NSC — National Savings Certificate

 NSC certificate of National Savings It is a tax savings scheme under underSection 80C, Income Tax Act,1961. The NSC is an investment scheme that provides fixed income. It can be used to save taxes. This scheme can be opened at any local post office if you are an Indian Resident. this government of India InitiativeThe scheme encourages investments of small- to medium-income. The scheme is low risk and guarantees fixed returns investors who aren’t afraid to take risks will be attracted by the scheme. The scheme’s main purpose is to give people the opportunity to save money by opening a savings account is easy to do.

Read Also: All About No Objection Certificate (NOC)

NSC Features

1. 1.

The National Savings Certificate interest rate is subject to change as a result of policy changes made by the Finance Ministry. The NSC interest rate applicable as of Q4 FY 2018–19, January-March 2019, is8. Every quarter, the government revises interest rates. The interest rate for the quarter ended October-December 2018 was also 8.8

2. Minimum Investment

You can start by investing a little bit.Rs 100Your investment. You can increase your investment whenever it is possible.

3. NCS ISSUE VIII

After the December 2015 government’s discontinuation of the NCS Issue IX certificate, the NCS Issue VII Certificate is now the only available NSC. This scheme has a maturity period of 5 years. After the scheme reaches maturity, you will receive the whole maturity value without any TDS deductions. Except in the case of a court order or death, the subscriber cannot withdraw from this scheme prematurely.

4. It’s easy to transfer

You can access the scheme from any country post office. You can also transfer the scheme from one Post Office in the country to another, if needed, without affecting the maturity tenure or interest accrual.

5. Nomination

The scheme allows investors to nominate family members, making it simple to transfer the certificate to them in the event that the investor dies.

6. Collateral accepted

NSC holders and subscribers can submit NSCs as collateral for secured loans. The certificate must be stamped by the Post Master and sent to the Bank or NBFC to secure the loan. Indian residents can only apply for loans with an NSC as collateral. The interest rate will vary depending on the person applying and the bank offering it.

Read Also: Taxpayers Don’t Fall For These Types of Tax Scams in India

Different types of NSC holders

• Single-holder Type Certificate:This certificate is available for purchase by the subscriber either as a gift or on behalf of minors.
• Joint A Type Certificate:Two investors can hold this type of NSC with equal shares in the scheme’s maturity value. To transfer the certificate of nominating an individual, both holders must sign.
• Joint Type Certificate B:Two investors also own this, but only one receives the payment when the scheme matures.

Eligibility

• To be eligible to apply under this scheme, the investor must be an Indian Resident.
• NRIs are not eligible unless they invested under the scheme before becoming an NRI. They are allowed to keep their certificate until maturity in this instance.
• This scheme does not apply to trusts or Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs).

NSC has some benefits

NSC is a government program and has many benefits.

• It is easy to access and offers one of the highest returns of fixed-rate instruments.
• The scheme is virtually risk-free
• It allows you to claim tax deduction benefits on investments up to 1.5 lakh rupees as per Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.
• The scheme’s minimum limit, Rs 100, encourages scheme holders to be flexible in their investments.
• The annual interest earned by NSC during the first four years of the agreement is exempted from tax and eligible for deduction under Section 80C, Income Tax Act.
• You can re-invest the certificate after it matures by buying a certificate equal in maturity to the old certificates.

Application for NSC: Procedure and documents

Although the process of applying for an NSC can be done online, it is simple. These documents are required to apply for an NSC purchase:

• The NSC Application Form, also known as Form 1, is where you fill in basic information and include the amount you want to invest.
• Recent Passport Photographs
• A proof of identity that includes Adhaar and Pan Card as well as Passport.
• You will need to provide proof of address, such as Adhaar, Voter ID or Pan Card.

Once the verification is complete and all documents have been submitted, you will be able to make the investment amount paid in cash or by cheque. After the payment has been processed, you can collect the NSCs for the amount from your local post office.

Many people find the National Savings Certificate beneficial, especially those with lower or middle incomes. They have an easy way to invest and almost guaranteed fixed returns.

