Law Firm Billing – Automated v/s Traditional

Published On : June 23, 2022

We’re well ahead into the new millennium now, and automation has pervaded almost all  commercial fields that are in existence currently. The legal sector, though somewhat  sluggish in welcoming automation, is slowly but surely catching up with the game.  Automation is slowly becoming the norm, more than the exception in law firms now. 

As law firms automate their workflows, a pertinent question arises – what about their client  billing processes? How can this critical function be automated, without errors and mistakes  in billing, or wrong billing? Let’s see… 

What are automating billing processes? 

To run a successful legal practice (or any business for that matter), you need to have an  effective billing solution in place. Ideally it should always be one that provides a simple and  straightforward way to track time and expenses, ensuring that bills are generated on time, every time, and each bill offers a clear description of the services provided. 

Digital billing and practice management systems are gradually becoming quite common in  law firms. With a myriad of options for online billing available, especially with legal billing  platforms that allow third party applications to build on their basic functionality, leaps and  bounds in technology have made billing simpler and more accurate. For instance, Beveron’s  

Smart Office Suite of applications offer a comprehensive automated billing solution  integrated right into their products, thus making client billing simple, straightforward and  quick. 

What are the drawbacks in orthodox billing methods? 

Now, to understand the benefits of automated billing, we need to first know the drawbacks  of traditional or legacy billing methods, which are – 

• There are more chances of generating inaccurate bills when the billing is done  manually. 
• When bills are not accurate and proper, the clients gradually get dissatisfied with  your law firm and its services. 
• And most obvious, inaccurate billing reduces revenue inflows. 
• Manual billing can make firms more susceptible to fraud and deception. • Account Reconciliation becomes more error-prone.
• Tracking incoming checks become really difficult. 
• There is no way to verify if a customer’s cheque is tied to an account with sufficient funds. 
• Legacy billing invariably slows down the payment cycle, as it can take weeks for cheques to clear. 

Now that we’ve understood the drawbacks of not implementing billing automation, let’s  look at the advantages of implementing it – 

Advantages of implementing billing automation 

• Implementing automation improves the speed of payment and cash flow. 
• Automating your billing provides a streamlined and convenient experience for your customers and clients. 
• Automation lowers risks of financial irregularities, as digital transactions are usually more secure than traditional ones. 
• As all transactions are transparent and done from a single payments page, both your legal staff as well as your clients / customers have easy access to payment-related information. 
• When a law firm goes digital, it has the bandwidth to offer multiple online payment options that will ultimately lead to faster payments and quicker revenue generation.