CARET
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1985
- HeadquartersSan Diego, United States
- Headcount251–500
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What CARET does
CARET, formerly AbacusNext, is a private, PE-backed software company founded in 1985 and headquartered in Del Mar, California, that sells cloud-based practice management and integrated payment technology primarily to midmarket law firms of 5-200 attorneys and, to a lesser extent, accounting firms. Its product portfolio spans the flagship CARET Legal SaaS platform, legacy AbacusLaw and Amicus Attorney practice management brands, OfficeTools for accounting practices, Abacus Private Cloud hosting, CARET Pay (payment processing delivered through Vantage Card Services and Payrix), CARET Analytics (data dashboards and KPI alerts), and retained rights to the HotDocs integration following the 2024 sale of the HotDocs enterprise business to Mitratech. Technology is delivered as multi-tenant SaaS on Microsoft Azure infrastructure, with AI features such as Quick Summary leveraging Azure OpenAI Service in a closed environment.
The company monetizes through tiered annual SaaS subscriptions (Enterprise Plus and Enterprise Advance include Workflows and Quick Summary), per-user and per-resource cloud hosting, transaction-based payment processing with no monthly credit card fees, and time-and-materials professional services. Go-to-market combines a sales-led direct motion (demos, scheduled consultations) with a multi-track partner program (Consultant, Referral, System Integrator, Strategic), affinity partnerships such as the State Bar of Arizona, and digital marketing via HubSpot, Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook; the company operates a global remote team and serves customers in the US, Canada, the UK, Switzerland, and the EU. CARET is backed by Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL), appointed Jay Kuhlman as CEO in June 2025, and has integrated with NetDocuments, Domo, Lawmatics, and Google Workspace while launching a public API in January 2025 to enable a broader partner ecosystem.
CARET firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- CARET
- Legal name
- Abacus Data Systems, Inc.
- Website
- https://getcaret.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1985
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 251–500 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where CARET is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Diego
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
CARET business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- SaaS Subscription - CARET Legal: CARET Legal is a subscription-based SaaS platform with tiered plans including Enterprise Plus and Enterprise Advance. The software subscription model includes technical support, with additional fees for extra users, runtime instances, or business entities.
- Cloud Hosting Services: Abacus Private Cloud (APC), Abacus Core Cloud (ACC), and Cloudnine (C9) cloud hosting subscriptions with per-user and per-resource pricing. Includes RAM allocation, storage (System, Document, Application), processor resources, and MS365 licensing.
- Payment Processing (CARET Pay/APX): Integrated payment processing service provided through Vantage Card Services, Inc. or Payrix Solutions, LLC. No monthly credit card processing fees mentioned for the payment processing service itself.
- Professional Services: Technical support, implementation, and custom development services rendered on time and materials basis. Governed by separate Statement of Work agreements.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | CARET Legal Enterprise plans with advanced features |
| Subscription | Annual | Affinity partnership discount for State Bar of Arizona members |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | CARET Pay payment processing |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
CARET product offering
Product offeringCore offering
CARET provides cloud-based SaaS practice management and integrated payment technology for midsize legal and accounting firms. Its flagship offering, CARET Legal, unifies client intake, matter management, document handling, legal accounting, billing, CRM, automated workflows, analytics, and PCI-compliant payment processing (CARET Pay/APX) into a single platform, complemented by AbacusLaw, Amicus Attorney, OfficeTools, and Abacus Private Cloud managed hosting. The platform also embeds AI-powered document summarization (Quick Summary via Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service) and an open public API for integrations.
Product overview
CARET is a provider of SaaS practice management and integrated payment technology for legal and accounting firms. The company offers a portfolio of practice management platforms including the flagship CARET Legal (award-winning SaaS platform combining automated workflows, matter management, analytics, and integrated payments), AbacusLaw (full-service legal practice management), Amicus Attorney (case management tool), and OfficeTools (accounting practice management). Additional offerings include CARET Pay (payment processing), CARET Analytics (data analytics), and Abacus Private Cloud (managed virtual workspace). The portfolio serves over 10,000 legal and accounting firms across the world, with the company previously known as AbacusNext.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- CARET Legal: Award-winning SaaS legal practice management platform for midsize law firms with case management, document handling, billing, accounting, reporting, CRM, and integrated payment processing via APX.
- CARET Pay
- AbacusLaw
- Amicus Attorney
- OfficeTools
- Abacus Private Cloud
Products and services
- CARET Legal CARET Legal is the company's flagship SaaS legal practice management platform, delivering end-to-end practice management including matter management, document handling, full legal accounting, billing, CRM, integrated payment processing via APX/CARET Pay, automated workflows, dashboards, and client communication tools for midsize law firms.
- CARET Pay (APX / Abacus Payment Exchange) CARET Pay is an integrated, PCI-compliant payment processing solution built into the CARET platform that accepts credit cards and ACH, with encryption, tokenization, and compliance safeguards for trust/operating account separation.
- CARET Analytics CARET Analytics is a data analytics platform that transforms law firm data into dashboards, KPI alerts, AR/AP analysis, pre-bill amounts, resource optimization, and cash flow management to support data-driven decisions.
- AbacusLaw by CARET AbacusLaw is a full-service legal practice management software within the CARET portfolio that handles every aspect of law firm operations from intake to billing for legal practices.
- Amicus Attorney by CARET Amicus Attorney is a case management tool built by lawyers for lawyers, handling day-to-day operations so firms can focus on the bigger picture.
- OfficeTools by CARET OfficeTools is a tax and accounting practice management solution providing a central dashboard to run an accounting practice, integrating the applications used most.
