The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/271291
PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA BEST PRACTICES 12 However, these challenges have also brought opportunities for firms to deliver superior client service and differentiate themselves by eliminating billing errors, sending invoices in a more timely fashion and giving clients more cost predictability. Firms can also set themselves apart being proactive about using paperless invoices and becoming more transparent with billing, rather than taking a purely reactive approach. In order to achieve these goals and foster improved client satisfaction, firms should focus on implementing technology and operational process improvements around e-billing. They might also need to rethink the way they approach billing. With the right software, processes and attitude, law firms can make e-billing a mutually beneficial endeavor. ADVANTAGES FOR CLIENTS For clients, e-billing makes perfect sense. Paper-based bills from law firms can run dozens of pages. Not only do law firms spend a great deal of time producing, circulating, reviewing, modifying and delivering these paper bills, clients often undertake their own arduous review before paying them. Through e-billing, corporate clients eliminate the burden of paper bills, and they can control law department budgets. E-billing data also enable in-house law departments to compare efficiency among law firms. Many clients now require electronic bill delivery in order to transfer and preserve bills easily in their own case management applications. Many environmentally conscious corporations require email delivery in order to satisfy corporate policy. CHALLENGES FOR FIRMS While this presents significant advantages for clients, the situation is more complicated for law firms. Software solutions can be extraordinarily expensive, and data security is always a concern. Without an industry-wide standard for e-billing codes, timekeepers and administrative professionals must adapt to continuously changing client requirements. Busy attorneys and staff might not leap into training for new technology and processes. Systems often are managed on spreadsheets or, even worse, entirely in the head of a single longtime staff member. Due to the dramatic impact e-billing has had on firm collections and profitability, law firm leaders can no longer ignore training in this area. Those who make education and training a priority, and who implement sound timekeeping practices supported by technology solutions, will see greater client satisfaction and retention. Law firms are not finished once they have trained timekeepers and staff to submit e-bills successfully. They must still track those bills to determine which ones have been rejected and which have been approved. Billing staff must also know what they can and cannot change on their own to avoid ethics violations. For instance, billing staff might add or modify lawyer time entries at the point of submission in order to submit the related invoice successfully. This is a risky approach, and many lawyers are not aware of this practice within their firms. Despite the challenges, e-billing can provide huge benefits for law firms. By implementing practices and technology Clean Bills, Happy Clients About the Author Candy Sharpe, founding team member of BillBLAST, heads up the client services and product development team. She has been dedicated to the legal industry for over 15 years and is an expert on legal billing applications, efficiencies and process improvements, as well as new technologies to support and improve the same. Contact Candy at candy@bill-blast.com. For legal departments focused on cost containment and metrics-driven budget management, few things are more frustrating than law firms' inefficient billing processes. Over the last few years, the number of clients requiring their law firms to use e-billing has exploded. This has left law firms grappling with different client requirements, clunky software and inefficient processes.