How to Grow a Law Firm with Legodesk?

 

Legodesk | Legal Practice Management Software

Jul 23·6 min read

“How to grow a law firm” is a common question from lawyers. No doubt running a law firm is tough, and growing a law firm is even tougher, in today’s scenario.

For many firms nowadays, the prominent challenge hindering growth is how to acquire and bring new clients. Moreover, with the rising competition with other firms, and with less time to focus on business expansion, more often, lawyers are overwhelmed; resulting in the law firm growth becoming stagnant. Sadly, this is the truth for most law firms and if this resonates, you’re not alone.

Read Also — How to use Legodesk to automate contract management?

As a law firm, whether you want to steer revenue growth or meet the growing demand, or simply support management in the digital-first reality, our advice in this blog will certainly help.

How can I grow my law practice?

Being proactive and delegating to the right people and technologies, and going with a plan in mind will be key to growing your law firm. Letting go of control can be tough, but you won’t be able to grow your practice alone. Here are some of our tips-

1. Learn to delegate

While a strong work ethic is admirable, it’s not always growth-friendly. Especially when you don’t have much time to respond to potential clients or you are too busy to market your services. There are chances that you pursue work that is not actually in strength; such as accounting, marketing, or simple administrative tasks. It is pivotal to delegate and save your valuable time.

Assess various tasks of your work and bring upon the challenges of doing it on your own. And also come up with various lists of questions to know when you are not sure about delegating work. Mention them properly and also refer them back for your own assistance

Here are some of the questions that you should address to-

1.Could someone else complete this task well enough?

2. Could someone else finish this task faster than me?

3. How much will it cost for me to complete the task? How much for a staff member?

4. Are there any ethical issues that can come across with delegating this task?

5. Rather than having an extra resource, is there a technical solution that I can incorporate?

To run your law firm it’s necessary to avoid wastage of time and resources. Growing a law firm is an uphill battle. And you shouldn’t be afraid to build a strong team and hire resources that can support the business.

2. Outsource what you can’t hire for

A business cannot grow only if it is supported by hiring full-time associates. Legal process outsourcing provides a way to delegate the tasks outside of your staff which includes, documentation, scanning, review of matters, and also non- substantive court appearances whether to other experts, freelance lawyers, or other qualified professionals.

Outsourcing can result in reducing your firm’s workload so that your staff can only focus on work that is of high priority.

3. Use technology

Delegation not only means hiring people; you can also leverage technology to assist you to automate or streamline your respective tasks.

Like for example- Legodesk PaymenInvest in marketing and branding helps streamline routine payments data entry (such as recording legal credit card payments, marking bills as paid, and modifying account balances).

Legodesk automates and simplifies your firm’s client intake process with effective tools. With it, you get access to easy online scheduling, online intake forms, and e-signatures.

4. Invest in marketing and branding

If you want your practice to grow, you need to have more clients. Indian and a lot of other countries do not allow law firms to advertise. However, consider these tips for marketing to facilitate growth:

1. Know (or establish) your brand

Your law firm must have a clear identification for marketing it successfully. There has to be a clear identity to successfully market it. The tangible elements of your brand must be consistent; such as your logo, colors, mark, font, etc.

2. Establish a lead-generation process

You can set up a strong system having the right strategies so that the clients can be attracted to your firm online and these potential clients can get converted to new clients. You should also learn how to have a reliable lead generation process for your growth and development.

3. Have a client-centered law firm website

It becomes easier to find clients for yourself if you have an effective website so that the clients can get connected with you very easily. After all, clients are going to look for you online before they contact you. A good law firm website should:

2. Present services you offer

3. Showcase strong branding

4. Leverage strong SEO to show up in searches

Also, it’s necessary that you should have a proper mechanized system to draw people to your websites. Optimizing your law firm’s website for local search engine optimization (SEO) can bring about big traffic growth. Here’s a five-step guide to help you get started.

