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Time/Billing Techno-Boo Boos
Submitted by
John L. Mellitz and Patricia D. Nemish, Mellitz & Associates
“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.”
— William Pollard
Client billing is perhaps the most difficult and sensitive task undertaken by a law firm. Lawyers spend hours reviewing and revising the bill they send out in order to meet the Clients’ expectations and cast their services in the most favorable light possible.
For many years, lawyers refused to believe a computer could ever produce bills that would match their manually prepared documents. After all, they reasoned, billing is not a cookie cutter operation. It requires attention to detail and must be customized and formatted on a client-by-client basis.
Today, whether they like it or not, lawyers must automate their billing process in order to remain competitive. Time spent billing is not nearly as productive as client-related work, no matter how important the lawyer regards the task. Yet even after 20+ years of automated billing and the evolution of ever more sophisticated computers and billing programs, many lawyers remain frustrated and unsatisfied with their billing operation.
The following aggregated and paraphrased comments represent the thoughts of lawyers who would have done things differently had they made better decisions when planning and implementing their time and billing systems, . . . and the lessons they learned from their experiences:
- “I took the advice of a colleague and purchased a time and billing system that was overkill for my small practice. I ended up spending thousands of dollars on a program I am hardly using. Another regret I have is that I didn’t allocate enough money for training. I realize now that my decisions were very short-sighted.”
DON’T buy a howitzer to go squirrel hunting. Just because “everybody” is buying a given time and billing system doesn’t mean it is suitable for your practice.
DO buy a system that will handle your timekeeping and billing needs as simply as possible. However, remember that sophisticated systems can often be “dumbed down” to handle the simplest tasks with grace and panache, yet afford room for growth and change in your practice. The key is “training” by someone who can separate the wheat from the chaff.
- “I took the advice of a colleague and purchased QuickBooks for my Time & Billing. He had a high volume Traffic practice. I have a high volume Insurance Defense practice, and my bills are subject to audit. Needless to say, it took me almost a year to learn that you don’t go deer hunting with a BB Gun”.
DON’T assume that just because you are a lawyer you can handle any case that walks through the door. Will your ability to get a reduction in point for a speeding ticket serve you when someone asks you to patent a new invention?
DO match your practice with a program capable of handling it. Both you and your plumber charge for your time. Would you use the same program as your plumber for billing?
- “A salesman demonstrated a Practice Management System, and assured us that it was so easy to learn that we could teach ourselves how to use it. We bought it on those assurances. Bi-i-g Mistake. We had no trouble duplicating Outlook’s basic contact records and calendar functions, but beyond that we remained clueless. Ultimately, it cost us about $5,000.00 for training, but I figure we lost will over $10,000.00 in lost productivity before we threw in the towel. The frustration, anger, and breakdown in staff morale dwarfed the financial loss. That $5,000 was the best investment we ever made”.
DON’T rely on the representations of a person whose livelihood depends on a sale. His or her interest is only in the “hard costs” of a program.
DO be ever-aware that the “soft costs” of a new program usually far exceed the price of the software. You may save a lot of money buying an unbroken horse, but your medical bills will remind you that you should have hired a trainer to break it in.
- “We purchased a billing program after seeing a demo. I thought at the time my staff would be very excited about learning how to use it. My secretary of 25 years was totally intimidated by it and still continues to use her WordPerfect veer. 5.1 for everything from Calendar functions to billing. Everyone else in the office is frustrated because we’re still in the Dark Ages regarding technology. I should have involved my staff in the decision of selecting the software before I spent so much time, energy and money!”
DON’T ride roughshod over your staff. You may own the program, but your staff owns the issues it raises.
DO involve your staff in the selection of a system. By becoming involved, the system becomes their “child.” People put up with, and are much more tolerant of, the behavior of their own children than they are of the misbehavior of other peoples’ children.
- “I was on a tight budget and at the time couldn’t afford to pay for consulting and training services when I purchased my time/billing system. Since I had some experience in installing software I did the installation myself and slogged through the manual to figure out how to set it up, that is, the configuration. For the next couple weeks we had nothing but problems – computer crashing, lockups, and utter frustration. We lost days of productivity and my staff was quite upset because they could not meet routine deadlines. We were all pretty miserable. I finally called in an expert and in just a few hours things were working just fine. My ego got in the way of good business sense. I learned a hard lesson.”
DON’T assume that inserting the CD and clicking on “Setup” is all that’s required to implement a complex system.
DO read every word of the instructions carefully . . . especially the “Warnings,” “Tips,” and other bulleted and highlighted items that call attention to details peculiar to the software with which you are dealing. Alternatively,
DO hire a consultant or dealer who is “Certified” or otherwise deemed “Qualified” by the manufacturer of the software. There is NO substitute for experience.
- “We learned the basics of our time and billing system on our own. Although we wanted more sophisticated billing, i.e. split billing and printing consolidated bills, we never took the time to learn the advanced features of the program. Instead we used calculators to figure out percentages, and our word processing to duplicate our bills so our clients could see certain information on their bills. In other words, we used a “band-aid” approach to get the results we needed. Other work did not get done because we spent excessive time in redundant activities. We should have spent the time and money from the very beginning!”
DON’T limit your knowledge to the basics of your system. While you will never utilize all the features built into your system, there are many features that are overlooked because no-one has taken the time to become familiar with all the benefits offered.
DO take your knowledge to the next level to fully utilize the system and enjoy better results.
DO get a high return on your investment of time, energy and human resources by learning all the benefits offered by the system from someone who is familiar with it.
