RainMakerLegal Legal Billing Software | Billing Software for Attorneys | Billing Legal Office Software

Billing Software for Attorneys

FAQ: "Our law firm is looking for a legal billing software system that will enable the users to create custom bill formats, without any additional custom programming cost. Does RainMaker legal office software offer users this capability?"

Answer: Yes. With RainMaker’s Graphic Bill Designer, users are able to easily customize bills, without any additional custom programming cost. In addition, RainMaker’s software, fully utilized in the legal office, will enable a firm to noticeably speed up the billing process – increasing profitability.

Case in Point: With offices located in Rochester, Syracuse, and Penn Yan New York, ChamberlainD’Amanda is a mid-sized general practice law firm established in 1879. The firm was running a larger vendor’s time and billing system, and, like many other firms, they were not happy with the billing software’s capabilities. The financial reporting system was not intuitive, and there was inflexibility within the financial management modules (the core software for the accounting department). With clearly defined goals, the firm began evaluating software providers for a new system.

One of the most important goals they had in mind when implementing new legal billing software related to the accounting department and their ability to shorten the billing cycle; in other words, getting the invoices to clients in a timely fashion. Additionally, the law firm’s accounting department needed a way to simplify and streamline the entire billing process. Efficiencies such as flexible bill preparation, centralized billing, monitoring of bills and past due worksheet progress were on the list of desirables. The accounting department was spending far too much time on the “steps” necessary to complete simple bill generation and not enough time actually billing.

Before and After RainMaker Legal Billing Software for Attorneys

Before RainMaker Billing Software	After RainMaker Billing Software
Firm administrators were unable to generate custom bills or reports from “on-demand” requests.	Using RainMaker’s legal billing software for attorneys, attorney and client requests are now easy to provide. When a client requests a custom bill type or special report, the staff is able to select the desired criteria for the report and then produce it. The law firm’s staff is no longer limited by system functionality.
The firm had to contact the vendor in order to re-format a standard invoice type. As a result, they incurred additional charges and delayed billing cycles.	Through RainMaker Platinum’s Graphic Bill Designer, the accounting department can create any type of custom invoice; all through drag-and-drop technology.
The accounting department was spending far too much time on the steps necessary to complete simple bill generation, and not enough time actually billing.	When generating bills, the accounting department is able to establish default criteria which can be used each month with RainMaker legal office software, therefore decreasing the amount of time spent generating bills. Once bills are generated, attorneys can review, edit and list instructions for corrections, changes or transfers to the staff. During a billing cycle, staff can merge the existing pre-bills with the new month bills without duplicating any entries or removing them.

With RainMaker billing software for attorneys, ChamberlainD’Amanda has seen their billing process shortened by an average of one week (forty hours) per month. Glenn Koszka, Firm Administrator, says, “We can close on the first of the month, distribute pre-bills the next day, then ask attorneys to get them back to the accounting department in a week. Bills started rolling in quickly—therefore most bills were out the door in record time. The bills are easier to understand and read, and the process takes half the time it used to.”

The firm is also realizing the simplicity of creating custom bill designs and report types. In the past, all bill designs were created by in-house staff, without Graphic Bill Designer. Controller Stephanie Kron states, “Before, we would have to call customer support when customizing bills or reports.” Not any longer. As a result of implementing RainMaker, ChamberlainD’Amanda is able to respond to client and shareholder requests immediately, saving money and time.

ChamberlainD’Amanda has significantly improved their client billing and accounting “best practices.” As a result, “With the ‘cleaner process’ we were able to get our clients what they needed, and we could accomplish this in a simple, expeditious way,” states Glenn.

Glenn comments, “In terms of client value, the bills generated by RainMaker legal billing software are easier to understand and read; the entire billing process takes significantly less time than it used to. Also, I am saving approximately $8000 annually on my maintenance with RainMaker accounting software, which greatly benefits the firm as well. For us the choice was easy.”