The Best Billing Practices of Successful Law Firms

Law firms, like any other business, have to work hard to gain an advantage over their competitors. If not, they risk the chance of losing out on valuable profits. In today’s world, this means that firms need to keep up with the evolving perks of computer technology. This also means that firms need to remain compliant with traditional law practice regulations to keep them out of trouble and guarantee the quality of their work. The failure to do so would only make matters worse by making the firm appear unreliable.

Fortunately, law firms can simultaneously avoid these issues and increase the advantages of their business by optimizing their core procedures with state-of-the-art technology. Every law firm may have a different story/reason on how they found success, but the fact remains, they found it by utilizing the best advantages they could find on the market. Thereby allowing them to gain the necessary advantage being able to deliver the best possible service to their clients. But before a firm can effectively optimize their business, they must first understand the cogs of their operation and what they need to keep grinding forward.

The Achille’s heel of most law firms lies in the outdated methods they use for generating bills and collecting payments. It’s a common issue that needs to be practiced in a systemic and streamlined manner in order to be fully rectified. Still, some law firms overlook their standard billing practices due to the belief that they are already the best they can be. But advances in automated software solutions have permanently changed the status-quo for billing operations. Of which, the only unfortunate outcome is the overabundance of possibilities for potential clients to choose from. To make the selection process easier, here are some key factors that an automated billing solution should bring to the table.

Ensures Ethical Billing

Integrity is one of the primary principals that all firms should make an effort to comply with in their daily practices. This especially applies towards the process of generating bills and ensuring that they’re produced free of miscalculations and questionable rates. The possibility of repercussions occurring can only increase in the event that a customer disputes a firm’s billing. If the payment is delayed, the firm takes an infallible step towards developing an unsavory reputation. This, coupled with the responsibility of having to properly manage client funds, makes it essential that a firm uses a powerful billing system that is able to meet client demands.

Avoids Lousy Billing Practices

Regardless of what a firm ‘knows’ it should do, many fall victims to bad practices and lose the chance for them to grow their business through client relations and referrals. A terrible misstep that dramatically reduces the opportunity for new business. This commonly occurs by sending out unexpected bills, making critical billing mistakes, violating trust fund agreements, documenting incorrect time entries, and wrongly producing non-compliant bills. Each time a client experiences one of these issues they feel mishandled and taken advantage of. Thereby causing them to lose faith in the competency of the firm, and making it essential that the firm adopts a new billing system that disallows these habits from occurring.

Generates Consistent & Recurring Bills

Many firms have found great success by foregoing their obsolete billing methods and implementing newer platforms that reduce workload through automation. The traditional ways that companies generated bulk invoices were tedious, drawn-out processes that required an abundant amount of time and manual labor. Because law firms are more often focused on resolving cases and producing positive results, they commonly overlook their invoicing and bill collection methods. An automated billing system easily resolves this issue by permitting firms to quickly set up a rigid billing schedule that completely adheres to the firm’s agenda.

Separate Billable and Non-Billable Activities

In order for a law firm to adequately understand where they are losing out on billable hours, it is imperative that they can competently differentiate between their billable and non-billable activities. If not, law firms may never reach their full potential by losing out on valuable opportunities for advancing their firm’s status. The ability to analyze which parts of the day are not producing revenue theoretically allows a firm to recognize the areas in which they are failing. In doing so, they can capably establish the best course of action to integrate into their daily practices.

Following Up on Unpaid Invoices

The process of pursuing unpaid bills is another stressful day-to-day activity that many firms have to routinely deal with. The consequences of having unsettled funds could easily require additional billing correspondence, tracking the number of delinquent payment days, and even obtaining a court order for the debt. An automated system will alleviate these processes by performing as an all-in-one record keeper for all bills, documents, and activities. It will also enhance your firm’s communication capabilities, enabling faster transmission of data and speedier payments. There’s no end to the amazing possibilities that technology holds within it depths, but in the meantime, automated billing systems are intelligently revolutionizing the ways that businesses operate.

TimesManager Time and billing software is designed specifically for businesses to efficiently manage time tracking, invoicing & billing activities. TimesManager billing software offers accessibility to time and expense tracking, split billing, CRM and document management. It enables a fast and easy billing process for lawyers, timekeepers, mediators, and professionals. To learn more about the features, please visit our TimesManager website.

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