Ask legal accounting staff how they feel about prebilling, and you’ll hear stories of puzzling out handwritten notes alongside a partner’s legal secretary. Ask partners about prebilling, and they’ll tell you about a time when accounting staff misread their notes, leading to an error, and the partner had to calm an angry client.
Whether you’re in the front or back office, paper-based prebilling is a beast. And as recently as 2019, 71% of law firms still handled prebilling on paper. Today, things are changing as more firms reap the benefits of electronic prebilling systems. Read on to learn how you can tame the prebilling beast at your law firm.
Beastly: Handwritten notes waste time and introduce errors
Paper prebilling forces attorneys to hand-write revisions; accounting staff then type revisions into the billing system and generate invoices. Even when that process goes perfectly, accounting spends a great deal of time interpreting idiosyncratic handwriting and entering revisions.
The process, of course, doesn’t always go perfectly. With good reason, attorneys worry their comments may be misunderstood, creating billing errors that strain client relationships.
Tame it with tech: Modern prebilling software eliminates handwritten notes. Orion’s ePrebill Manager, for instance, guides attorneys through a familiar redline process, similar to Microsoft Word. Accounting staff revise bills with a few clicks, with no guesswork. And attorneys can quickly see the result.
Beastly: Paper audit trails are slow and expensive
It happens all the time—partners want documentation of an unusual cost or a client disputes an invoice sent months ago. With paper prebilling, the answers are usually in a box, stored along with thousands of other boxes. Finding answers is a slow, dusty chore for staff.
Paper-based systems also cost the firm (and partners) money. Storing paper safely, at scale, is expensive. Digging through boxes for answers can slow down problem resolution, wasting otherwise-billable attorney time.
Tame it with tech: Storing documents electronically ensures everyone has immediate access to the information they need. The cost may be lower than paper storage. Electronic prebilling tools like Orion’s ePrebill include permanent digital audit trails, so authorized attorneys and accounting staff can quickly see what changed and why.
Beastly: Prebill, prebill, who’s got the prebill?
When the prebill is on paper, it’s anybody’s guess where the physical document is. Reports can get lost, especially if associates and paralegals are involved in prebilling, simply because they must pass through so many hands.
Things become more complicated when some people work from home and others are in the office. Paper processes end up hybridized in inefficient ways, like scanning paper documents and emailing them to timekeepers when questions come up.
Tame it with tech: Electronic prebills can be stored centrally. It’s always clear who has the prebill and what steps remain. Orion’s ePrebill is also available on a secure mobile app, so partners can review and edit prebills from anywhere.
Beastly: Write-downs aren’t applied until invoicing
Paper prebilling leaves partners doing back-of-the-napkin math when discounting services, taking their best guess at the impact on the final total and the attorney’s realization rates. Attorneys can’t easily compare prior invoices when making write-down decisions. As a result, they may write down more than they otherwise would.
Tame it with tech: Modern financial management software makes it easy to look at prior invoices and other historical data about a client or matter. Orion’s ePrebill displays write downs in real time so that attorneys can immediately see how they affect the bottom line. Firms can pair it with Orion’s Visual Analytics suite to get customized insights on realization rates and more.
Beastly: Paper prebilling slows the billing cycle
It takes time to ferry prebills from person to person, to unearth documentation, and type in revisions. That slows the billing cycle before the invoice goes to the client. After the invoice is sent, correcting billing errors can add even more time. The firm’s cash flow suffers.
What’s more, bills issued while the client’s memory is still fresh can be easier to collect. Billing cycle delays can reduce individual partner compensation.
Tame it with tech: Electronic prebilling software is faster and more accurate than any paper-based system for most mid-size and larger law firms. Combined with other tools, like electronic payment processing and automated collections support, it can boost your cash flow and compensation significantly.
Orion: Your partner in taming the prebilling beast
Your firm’s prebilling process has been refined countless times over the years. Now you can take it to a new level of ease, efficiency, and efficacy with Orion’s ePrebill. ePrebill speeds up your firm’s billing cycle by:
- Offering electronic revisions in a familiar format (similar to Microsoft Word), plus instant answers on how write downs affect the total bill
- Delivering typed revisions that can be applied verbatim with a few clicks
- Real-time visibility into prebill status and a digital audit trail for authorized users
- Integrating with other Orion modules like the mobile app and visual analytics.
Ready to learn more? Schedule a demo today.