When it comes to having a successful law practice, it takes more than the quality of services the lawyer offers. While the quality is very important and lets the lawyer build his reputation, good lawyer billing software allows the lawyer to turn the work into cash.

Good lawyer billing software starts with the ability to set up a project to track time and enter budgets by client and matter. Since most lawyers have several clients, the setup should be easy to do. Ideally there is a template the lawyer can use or a “save as” feature where the standard items for a project are pre-populated and only new information needs to be entered. Once the client is set up, the lawyer billing system should also have a way to enter billing rates by person, role, or type of work i.e. litigation, real estate, etc. Once set up, these rates should be able to be used on any client or matter. As soon as the rates are entered, you want the option on each client to keep the rate or enter an exception when warranted.

The next important part of lawyer billing software is time tracking. Since your revenue, and therefore your cash flow and profitability are based on keeping accurate track of hours, the lawyer billing software needs to have easy employee time tracking in order to ensure you are capturing all the time to invoice. If you don’t have a standard and easy way for employee time tracking, there is a good chance you are missing revenue and cash because the lawyers are more than likely not recording all their time. In today’s busy world, lawyers are multi-tasking and being pulled in many directions. Many lawyers wait until the end of the day, or sometimes the end of the week, to record their time. If they work on many clients, they are probably making their best guess as to what they did. The lawyer billing software should give the lawyer the ability to record their time as they go, ensuring they do not need to rely on their memory.

Once time is entered, the lawyer billing software should have time flow seamlessly into invoicing, avoiding double data entry and potential mistakes. The software should allow billings to be created and edited in an easy way, such as changing the hours to bill or the rate to use, right on the screen. It should also have the ability to track time that was charged to a job but not invoiced. On the invoice, you also want the option to include the level of detail the client requires.

The lawyer billing software should be able to accommodate all types of engagements the lawyer may enter into – retainer, fixed fee, or time and expense. Regardless of the type of billing arrangements made, the lawyer will still want to track their time in the matter to have a history of what was done. This knowledge will enable you to have a better sense of profitability by matter and make for better quotes on future business.

Once the billing has been completed, the information from the lawyer billing system should flow automatically into the financial modules. This will allow you to track the balances due from the clients, tying the amount back to matters. This knowledge allows you to stay on top of your accounts receivables. This integration also makes your financial processes more efficient.

Finally, the lawyer billing software should have good reporting capabilities. You will want to see actual time versus budgeted. Additionally you will want to look at other metrics such as amount of time written off on each client or matter, utilization by lawyer, realization rates by lawyer, client, or matter, and profitability by client.

As much as some lawyers may not like it, there is a business side to legal work. To be successful, you need to do more than provide quality services. Good lawyer billing software will take the quality work and turn it into the cash needed to run the business.

Author Bio: Joe Young is President of Beyond Software, publisher of lawyer billing software for small firms. Beyond Software brings project functionality, such as employee time tracking and billing, to lawyers that allows you to run your business more efficiently. For more information go to beyondsoftware.com.

Category: Advice
Keywords: lawyer billing software