Legal Tech: Use Excel to track your advertising and ROI

By Peter LaSorsa I constantly get mail, unsolicited calls and emails from software vendors who want to sell law office software designed to track all sorts of things. I utilize Timeslips as my billing, conflict and client information repository software and as a Solo, it does quite well.  However, for tracking different types of cases, along with how profitable each type of case is, I utilize a simple software program that most attorneys already have — Microsoft Excel. Excel is an excellent and powerful tool. One great feature is the ability to sort by any field and total the columns. My practice is employment law on the Plaintiffs side. I do occasional personal injury cases, as well, and it’s interesting to track which types of cases are the most valuable. I set up about nine fields, client name, county, type of case, date filed, date settled, opposing attorney, how I got the client (advertising), amount case settled for and my fee. Once I start sorting I can find out which advertising gives the most bang for the buck. I can also see trends with other firms I am on the opposite side with. If you are not familiar with Excel, you can take a tutorial, or the ISBA Committee on Legal Technology has a yearly boot camp in which Excel is covered, check the ISBA website under CLE. I also use an Excel spreadsheet to track the status of cases, and have a spreadsheet for accounts payable. Sometimes small programs work best and I believe Excel is a program more attorneys should take a look at. The best thing about Excel? You probably already own it.