Essentials of Billing in PCLaw

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Essentials of Billing in PCLaw

• Presented by
• Deborah Schaefer
• djscpa_at_optonline.net
• [phone]

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Objectives

• Pre-billing options and procedures
• Summarize the pre-billing and billing options
• Use the billing options and procedures
• Add time and fee adjustments to an existing
  invoice
• Modify expenses and add anticipated disbursements
• Manually transfer trust at the time of billing
• Adjust the value of bills after they are posted

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Agenda

• Billing considerations in matter administration
• Alternate Billing Arrangements
• Billable Components
• Billing Process
• Create Bills
• Trust Transfers
• Electronic Billing
• Analyzing Practice Performance

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Billing Process

• Engagement Letter
• Set up Billing Criteria
• Accumulate Billable Time and Expenses
• Create the Bills
• Collect Payments
• Analyze Performance

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Billing System Considerations

• Practice Area Requirements
• Management Requirements
• Standardized Billing Formats
• Electronic Billing
• Client Cost considerations
• Time Increments
• Retainer Policies
• Rate Structure

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Case Administration

• Engagement Letter or Fee Agreement
• Defines Rates or Fixed Fee
• Frequency of Billing
• Billing parameters
• Flat or Fixed Fee
• Hourly
• Frequency of Billing
• Method of Billing
• Format of Bill
• Means of Delivery or Submission
• Retainer Arrangement

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Matter Manager Billing Tab
A
B
C
D
G
E
H
F
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Matter Manager Billing Tab

• A Billing Frequency How often Bills to be
  sent
• B Billing Template Format of the bill
• C Task Based Billing Electronic Billing
  Each Billable component will require a valid ABA
  Task and Explanation Code Type of Law specified
  will determine allowable task codes, ie. Lit,
  Proj, Bank

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Matter Manager Billing Tab

• D Discount Set amount applied to all fees for
  this matter
• E Quote
• F Automatically Create Disbursement at Billing
  Expense Recovery One Time or Each Bill, Fixed
  Amount or Percentage of Fees
• G Automatically Transfer Retainer from Trust at
  time of Billing
• H Retainer Information Replenish, Amount and
  What Type of Account Retainer is Kept (General or
  Trust)

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Alternate Billing Arrangements

• Flat Fee Matters
• Percentage of Settlement, Appraisal, etc.
• Flat Fee with Limits Then Hourly
• Fixed Amount each month
• Payment schedule
• Variable Hourly Rates
• Rate Exceptions

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Billable Components

• What is Billable?
• Time
• Fees
• Expenses
• Disbursements
• Non Cash Costs (Soft Costs)
• Potage, Fax, Fixed Delivery Fees, Long
  Distance Charges, Travel

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Creating Bills

• Standardize procedure
• Timing of Billing
• Identify who is responsible to review billing
• Method of tracking functions in billing process
• Manage the Billing Process
• Has every case been billed in a timely manner
• Has every pre bill been reviewed
• Have all final bills been sent

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Billing Process

• Reporting what is eligible to be billed
• Work in Process Report
• Reports, Client, Work in Progress

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Billing Process

• Pre Bill

These Tabs are used to determine what is to be
included or excluded from prebill
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PreBill
These options identify criteria for exclusion or
inclusion on Pre Bill run
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Billing Process

• Editing billable items
• Implications of changing time entries
• System Settings

Auto Track Time reductions If Checked will
create duplicate Never Bill time entry. Maintains
the integrity of actual time worked.
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Billing Process

• Finalize bill

Invoice number is assigned at the time of billing
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Billing Process
Tabs same as Prebill
Trust Transfer parameters for Billing
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Billing Process
User has option to change the amount to bill
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Billing Process
Based upon selection change will show on
different section of Bill.
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Trust Transfers

• Billing Tab on Matter Manager specifies if
  Automatic Trust Transfer at Billing
• Create check at time of Billing
• Multiple matters on one check or individual
  checks
• Physically transfer money
• Report of what needs to be transferred
• Trust Journal Disbursements only

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Bill Flow Manager
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Electronic Billing

• Matter must be setup on Billing Tab as Task Based
  Billing
• Applicable Tab should be added to Matter Manager
  for detail information to be entered
• All time entries must have ABA Task code and ABA
  explanation code
• All expense items must have ABA explanation code
• Bill output should be editor

