Document Automation: What’s Wrong With Document Automation

When “state of the art” technology fails you, what do you do? Well, we raised the state of the art!

Kim & Lowell, Knackly founders, have over forty years of combined experience in document automation. Lowell was fresh out of college when he started with HotDocs and eventually went on to be a lead architect and Kim founded REAL Automators, a document automation consultancy group. They’ve seen things.

They noticed that, as document automation solutions became more powerful, so did their complexity, putting the software out of touch for many offices and even creating an entire consulting, sub-industry dedicated to converting templates. Law firms could choose from user-friendly options that couldn’t do anything complicated, but the robust solutions took forever to master. This was the opposite of what automation software is supposed to do!

Top Seven Problems With Document Automation Software

Our customers tell us this is what they were dealing with, prior to Knackly.

“Programming takes too long.”

Before Knackly, when we were consulting, a bank asked us to automate a set of complex loan documents. We estimated it would take between 500 and 1000 hours to convert those document to HotDocs. At an average of $150/hour, this was a $75,000-$150,000 job and would require long-term maintenance. Knackly reduces this by 60%.

How? Knackly trims “programming” time by encouraging recycling and reuse of the tools you already built. Did you create a list of dependents’ data for a Power of Attorney, last month? Need a similar list of beneficiaries to slip into a Living Will, today? Grab that object from the previous project and plug it in your current template. This is how Knackly reduces prep time.

“Training is cumbersome.”

When we were training new customers on HotDocs or other systems, it took a new developer around six months of solid work to reach an intermediate mastery of their features. Knackly customers require about half that time—or less—depending on the level of training and one-to-one contact included in their subscription level.

How? We pull it off by:

1. Compartmentalizing training
2. Establishing compounding skillsets
3. Knackly’s modern architecture and simple UX
4. Dedicated customer success managers

“Entering Client Info Is Error-Prone and Time-Consuming.”

Collecting information from your clients can be difficult and often leads to input errors that turn into mistakes in your documents.

Instead Knackly’s “External Interview” is a question-and-answer session your clients access via hyperlink and complete on any device. Their answers populate your client intake forms and any other documents their matter requires. We eliminate the opportunity for entry error or typos and your paralegals can focus on more important work.

“Lack of Integration makes me duplicate work.”

“Document automation is great, but if it doesn’t integrate with other systems I use, I’m still entering data twice, right?” Right! Sadly, most document automation solutions don’t provide integration, which means increased costs and opportunity for error—the OPPOSITE of what document automation is supposed to deliver!

As more of our customers use programs like TimeMatters, Clio, SalesForce, ProLaw and other client management systems, integration becomes more important. Fundamental to Knackly is an open API and data formats that permit easy connectivity with your existing office systems.

“Limited Collaboration slows down our office.”

More heads are better than one, they say. Yet so many document automation solutions limit access to desktop use and overburdened user structures.

Instead, Knackly is cloud-based and provides storage for our users. They can access their templates on any connected device at any time.

“The software is difficult to work with.”

Document automation platforms fall into a few tiers. The easier they are to master, the less they can do. Or, the powerful ones, that can manage your most complicated documents are often too complex to understand and require expensive consultants to develop and maintain a template library.

We flatten all that. Thanks to our modular architecture, Knackly expands with your needs without becoming overburdened by complicated code, patches and add-ons. You can’t outgrow us; we are good for small and large offices, alike.

“It costs too much.”

Considering the cost of subscriptions, Professional Services, training hours, consulting services and maintenance of all that, no wonder so many firms think document automation software is expensive!

What if it SAVED you, instead? It can!

Knackly saves customers up to 90% of the time they spent on prepping documents, prior to subscribing with us, accounting for hundreds of dollars saved each month! Check out our affordable subscription plans here.

Knackly addresses these issues and so many more through its intelligent programming, a sophisticated interface and our powerful, versatile architecture. We are unique in the document automation workspace because we’re family-owned, values-driven and Knackly is the fastest, most-capable document automation platform available. Not only that, we provide more training and one-to-one support than any other document automation company because we’re focused on your success.

Check us out in a couple of ways.

A Walkthrough With a Guide

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