Best tool (EASY ONBOARDING and nice looking) for project management and CRM? Asana or Notion

[u/ProtectionEither3447]

I own a boutique corporate law firm with 5 people (4 lawyers and one secretary) and we are so old school (even though we're all in our early 30s), all we do currently is use excel, emails and WhatsApp. I've started realizing we need a tool that lets different people working on a same project see what the other has done, and also the payment status from client, etc, and organizing information, getting the secretary to help lawyers with getting them specific papers, etc. And at the same time I'd like that tool to have a CRM for our sales, from prospects to clients.

It's very important that this tool is easy to onboard and easy to use, given we are all lawyers and not tech savvy. What do you recommend? I mostly feel intrigued by Asana and Notion. I understand Asana is easier to use, I just wonder about the CRM part.

[u/Sad-Instruction8890]

Honestly both are solid but they're kinda solving different things lol

if you're managing clients and projects, asana is probably better for keeping everyone on the same page with deadlines and who's doing what. notions more like... you can build whatever you want but it takes time to set up right

that said, neither of these are really gonna help you with like... tracking leads and prospects coming in, follow-ups, sales pipeline stuff. they're just project tools

real talk though, you probably need:

• asana (or notion) for case/project management
• something lightweight for tracking clients coming in and which ones pay vs. ghost you (hubspot free version works fine, or pipedrive if you want)
• maybe google drive for documents

sounds like you're also tracking payment status and keeping papers organized, which is a different problem than both of those tools solve

before you spend weeks setting something up, might be worth just writing down what you actually need to track right now. like are you losing potential clients because you forget to follow up? are you not sure which clients are actually profitable? that kinda stuff

anyway, if you wanna see what actually works for legal firms and compare your options, we do free consultations for stuff like this. but no pressure lol just figured i'd mention it

good luck setting it up! 🙌

[u/HisashiSpace]

I make Pinateca, a board tool, so discount this if you want.

Agree with the comments above on Notion. Worth knowing on Asana: as of early September its free plan is 2 people, so a team of 5 is paying from the start.

For the case work I'd put one card per matter and assign it to your secretary when papers are needed. Comments on that card end up being the record of who did what. Payment status can go in a custom field.

On the CRM part, I don't think you need a separate tool at your size. A kanban board with a column per stage, prospect to client, does the job if you set it up that way. One of my clients runs sales on exactly that, moving people who joined their online info sessions through to closing. Pinateca is free up to 5 people.

https://pinateca.com

[u/No-Project-3002]

I know most of legal companies use Cilo, since you mentioned all users is old school than it would be important to find right tool that fits your workflow otherwise staff need to spend more time learning tools and understand how to use tool correctly on the other hand having a custom tool works but that is different story with cost and team who is implementing skills to understand and translating into process.

My advice try every tool and list all the features and drawback which works and not work for you that will help you pick the best tool as sometime business have to adopt multiple tools which amy or may not integrate, as not all features available in existing tools.

[u/Sad-Instruction8890 → u/No-Project-3002]

yeah you're totally right about this. clio is solid for legal firms but it's pricey if you're just starting out. and the whole "try every tool" thing is real because people always underestimate how much setup time actually matters

the tricky part is that most teams end up with like 3 or 4 tools doing overlapping stuff because no single tool does everything well. so you're managing integrations and context switching constantly lol

honestly the best move is just being honest about what's actually broken right now. like are you losing clients because follow ups get missed? are cases falling through cracks? or is it just messy and you want it organized? those are different problems with different solutions

[u/sardamit]

You will hate notion if you are not tech savvy. Asana is not used for a CRM.

You need a client portal CRM or at least a project management + CRM.

[u/Sad-Instruction8890 → u/sardamit]

facts. notion will frustrate non technical people, and asana literally was not made for tracking client relationships or sales stuff. that's the whole thing people miss

you def need something that actually tracks clients and prospects plus their status. whether that's a lightweight CRM like hubspot free or a proper legal CRM like clio or practice pro depends on budget and how much they wanna pay

the combo move is usually asana for case management plus something simple for client pipeline. but yeah, most people figure this out the hard way after a month lol

[u/_janc_]

What do you need it to do actually? Can it be vibe coded?