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Legal Billing
Time is Money – Don’t Waste It!
Time is Money. How often have we heard that cliché?
Phrases become clichés because they represent simple truths, in this case, that a lawyer can only earn as much as gets billed to clients.
So why do many lawyers insist on trying to remember to handwrite time slips on bits of paper that get lost in the wash?
At Easy Soft,we’re willing to bet that if you purchase our time and billing software for attorneys, you’ll notice an improvement in your bottom line.If not, you have our 30-day, unconditional, money-back guarantee on this law office billing software.
Take a moment to get an overview of “Easy TimeBill” law office billing software, watch a short video, download a free trial, and go ahead and buy the program. Questions before buying? Just call us at Easy Soft at 800-905-7638 and ask whatever questions you may have about our time and billing software for attorneys.
The screens for the Easy Soft time and billing software for attorneys are simple, fill-in fields that include client name, matter, work description, billing rate, and a start-stop clock or manual time entry. If you are sitting at your desk, simply start this billing software for attorneys, make less than one minute of entries, click on the clock and you’re billing. You can also make manual entries, such as for expenses. This law office billing software was designed specifically for attorneys and law office staff.
At the end of the month, all you have to do is print and mail your invoices. This Billing Software for Attorneys has already computed the billable charge, totaled all time and expense charges, and compiled the same matters into individual bills.
We know that changing a routine approach to billing is going to take some persuading and some support, and that’s why we’re here. So, instead of rummaging through your pockets and purses for last month’s receipts, why not save yourself some real money by investing in Easy Soft’s Attorney Billing Software – today. After all, time is a wastin’.
Steps for Setting Up Your E-Billing Service (2 of 2)
Effective on November 15, 2011, Easy Soft rolled out its newest legal billing and accounting feature: the optional E-Billing module. As discussed in our last blog post, this module has the ability to produce any bill into an electronic format that’s readable for companies that use auditing software.
How do you give yourself the option to send your client an e-bill?
First, become an Easy TimeBill subscriber, and obtain the optional e-billing module. Not only will you join a class of law firms that has this relatively new capability, you’ll find that all of your law firm billing and accounting needs – including tracking time and expenses, sending invoices and invoice reminders, calculating interest on certain invoices, replenishing your retainers, collecting money through a range of electronic payment options, and transferring money between your operating and trust accounts – becomes easier.
Next, open Easy TimeBill, our popular legal accounting software.
Now go to Tools. Scroll down the pull-down menu, and open “Billing Settings.”
If you’re already an Easy TimeBill subscriber, you’ll notice a new tab entitled “electronic billing.” Enable the option and set your Law Firm’s ID. Now, you can open matters of those clients who desire electronic billing and set e-bill flag.
For these e-billing matter’s invoice tab, select the invoice and click “export invoice.”
The act of exporting your invoice into the Ledes format creates a Notepad file (the extension is “txt”). If needed, the software will prompt you for all relevant missing information, including client and matter codes.
Save the new e-bill file, and voila! You’re done! You can send it to your client, along with a regular Word or PDF invoice (if he/she needs one). The conversion is completely seamless.
To try the new e-billing feature (or view a live demonstration), call Easy Soft at 800.905.7638 today.
Easy Soft Launches New E-Billing Service (1 of 2)
If you’ve been following the advice in our blog posts, life should be hunky dory. You’re using our law firm billing and accounting software to both capture your billing and expenses, and collect on them in a systematic way – providing a cash flow that’s as steady as your workflow (or better). You’ve even been accepting credit card payments and calculating interest on overdue invoices. Your law firm is set up to thrive – and we’re glad.
Now, one of your clients tells you they need e-bills from now on. Uh-oh.
Never fear: Easy TimeBill is here! Effective today, Easy TimeBill’s optional E-Billing module can produce invoice into an electronic format – while retaining the original paper format for printing / filing purposes.
E-billing itself isn’t new, of course. For years, large corporations such as insurance companies and banks have been converting to e-billing in order to maintain uniformity and institute audit controls. (Scanning isn’t enough: e-billing requires standard formats (as you’ll see below), and often contains different information than on a paper invoice).
For now, the industry standard format is known as Ledes1998B. (As more formats become necessary, we will add them to our billing software.) Once you have licensed the add-on E-Billing module, our legal accounting software takes it from there.
To add e-billing to your Easy TimeBill license (or view a live demonstration), call Easy Soft at 800.905.7638 today.
Better Cash Flow; Happier Clients (Part 4 of 4)
In the last few blog posts, we’ve been emphasizing the importance of solid cash flow management practices. If you’re looking for a tool to ease the way, look no further. Consider our Payment Acceptance Plan, a merchant accounts option for law firms.
