Law firms are sacrificing a lot of control as their employees work from home in light of Covid-19. Lawyers and conveyancers are paradoxically more autonomous in staying on top of their daily tasks while relying more on each other to make sure nothing falls between the cracks.
Meanwhile, clients still expect the same expedient and secure level of service they’ve always received. This means firms must be vigilant in handling matters with care and clear communication.
Fortunately, Smokeball users already have a solution to these concerns built directly into their cloud-based legal practice management software: Tasks and Workflows.
Use Tasks to tackle your to-dos
Smokeball’s Tasks feature automates your daily to-do lists. Assign tasks to yourself or others in your firm and be in touch with everyone once the tasks are completed. Tasks save directly to relevant matters, so every message and file worked is automatically saved directly to the shared matter.
Firms don’t have to ask employees if they’ve done what was tasked to them; the Task list is shared, and the work is saved to the cloud, meaning everyone can access it from any computer running Smokeball.
Best of all, Tasks won’t be overlooked as firms can set up shared Reminders, helping employees stay on top of tasks that must adhere to strict deadlines and/or client expectations.
Work remote seamlessly with Workflows
One-off to-do lists are one thing. But most legal businesses require tasks that have to be completed repeatedly for similar matters. By bundling your team’s tasks into Smokeball’s Workflow capability, you’ll not only keep everything moving forward, you’ll also be able to assign tasks to different members of your team, so that even from afar, team members can work together to advance a matter to completion.
No members will be out of the loop either, as Workflows are displayed as a Daily Digest, auto-populating in employees’ calendars and appearing in daily emails so that members of a team can schedule their day as soon as they open Outlook in the morning.
Manage your remote team with ease
Tasks are not just a productivity capability, they are the front line of collaborative communication as your team works from home or on the road.
Tasks can be delegated to individual members of your firm, effectively setting their daily or weekly schedules for them (instead of checking in each morning and asking them what they’re working on that day.) Smokeball admins at your firm can then go into the Firm Insights tab at any point to see what users are working on, how long they’re working on them, and how much profit you can expect to see.
Tasks feature a Next Steps and Matter Stages capability so that your firm can automate reoccurring tasks. With this established, your team has a blueprint of how to progress through any given matter type. This is incredibly helpful if/when your team is forced to onboard a new team member or add someone new to a matter while working remotely.
Sick of using long chats, post-it notes, or emails to check on your colleagues’ productivity? If you’re not already a Smokeball user, find out how Tasks and Workflows can help you regain the control you’ve lost during the coronavirus disruption.