5. Set Up A “Google My Business” Page

The first step to starting a local SEO or search engine optimization campaign for your law firm is to create a Google My Business page. Here are some tips to optimize your law firm’s listing in Google:

1.Include a long, keyword-rich description of your law practice and the types of services you provide

2. Upload as many photos as possible

3. Choose the correct categories for your law practice

4. Include a local phone number

5. Include a link to your website

6. Include your complete address, in the exact same format as you have it listed on your website (more on this later)

7. Make sure the info is accurate and always kept up to date

6. Generate Client Reviews

Google naturally favors the websites of companies that use Google tools, and one of them which has become very important to local SEO is Google Reviews. So building up some positive, authentic customer reviews on your Google My Business page is the next step in our guide on local SEO for law firms.

Law firm growth strategies that work

Here are some tips for growing a practice-

1. Put yourself out there

Never underestimate the power of being friendly and putting yourself on people’s radar. That natural marketing mindset establishes one’s reputation and helps acquire more business.

2. Ask clients for referrals

Being proactive with your client relationships is also key when thinking about how to grow a law firm. This way, your clients will be there for you when you need it.

3. Reach out to clients proactively

Reaching out to clients by taking pro bono cases can be a great way to build your personal brand and network with prospective clients.

4. Be empathetic

Adapt to take on new opportunities

When there is a focus on how to grow a law firm it is important to address clients’ needs and go for new opportunities and adapt them accordingly.

And, this may mean taking the help of technology and legal software.

If you are looking for a place to start, you can always sign up for Legodesk for free.

Legodesk lets you-

Simply put, as a law firm if you want to achieve more, technology is the only way.

Originally published at https://legodesk.com on July 23, 2021.

How law firms are adopting Legodesk?

 

Legodesk | Legal Practice Management Software

Globally, technology continues to advance in every industry, including law firms. There was a time where technology meant just using computers and typewriters.

Technology innovations are often resisted by law firm partners who have their ways of doing things. It has been especially difficult for lawyers who didn’t grow up with digital technologies. However, as clients (both corporates and individuals) start becoming tech-savvy, the law firm management workflow must adapt and progress.

For the success of your business, you need to understand automation. Firms split their tasks into various departments where synchronization plays a key role. Also, being client-centric, the information synchronization extends even to the clients. Time being a crucial aspect, failing to abide by the schedules because of poor integration with other tasks or miscommunication has become a common problem amongst law firms of all sizes.

Read Also — Legal Management Solutions

A one-tap solution to all these mistakes and misconceptions is to integrate your firm with legal management software. It could automate most of your work and provide real-time updates regarding resources, ROI, and efforts.

Legodesk offers a cloud-based legal case management platform for lawyers to connect with clients and manage administrative tasks with minimal manual intervention. Due to the centralization, there is no scope for information delays and glitches.

Why are law firms switching to Legodesk?

What would it be like if everyone at your law firm had better access to legal information, communication, and share knowledge and documents? Sounds impossible. But, it is not.

The truth is, a good legal case management solution can increase the efficiency of your firm and improve collaboration among its employees and clients.

And, that is the reason why more and more lawyers are adopting productivity platforms. And, Legodesk remains a top choice for them. Why? Let’s talk about the holistic features offered by Legodesk-

When you switch to legal case management software, it’s important to keep in mind that laws and the related rules and procedures frequently change, and information can quickly become outdated. It would be best if you had a trusted resource like Legodesk to help you keep on top of these changes so you can anticipate and address your clients’ needs. It’s critical, therefore, that internal software updates are continually made to ensure you have the information and tools you need to be authoritative and reliable.

2. Increased efficiency

With cloud-based legal case management platforms like Legodesk, it becomes easy to work remotely and stay updated in real-time. With automation, it becomes easier to track time and generate bills, ultimately increasing a law firm’s efficiency and producing better results.

As a law firm, you deal with a lot of sensitive information. Naturally, storing them in your computer or email-provided drive can be risky. That’s why lawyers trust Legodesk, which complies with GDPR compliance to ensure all your documents and information are secured. Moreover, with end-to-end encryption, Legodesk ensures all exchanged information remains elusive to third parties.

