Jan05
A Resolution to Keep All Year Long
Keep on top of time, billing, and collections
For some reason, billing and collections are still one of the most dreaded tasks I hear about in small law firms all over the country. From time tracking, to reviewing prebills, to getting final bills out, to insisting clients pay their bills, these critical tasks just do not get the time and attention they deserve.
It does not have to be hard...it just has to be done. Here are 12 Commandments of Billing/Collections
- Thou shall enter time contemporaneously throughout the day. There is simply no question that your time will be more accurate and that you will capture more billable time throughout the month using this simple, basic time keeping strategy.
- Thou shall take 5 minutes at the end of the day, before running out the door to review time and ensure it is all entered.
- Thou shall use capital letters, punctuation and follow all grammar rules when entering time.
- Thou shall set a time (second business day of the new month) to run prebills for review, and stick to that date.
- Thou shall attempt to electronically review prebills instead of wasting paper.
- If commandment 5 cannot be kept, thou shall print prebills on the ugliest color paper you can find (makes them easy to find and people want them out of their office as quickly as possible).
- Thou shall make prebill reviews a priority by setting a deadline and sticking to it (within 24 hours of receiving them).
- Thou shall produce easy to understand, easy to read bills for your client. Take pride in the finished product – if you have always wanted to change up your bills, do it now!
- Thou shall create and mail/email final bills by a chosen deadline every single month (by the 5th business day of the month at the latest).
- Thou shall establish a due date for invoices, communicate that very clearly to clients.
- Thou shall have a protocol in place for dealing with collections. Suggestion: if your bills are due on receipt, send a past due notice 15-20 days after bills go out, call on day 25, send a letter on day 30, etc.
- THOU SHALL NOT WORK FOR FREE – I know you would much rather...spend time with your family...golf...read a book...go to the movies...lay on the couch...go for a walk...anything, really. But, working for free should just not be an option.
You will not regret making a renewed commitment to the process of billing and collections. Happy New Year!
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