Law firm pricing software is aimed at the moment before the work, when a firm has to say what a matter will cost. Hourly billing does not need it much; fixed fees, capped fees and staged fees need it badly, because the fee is agreed once and the cost is discovered over months. What these tools actually do is take a firm's own history of similar matters and turn it into an expected number of hours by grade, which becomes a price. That makes them only as good as the recorded time behind them, which is the part firms tend to skip and then blame the software for.
What it needs before it can price anything
Recorded hours on past matters, by grade, on matters you can classify as similar. A firm without that history is not pricing, it is guessing with a nicer interface. This is the honest reason most pricing tools disappoint in year one and start earning their keep in year two.
What it gets right
Consistency and memory. A partner pricing from experience prices well and prices differently each time; a tool prices the same matter the same way twice and shows the assumption it used. When a fixed fee goes wrong, that record is the difference between a lesson and an argument.
What still decides whether the fee was right
The recorded hours afterwards. A fixed fee is only knowable in hindsight, and the firm that stops recording time when it stops billing by the hour has thrown away the only instrument that tells it whether its prices work. Record the time; bill the fee.
Questions people ask about law firm pricing software
Do we need this if we bill hourly?
Rarely. Hourly billing prices itself as it goes. The case for pricing software starts when a meaningful share of work is fixed-fee, capped or staged.
Does a fixed fee have to be written down?
Your jurisdiction's rules govern, and several require the basis of the fee to be communicated to the client in writing. The ABA's model rule on fees is the usual starting point, but it is a model and your own regulator's version is the one that binds you.
What is the most common pricing mistake?
Pricing the matter you were told about rather than the matter you will be asked to do. Staged fees, with a named trigger for each stage, survive that better than a single number does.