What to Look For in Legal Billing Software

Online Legal Billing Software Provides Special Benefits For Legal Firms

More and more law firms are finding cost-saving value by moving from in-house invoicing software to online legal billing. Good online billing software offers a few advantages over traditional billing software solutions. Not only are the best online solutions are easier to use, they are always up-to-date, and offer integration with the latest QuickBooks, and QuickBooks Online. And while the move to online billing software enables companies from many different industries to increase the efficiency of invoicing, save money, and capture more billable hours, legal firms will see more benefits from online software solutions that include legal billing programs.

Here is a short guide to some key features every legal firm should look for in a legal billing software solution:

Specialized Legal Billing—The best online legal billing programs should offer seamless integration with standard legal electronic billing formats. The best billing solutions will automatically code activities using UTBMS (Uniform Task-Based Managements System) and export invoices into LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard) file formats when electronic billing is needed.

Trust Account Management—Online legal billing programs should also have functionality that lets you manage trust accounts. In particular, law firms should look for solutions that keep track of incoming and outgoing money in trust accounts so that invoices against the trust and payments to third parties are properly tracked.  In addition, the trust transactions for each client can easily be reported for tracking.

Conflicts Management Solutions—Another feature to look for in a legal billing program is conflicts management. During the client intake process, law firms should check to see if taking on a particular client would be a conflict of interest. As new clients and matters are entered into time tracking and billing tools, parties related to a particular matter are entered that can be used to crosscheck new clients against prior work to vet them for potential conflicts of interest.

Abbreviations—Some legal billing software allows regular activities to be coded as abbreviations for time entry. When invoices are generated, the abbreviations are expanded to match defined tasks. Not only does this functionality reduce the amount of typos and errors on invoices, it allows law firms to craft their own branded language that conforms to their law practice and ensures that invoices use the tone they want to convey to clients.

Are you looking for an online legal billing software solution that has specialized legal billing features? TimeSolv Legal is designed with the specific needs of law firms in mind, and offers the most robust set of features available. Contact TimeSolv for a free 30 day trial.