RainMakerLegal Billing Software for Law Firms | Billing Software for Legal Office

Billing Software for Law Firms & Attorneys

FAQ: “Our law firm has outgrown our current billing software system. We need to find new billing software that will ‘grow us’ and grow with us. Does RainMaker’s billing software enable firm growth?”

Answer: Of course. With RainMaker’s billing software for the legal office, law firms can very simply measure component profitability using existing system information, while saving time. This information can be leveraged and used as a gateway to firm growth.

Case in Point: Robinson & Cole LLP, is a law firm with six offices in the Northeast comprising 225 lawyers and 250 non-legal professionals, Robinson & Cole LLP serves institutional and industrial clients regionally, nationally and globally. With such far reaching needs, it is important for the firm to be on the cutting-edge technologically with service plans tailored to each client’s specific and electronic communications concerns.

With the expanding growth pattern of Robinson & Cole LLP, the law firm needed billing software that would accommodate the addition of new clients, staff and attorneys, without limitation. To continue catering to their growing client base needs, the law firm needed an efficient way to meet the specific billing requests of each of its clients and increase productivity. Because the firm works across a number of industries, specifically in insurance, with needs for electronic task-based billing, it required the ability to format bills in an expeditious and efficient manner. Overall, the firm wanted to leverage its current staff so that more work could be accomplished with the same number of individuals.

Previously, the running of reports had to wait until most attorneys and staff had left for the day so that the system would not be tied up for hours. To obtain financial information, attorneys would have to contact the accounting department resulting in delays because of the added burden on the staff. Attorneys needed to get information at their fingertips and to process that information quickly without tying up the entire system.

Overall, the law firm needed to consolidate as many applications as possible into a single, central solution. This would save time and costs - as the staff would not need to re-key applications into more than one place.

Robinson & Cole LLP evaluated three large billing software industry vendors, including RainMaker. After researching each product the law firm discovered that RainMaker billing software for legal offices had all of the functionality and usability it was looking for and that an excellent client service record that culturally matched its firm-wide goals. To continue its level of excellence, Robinson & Cole LLP needed to implement an excellent system - and that is just what they did by implementing RainMaker’s billing software.

Before RainMaker Billing Software	After RainMaker Billing Software
The accounting department was burdened by manual re-keying while completing basic tasks in A/R.	In the past, A/R reports came out of billing, yet the system did not allow for note taking. With RainMaker’s Work Flow Wizards, once an item is in collections the system generates and assigns a specific series of activities to collect the item based on business rules or exception criteria. This helps to simplify what used to be a tedious process and allows for note taking in A/R to avoid re-keying of data.
To continue catering to their growing client base needs, Robinson & Cole LLP needed an efficient way to meet the specific billing requests of each of its clients. Because the firm works across a number of industries, specifically in insurance, with needs for electronic task-based billing, it required the ability to format bills in an expeditious and efficient manner.	Another time-saving, flexible RainMaker billing software tool is the Graphic Bill Designer. Robinson & Cole LLP is able to expeditiously meet any billing requests its clients may have. The law firm has an unlimited variety of bill formats and formatting choices available; without the need for any custom programming. Therefore, if a client in the insurance industry requires a custom bill format, which happens often, Robinson & Cole can easily meet its requirements with RainMaker’s flexible reporting; a commodity in the legal software world.
Previously, the running of reports had to wait until most attorneys and staff had left for the day so that the system would not be tied up for hours. To obtain financial information, attorneys would have to contact accounting, which resulted in delays because of the added burden on the staff.	Using Business Intelligence (BI), which is included with the system and integrated with Microsoft® Excel, the law firm can create reports that are available right away with no more overnight reporting that ties up the system. Spreadsheets, PivotTables, graphs and printed reports can easily be prepared using specific criteria. Basic data about clients/matters and timekeepers allow the firm to summarize at any level - client, timekeeper, department, practice area and other categories. These reports can include and present high-level information or offer drill-downs for additional analysis. “As a result of the drill-down feature, attorneys have all of the financial information they need at their fingertips. RainMaker’s Business Intelligence and Zoom Inquiry eliminated their need to call into accounting to get information. Our attorneys find it so effective that they tell other attorneys from other law firms about it,” says Nancy Cummings, Manager of Data Processing.

Since implementing RainMaker, firm business has increased substantially. This is a result of Robinson & Cole’s commitment to excellence as well as RainMaker’s technological solutions which have allowed the firm to meet its clients’ specific technological needs. With installs in firms from 30 to over 300 timekeepers, RainMaker Platinum software will certainly keep up with Robinson & Cole as it continues to grow.

Leveraging its current staff has enabled the firm to save money and to achieve more. This has also been realized in its reporting. According to Mary Lou Shefrin, Consultant for Robinson & Cole LLP, “Reporting on the billing side is a great tool. We went from running things at night so we wouldn’t tie up the system for everyone else, to running reports with a click of a button at any time of the day with RainMaker.”

Whereas most large legal software vendors charge extra to develop custom bills and pre-bills, Robinson & Cole have utilized the Graphic Bill Designer to meet client requests - free of cost. This comes standard with RainMaker. With the implementation of RainMaker and its billing software for law firms, Robinson & Cole LLP believes that not only has its business grown, it will also continue to meet all of the unique reporting and technological needs of the firm.

“RainMaker Billing Software helps Robinson & Cole LLP with our growing and sophisticated billing needs. The flexible financial reporting and electronic billing features of the billing software for law firms & attorneys have increased our billing efficiency and greatly improved our ability to be responsive to clients. In fact, with our expanding client base, RainMaker Software has allowed us to address our needs for unique client billing requests without increasing the number of individuals in the billing department. The ability to reprint invoices at the touch of a button and manage collections in one system has provided us the ability to make strategy-focused decisions. Robinson & Cole’s investment in RainMaker Billing Software has helped us grow and support our firm’s ever expanding needs.”

Peter Merriman, CFO, Robinson & Cole LLP
250+ Timekeeper Firm