CASH IS the lifeblood of every business, even more so for smaller law firms which are often undercapitalised. By using modern technology, you can efficiently organise all your billing processes allowing you to refocus your efforts to what you love doing – practising law.

Recording what you do, when you do it

The key to productivity in any business is to ‘touch it once’. Making good attendance records at the time, whether you plan to time-bill or not, is the key to this. These days many lawyers spend a lot of time out of the office and modern technology allows you to make time and attendance records contemporaneously using your smartphone. Therefore, minimal time is required to re-work data for billing purposes and you can produce accurate bills, at any time, without additional effort.

Electronic billing

The number of firms that still send out paper bills is staggering. By all means do so for elderly clients who might not have access to email, but for everyone else send electronic bills. In most cases, they are going to pay online so why not make it easier. By including a hyperlink directly from the invoice to a payment portal, it will tempt your clients to pay immediately upon receiving the invoice.

Offer various payment methods

The more choices human beings have, the higher the percentage that will respond. Giving your clients the option to pay in a variety of ways, such as BPay, automatic payment, or via credit card, will also increase the rate at which you get paid. The ability to economically set up and manage payment plans, particularly in Family Law matters, will insulate you from delayed payments and relieve the burden associated with those types of matters.

Shying away from modern technology is no longer an option for successful law firms. Instead, staying abreast of changes in technology is essential. Gain insight into how you can leverage technology and become the face of a ‘modern lawyer’ by attending our free lunch seminar.

– leap.com.au/seminars

LEAP is a legal practice management software solution for small law firms. For more information visit leap.com.au