Document Automation Software Tiers

Why have 66% of Knackly’s customers came from other document automation systems

Answer: They ran into functionality that they wish they had but couldn’t do until they started using Knackly.

The three tiers of document automation explain why other systems don’t work for everyone.

And frankly, not everyone needs a Tier 3 document automation solution.

Read below to see which tier of software you should be evaluating.

Schedule a demo to see how you can avoid picking the wrong solution

Tier 1 is right for you when you have:

Simple Letters with names and addresses filled in for you. Think of mail merge.
Simple Contracts with a little conditional logic – i.e., whether you have one signer or two.

Limitations of Tier One:

Tier One products are great for what they do; if all you need is an automation solution to produce simple documents that only need a few pieces of information generated and have a few optional variations, Tier One products may be what you want to look at. However, if you need pieces of information to work together or need to produce documents that have several differences depending on your client’s situation, you will need a more sophisticated solution.

Tier 2 is right for you when you have:

Simple Wills with provisions that change depending on the Testator’s needs
Simple Divorce Pleadings that fill in lists of children or assets

Limitations of Tier Two:

While Tier Two solutions have more features and capabilities, the cost of those features tends to be an increased learning curve. Additionally, while the features are an improvement on Tier One products, those features tend to be fairly simplistic and limited in what they can accomplish. Some of the ways Tier Two features can be limited are:

Unable to determine the number of items in a list; i.e., cannot automatically determine that your client has three children if you enter three children into the ‘Children’ list.
Can’t handle complex signature blocks. Layering entities and individuals in a signature block is generally either difficult or impossible in a Tier Two product.
Unable to reuse information in different circumstances. If Child A is named as both the Executor of your client’s will and the Trustee of their trust, you would need to fill in Child A’s name and personal information in both roles.

If you are looking for a document automation system that only needs to handle relatively simple logic and information (but more than is available in Tier One), a Tier Two solution may be the best fit for you.

Tier 3 is right for you when you have:

Complex Wills with specific bequests and testamentary trusts
Contracts with complex signature blocks
Want to create multiple documents from a single interview

Limitations of Other Tier Three products:

Tier Three products allow you to produce intricate and complex documents, but they have a similar trade-off as the Tier Two solutions: with increased complexity comes a steeper learning curve. Even for advanced users, correctly automating documents in a Tier Three product also tends to take considerably more time than in either a Tier One or Tier Two solution.

However, the features available in Tier Three are often almost limitless, so long as you can learn how to automate with them and your staff can learn to navigate the system. There is a complete sub-industry of consultants and programmers supporting Tier Three platforms, creating and maintaining templates for legal teams who need additional extra help. If you are looking for the ability to produce complicated and time-intensive documents, Tier Three products may be the solution for you.

Going Beyond Tiers with Knackly

When we designed Knackly, we specifically thought about the conflict between features and ease of use that we had seen in so many existing automation systems.

We used modern programming principles and our years of experience in automating documents to develop Knackly in a way that covers all of the tiered situations above. Whether you have Tier One needs, Tier Two, or Tier Three needs, we deliberately designed Knackly to be able to handle your automation requirements – all while keeping the Knackly learning curve short and our system easy for you to use.

Knackly can do everything the tiered products can do, along with many capabilities that even most Tier Three products don’t offer, including:

Reuse of information – faster and more easily than in Tier Three solutions
Sort, filter, and group lists according to different needs
Use lists inside of each other, without the HotDocs requirement that List 2 be a child list included in List 1
Automatically create a Question and Answer interview based on the variables and conditions in the documents
Have the ability to query multiple records to create a report. This helps find out what types of cases were done in the past year.
Open API that allows you to integrate with various software systems.

Schedule a demo to see how Knackly will help you

Hundreds of templates and thousands of clients documents have been created by firms like these with Knackly