There is no simple formula for a firm to get paid faster. Instead, following a wide range of different tips and implementing and executing it can help to get paid faster as an attorney.
4 Tips to Getting Paid Faster as an Attorney
How You Can Improve Cash Flow
Cash flows are important for all businesses and law firms are no exception to this rule. Law firms that are able to improve their cash flows by collecting charges from customers faster than they otherwise would be able to will have more financial liquidity to pay their bills and payroll, expand as needed, take on potentially lucrative pro bono cases without sacrifice, and distribute more money to partners as needed as guaranteed payments.
Properly Capturing Billable Hours from Employees
One of the keys towards getting paid faster is an attorney involves more faster billing. A Legal Billing software program that allows lawyers to input and capture time by billable project is a real difference maker for a law firm as it allows for:
– capturing billable hours within the legal billing software for easy accumulation on an invoice
– the ability to add documentation to the law firm billing software to make it clear to customers what services you are charging for
– possible integration to an finance accounting system for invoicing customers
– the ability to see who is charging for their time and who may be underbilling customers so more immediate and effective corrective actions can be taken
Clients of law firms want to see proper documentation from the law firms that they work with in order to make sure they are paying fair and appropriate amounts for the services used. A law firm billing software program that accumulates time in an easy to reference way such as the South Dakota Odyssey Case management program can help a law firm to maintain proper documentation for their employees to use and their clients to receive. Doing so can help to ensure a better process that all appreciate and which leads to faster collections.
Efficiently Transmitting Billable Hours and Charges into Invoices
Once time is entered into a law firm billing program it will still need to be transmitted to invoices. The best process involves an partner reviewing and approving this time and then having the time transfer over automatically to invoices with the push of a button. This can lead to faster processing of invoices and which starts the clock on the payment of the invoices. Regular and efficient links between billing software and accounting programs is the best way for a law firm to improve on the collection process.
Accuracy in Billing and Tools for Management to Review Billable Charges
Automatically linked software programs can improve on the accuracy of invoicing by eliminating the data entry errors that can result when an bookkeeper or other financial employee has to key in the information manually by themselves. It also eliminates the delays associated with delays from keying in the information. Having your accounting system automatically linked to your billing program and software can avoid the problems and delays that are commonly associated with manual as opposed to automatically linked programs.
Centralized Information and Employees for Dealing with Clients Who are Arguing Legal Bills
Having a designated employee who is tasked with handling the billing process and communicating directly with customers who are challenging their legal bills will help to improve on Collection times and quantities. Having an employee who is knowledgeable about accounting and finance and can tell the difference between escrow loans and other cash receipts is important. Consider hiring a bookkeeper as opposed to just having a paralegal handle these functions should help to make for a more seamless billing and collection process than you might otherwise have.
The central storing of documentation is also important and this is where a law firm billing software can shine as a repository for billable hours. When customers ask about the validity of a specific charge you have a resource that you can pull information from in order to support the charges that you are making for your law firm. Instead of having to track down information on the charge it is readily available in your billing softwar which can make the payment from clients faster by avoiding some of the delays associated with billing discrepancies.
Improving on your cash flow is a noble achievement for a law firm. By involving a billing software program, integrating it with your accounting software for faster invoicing and having a centralized source for problems, keeping information and billing accurateyou can get paid faster.
