I still cannot explain why, but many lawyers’ least favorite thing in the world is to process and send invoices. For many of us, it’s the way we get paid, and we’d rather [figuratively] gouge our eyes out than run invoices and send them. It has always been my least favorite task, and one of the first things I delegated many moons ago; about a year or so into starting my law firm, on Saturdays when no one was around, I would meet my very part-time billing assistant to process invoices and get them sent out. This isn’t a how-to manual, so let’s just say there’s more to batch billing and hitting the send button.
There is an art to creating invoices that clients want to pay, and taking the time to do it right is daunting. So, if you’re like me, and most of you are, you avoid sending invoices and find excuses to do other things… [literally] not getting paid because you won’t send the bill. The solution: Hire a full-time billing clerk/assistant to handle this crucial but annoying task. Systematize the billing every week, create templates, then have your full-time billing clerk get the job done. It won’t be perfect, especially at first. But you’ll get better, each time. Done is better than perfect. After all, how you do one thing is how you do everything, so what does inconsistent billing say about your firm?