An Internet merchant account gives your clients a full range of electronic payment options. They can pay their bill by credit card, debit card, or remote check. You can also set up recurring billing. The funds can pour into your law firm operating account – or your escrow or trust account. You can even get real-time reporting – which allows you to use your desktop, laptop, Smartphone, or tablet PC to accept a credit / debit card payment, and see where your accounts stand. Best of all, the fees are low – and to prove it, we’ll compare them against your current credit card merchant payment plan free of charge. (Just fax us a cover sheet with your latest credit card processing statement: 877.439.7638).
What’s better for you and your cash flow is also easier for your client: rather than write out a check and wait for the proper authorized signature, he or she can simply provide you with a card or checking account number over the phone (or keep one on file). It’s a win-win scenario that simultaneously eliminates your collection frustrations (it practically prints money), and keeps clients more invested in you and your law firm.
By now, we’ve reviewed many angles of your cash flow plan, including retainer collection, billing and time tracking, expenses and expense tracking, invoice reminders, retainer replenishments, and electronic payments.
Together, these tasks would appear to require a full-time bookkeeper or accounting help. That is where law firm accounting software definitely helps. Easy TimeBill is designed to solve these issues right out of the box. It funnels your cash to the right accounts, segregates and tracks client matters, and tells you what you’ve got to work with – so you can rest easily.
Learn more about your law firm cash flow management system by calling us at 800-905-7638.
Do you have a system for Replenishing your Retainer? (Part 3 of 4)
In the past two posts, we talked about the common issues that affect law firm cash flow management. These include not collecting sufficient retainers, not recording time and expenses promptly (i.e. as incurred), and not sending prompt collection reminders.
In this post, we’re going to add one pesky, persistent issue – and that’s replenishing your existing retainer balance. Law firms – especially solo practitioners and smaller firms – commonly struggle with this. You receive your retainer, and then bill from month-to-month, and before you know it, the original retainer has dwindled to zero. The culprit? Not having a system in place to ask your clients to bring their retainers back up to level – outside of hourly billing.
As creators of efficient, easy-to-use law firm billing and accounting software, Easy Soft has a solution: Easy TimeBill. With the selection of a few choices, you can easily set up retainer replenishment invoices – and email them to your clients seamlessly with your monthly invoice.
One way to accelerate your cash flow is to sign up for our Payment Acceptance Plan, or merchant accounts for law firms. As far as cash flow management software goes, it’s crucial to be able to offer a processing service that allows your clients to authorize their corporate credit or debit card or even pay by remote check (once they’ve reviewed your invoice). Get the system, and you’ll never have to wonder if the proverbial check is in the mail.
As a one-time promotion, we’re offering a $249 rebate on Easy TimeBill when you activate on Easy Soft’s Payment Acceptance Plan. We’ll tell you more about this in the next and final post on easing your law firm’s cash flow management: for good.
Find out more by calling us at 800-905-7638.
Operating v. Trust Account 101
Here’s a question that you might remember from your bar exam. There are operating retainers and trust retainers. How do you know where to deposit your funds?
More importantly, once you’ve determined the answer, how do you keep track of it?
Hint: if you’re using generic accounting software, that last bit gets pretty challenging.
But if you’re using Easy Soft’s Easy TimeBill (ETB) and Easy Trust (ET) modules, then you’ve got it made.
You see, ETB and ET are specialized billing software for attorneys that allow you to make spot decisions: seamlessly. You can consider each scenario on its individual merits. And if you change your mind later, press a button, and voila! you’ve switched accounts without having to reinvent the wheel. That’s strong technology at work.
In contrast, generic accounting software – particularly if it’s not made specifically for law firms – only accounts for a single type of account (i.e. an operating account). Or, it might segregate trust and operating accounts across programs. Often, generic software doesn’t specify which type of account you’re dealing with at all. We’ve seen lawyers keep parallel sets of books to separate their trust accounts from their operating accounts.
In a competitive market, seamlessness is what you’re going for. You spend less time on your legal billing, and more time on your clients. Speaking of which, those clients don’t need to know – and don’t care – about your escrow accounting. So making it seamless works better for you…and better for your client relations.
By the way, the answer to that bar exam question is perfectly grey. Usually, earned fees, personal funds, operating funds, and business funds go into your operating account. But not always. For example, what if your client gives you an advance for next month’s work? Where do you deposit it? Are you now channeling funds between accounts?
Go the easy way: with Easy Soft. For more information about our escrow software, call us at 800.905.7638.
November 2, 2011 in Legal Billing
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Technorati Tagged : billing software for attorneys, escrow accounting, escrow software, legal billing
Technorati Tagged : billing software for attorneys, escrow accounting, escrow software, legal billing
