How to Leverage Automation for Faster Billing and Payment Cycles

Any legal professional or administrator can attest to the fact that creating and sending invoices can be tedious. Doing client work is usually the most interesting part of lawyering. Billing for it? Not so much. 

And billing can also be very time-consuming.  

Every minute spent working on an invoice is one less minute of billable time and less revenue for your firm. You don’t have hours to spend drafting invoices all by hand each month, dealing with errors, or fielding lots of client queries.  

Busy law firms need to get their billing right the first time, and it can’t take all day.  

If this sounds like a distant dream to you, rest assured that it’s not. Automation can make this scenario possible. Read on to learn more about leveraging the power of advanced technology to improve your invoicing process and increase your firm’s profitability.  

Why faster billing and payment cycles matter 

Cash flow worries can hamper law firm growth and limit your capacity to do excellent work for your clients. If you can’t reliably get to zero AR in any given month, it’s hard to make the kinds of financial projections that will keep your firm on track for profitability. 

To get paid quickly and reliably, you need to make it easy for clients to settle their bills by providing:  

• Transparent invoicing 
• Secure payment links 
• Accepting credit card and ACH payments 

These factors can significantly improve collections and enhance the client experience, which has a direct impact on your firm’s reputation.  

You want to make it easy to do business with your firm. That way, more clients will recommend your services, leave positive reviews, and do business with you again. 

Six billing automation features that can take your firm’s invoicing to the next level 

Nailing down a consistent billing and payments strategy can be the key to increasing law firm productivity and profitability. Here are six ways automation can improve your billing process so that your team can focus on what truly matters: helping your clients get what they need. 

1. LEDES billing

LEDES is a standardized billing format that makes it easy for legal and operations departments at corporations to understand and pay legal invoices. Law firms appreciate this format because a clear invoice structure usually leads to more prompt payments.  

However, LEDES invoices can include hundreds of billing details that cover tasks, activities, and expense codes. Paying a third party to create these invoices can quickly become expensive, so many firms take care of this in-house.  

If your team must manually key in all those invoice details, you can wave goodbye to your productivity.  

An automated billing solution can enter everything automatically, saving your team a great deal of time and allowing you to have confidence that every line in your LEDES file contains accurate information to help you get paid correctly and on time. 

2. Automatic tax calculations

If you practice in a jurisdiction that requires you to add tax for your time or expenses, you know how tedious it can be to go through each invoice and pinpoint whether that client has taxable status and what the tax rates are. If your practice spans multiple states, this becomes even more time-consuming.  

Choosing the right automated billing solution can help you eliminate the need to figure this out for every client. Instead, you can quickly label clients’ taxable status and assign default rates for your time and expenses. You can also set your time or expense tax rate according to the tasks you complete.  

Either way, once you set a taxable status for your client, your automated billing platform will calculate and display your tax rate on the invoice without spending additional energy. 

3. Custom narratives

Invoice narratives are vital for your branding because they often dictate what your clients think of you when their invoice arrives each billing cycle. You must create consistent messaging that provides clear directions for your clients and relays what you want them to know. 

Your automated billing platform makes it easy to achieve this goal. Instead of creating a new narrative each time you send out an invoice, you can create a global narrative that sets the default language used on all your invoices.  

With the ability to set headers, footers, body text, and payment instructions, you can be confident your clients will always receive a clear, concise message that casts your firm in a professional light. 

4. Easy-to-apply discounts 

If you’re providing discounts to your clients, you need to be able to decide whether these discounts apply to your fees or expenses.  

You also need to be able to apply these discounts at the matter level and be able to specify and apply them before you create a draft invoice. A legal-specific software that offers automated billing discounts can take the guesswork out of applying them, though, making it easy to use them consistently and correctly. 

5. Credit card payments

Online credit card payments can help law firms get paid faster. Still, only 62% of law firms take credit card payments. The reason for this is that it can quickly become complex, especially with so many rules and laws that govern concerns like surcharging.  

The power of an automated billing platform lies in taking this burden off your shoulders, allowing clients to access and pay their invoices in a convenient client portal with any surcharges automatically calculated for you. For example, with TimeSolvPay, you can even include a payment link or QR code right on the invoice, which adds an extra layer of convenience for clients and encourages them to pay promptly. 

6. Time-saving reminders

Sending out invoices late or on an inconsistent schedule can result in lost revenue. When your team operates this way, clients may not pay on time, which can create a cycle of late or missed payments that impacts your bottom line.  

An automated billing and payments platform allows you to schedule your invoices and set reminders for when they need to go out to clients. When your invoices are more consistent, your cash flow will be, too. 

Leverage billing and payments automation to maximize profitability 

Ensuring proper invoicing is one of the keys to your firm’s success. You may have accepted a time-consuming billing process as inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be. The automation features included in TimeSolv’s legal time tracking and billing solution can help you create and send invoices without hassle or delay.  

You’ll get access to: 

• Flexible and customizable billing templates that save you time 
• Split and batch billing and invoicing features that help you minimize errors  
• Electronic billing, which can save your firm time and money 
• Invoice scheduling 
• Online payments through a client portal 

Finally, you’ll be able to schedule invoices, set critical reminders, and take online payments through the client portal, all of which provide unmatched convenience to ensure that you and your clients never miss a beat (or a payment cycle). 

With TimeSolv, you can bill faster and get paid faster by taking advantage of the power of automation. Start your free trial now to see how TimeSolv increases profitability. 

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