Legal billing procedures are complex, from handling multiple rate structures and reconciling trust accounts to ensuring your clients pay on time. They’re even more complicated when your firm doesn’t use tools or strategies suited to your needs.
Many firms rely on manual billing methods or generic accounting software, which can lead to problems like delayed client payments, higher accounts receivable, and compliance mistakes.
If you’re thinking of switching to a cloud-based financial system or have recently adopted one, you’ve taken a big step toward alleviating those issues.
But just buying software won’t automatically improve your billing process. Financial software is just a tool. It’s how you use it that counts.
Here are five best practices you can implement to increase the ROI of your legal billing and accounting software.
Most clients expect online billing options because they’re fast, easy, and convenient. However, a clunky online payment process can make your law firm seem outdated. Even worse, if it’s not integrated with your billing software, your firm will end up with more administrative work to ensure payments move forward smoothly.
With integrated payment software, the need to manually reconcile accounting tasks is eliminated. This reduces the time and labor costs associated with billing processes. It also keeps all your client information synced, allowing your firm to provide better service.
The end result: your firm saves money, offers a better client experience, and increases the ROI from your billing software.
Even the most intuitive systems require practice and training to see an optimized ROI.
To increase your return on investment, properly train your employees on your billing software. Schedule training sessions for both new employees and veteran staff.
Many billing software solutions have a network of independent consultants you can work with to navigate the software and build the most efficient workflows for your needs. These third-party experts can provide valuable insight to help you create a tailored onboarding and training process for your team.
Remote and hybrid roles continue to be common in the legal field. Cloud-based billing and accounting software supports this model by allowing users flexibility and access, no matter where they’re at.
But flexibility shouldn’t conflict with security. To protect your firm and your clients, ensure your billing and accounting software provides bank-grade SSL encryption, backs up your data, and runs regular software updates.
Consider also establishing a work-from-home protocol for your attorneys to further protect company data.
Avoid unsecured Wi-Fi connections when accessing any law firm systems.
Use virtual private networks (VPNs) when accessing legal practice management software or transmitting client information.
Set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all work-related applications.
Avoid accessing legal documents or video conferencing without a private environment.
Turn off listening-enabled devices (Google Home, Amazon Alexa, etc.) in workspaces during phone calls and video conferences. These devices record conversations automatically.
Achieving a positive ROI from your financial tools goes beyond your internal processes. They also need to support a good client experience. A big part of that client experience is creating a culture of transparency and communication around your firm’s processes.
To improve the way you engage clients, implement the following:
Provide multiple opportunities to discuss the billing process during client onboarding. Consider drafting an FAQ page to provide along with other onboarding documentation.
Provide advance notice to current clients before you adopt electronic invoicing or online payments.
Provide a point of contact your clients can reach out to with any billing questions.
Send out invoices on the same day of the month to help establish expectations and provide consistency for your clients.
The right billing and accounting software solution should provide you with in-depth reporting options to understand your financial performance. So, use them!
Establish regular meetings to remind your team to review financial reports regularly.
Run detailed accounts receivable reports to understand receivables for each working timekeeper.
See which attorneys may need collections assistance with an accounts receivable by timekeeper report.
Have questions about your software’s reporting capabilities? Don’t be afraid to reach out to your system’s support team.
Optimize your billing and accounting processes with Tabs3 Cloud
Tabs3 Cloud brings everything law firms love about Tabs3 Billing and Financials to the cloud. It helps create more accessible and expedient billing and collections workflows while providing the reliability and support that law firms trust.
Schedule a demo with one of our product specialists today.
