2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Essentials of Billing in PCLaw®
Presented by:
Deborah Schaefer
djscpa@optonline.net
(203)915-9050
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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Billing considerations in matter administration
Alternate Billing Arrangements
Billable Components
Billing Process
Create Bills
Trust Transfers
Electronic Billing
Analyzing Practice Performance
Agenda
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Billing Process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
4
Engagement Letter
Set up Billing Criteria
Accumulate Billable Time and Expenses
Create the Bills
Collect Payments
Analyze Performance
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Billing System Considerations
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Practice Area Requirements
Management Requirements
Standardized Billing Formats
Electronic Billing
Client Cost considerations
Time Increments
Retainer Policies
Rate Structure
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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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2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Matter Manager – Billing Tab
A
C
D
B
G
E
H
F
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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)
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Alternate Billing Arrangements
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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
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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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2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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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2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Billing Process
• Reporting what is eligible to be billed
– Work in Process Report
– Reports, Client, Work in Progress
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2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Billing Process
• Pre Bill
These Tabs
are used to
determine
what is to be
included or
excluded from
prebill
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
These
options
identify
criteria for
exclusion or
inclusion on
Pre Bill run
PreBill
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
• 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.
Billing Process
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Billing Process
• Finalize bill
Invoice
number
is
assigned
at the
time of
billing
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Billing Process
Tabs same
as Prebill
Trust Transfer
parameters for
Billing
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Billing Process
User has
option to
change the
amount to bill
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Billing Process
Based upon
selection
change will
show on
different
section of
Bill.
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Bill Flow Manager
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Analyzing Billing
• Performance
– Timekeeper utilization
– Billable vs. Non Billable
– Productivity
• Profitability
– Collections
– Write Offs and Adjustments
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2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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 lawyer’s 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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2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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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2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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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2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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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2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
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.
2010 Practice Management
Annual Conference
Deborah J. Schaefer, CPA
One Bradley Road, Suite 201
Woodbridge, Connecticut 06525
203-915-0950
djscpa@optonline.net
www.deborahjschaefer.com