- “We bought a “Front Office, Back Office, All Office” system that promised a one stop shopping solution to our practice problems. It was quite expensive because it included training and monthly maintenance. We’re a small firm, and our Office Manager took it upon herself to oversee the implementation. The Practice Management and Time and Billing have been a godsend, but we really took a beating on the General Ledger module, because no-one in the office had a clue about accounting principles”.
DON’T choose a time and billing system without taking into consideration your firm’s ability to handle other back office functions, (i.e. General Ledger).
DO render unto your accountant that which belongs to your accountant.
- “I had my legal assistant trained professionally in the use of our time and billing program. She was with me for 3 years and I depended upon her to get our bills out on time. Well, her husband was transferred out of state and she gave her two-week notice. Because I had no interest in getting involved with the billing function in our office, I never used the system myself. It took me 3 months to find a replacement and I got behind in my billing. My cash flow was at an all-time low…pretty scary. My biggest regret is not participating in the use of my billing system and learning the basics at the very least.”
DON’T put all your eggs in one basket. Not only is this a cliché, but it can literally cost you your practice.
DO insure that at least one partner or owner of the practice receives training along with the designated staff person. If possible, have two staff persons trained.
- “I saw my secretary typing bills in her word processor and asked her why she was spending so much time doing this. We use a time and billing system. She said that several clients objected to their bills and asked for revised copies. The original bills had been finalized and she did not know how to “Undo” them so she decided to retype them. The court also requested a detailed bill for the case’s extraordinary expenses, payments, and credits. Not having had any training she again retyped the bill in her word processor. Meanwhile, other things in the office were NOT getting done and she got very behind in her work. We found out later that she could have printed a History Report from the billing system. In retrospect, I should have invested in adequate training when we FIRST purchased the software….a costly mistake.”
DON’T try to save money by limiting learning opportunities and short-changing your staff.
DON’T overwhelm your staff with work when they are getting used to new ways of doing things.
DO invest in competent training by professionals with a thorough knowledge of your program
DO give your staff time to practice what they learn during training.
- “At my former firm the attorneys either dictated their time or recorded it on yellow pads or tear-off slips. Their secretaries used word processing to transcribe the time records, and then sent the resulting documents to the billing department, where they were manually entered into the billing program. In retrospect, it was practices such as this that caused the financial failure of the firm, and its subsequent dissolution”.
DON’T assume that because “it ain’t broke, it don’t need fixin’.” Even long-standing precedent can be overturned because of changes wrought by innovation.
DO remain open to change dictated by mature technology.
- “I decided to look at improving our billing procedures so I spoke with a couple of experts about voice recognition software. I thought it was as simple as “talk to type.” NOT!!! Ultimately, I bought some consulting advice and learned that the system had to be “taught” to recognize not just my voice, but also my style of dictation. It has taken about six months, but I’ve finally reached the point where I am entering my time without the assistance of my staff. Voice recognition is not perfect, but it’s far better than typing for me, and my secretary has taken on more paralegal-type tasks. More importantly, my staff is much happier now. They have the time to complete their work without undue stress. The morale in the office is at an all-time high, and I’m actually billing out more time.”
DON’T force yourself, (or your staff), to perform tasks beyond your capacity to learn or master them.
DO investigate utility or “helper” programs that help you adapt to new systems.
- “Our firm’s partners were very concerned about staff productivity. We had the Office Manager create several spreadsheets containing each person’s billable and non-billable time and other statistical information that she compiled each week. There were some new Associates who were evaluated based upon their weekly billable hours. The reporting process took a great deal of her time, and there were occasional errors in the numbers. She proposed that the firm invest in a time and billing system that provides a variety of reports without much human intervention – the system automatically produces Profitability and Productivity Reports based upon the Staff’s time entries. It was money well spent. Our Office Manager has taken on higher level responsibilities now that she has more time for other things.”
DON’T use a word processor or spreadsheet programs for billing. That’s like using open-end wrenches and sandpaper blocks.
DO use a Time Billing system. You’re a lawyer! You can afford power tools.
- “For three years we used Timeslips and Time Matters. Each new engagement required entering NAP, (Name, Address, Phone), and other information into both programs. Last month we hired a secretary that came from a firm with a similar arrangement, and she said they had a consultant who showed them how the two programs could be linked so that the information had to be entered only once. In addition, she showed us how we could enter time records in Time Matters and have them automatically duplicated in Timeslips”.
DON’T overlook features designed to link together programs from different manufacturers.
DO remember that almost all programs work well with Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect. Manufacturers often link their products to other popular programs. .
- “We dropped a bundle on so-called “training.” We didn’t take the take to check on the trainer’s credentials and references. Not only did our staff not learn anything, but the training time really ate into our regular office procedures. Phone calls weren’t answered promptly, client’s had to wait until the staff called the trainer’s attention to them, and training sessions extended into the staff’s lunch hour. And for WHAT? They didn’t know any more about the program after the training than they did before”.
DON’T assume your staff will benefit from training if they must work it into their regular office duties. Have you ever tried researching a legal issue while a client is telling you the facts of his or her case?
DO hire temporary help to handle the phones and walk-in clients while your staff is being trained
Alternatively, have your staff trained in shifts, so that one shift can handle office duties while the other is getting trained.
Now that you are armed with this knowledge-borne-of-experience, you can make better decisions, and develop a billing operation that is relevant to your unique law practice.
“Give people enough guidance to make the decisions you want them to make. Don't tell them what to do, but encourage them to do what is best.”
— Jimmy Johnson, football coach and broadcaster
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