How to Use eBilling to Boost the Bottom Line
1 like186 views
Rocketship Solutions, LLC created BillBLAST, an eBilling software solution, to help law firms manage the increased demands for electronic invoicing from clients. The software automates billing tasks like emailing and faxing invoices, tracks invoice statuses, and provides reporting dashboards. It helped one law firm, McAngus Goudelock & Courie, reduce costs and improve cash flow by streamlining their billing processes and providing transparency into billing workflows and accounts receivable. The white paper recommends law firms find an eBilling system with features like BillBLAST's that offer flexibility, security, and advanced analytics to optimize their billing operations and bottom line.
How to Use eBilling to Boost the Bottom Line
- 1. A White Paper by Leah Beckham, CEO of Rocketship Solutions, LLC © 2013 Rocketship Solutions, LLC
- 2. Rocketship Solutions, LLC is a collaboration of executives striving to create software applications in emerging areas of needs for the business community. Summary The recession impacted law firms across the nation based on growing scrutiny over corporate legal spending. The demand for value and transparency is at an all time high. As a result, the legal industry has experienced a dramatic increase in client demand for delivery of legal invoices via eBilling, eMail and eFax. Transitioning to electronic billing reduces the time-consuming inefficiency of paper bills and allows corporate legal departments to track and justify outside legal spending more closely. Electronic billing gives law firms the potential to improve cash flow, preemptively decrease invoice errors, and enhance administrative efficiency. The challenge for law firms lies in finding the right software solution. The eBilling Evolution If you ask any law firm today why eBilling has become so important, the answer will be because clients demand it. Paper bills can be twenty-five pages or more and are often inefficient and time-consuming to produce, circulate, review, modify, and deliver. Without an industry standard governing law firm time entry, clients found themselves with stacks of paper almost impossible to decode. In 1995, a partnership was formed to create an industry standard for law firm billing. This large group included the American Bar Association (ABA), Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) LLP, large legal services consumers, and law firms. They developed the first generation of the ABA’s Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTMBS), a set of codes designed to standardize activity performed by lawyers serving corporate clients. The Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) for time entry delivery and capture was also created with the goal of simplifying the exchange of electronic data related to activities performed by law firms. Sounds simple, right? Demand for spend management software (which compares activity codes to those pre-approved by clients) also grew, as corporations sought to reduce costs. New eBilling systems were developed to automate and streamline the invoice review process, identify billing errors, and save companies time and money. The Challenge For Law Firms The legal industry felt the impact across the nation, as demand for electronic invoicing more than tripled for some firms. The eBilling process presented new time consuming demands; attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, IT, accounting, and billing were all expected to understand the seemingly endless new client requirements. Among the new challenges facing law firms: • Proper coding for time entries to meet new guidelines • Successful submission of eBills to meet an endless combination of client requirements • Tracking eBills to follow rejections, approvals, and revenue • Training needs tailored to staff at all levels • Mitigating risk for time entry modification by billing staff that could result in fraudulent circumstances Law firms are faced with changing their underlying business models to provide their services profitably and make the new eBilling requirements work for their bottom line. When firms embrace eBilling and put the right solution in place, they enjoy many benefits, including strengthening their relationship with clients. With the right solution, firms also benefit from: • Critical Revenue Stream Business Intelligence • Faster bill submission, processing, and payment • Defined billing staff workflow to ensure timely submission and collection • Lower delivery costs, lower staffing ratios, and greater client value How One Firm Did It In 2009, McAngus Goudelock & Courie (MG&C), one of the largest insurance defense law firms in the Southeast, began seeing a dramatic increase in client demand for electronic invoices. This shift presented a number of new business challenges for the firm: • Staffing cost and training (growth and increased complexity) • Centralized management and tracking of invoices • Invoice submission delays • Cash receipts delays • Accounting and billing system limitations • Increased write-offs appeals The firm considered hiring additional staff members to handle their eBilling manually, but found that option too expensive. They searched for an existing software application to address their needs, but none of the products had the features they needed, until they tried BillBLAST™. BillBLAST™ provides more flexibility over other software solutions, enabling mass eMail and auto eFax invoicing. It interfaces with any time and billing system and offers eBill status tracking and customizable reporting. The software is also highly secure; data resides with each law firm client, so no privileged client data is stored or seen by a third party. BillBLAST™ was created in 2010 by Rocketship Solutions, LLC to offer eBilling in the cloud. BillBLAST delivers electronic bills as eMail, eFax or eBill to any client or third party vendor via a Software as a Service (SaaS) structure that lets firms pay as they use the software. Learn more at www.bill-blast.com “Finally, this is a product that provided me with the tools I needed to manage my cash flow at a glance. No other product on the market incorporated the business issues of electronic invoice processing and management into that scenario. With BillBLAST™, we can easily see money that is pending due to electronic billing issues and errors, whether they are internal issues with attorneys or external issues with an eBilling vendor or client. There is now a way for an executive to manage this process at a glance and save a business thousands of dollars per year in FTE counts and workflow process improvements.” Tammy Flowers, Chief Financial Officer at McAngus Goudelock & Courie
- 3. BillBLAST™: A Better System with Better Results MG&C found that with the right eBilling software, their firm was benefitting in a number of ways, including costs savings, new efficiencies, and improved relationships with clients. Using BillBLAST to automate and streamline its billing, MG&C has processed more than 130,000 invoices. The firm’s administrative efficiency and cash flow have improved dramatically: • Billing staff capacity increased by 160% • Mass eMail and eFax invoices delivery is fully automated • Cash flow from collections improved o Invoice delivery improved by weeks o Accounts receivable (A/R) payment cycle reduction o Automation of Past Due A/R notices • Billing department efficiency improved o Productivity and workload transparency o Centralized platform for firm wide collections activity o Reduction in billing and accounting staff • Billing submission errors decreased o Systematic, centralized identification of client eBilling vendors o Ease of training billing staff • Postage and other soft costs decreased o Transition of paper invoice delivery to eMail and eFax o Elimination in need to print eBills prior to submission Choose the eBilling System That Works for Your Firm How can your law firm make eBilling work? Look for a system that is as cost efficient as it is flexible. BillBLAST™’s SaaS (software as a service) platform is priced on a subscription basis and lets you pay as you go. SaaS systems are securely accessed and run over the Internet to deliver business applications anywhere, anytime. In addition to SaaS, look for these benefits from your eBilling software: • Executive Level Dashboard Billing and A/R Reporting • eBilling • Mass, Automated eMail and eFax • Invoice Submission Status Tracking • Accounts Receivable (A/R) Reporting and Management • Transparency — Billing Staff Work Load Management and Monitoring • Customizable Reporting • Communication Portal for Lawyers and Billing Staff • Security — Client Billing Data Not Exposed • Centralized Management of eBilling Site Credentials • Template Design Conclusion The right eBilling system gives law firms an opportunity to improve their bottom line with streamlined billing processes and daily actionable billing and A/R Reporting. Make sure your eBilling system has the features your firm needs. Look for flexibility, security, and advanced reporting and analytics to get the best results for your firm. About the Author In a left-brain meets right-brain kind of way, Leah Beckham is an engineer with an artist’s soul. Skilled in maximizing efficiency and profitability through technological solutions, she’s also the creative entrepreneurial spirit that drives our innovations. As a former law firm executive, Leah has extensive experience in the design and development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics for the legal professional. Leah has a degree in English and Psychology from the University of South Carolina.