For many small law firms and law firms just starting out, limited resources are a major hurdle that needs to be cleared. Most often, carrying out administrative tasks is the most affected area of a practice.
Think about it, most small and new firms have the legal expertise in place to be successful, that’s why they have decided to go it on their own and build a business. The problem is, running a law firm goes beyond practicing law, and those firms that experience success need to have all areas of the business firing on every cylinder.
One of the most common mistakes we see smaller and/or young firms making is poor tracking of their time and expenses. If I had a dime for every time an attorney told me that their firm has lost money due to uncaptured time and expenses, I’d have a lot of dimes.
In no way is it ideal for a firm to lose money simply based on forgotten time and expenses, or even time and expenses that go unbilled, but many small and new firms do find it difficult to get their footing in the beginning. The key is to implement systems that make time capture, expense capture and even billing easy on the firm.
Capture Legal Time & Expenses as They Happen
One way to combat leakage associated with time and expenses that go unrecorded is to make sure your firm is tracking them as they occur. Consider a cloud-based practice management system, such as CosmoLex, which allows you to do this wherever you may be, whenever the work is happening.
Look for a solution that lets your firm ensure that nothing slips through the cracks. Acceptable billing software will allow you to tag future events as billable, ensuring that these activities will be added to your client’s invoice.
While it’s no secret that new and smaller firms may lack the resources or personnel needed to catch every billable task and event, much of the challenges associated with it can be mitigated by the right technology or practice management solution.
To learn more about simple ways to capture all of your firm’s time and expenses and plug the billing leakage that you’re experiencing, watch the recent CosmoLex Webinar Series presentation, “Preventing Billing Leakage with CosmoLex”.