How to Shorten Your Law Firm Billing & Collections Cycle
Based on current legal trends, clients no longer just want a law firm to provide traditional legal services. Rather, they want better communication, predictable fees, and a client-centered experience.
However, it can become a challenging undertaking for a law firm that is already at its max capacity to provide these detailed services. That is why many law firms are leaning on legal outsourcing to be able to provide their clients with more of these specific needs and wants while also making sure they remain profitable in the process.
For instance, one critical problem that outsourcing has taken care of is helping firms with their billing and collections cycles, which has allowed them to shorten the turnaround time it takes for them to get paid, reduce costs, and offer the top services their clients now expect.
What is Legal Process Outsourcing, and What Does it Have to Do with a Firm’s Billing?
Legal process outsourcing uses professionals to help law firms with specific tasks, including firm automation, document review, and billing.
Law firms often outsource these tasks because of the significant cost-saving measure this process provides them. For example, when firms outsource their billing and collections, they often reduce their expenses since they no longer need to spend money on internal resources or paying salaries and benefits. Instead, they pay professionals to take on these tasks, which ultimately allows the firm to focus on its strengths, increase profitability and capacity, and even improve its performance.
Outsourcing Your Billing – The Benefits it Provides
While there are many legal tasks that can be outsourced, when it comes to bookkeeping services, it is often the first task that law firms need additional help with. Billing and collections are time-consuming tasks that usually take away from the firm’s ability to grow and focus on providing their clients with the services they deserve.
However, when firms outsource these tasks, it can provide the law firm with numerous benefits:
Shortens the Billing and Collections Cycle
When it comes to billing, law firms often struggle with finding a process that works. A process that ensures that the firm gets paid on time and no bills and fees fall through the cracks. Worse yet, finding and then mastering this approach can take a lot of time and energy, things that law firms and their lawyers do not have much of.
However, by outsourcing these billing and collections services to account management professionals, the firm can reap the benefits of efficient management, automated processes, and experts who have the skills, knowledge, and experience to handle these tasks.
In fact, working with these professionals can lead to collections of more than 90% of a firm’s revenue before clients’ terms are even due, resulting in a shortened billing and collection cycle and a more profitable firm.
These outsourcing professionals can also help firms with the following billing and collection issues:
- Maintain efficient accounts receivables
- Ensure firms get paid on time
- Improve processes and procedures, including the ability to track aged receivables
- Prepare budgets, and
- Learn how to work with clients to collect fees that are outstanding.
Provides Firms with the Accounts Receivable Expertise They Need
Billing in a law firm is a complicated process that requires lawyers and staff to focus on the details and numerous tasks that need to be done with the utmost accuracy. Consequently, this process becomes quite challenging, especially when these legal professionals have so many other jobs they have to handle outside of billing.
Yet, when firms outsource these bookkeeping needs, the firm can have access to professionals who are experienced and equipped to manage this sensitive financial documentation. Better yet, because these companies are only focused on managing these accounting needs, without the other disruptive interruptions that often show up in a firm, these companies can provide law firms with the accurate billing and collection services they require.
Frees Up the Firm’s Time to Focus on Other Critical Tasks
By outsourcing your billing and collection tasks, you can free up your attorneys and staff to focus on the other critical work, such as growing the business by prioritizing their time on service expansion, marketing, and client retention instead of figuring out how to manage balance sheets and ensure that money is collected on time.
Provides the Firm with Greater Bookkeeping Efficiency
One of the best things about outsourcing your bookkeeping needs is you can quickly see the results. For instance, you can see how these services help your law firm grow, how much more accurate your bookkeeping processes have become, and the speed of your payments from clients. You can even get a better insight into your billing process so that you can reduce your write-downs.
Reduces Billing Stress
Taking mundane tasks off your firm’s “to-do” list not only frees up time but also reduces the stress level in the firm. It is already common knowledge that many attorneys struggle with their work-life balance. That is why outsourcing certain tasks is essential for the overall well-being of a firm’s staff.
Generally, billing and collection tasks take up a significant amount of time and energy, and because of the attention to detail these tasks entail, it can create a lot of stress for those working on them. However, by outsourcing these duties, not only can the firm improve its processes, but it can also lessen the mental load which is usually involved with this type of job.
Work with Back Office Legal and Get the Billing and Collections Results You Want
At Back Office Legal, our professionals can handle your billing and collection needs, no matter the size of your firm. This means we can help you shorten your law firm billing and collections cycle and provide you with the support you require to ensure you maximize your revenue.
For further information regarding our billing services, contact us today and find out how we can help you!
