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    ForbesAdvisor - The Best Legal Billing Software Of 2022

    Billing Precision: Simplifying Invoicing with Rocket Matter’s Billing Tools

    Billing Precision Simplifying Invoicing with Rocket Matter's Billing Tools
    Contents

      Your billing process might be losing you money.  

      Every year, law firms lose tens of thousands of dollars to inaccurate time tracking, inefficient billing practices, unpaid invoices, and ongoing collections.  

      Here are some examples of how compounding billing issues can affect your firm: 

      Taken together, these two issues paint a startling picture: if your law firm is in a billing and time-tracking funk, you could be losing out on 25-40% of your revenue. 

      For many law firms, this isn’t just startling—it’s an existential threat. Unless you have so much profit that you can stand to lose up to 40% of your revenue, inefficient billing practices could have a significant impact on your firm’s liquidity (and your ability to pay your employees). 

      This is where billing tools and best practices come in. With the right tools and efficient workflows, you can protect your firm and actually get paid for the work that you do.  

      So, let’s talk about common legal billing problems and how you can solve them. 

      Problem: Your law firm is losing billable hours through inaccurate time and expense tracking 

      Let’s see… You probably worked on that client task for 2 hours today. Or was it 2.5 hours? And how much was that business lunch again—$25 or $28? What day was it on again? 

      These types of questions may seem innocuous at the time, but they can snowball into significant issues down the road.  

      Inaccurate time and expense tracking doesn’t just lose you money through unrealized gains—it can also damage client relationships and open your firm up to significant liability. If a client believes you’re overcharging them, this can lead to months of back and forth, erosion of trust, and the loss of a client. 

      It can even lead to your client pursuing legal action against you.  

      Solution: Use Rocket Matter Track to get paid for all your work 

      Rocket Matter Track is an automated time and expense tracking tool that helps law firms capture more billable hours with less effort.  

      What’s the benefit of automating time tracking? Automated tracking systems help law firms to: 

      • Track their work on client case matters in real time, pause, and switch between client codes without skipping a beat 
      • Add billable hours to different client invoices automatically by connecting your tracker to client codes 
      • Attach expense receipts directly to invoices 
      • Track time in a single system from anywhere in the world with a laptop, tablet, or mobile phone 
      • Populate invoices with automatically tracked time, so you just have to give the invoice a final review to ensure accuracy 

      Basically, it saves you time and ensures that you get paid for your time.  

       

      Demystifying the Billable Hour: How to Right-Size Your Rates

      With prices rising so much over the last year (global inflation is forecasted at 8.8% in 2022), it’s the right time to look at your current rates and see if you’re charging enough to remain profitable.

      Problem: Your firm spends too much time creating invoices 

      If you are manually invoicing your clients, then you’re making things more complicated than they need to be.  

      When you’re short on time, the last thing you need is multiple systems that don’t talk to each other, like your time tracking, practice management system, CRM, and billing software. When different systems of record don’t integrate, you end up spending a lot of time transferring information between them.  

      The billing process also has a lot of repetitive, manual tasks. Many of these tasks eat into billable hours, and they can turn into a big source of frustration for law firm staff.  

      Solution: Automate the billing process to spend less time on repetitive tasks 

      Many repetitive processes in the billing process can be automated or made more efficient—at least, they can when you use tools like Rocket Matter.   

      Instead of manually creating bills each month, Rocket Matter’s billing tools help law firms save time via:  

      • Scheduling automatic prebills 
      • Batch invoice processing 
      • Online credit card payments 
      • Automated invoicing for recurring retainers 
      • Three-way reconciliation for trust accounting 
      • Advanced reports  
      How customizable are Rocket Matter's invoices, particularly in terms of branding and client-specific details? 

      Rocket Matter’s invoices are incredibly customizable. With Rocket Matter, firms can set up invoice templates, either from scratch or with built-in preset templates.  

      Because Rocket Matter’s billing software is integrated with its practice management system, it can pull client details directly from the source record, saving you time and eliminating the risk of human error.  

      But even with a great system for creating invoices, law firms may still experience issues with processing those invoices. That’s because…. 

      Problem: It takes weeks from invoice delivery to see that money in your account 

      There are potential roadblocks at every stage in the billing process. Many law firms experience issues such as: 

      • Clients who sit on invoices for weeks or months before they pay 
      • Relying on the U.S. postal system to deliver everything on time 
      • Payment processors holding funds for days and weeks at a time 

      Any one of these issues can be frustrating. Thankfully, online billing can minimize the risk of payment delays. After all, the easier it is to pay a bill, the more likely your client is to pay it on time, and the faster you see those funds in your bank account.  

      Solution: Use online billing to speed up client payments and payment processing 

      Online payments are an essential tool for law firms today. Most people prefer online payments, in large part because it’s so darn convenient.  

      With Rocket Matter’s online payment options, clients can keep their cards on file and pay invoices from their laptops or smartphones. Firms can create tailored invoices, incorporate detailed breakdowns of billable hours, expenses, and services, and alert clients as soon as their invoice is ready. 

      Does Rocket Matter offer compatibility with different payment gateways for hassle-free transactions? 

      With Rocket Matter, clients don’t have to sit down with their checkbooks and a letter opener.  

      Once law firms send an electronic bill through Rocket Matter, clients can immediately go to their client portal, pay their invoice, and check it off their to-do list. For certain fee structures, you can even discuss setting up recurring payments for your clients so they don’t have to think about payments at all.  

      For your law firm, electronic billing also means faster payments. With Rocket Matter, you can have that money in your account in as little as 12 hours. 

      Can Rocket Matter's billing tools automate reminders for outstanding invoices or overdue payments? 

      Yes! With Rocket Matter, you can schedule billing reminders for clients. For example, you could set up reminders for: 

      • The week before an invoice is due 
      • The day before an invoice is due 
      • The day an invoice is due 
      • The week after an invoice is due 

      Don’t wait until after an invoice is due to remind clients that the invoice exists. Proactive reminders will help your firm get paid on time.  

      How does Rocket Matter ensure data security for sensitive billing and payment information? 

      The security of your client and firm data has never been more important. Rocket Matter provides bank-level security with end-to-end encryption and personalized security questions for client security.  

      Improve your billing process with Rocket Matter 

      With Rocket Matter, billing clients has never been easier. Save time, save money, and get paid for your work. It’s as simple as that.  

      Schedule a free demo today to learn how Rocket Matter’s tools can simplify your invoicing. 

      Demystifying the Billable Hour: How to Right-Size Your Rates

      With prices rising so much over the last year (global inflation is forecasted at 8.8% in 2022), it’s the right time to look at your current rates and see if you’re charging enough to remain profitable.

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