A year in Quill: 2023 under review

WE’VE ROUNDED UP QUILL’S 2023 TOP STORIES TO BE GRATEFUL TO THE PAST YEAR AND LOOK AHEAD TO 2024. IT’S AN OPPORTUNE MOMENT TO SAY THANK YOU TO YOU, OUR CLIENTS AND PARTNERS, FOR REMAINING BY OUR SIDE FOR ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL TWELVE MONTHS IN BUSINESS.

NOW LET’S TAKE A TRIP DOWN 2023’S MEMORY LANE…

January

As we reached our milestone anniversary, we took you on a whistlestop tour of Quill’s first 45 years, beginning as a niche supplier of programmable calculators and word processors, progressing to a one-stop-shop legal software and outsourcing service provider.

Having launched our new e-book titled ‘Data accessibility vs data security’, we presented its highlights in a four-part blog series covering why you need to strike a balance between access and security, cyber risks facing our sector, security tips from Google and digital transformation possibilities powered by cloud technology.

February

Taking CSR seriously and being committed to giving back to others, we voted in our charity of the year, Cash for Kids, then set ourselves an ambitious fundraising target of £5,000 and devised activities on the theme of ‘falling’.

In our inaugural guest blog by Tracey Longbottom at Legl, our partner for online payments, we published vital advice on adopting a cohesive, practice-wide approach to payments and anti-money laundering (AML) in order to protect from fraud.

March

With financial year end in our sights, we issued a reminder about the free accountant licence that comes with our legal accounts software and/or as part of our compliant-centric outsourced cashiering service. This licence really simplifies statutory accounting processes.

Our second guest blog hit the headlines, with Paul Clyde at FormEvo, our partner for legal forms and e-submissions, sharing hints on making life easier and saving up to 70% on form completion time courtesy of bundling, auto-populating, auto-calculating and bookmarking functionality.

We backed various legal awards with sponsorship of the Modern Law Awards in London to celebrate some of our industry’s finest talent.

April

In keeping with tradition, we closed our offices to hold our AGM and CPD afternoon, during which we awarded our employee service award to Chris Shingler, with certificates of excellence going to Ray Eljarrat and Su Caukill.

Chartered certified accountant Claire Ellis at JJ+H Accounting Services spoke out about collaborating with Quill to streamline annual accounting for accountant and law firm alike.

May

Webinar season kicked off with Quill and clients showing how to navigate the minefield of choosing the right software and supplier in a busy-and-confusing marketplace.

June

Getting into even fuller swing, our insightful webinars continued with expert instruction on unlocking your legal project management skills from Juliet Oliver at the Solicitors Regulation Authority with the Law Society of England and Wales as host.

July

We circulated a trio of top tips to manage your practice smarter, these being keeping your cashiering function running uninterruptedly during peak holiday period, recognising legal cashiers as the unsung heroes of the legal world and complying with ever-complicated AML rules to avoid financial sanctions.

In Liverpool, we sponsored the Modern Law Private Client Awards to acknowledge innovation in this practice area.

We were acquired by the Dye & Durham Corporation, a leading provider of legal technology solutions, thus beginning an exciting chapter of growth enabling us to further and better support the evolving needs of law professionals.

August

In honour of National Payroll Week, we delved into four reasons to outsource your payroll to positively impact your efficiency, accuracy, compliance and bottom line.

September

Mahesh Patel at Stenfield Solicitors revealed all about how to make one of the most profound decisions of your professional career – buying legal software.

Our charity fundraising team with a strong head for heights tackled an 11km tandem skydive and 80ft abseil off the Millers Dale Viaduct in the Peak District, in aid of Cash for Kids to encourage donations to our three fundraising pages.

We were victorious at the Best Companies Awards, landing #11 ‘Best Technology Company In The UK’, #16 ‘Best Mid-Sized Company In The UK’ and #25 ‘Best Company In The North West’, showcasing what an incredible company Quill is to work for due to our people and employee engagement focus.

We were proud to sponsor Bournemouth and District Law Society’s Compliance Conference to reinforce the message of the importance of regulatory compliance.

October

Starting the Christmas countdown, we reminded you to book your temporary cashiering cover for the festive season to save stress when you’re operating reduced staffing.

November

We found ourselves in the Wirral once more as sponsors of Modern Law Magazine’s Conveyancing Awards, an esteemed celebration of outstanding performance in the conveyancing arena.

We got two more guides off the ground to help you take the inadvertent project management you’re already doing and transforming it into something more deliberate, and embracing the must-have tool of practice management software to thrive in today’s challenging and competitive landscape.

December

Answering your burning questions about fundraising results, we gave all the answers on ‘why’ and ‘how’ – including the annual total of £6,000 for the incredible Cash for Kids charity which is empowering young people and inspiring hope one child at a time.

For the third consecutive year, we won the ILFM Law Firm Software Users Silver Award as continued recognition by people who use our world-class practice management and legal accounting solutions every day.

We close for Christmas at 12 noon on Friday 22nd December and reopen at 9am on Tuesday 2nd January. Please note we’ll be constantly monitoring our servers and network infrastructure, responding to urgent queries and providing a skeleton cashiering service throughout the festivities.