For legal firms or any businesses that charge for their time, it's vital to keep track of every minute spent working on an individual client's case as well as any resources used, says Gavin Dunlop, CEO of ACTNET. This is not only for the purposes of accurate billing but also to comply with the law. Now, digital tools like cost recovery solutions (CRS) have made it so much easier for firms to keep track of every step.
The benefits of using a solution that integrates practice management functionality with cost recovery is far-reaching. Firstly, the clients benefit from having an accurate bill, detailing exactly what they're being asked to pay for at fixed rates - how many mails were sent on their behalf, how many hours were spent on the phone and how many documents pertaining to their case had to be printed out in hard copy. The intention behind the clause requiring legal practices to provide itemised billing in the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 was first and foremost for consumer protection, but legal practices themselves stand to benefit enormously by properly equipping themselves.
CRS are powerful software tools that arm legal practices with the ability to easily keep track of every item on every one of their clients' bills. Each and every operational step is recorded with as little user input as possible, so it should never be necessary to comb through phone and e-mail records to complete an invoice. This also makes it unlikely that costs will be overlooked or that additional costs will be erroneously added to a client's bill.
CRS provide a customisable, centralised management service. It automatically generates scheduled posting files, exporting billing transactions directly to the central accounting system. All print, scanned, copied or faxed documents as well as sundry costs are recorded. Every e-mail is tracked, a record of it is retained, and the cost allocated. Phone call costs can also be managed with a high degree of flexibility, incorporating comprehensive carrier call charge tables. Statistical analysis of an organisations' call traffic is also readily available. Manually sorting what costs are associated with which clients becomes a time consuming (and therefore expensive) task for a business that doesn't have the right tools.
Flexibility is an important component in order to meet dynamic requirements - such as retroactive billing. Costs cannot always be immediately allocated to an account, such as when dealing with a potential future client that does not yet have an account. CRS, however, makes the process easy and efficient when it comes to allocating those transactions simply by retroactively filling in the appropriate client charge codes on transaction records.
Overall, CRS implementation benefits businesses in four key areas. The increase in revenue recovered is a direct and very obvious gain, as is the ability to create sophisticated pricing modules for clients that meet legal requirements. In addition, data management is streamlined, freeing up resources. Plus, through CRS a wealth of information becomes available with the provision of statistics and reports on numerous aspects of the company's operations. For a legal practice, CRS is the investment that just makes savvy business sense.
For more information, contact ACTNET to find out more about Softlog, a Cost Recovery Solution - to achieve the best results for Cost Recovery Solutions.
Share