Late payments from clients. No fun, right? No matter what kind of legal billing software you have, late payments require you to send (yet) another bill and nag your client—neither of these fun tasks. And statistics show: the longer it takes for a bill to get paid, the harder it is to collect.

The way we look at it, you might as well get something for your troubles. And if that something is a finance charge, then your client is put on notice—and realizes that there’s a cost factor attached to his or her delay. If push ever comes to shove, a finance charge also provides additional leverage for you. In short, finance charges are a winning scenario for attorneys all around.

Easy Soft’s Easy TimeBill program, our law office software now comes with a new feature: automatic assessments of finance charges on unpaid invoices (provided you wish to apply finance charges).

A little background here. We found out that our software clients-from solo practitioners to medium-sized law firms—were willing to assess finance charges for late payments. But they don’t.

9 times out of 10, you’re not refraining out of courtesy. You’re refraining because there’s no easy way to make the calculation—and compound it as time goes on. Add in partial payments—and the scenario gets even more math-heavy. (And we know from previous posts how much you love math!)

Nightmare no more! Easy TimeBill’s new finance charge feature allows you to set the interest rate (say 12%) and the grace period (say 30 days). You’re in complete control.

As you generate invoices, Easy TimeBill will look at unpaid invoices, apply the grace period, and assess any necessary finance charges.

To activate the feature, simply go to Tools. Then you select Billing Settings, then Finance Charge Settings. Then, you type in the desired interest rate, grace period, and charge type (simple or compound). Voila! Your global preferences are set, and your client now has a great reason to pay today .

Exceptions aren’t an issue: you simply uncheck the option for certain clients.

No one likes to be paid late. Time to fight back!

To learn more about our Attorney billing software, call us at 800-905-7638.

It’s the end of the month. Time to review your accounts receivable. If you compare the numbers to last month: they’ve definitely grown.

The good news? The firm’s doing great, and work shows no signs of slowing down.

The bad news? Too many of your numbers are simply carried over from last month. What this means: there are balances going into arrears by 60 days, 90 days, and more.

If this happens once a year, it’s no big deal. If this happens consistently from month to month and client to client, then it represents a waste of time, effort, bank account interest, and business proactivity. It increases stagnation, and decreases client commitment. What’s more, the longer it takes a client to pay his or her bill, the more likely that bill is to go unpaid.

If this is you: don’t panic. You’re in good company. Regardless of size, law firms all across the country struggle with collections. You can throw manpower and energy at the problem. But if you haven’t got a system in place to usher in your cash, then you’re fighting a slow—and losing—battle.

We can help. Easy Soft’s comprehensive legal time and billing software, Easy TimeBill, is designed to send out periodic and accurate reminders to your clients for balances due. In other words, the software does the work for you: it determines what the balance is, how many days your client has fallen behind, and any interest charges that apply. You simply click a few buttons—and off go your invoices: by email or printed snail mail.

Rig your collections system like a well-oiled machine. And your clients will start falling in line.

To learn more about any of our attorney time tracking software, call us at 800 905 7638.

You get a new client. She engages you, and you deposit her retainer check. Then you start work on the matter.

As the months or weeks go by, her retainer amount gets depleted. Sooner or later (but mostly sooner), you find the amount approaching, well, zero.

At this point, most lawyers have no built-in system to replenish their retainer. So, they begin to bill forward as they go.

That’s a bad idea. It’ll leave you in a net-negative situation—and you’ll be doing work against future receivables. These receivables can rack up quickly—depending on the complexity and urgency of the matter.

Instead, we suggest leveraging technology to keep your retainers replenished—and stay net-positive in your cash flow. It’s easy with Easy TimeBill program, our legal billing and trust accounting system.

Easy TimeBill our billing software for attorneys allow you to see—at a glance—what your retainer balances are for each client and matter.

Low Retainer Alerts

For each client, you can set a minimum retainer balance. You can then open your client view, and view your low retainer reminders.

Reminder Letters

The system also generates an automatic reminder letter, notifying your clients that their retainer needs to be replenished. All you have to do is either email it, snail mail it, fax it, or give it to whom ever does your books.

This way: you stay one step ahead of your client. And your client stays one step ahead of your work.

Replenishment Amount Threshold

Legal time and billing software “ Easy TimeBill” has a smart threshold option. You clearly do not want to start sending notices for small replenishments say reminders for less than $100. It would be silly to send a $100 replenishment reminder the moment retainer goes down from $10,000 to $9,900. Well, you are covered. You are able to set the minimum cut-off threshold.

Easy, right? That’s why we call it Easy Soft.

If you’d like to learn more about Easy Soft and any of our law office management software, call us at 800-905-7638.