A Legal Billing Software Should Have These 7 Features

 As a lawyer or legal advisor, you spend all day thinking about your clients' legal problems, their solutions, and the potential risks involved in their day-to-day business.

But how often do you think about potential business risks in your professional activities? About the money, you're losing right now? How much time do you have to think about it? Zero! Because your clients are always calling, emailing, and texting for meetings and consultations. 

Every consulting session, big or small, is a service you provide. Are you being paid well for it? Did you get paid for the last call you were on? Let me tell you that I can assure you that you will get paid for the next project you take. Do you want to earn that? Read on!

First, find out the current state of the market when it comes to billing and invoicing challenges for law firms:

73% of law firms face unpaid late fees

50% of small law firms witness 4 out of 10 unpaid invoices

82% report that client financial charges are the primary cause of the problem.

You, too, face similar challenges. Well, the solution is to rely on technology. Artificial intelligence in technology can automate processes that are consistent and time-consuming. 

• Time tracking
• Project management
• Customer management
• Invoice management
• Payment process management
• Task management 
• Analysis reports
• Revenue and expense management

Below is a list of features you should look for when choosing legal billing software:

An automatic time recorder:

They do all this to make money. All business processes, meetings, client discussions, brainstorming sessions, etc., are done on a daily basis to generate enough profit to grow. The first thing you need to understand here is the importance of time. As an attorney, your services are time-dependent. And every minute invested contributes to making money. 

A time tracking tool works in the background of your mobile or computer devices to track the time spent on each project. In a legal billing software like Invoicera, you can:

• Track time.
• Separate projects
• Select specific projects and track time
• Convert time to invoices due with one click.
• All-time reports can be found in the dashboard.

As a law firm, it is important to choose a time tracking tool so that you can bill your clients accurately and generate enough revenue. 

Billing support:

One of the essential features to consider in legal billing software is supporting, automating, and customizing. Whether it's something simple that's often overlooked, like the ability to customize an invoice with your logo, or something more advanced, like automatic interest or tax calculations, you need flexibility in your invoicing to meet the needs of your clients.

While it may seem obvious to check if specific e-invoice codes are supported, other features may not catch your eye until they are necessary. For example, the ability to edit invoices in MS Word. These features show that the software has anticipated your needs and strives to anticipate them. When it comes to something as crucial as invoicing, you can't afford to overlook a detailed review of the invoicing features.

Detailed reports with filters:

Software reports often considered the least important when choosing the right accounting software for your business. However, this feature, which always taken for granted, is the most important for any business. Its importance only realized once the services start to be avail by you. If you've tracked all your time, sent all your invoices, and now want to know the big picture of your business, reports come in handy. Detailed reports with filters for durations, clients, projects, etc., help you understand your business and its growth over a period of time or years. 

Online project planning and task sharing:

The online project management and task sharing feature are very useful for managers who need to assign tasks to their subordinates. It helps to monitor and manage the overall workflow of the organization. Managers can give meetings, cases, consultations, and hearings to their associates so that no critical task is left undone and every client receives maximum attention. 

Project scheduling and task allocation also inform your team's daily activities and time commitment so that you get the maximum return from each resource. 

Accounts receivable and payable management:

Payments/cash flow keep the business alive. It's like the blood that needs to keep flowing in the body at the right rate to stay healthy. Therefore, it is equally vital to monitor reports, analyze them regularly, and make necessary adjustments. 

AR & AP reports are automatically updated as soon as you receive or send a payment. Later, you can use these reports to differentiate between client, project, ROI over a period or to track your total accounts payable and receivable for the month. In short, it makes money management and life more manageable. 

Implementation and customization:

Don't look for a standard, generic legal e-billing software for your law firm. It will never meet all your firm's requirements. Such law firm e-billing systems categorize and focus on only a few common problem areas. It may only offer you solutions related to billing, time tracking, and a few reports. Trust us; this won't even cover 50% of your needs.

The right decision is to invest in customized legal invoicing software tailored to your business at an almost identical cost. Customized software development results in personalized billing, selected payment gateways, more reports, streamlined workflow with changed processes, automation of almost all processes in your organization, and layers of security to keep your data as secure as possible. Invoicera is the leading choice for more than 100 companies that have customized and installed their systems without moving a dime. 

Support and advice:

It is normal to take your time to understand the technology. It may seem difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, there is no turning back. But in the meantime, you need an expert to help you understand every detail. Seek quick help and advice from the experts throughout the process. Invest your time to find out how much the developers help you. Invoicera provides its customers with uninterrupted support in customizing and installing the software and lifetime support if any issues arise with the software. This is super necessary and makes acceptance feasible. 

Finally, 

You will find the best legal billing software that will meet your needs with a little bit of research work online. The above features are the most crucial in a law firm, and make sure that you do not miss any of them. No matter how often you told to turn a blind eye to them or compromise, stick to what you say and settle for only the best. 

If you can't find everything in one, opt for custom software. There is nothing that customization can match. The advantages are numerous, and the disadvantages are not even noticeable. Choose wisely and invest only in the right software for your law firm.