Legal Billing Rule #11: Get a Bill Buddy

The following post is an excerpt from our free e-book, Ridiculously Remarkable Legal Billing. Better billing practices improve your law firm and your life. Here’s the 11th one from the book.
Working with someone else will keep you accountable and help get your invoicing done on-time and regularly.
A lot of changes in life are a heck of a lot easier to accomplish if you’ve got a partner helping you along. If you’re starting a diet, trying to quit a habit, or starting a workout routine, getting someone to do it with you is a great way to keep both of you on track. It’s added discipline and extra support. It can even result in synergistic gain. Picking someone to be your “bill buddy” can be a terrific way to help make sure you are getting those bills out on time.
If your firm is big enough to have a partner or two, a fellow partner is a logical choice. This is particularly helpful if you’re using a modern practice management application to help with billing. A partner-to-partner buddy system to commit to better billing practices, coupled with an agreed-upon implementation of the right practice management tool, can quickly and dramatically improve a practice and – ultimately – your entire professional lives.
A paralegal or admin can also keep you on track, though that’ll only be effective if you can successfully manage the boss/subordinate dynamic. The staff member has to feel comfortable enough holding you accountable such that they’ll actually do it. Conversely, you’ve got to be OK having your staff “ride herd” on you.
If you prefer to defer to a professional, they’re also available to help. For instance, pros like Nora Riva Bergman, Ari Kaplan, and many others are working every day with lawyers to adopt new technology and improve business practices.
A recommendation if you’re considering hiring a pro to help: The best ones always give plenty of valuable, free stuff up front in the form of webinars, e-books, articles, and the like. Plus, many (like Nora and Ari) are genuinely fun to work with and extremely well connected.
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