Law firms can improve cash flow and increase profitability if they improve their billing process and practices.
The client billing process, in many firms is based on a slow, painful, monthly schedule. Why … because it’s always been that way. We’ll examine the current painful and costly process and then make specific recommendations on how to improve it.
Here is the painful process:
Painful Step #1: Get attorneys to enter their time, daily.
Painful Step #2: Attempt to close the month, and get all the late time entered.
Painful Step #3: Now go deal with all the attorneys who don’t enter their time.
Painful Step #4: Get all the soft costs entered, normally by downloading data from the cost capture systems such as copiers, phone, fax, postage etc.
Painful Step #5: Print hundreds (thousands) of pre-bills and distribute them.
Painful Step #6: Try and get the billing attorneys to review the pre-bills and return them to accounting.
Painful Step #7: Page through hundreds (thousands) of pages and extrapolate out the attorney changes on the pre-bills and re-enter them into the system.
Painful Step #8: Print the final bills, print the envelopes or labels, stuff the bills into an envelope, add postage, and deliver to the post office.
Painful Step #9: In some firms the attorney/secretary get the final bills and then feel the need to draft a personalized cover letter that must be sent with the bill.
Another painful aspect of all of this is the expensive staff requirements necessary to “babysit” this process. We’ll just save that topic for another discussion.
In upcoming posts we’ll look at each step, why is it a problem and what can you do to improve the process and become more profitable.
