Law firm CRM is what law firms around the world requires now. Law firms around the world face a common challenge when it comes to business operations- generation of proper invoices. A large percentage of law firms around the world use an hourly paradigm for keeping a track of their operations and other internal procedures. According to recent statistics, the Law Industry has a projected growth of almost 5.6% by 2024. As such, it can get quite challenging for the law firms to track the overhead hours, utilize the hourly model and generate invoices in a proper fashion.
However, things do not end here. There are some law firms which use the flat fee model or the contingency fee model or a mix of both in their business operations. This makes it quite crucial for the law firms to have assembled processes in place for maintaining their hourly, flat fee or contingency fee billing projects. Manually completing these procedures frequently leads to a lack of precision, taking more time, and having a disorganized technique. This can result in improper invoice generation and unsatisfied client experience.
Well do not worry! We have got a solution for you. With the help of the Law Firm CRM, you can easily manage the hourly rates of all the attorneys, log time spent on each matter and generate invoices- All with a single click. Not just that! You can also use the Law Firm CRM to handle the Flat Fee Matter as well as the Contingency Matter and generate invoices accordingly.
Being super easy to use, the Law Firm CRM offers a wide range of functionalities as well as effective customization capabilities to generate and manage invoice generation easily.
Let us now move ahead and learn more about easy invoice generation using the Law Firm.
A particular law firm mainly deals with three types of matters and billing structures when it comes to invoice generation. It is quite crucial for the law firms to deal with these matters accordingly using a proper CRM solution which can help to look after all the various aspects.
Hourly rate matters are quite uncomplicated and lets you bill Attorney bills on an hourly basis. They involve paying your attorney based on the number of hours he or she spends on the particular matter. Hourly rate matters are quite simple and straight. However, it should be noted that hourly fees vary from one attorney to another. This makes it quite difficult for the law firm to manage the rates accordingly and generate invoices in an effective manner.
The biggest advantage of hourly billing is that clients pay only for the hours that the attorney is spending on a particular matter. If a particular matter gets settled quickly, clients end up paying a small amount for the matter. However, if the matter takes up a long amount of time, the client can pay accordingly.
Contingency matters allow the attorneys to fight a particular matter and take a percentage of the financial statement. As such, the client does not have to pay any sort of upfront costs to the attorney. Instead, an agreeable percentage gets established between the client and the attorney.
One of the biggest advantages of the Contingency-based payment plan is that the client does not pays any sort of upfront costs. This is especially essential for the consumers who count on the settlement money from their legal case to make ends meet. Additionally, if the client loses the matter, he/she does not owe the attorney any sort of payment.
Flat fee matters allow attorneys to charge a fixed amount for a particular matter. According to a survey, almost 47% of consumers wanted law firms to adopt flat fee payments and invoicing. Flat fee billing is significantly growing in use but yet several law firms refuse to adopt the flat fee billing structure.
However, flat fee matters and billing offer significant advantages to the law firms. It helps to attract more clients. Offering flat fee billing offers a competitive advantage to the law firms because it’s what clients want. Flat fee matters also helps to avoid future fee disputes for the law firms. It helps to put focus on the quality of the work of the law firm as well as the value the law firm provides.
It is quite crucial for the law firms to manage hourly rates while generating invoices for the hourly rate matters. Not only that! Logging time spent by the attorney on the particular matter and generating invoices while keeping everything updated also seems quite challenging. The Law Firm CRM simplifies the entire process of invoice generation for hourly rate matters.
With the “Attorney” module of the Law Firm CRM, you can easily keep track of the hourly rates of every attorney of your firm. The module provides you with a complete list of the attorneys. Clicking on any of the attorneys will show you the details as well as his/her hourly rates. However, things do not end here. You can even update the hourly rates of the attorneys according to the requirements. Simply enter the hourly rate suitable for an attorney and the CRM solution stores it for further use. The best part! Everything happens with just a few clicks.
As such, you can keep the hourly rates of all the attorneys updated properly even if the law firm deals with several attorneys. Once set and ready, it is now time to compile it with log hours and generate billable invoices for the clients.
However, only updating the hourly rates of the attorneys for hourly rate matter invoice generation is not enough. It is also crucial for each attorney to log time spent on the matter. With the law Firm CRM, attorneys get the option to check and log time spent on each matter.
The “Edit Matter” option allows the attorneys to check the timesheet hourly billing form. This helps the attorneys to easily log time spent on a particular matter. Once updated, the CRM solution captures and stores the details to generate invoices for the law firm. The number of hours worked on by the Attorneys are captured from the “Matter” module and the hourly rates are obtained from the “Attorney” module.
Once the hourly rates and hours spent on a particular matter gets updated, it is time to generate the invoices. Law Firms face a serious challenge with keeping every information in the proper place, calculating and generating invoices manually. Crucial information can get misplaced which can result in wrong invoice generation.
The Law Firm CRM automates this entire process of invoice generation for the hourly rate matters. The “Generate Current Month Invoice” option helps to generate invoices with just a single click. The CRM solution automatically takes every detail into consideration, calculates the payment, generates invoices and sends it to the clients. The entire process takes up very little time and saves the Law Firms from several business process complications.
Flat fee billing structures are also often followed by several law firms. Flat fee billing and invoicing helps the law firms to build better relationships with the clients and also help to improve the profitability of the law firm. If the law firm prices and staffs the projects accordingly for flat fee billing, it helps to improve the profits of the law firm. Maintaining flat fee matters and billing is relatively easy for law firms as they do not have to deal with logged hours and hourly rates like the hourly rate matters. However, manual operations can still result in errors creeping in while generating invoices for flat fee matters.
With the Law Firm CRM, it becomes easy to manage and maintain the flat fee billing payments like it was never a challenge. The “Edit Matter” option allows you to enter the fee amount for the flat fee matters. Once done, the CRM solution captures the details and saves it accordingly.
The “Generate Current Month Invoice” option then calculates the billing amount automatically, generates the invoices and sends it to the clients accordingly. All these happen with just a few clicks. How cool is that!
Certain law firms follow contingency billing matters. Contingency matters benefit the clients more than the attorneys as the clients do not have to pay any sort of upfront costs. The attorneys take only a percentage of the financial settlement. Managing the contingency billing percentage is relatively easy for the law firms. However, since law firms deal with several matters on a particular day, information regarding them can easily get mixed up and misplaced. Also there arises challenges with the manual calculation of billable invoices.
The Law Firm CRM lets you store the contingency matter billing percentage details easily inside the CRM solution. The “Edit Matter” option lets you enter the percentage. Once you save it, the CRM captures the details for further use.
Once done, the “Generate Current Month Invoice” option allows you to generate invoices automatically. The CRM solution captures the attorney details along with the contingency billing percentage. It then calculates the payment and sends the billable invoice to the clients. This sounds quite simple!
Invoice generation is crucial for any sort of business. Since a law firm deals with any type of matters out of the three, it is extremely crucial to properly generate and maintain the invoices. Any sort of error can result in incorrect billable invoices and wrong information getting conveyed to the client.
With the Law Firm CRM, everything gets quite seamless and automated. The CRM solution captures the details of hourly rate, flat fee or contingency matters accurately. It then easily generates invoices with just a few clicks. It helps to serve as the right tool for the law firms.
Interested to learn more about easy invoice generation with Law Firm CRM? Get in touch with us and order a No-Obligation demonstration today.