Read Also — How Legal Practice Management Software Help Law Firms

Are you switching for the first time?

If this is the first time your law firm is considering upgrading to legal software, you might have to consider many aspects to work on. To make things easier, here is your Legodesk guide.

A law firm has many available technology options, but this does not mean that it will benefit from every new technology it encounters. Please focus on the quality of benefits and how well they match your business needs. It is best to have a clear understanding of the problem and the solution to be solved. To determine whether a technical solution is the right solution, identify the existing weaknesses in your business. Once you have identified the problem, you will better understand if the technical solution could solve the business problem.

Initially, you can research your chosen software with no knowledge about the software and get your basics about it right. While doing so, you can also correlate it with your law firm’s problems and understand them better. Document your observations and also make sure you include the tips mentioned below.

2. Understand the software

Not just from the legal perspective, you should also understand how the software works in the background. You can compare it with a simple example of purchasing a smartphone. You not only just look into the device’s features, but also the operating system opted and the technology used. Similarly, it is necessary to look into the security and background support software used in the software.

While pros and cons are also a part of understanding the software, it must be addressed solely for the firm’s development. You should document all the advantages and disadvantages and make sure to finalize the best fit in terms of costing, security, and overall features.

Get a free personalized demo from the legal case management platform providers to get all your questions addressed and come to a conclusion. Like many other legal software solutions, Legodesk provides its clients a free demo.

Screening is the only way you can eliminate the software solutions you listed first. After screening the software you gathered, now you can conduct a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis to get a better understanding of your screened software. This analysis could now help you to get a wider picture of the software’s risk more than anything else.

With a simple analytical example, you can understand the analysis even better.

1. Strength: How time-efficient and cost-efficient is the software?
2. Weakness: Complications in data migration from old software to new software.
3. Opportunity: How much revenue can this software increase in the firm?
4. Threat: Any chance to compromise data security?

5. Document all the findings

Once you sort everything as guided, document, all the observations to be presentable to the staff. You can include major observations like summaries and important aspects of the software, SWOT analysis, migration and implementation plan, a financial assessment that includes details about the return on investment.

6. Present your solution

Once all your documentation is ready, it’s time for the presentation. Present to key decision-makers of the law firm. Explain to them your observations and your analysis. Also, stay open to receive questions and feedback.

If your firm accepts your suggestion, it’s time to get forward with the software consultant. Contact your chosen service provider and customize a solution that suits your workflow. Of course, you might have to change a bit of your plan; stay prepared for that too.

You can get our Legodesk consultant to implement your plans as per your necessities and get workflow suggestions for better customization of your legal software.

8. Plan for the technology transition and implementation

“Change is inevitable, and also it’s the most difficult task for anyone to change. And considering an entire firm’s working process to change it’s nearly an impossible task. But, with prior planning and implementation, it’s not a difficult task to accomplish. Here are some of the common questions in this regard-

1. How long and what will the migration period look like?

If you have to transfer your law firm’s data to the new legal software, you need a supporting staff and a plan. Legodesk offers the easiest data migration service where your firm has nothing to work and worry about. A dedicated Legodesk consultant would take up the transferred business and get the work done. Considering all these, you must get to a realistic conclusion about the period of the migration.

2. How would you support your employees and clients to use the software?

If your firm has already been using any software and your employees are familiar with the workflows, the adoption period can be less. However, if they are new to the product and workflow automation software, it can be difficult to manage the firm’s task transition. However, with proper training and adoption plans in place, law firms can manage. The key during the transition phase is to stay focus and boost employee morale so that they don’t get discouraged. With this in mind, it’s better to assign an employee as a guide to get everyone used to the software.

Read Also — Top 5 Features in a Legal Document Management

The modern legal consumer demands a higher form of involvement than even five years ago. That doesn’t mean every law firm is going to make the shift overnight. It takes time, but you can give clients the experience they expect and get back more time in your day with small steps. If you want clients to see you as the expert able to find answers to their legal issues in the least amount of time, it’s time to invest in the new Legodesk services.

Originally published at https://legodesk.com on July 30, 2021.