Creating a Frictionless Payment Experience for Your Clients

Although invoicing and getting paid by clients is just one small aspect of running a law practice, it’s also the one with the greatest impact on your firm’s success.

After all, it doesn’t matter how experienced and hardworking your attorneys are or how outstanding your legal services are—if you’re not getting paid consistently for the work you do, your firm’s finances are unsustainable, and its future is in jeopardy.

Providing a smooth, straightforward payment experience can also benefit client satisfaction. When payment is a hassle that requires too many confusing steps, it can overshadow the quality of your legal work and leave clients frustrated and dissatisfied. However, when payment is easy, you reinforce your professionalism and skill as a legal service provider.

So if you’re ready to enhance your invoicing and payments workflow and ensure you get paid on time, here are our top five tips to make that happen.

5 tips for a truly frictionless client payment experience 

It’s possible to remove client-frustrating, productivity-draining hurdles from your law firm’s payment process without reinventing the wheel with regard to payments. Follow these targeted tips to create a streamlined process that boosts client satisfaction and your firm’s cash flow. 

1. Create clear and accurate invoices

Paying for something when you don’t understand what you’re paying for is a recipe for dissatisfaction, especially when bills can easily reach thousands of dollars.  

Reinforce client trust in your billing and payment processes by investing in clear, accurate invoices.  

The first place to start? A legal-specific time-tracking software that makes it easy to log every single minute of work, regardless of the device (i.e., on computers, smartphones, tablets, and more) and even when you’re offline.  

Link hours of work to the specific cases they’re associated with to reduce the amount of manual inputs and tagging required for time tracking. This will also minimize the human error that’s inevitable with manual time tracking. 

Find the right software for the job 

Look for software features that make it easy to bill electronically—paper billing wastes not only paper but valuable time—and add codes like ABA task codes, Chubbs, LEDES 1998b, LEDES 1998BI, Litigation Advisor, and UTBMS.  

Flexible billing templates also save you time by allowing you to create templates for every type of client rather than creating a whole new invoice for each individual client

2. Expedited invoicing

Are your invoices sent out in a consistent and timely manner? Or do they languish in your legal software for weeks, leaving your clients wondering if they’re going to be billed at all?  

Slow billing processes can leave your law firm looking less than professional. This can damage your reputation, and it can also decrease the rate at which cash flows into your firm.   

But we understand that billing can be a heavy administrative lift. A few strategies can help expedite the process so your clients get their invoices on time (and you get paid faster): 

• Invoice templates offer a simple way to make invoices repeatable across clients. You can create as many templates as needed for different practice areas, services, or groups of clients.  

• Batch billing allows you to generate and send out multiple invoices simultaneously, rather than creating bills for every single client and sending them out individually. For instance, if you bill more than one client for the same services on an ongoing basis, you can batch-bill that group of clients to minimize wasted time.
   
• Scheduling invoices allows you to plan your billing out in advance and ensure that invoices are sent exactly when you decide. 

3. Flexible payment options

With flexible payment options (such as built-in credit card and ACH payment processing) integrated into your time and billing software, getting payment taken care of ASAP is that much simpler for you and your clients.  

For even greater payment flexibility, consider offering alternative fee arrangements, including: 

• Fixed-fee billing 
• Recurring payments 
• Payment plans 

These options can be easier for your clients to keep up with than traditional hourly billing arrangements—which means your firm gets paid more consistently. 

4. Online payments

Online payments are becoming standard practice across businesses in all industries. That’s because, to put it simply, clients want to pay online.  

Not offering online payments can slow down your cash flow and raise eyebrows among clients who are accustomed to this convenience. What’s more, not accepting online payments can eat up more administrative time as you track down late invoices.  

However, it’s vital to find the right payment processor for your law firm. Not all credit card processors are up to handling the unique demands of the legal industry. Look for an online payment provider that:  

• Offers next-day funding  
• Accepts both credit card and ACH payments  
• Allows clients to store credit cards  
• Supports compliance with ABA and IOLTA guidelines  
• Provides transparent pricing and fee structures 

Finally, look for a provider that works with a secure client portal. From a portal, clients can view and pay invoices and monitor their payment histories, trust balances, and details of work currently in progress. This increases convenience for your clients and also conveys transparency and trustworthiness.  

5. Solicit client feedback.

When clients feel heard, their satisfaction with your services increases. Actively soliciting feedback from your clients—ideally both during and after representation—is by far the best way to make them feel heard.  

Client feedback is also a valuable (and free!) resource that can provide important insights into your firm’s strengths and weaknesses, so you have the information you need to improve the quality of your services going forward. In addition to sending out automated email surveys, consider soliciting feedback in client meetings and through follow-up phone calls.  

Need even more help getting your clients to pay on time? Watch our free on-demand webinar on the subject: “How to Get Clients to Pay On Time: 15 Tips in 15 Minutes.” 

Use TimeSolv to automate and streamline your law firm’s payment workflows 

TimeSolv makes following the five tips above a breeze by integrating all the requisite functionalities into a single time and billing application:  

• Clear and accurate invoicing (plus batch, split, and scheduled invoicing to further expedite the process) 
• Flexible payment options 
• Online invoice processing and tracking with TimeSolvPay 
• And more  

Rely on the #1 legal payment software for usability to optimize invoicing, billing, and payment. You’ll not only increase client satisfaction but also improve your firm’s accounts receivable (AR) for a more lucrative practice across the board.  

With the help of TimeSolv, you’ll spend less of your valuable time on manual invoice creation and chasing down payments—leaving you with more time to provide outstanding client service. Start your 14-day free trial today. 

More useful posts:

7 Ways to Improve Your Law Firm Profitability with Zero AR & More Billable Time

ZERO AR: How to Achieve ZERO Accounts Receivable with TimeSolv and Batch Client Payments  

Is Your Legal Billing System’s Invoice Reconciliation Broken? Here’s How to Fix It