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Tabs3 Billing Software

For over 30 years, Tabs3 has been helping law firms manage their billing. We have worked with tens of thousands of attorneys and have learned what you must do to successfully bill for your time so that you get paid. Our experience has shown us what the most successful law firms have in common.

Here are just some of the 12 Best Billing Practices…for any economy!

1. Enter Your Time

If you bill your clients by the hour, it is vital to the financial health of your firm that you track your time daily. Even for non-billable work, the most successful firms can account for every hour so that they know how they’re spending each day and can make better time-estimates. If you value bill or work on contingency, it is still important that you keep track of how you’re spending your time, so that you know which matters, clients and areas of practice are the most lucrative. The easiest way to track your time is to use time and billing software that will let you analyze your daily/weekly/monthly billable and non-billable hours.

2. Know Your Clients

No two clients are exactly the same and it is important to know which clients fall outside of your firm’s “normal” ranges. Who brings in the most revenue for your firm, and whose business is actually costing your firm money? Keep a list of your top clients for billings and collections and check it every month.

3. Know Your “Effective” Billing Rates

You probably don’t charge each client the same rate, and even if you do, your total dollars billed/total hours worked might result in different effective rates for many clients. When time is limited and you have to make important time-management decisions, give yourself the tools to make the best choice. Use a time and billing program that will generate this information for you.

4. Make Paying Easy

If you want to get paid right away, you must give your clients payment options. Traditionally, you mail a bill to a client, and then they mail a check back to you. If a client’s account becomes overdue, you spend valuable hours making collections calls and setting up payment options. Law firms that accept payments via credit card are more likely to get paid right away and they let the credit card companies do the collections. Whether it’s including a credit card remittance form with your statements, or letting them pay over the phone, you should offer this quick and convenient way for your clients to pay their bill.

5. Know Your Productivity

Hundreds of hours can be spent on a case, but your bottom line will not improve if that time is never billed or if the firm is absorbing costs associated with the case. Keep your eye on the firm’s productivity by reviewing your billing system’s productivity reporting by client, attorney, and area of practice. Make sure that you are not unnecessarily writing off fees and costs.

6. Are All Hours Billable?

Keep a finger on your firm’s financial pulse by comparing your total hours worked to your total hours billed for each billing cycle. By tracking the difference between hours worked and hours billed, you can make the best decisions about how much work you should be billing.

7. Bill Promptly

Imagine receiving a bill from a vendor for services performed six months ago. Chances are, you feel that if receiving payment was terribly important, they would have billed you long before now. Paying this vendor would certainly not be your topmost priority.

Your clients feel the same way.

Be prompt in your billing, and your clients will return the favor.

8. Keep Good Clients

The most successful law firms know which clients are slow to pay, and who pays promptly.  Get the facts before you decide to do repeat work for a client.

9. Make Time for Billing

The billing process rarely happens in one day. It is also common to have stacks of clients’ statements in your inbox, waiting to be approved. If you take the time to keep on top of your billing, you’ll soon find out that you will get paid faster.

10. Bill Monthly

Your clients will expect to receive bills from you on a regular basis and your billing cycle should be predictable so that your clients can be prepared to pay for your services. Process your invoices monthly and send them to your clients at the same time each month.

11. Protect Your Data

Whether your data is on one computer or many, take every measure to protect it. Have a regular backup procedure in place for electronic data, and know whether or not that backup was successful. Where would your practice be if your digital information was irrecoverably damaged or destroyed?

12. Know Your Numbers

Your business reports should make sense to you, and you must know where every number comes from. Run your reports at the same time during each billing cycle so that you can get a realistic comparison with the same reports from other months.

For more information about Tabs3 and to receive your FREE trial software that will help you implement these 12 Best Billing Practices, click here.