- Abacus Private Cloud Abacus Private Cloud is a fully managed and maintained virtual workspace exceeding stringent security and compliance requirements, hosting critical firm data and over 4,500 supported applications including AbacusLaw, Amicus Attorney, and OfficeTools.
Quantifiable outcome
- 83% of lawyers feel working at a tech-savvy law firm is very important; only 32% believe their firm is well-prepared to make strategic technological investments
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use CARET
Customer profileNamed customers2 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
CARET technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
AI capability2 records
Feature5 records
CARET partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.
- State Bar of ArizonacoreAffinity partnership providing CARET Legal subscription discounts (25% first year) to State Bar of Arizona's 19,000+ attorney members. Partnership highlights CARET Legal's commitment to empowering Arizona's legal professionals with practice management solutions that streamline operations and enhance efficiency.
- LawmaticscoreFirst out-of-the-box integration partner for CARET Legal's new public API. Enables instant sync of client data between systems, removing need for manual data entry and reducing risk of errors. Streamlines entire client lifecycle from lead capture through case resolution.
- DomomajorPartnership to provide real-time analytics for law firms. Domo's platform unlocks analytics capabilities for CARET Legal customers, eliminating manual report analysis and providing immediate access to key business health metrics including pre-bill amounts, resource allocation, and aging receivables.
- NetDocumentscoreEnhanced integration partnership bundle offering best-in-class document management within CARET Legal. Enables matter-related file access, workspace creation, and advanced searches within the practice management platform. Combined five decades of experience serving law firms.
- Microsoft Azure OpenAI ServicecoreTechnology partnership powering CARET Legal's Quick Summary AI feature. Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service provides generative AI capabilities for document summarization within a secure, closed environment compliant with legal industry requirements.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
CARET competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- MyCase: MyCase provides legal practice management software with case management, billing, client communication, and integrated payments. Owned by AffiniPay, it targets small to midsize law firms with a similar subscription-plus-payments model to CARET Legal.
- Clio: Clio is a leading cloud-based legal practice management platform serving law firms of all sizes, with case management, billing, client intake, and a payments product (Clio Payments). Most direct competitor to CARET Legal in cloud-native legal practice management with strong brand recognition in the same midsize firm segment.
- Smokeball: Smokeball provides practice management, document automation, and billing software built for small and midsize law firms, often focused on specific practice areas. Comparable in target market and feature breadth to CARET Legal's practice management stack.
- PracticePanther: PracticePanther offers cloud-based practice management software for small and midsize law firms with matter management, billing, time tracking, and integrations. Direct competitor in the same target segment and price tier as CARET Legal.
- LEAP Legal Software: LEAP provides cloud practice management, document automation, and accounting for small law firms, particularly strong in certain practice areas. Direct competitor in cloud legal practice management with overlapping feature set and target segments.
- Rocket Matter: Rocket Matter is a cloud-based legal practice management platform with matter management, time/billing, and document handling. Targets small and midsize law firms, overlapping directly with CARET Legal's customer base.
Emerging players
- NetDocuments: NetDocuments is a leading cloud-based document management platform specifically built for legal professionals. CARET has a bundled integration partnership with NetDocuments; both increasingly compete and partner across legal tech stacks, particularly in document-centric workflows.
Broad incumbents
- iManage: iManage provides knowledge work platforms focused on legal document and email management with a broad enterprise customer base. Adjacent provider serving law firms with workflow and content management capabilities that overlap and complement practice management offerings like CARET Legal.
- Thomson Reuters (Legal): Thomson Reuters provides a broad portfolio of legal software and research products including ProLaw, Elite, and other practice management solutions. While spanning many segments, it competes with CARET Legal in the practice management space for medium and larger law firms.
- Wolters Kluwer (Legal & Regulatory): Wolters Kluwer offers legal practice management and compliance software (e.g., Kleos, CCH integrations) along with broader regulatory content. A broader incumbent addressing a similar law firm customer base from a portfolio standpoint.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
CARET social profiles
Digital presenceCARET compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
CARET financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
CARET leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
CARET subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries6 records
CARET funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
CARET M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about CARET
What does CARET do?
CARET provides cloud-based SaaS practice management and integrated payment technology for midsize legal and accounting firms. Its flagship offering, CARET Legal, unifies client intake, matter management, document handling, legal accounting, billing, CRM, automated workflows, analytics, and PCI-compliant payment processing (CARET Pay/APX) into a single platform, complemented by AbacusLaw, Amicus Attorney, OfficeTools, and Abacus Private Cloud managed hosting. The platform also embeds AI-powered document summarization (Quick Summary via Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service) and an open public API for integrations.
Is CARET a public or private company?
CARET is a private company. It is classified as private equity controlled and is currently operating.
When was CARET founded?
CARET was founded in 1985. It employs 251 to 500 people.
Where is CARET based?
CARET is headquartered in San Diego, United States, in the North America region.
How does CARET make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. SaaS Subscription - CARET Legal is the primary driver. The others are cloud Hosting Services, payment Processing (CARET Pay/APX) and professional Services.
Who are CARET's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are MyCase, Clio, Smokeball, PracticePanther, LEAP Legal Software and Rocket Matter. NetDocuments is listed as an emerging player. Broad incumbents are iManage, Thomson Reuters (Legal) and Wolters Kluwer (Legal & Regulatory).
Does CARET have an API?
Yes. CARET Legal launched a new public API enabling flexibility to add custom applications along with out-of-the-box integrations. The API allows instant syncing of client data between CARET Legal and partner platforms, removing the need for time-consuming data entry and reducing the risk of manually created errors. The API is available for developers to create functionality tailored to a firm's specific needs. Developer documentation is at caretlegal.com/public-api.