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Write Up/Write Down

• After Bill has been created to adjust amounts
  billed Change/Write Off Bill
• These adjustments are identified as Write Offs on
  all reports
• Adjustments at the time of Billing are label
  Adjustments
• Changes to disbursements require GL Account Non
  Reimbursible Client Costs
• All Write offs require Task Code and Explanation
• Write Offs cannot be deleted

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Analyzing Billing

• Performance
• Timekeeper utilization
• Billable vs. Non Billable
• Productivity
• Profitability
• Collections
• Write Offs and Adjustments

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Performance Reports

• Time Utilization Analysis Shows hours entered
  monthly over a 12 month period by each working
  lawyer by billable and non-billable time.
• Lawyer Budgeting - Compares lawyers budgeted
  hours and dollars to worked (working lawyer),
  Billed (fee credit lawyer), collected (collecting
  lawyer).
• Comparative Time Analysis - Shows hours, amounts
  and percentages by task code or type of law for
  working lawyers.
• Daily Time Summary Shows hours entered daily by
  each working lawyer for both billable and
  non-billable time.
• Time Listing Lists details of time and fees
  entries sorted by task code or type of law for
  specified time period.
• Time Summary Summarizes time by working lawyer
  and by type of law or by task code. Task code
  summary includes breakdown by billable work,
  non-billable work and write up/down.

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Performance Reports

• Billing By Lawyer Lists fees billed by type of
  law for each fee credit lawyer and can be sorted
  by fee credit lawyer or by type of law.
• Fee Allocation Summary Lists the fees billed
  collected and written off by a lawyer on matters
  where the lawyer is the responsible lawyer.
• Billable Time Summary by Working Attorney Shows
  a comparison of hours and amounts for the month
  and year by matter for each working lawyer by
  responsible lawyer.
• Unbilled Time and A/R Summary by Working Lawyer
  Lists matters with unbilled time and billed but
  uncollected fees, by client.
• Matters Opened Summary Shows the number of
  matters opened by each lawyer as introducing,
  responsible, assigned lawyer for on 12 month
  period.

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Profitability Reports

• Billing Realization Lists billed hours, billed
  fees and fee write-offs by matter and calculates
  the actual billed fees and hourly rate after
  write-offs.
• Unbilled Time and A/R Summary by Working Lawyer
  Lists matters with unbilled time and billed but
  uncollected fees, by client.
• Productivity by Client Report Ranks clients by
  criteria specified.
• Client WIP, Billing and Collection Summary
  Lists work-progress, billed amounts, collected
  amounts and write-off amounts by client.
• Lawyer WIP, Billing Collection Summary Lists
  a monthly comparison of billable time
  worked(working lawyer), billed fees (fee credit
  lawyer), fees collected (responsible lawyer) and
  fees written off (assigned lawyer).
• Fees Collected Summary -  Shows fees collected
  for each fee credit and responsible lawyer by
  month, year previous year.

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Profitability Reports

• Collection Summary Lists totals for fees,
  disbursements and taxes billed, amount collected
  and A/R by fee credit lawyer.
• Fee Adjustments List of all increases and
  decreases made to fees during billing, as long as
  the were not entered with the Details button, and
  shows which user made the changes.
• Fees Due by Lawyer Report Lists outstanding
  invoices by fee credit lawyer. Also, lists fees
  received, billed or written off during the
  reporting period.
• Firm Cash and Fee Summary Compares hours and
  fees docketed, fees billed, fees received and
  fess adjusted for a specific month and year.
• Billing Realization Lists billed hours, billed
  fees and fee write-offs by matter and calculates
  the actual billed fees and hourly rate after
  write-offs.

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Additional Training Opportunities

• For additional training opportunities, visit
  LexisNexis University, where you may learn more
  about eLearning, eConsulting, Classroom, Anytime,
  and Just in Time Training class offerings.
• Also available are an extensive network of
  LexisNexis Certified Independent Consultants
  (CICs) who offer on-site training, installation,
  and maintenance of Practice Management software
  systems.

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• Deborah J. Schaefer, CPA
• One Bradley Road, Suite 201
• Woodbridge, Connecticut 06525
• 203-915-0950
• djscpa_at_optonline.net
• www.deborahjschaefer.com