Six Reasons Law Practice Technology Could Be Your Firm’s Secret Weapon

Successfully operating a law firm requires more than just time and money—it requires top-notch organization, excellent client communication, and a commitment to getting the job done correctly every time. 

But when you’re in the weeds with client matters, that’s easier said than done.  

For many legal professionals, trying to run the daily operations of a law firm effectively can be a stressful and time-consuming process that eats into billable hours and leaves them wishing there were ways to make things a little easier. 

The good news is that when you have the right software, you can stop wishing for solutions and start working smarter. The latest law practice technology allows you to streamline operations, improve client communications, and get back to focusing on client service instead of busy work. 

Here are six ways law practice technology can help your firm and what to look for as you consider your options. 

1. You’ll keep better track of your billable (and non-billable) hours with time-tracking tools 

Most lawyers don’t track their time as they go. Instead, they might wait until the end of the day or the week to log their billable hours, which can lead to lost time and mistakes with time entries that could cost your firm money or the trust of your clients. 

When you use law practice technology that includes cloud-based time-tracking tools, you never have to worry about losing another minute of billable time because you can automatically track your time whenever you start a new task. 

2. Task management software can reduce your mental load 

If you rely solely on morning meetings and emails to stay on budget or track the status of important projects, you risk missing project deadlines or going over your budget, which could cost you money. 

An essential bit of technology that can help keep your team on task and keep you within your budget requirements is task management software. The task management solution can help you: 

• Set project milestones and generate automatic invoices once you reach them 
• Stay in the know by tracking project progress from an easy-to-access dashboard that provides you with milestones, time tracking, and billing information 
• Adhere to your budget by tracking your budget in real-time against time entries so that you can make important choices about authorizing overtime or limiting billable hours 
• Easily share important information regarding any matter with clients and staff members 

3. You can build better invoices—and faster 

Creating invoices is an essential part of ensuring you get paid for your work with clients, but it can also be a tedious, labor-intensive process that leaves you feeling stretched thin when there’s still more work to be done.  

Using law practice technology with invoicing solutions can turn tedious work that usually takes hours into an easy process that requires just a few minutes of your time so you can bill faster and get paid faster. 

Here are things to look for in an invoicing solution: 

• Flexible billing templates to save time by allowing you to create and send custom template-based invoices for every type of client, so you never need to start from scratch 
• Batch invoices that enable you to send invoices to clients with the same line items with just one click, shaving hours off of the time you’d spend sending each invoice individually 
• Invoice scheduling tools that allow you to create due dates and reminders for when it’s time to deliver your invoices so you never send them out late  

4. You’ll get paid faster, too 

Getting paid on time might be the most critical component of running a successful law firm. Prompt payment doesn’t just keep the lights on; it also gives you the freedom to scale and grow your firm.  

Chasing down clients for late payments, waiting for checks to arrive in the mail, or waiting for those checks to clear at the bank are all headaches you can avoid when using law practice technology that provides payment processing solutions. 

If you’re choosing software to help with your payment processes, it’s essential to go with a solution that provides: 

• A secure client portal so that your clients can pay you directly, providing greater convenience for them and faster remuneration for you 
• Refund and credit tracking to keep track of all refunds and credits applied to specific invoices 
• Information storage that allows you to store client payment information for future transactions securely 
• Batch payment solutions that enable you to get to zero AR by running payment for multiple invoices with the push of a button
• Syncing options so that you can easily move payment information to accounting systems like Xero or Quickbooks

5. Set up—and stick to—matter budgets with legal time and billing software 

When setting up an effective budget for the cost of your services, there are better ways to go than playing guessing games. 

Yes, we’re talking about matter budgets.  

But matter budgets can be a lot of work to keep track of if you’re doing it on a spreadsheet. An easier way is to leverage law practice technology.  

Using your legal time and billing software to manage your matter budgets can help you create realistic estimates and determine fixed fees for clients so that you won’t need to change your game plan before the work is done. 

6. Expense-tracking software means no money gets left behind 

If you’re keeping track of your expenses with complicated Excel spreadsheets or pen and paper, it’s high time for an expense tracking upgrade.  

When you switch to a cloud-based expense tracking solution, you free yourself up to input your expenses from anywhere at any time.  

The right expense tracking software will allow you to: 

• Track your expenses from any device at any time, even when you’re offline 
• Easily view your expenses grouped by day, week, or month 
• Upload your business expense receipts and attach them to invoices 
• Limit the billable expenses on a project to ensure you stay on budget 
• Track KPIs for business expense entries with analytics 
• Categorize your entries with ABA task codes for LEDES billing 

Give your law firm the tools to succeed with TimeSolv’s legal practice technology solutions. 

Whether you’re looking to streamline your workflows and monitor your budgets in real-time or enhance client communication with secure portals and online payment solutions, TimeSolv has the tools your firm needs to succeed.  

Want to see what TimeSolv can do for your law firm? Schedule a free 30-minute session with us now. 

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