reporting. Delivered in 30 days. Cost: €105,000. The firm owns the full source code, with no subscription fees or royalties.