1.
Billing week:
from stress to
collections success
Oct 25, 2022
Joshua Lenon & Siobhan Ozege

2.
Lawyer in Residence
2
Joshua Lenon
TODAY’S SPEAKERS
● Attorney admitted into New York
● Certified Privacy Professional
● @JoshuaLenon

3.
Product Manager - Billing
3
Siobhan Ozege
TODAY’S SPEAKERS
● Experience in financial systems across multiple
industries
● Product Manager for 5 years

4.
4
Agenda
● Typical pre-billing workflows
● Billing workflow improvements
● Overview of Clio’s new collections features
● The full collections suite in Clio
● Trust accounting best practices
● Q&A

5.
97%
of stats look pretty when
presented like this
29%
Of firms rely on clients to
pay bills by check
25%
Of firms still mail bills

6.
Typical pre-billing workflows
Log
activities
throughout
the month
Draft bills
for work
throughout
the month
Review and
approve
bills
Send bills to
clients
Wait or
follow up on
payments

7.
Common monthly billing challenges
● Time and expenses arenʼt
always recorded as they
occur
● Unclear approval process
internally
● Drafting and sending bills
individually takes time
● Unclear collections options
for clients
● Time-consuming bill
follow-up
● Manual data entry to record
or account for payments

8.
● Bill sharing made easier
○ More personalization with
message templates
○ Multiple recipients on one
thread
○ Full page bill preview for bills
in bulk
● Personalizing the senderʼs email
address
● Save payment methods at intake
(and itʼs PCI-compliant!)
What’s new?
● In-person payments with QR codes
● New Payment Plan features
○ Include eCheck
○ More installment cadences
○ Multiple payment plans per
client
● Ability to choose when to incur
payment processing fees
● Trust Reconciliation—right in Clio

9.
9
Start collecting
directly from
your bills.

10.
Poll Question #1
Do you provide clients with the option to pay online?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Not yet, but Iʼve been meaning to start
10

11.
11
● Built-in for and by Clio
● Remain compliant with IOLTA/Trust
Accounting rules without any effort
● PCI compliant payments and customer data
collection
● Support from Clioʼs 24/5 team
Payment
processing with Clio

12.
Simple, transparent pricing - no hidden fees
● One rate for all credit cards: 2.8%
● eCheck flat fee: $2.00/transaction
● No card network fees
● Already included in your subscription
● Compliant with IOLTA/Trust

13.
Firms can collect up to 34% more revenue by
optimizing their realization & collection rates.

14.
37%
Of growing law firms are more likely to use
online payments

15.
5%-16%
more revenue each month
Customers using online
payments collect between

16.
$15,179
More per lawyer, on average, was collected
from online payments in 2020

17.
97%
of stats look pretty when
presented like this
73%
Of firms allow clients to
pay invoices electronically
65%
Of consumers prefer to pay
using online payments

18.
39%
When collecting fees via secure online
credit card payment platform, firms get paid
faster than by other means.

19.
8%
Those using online payments saw up to
More new cases per month

20.
81%
of consumers say a law firm's ability to offer
payment plans influences their hireabilty.

21.
22
Make paying convenient,
right from the bill.

22.
Maximize your use of Clio and connect your billing
and payments
● Saves time
● Better client experience with greater convenience & accessibility
● Gets you paid sooner
● Allows you to reduce non-billable hours spent on collections
● Reduces manual errors

23.
24
Create Bill Message
Templates
Retain every ounce of personalization while
automating bill sharing.
● More autofill fields for greater customization
● Autofill fields for the subject line
● Personalize up to 20 different templates by
practice area, attorney, client, and more

24.
25
Automated Bill
Reminders
Set it and forget it. Customize automated bill
reminder templates—from the message,
frequency, and recipients—to collect on
outstanding balances.
● Autofill fields further personalize the
message
● Create multiple reminders

25.
$190M
Has been collected from Automated Bill
Reminders alone

26.
27
Smoother bill sharing
Bill sharing in bulk just got easier. Send them by
email, client portal, or text messaging.
● Preview bills and see what your clients will
see before theyʼre sent
● Include multiple recipients of the same bill
on the same email thread
Replace image

27.
28
Share multiple ways
Send bills with more convenience and accessibility
to suit the preferences and needs of your clients.
● Email
● Mobile-friendly client portal
● Text Messaging
Replace image

28.
57%
Of bills and trust requests with an online payment
method are paid within the first 24 hours

29.
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Improve bill
deliverability
Change the senderʼs email address to your own
instead of notifications@clio.com.
● An address clients trust, and will open
● Immediate notification of bounced or
blocked emails
● Available for Google and Microsoft email
services

30.
31
Payment plans
70% of consumers want the option to pay via
payment plans.
Collect on more of your outstanding balances or
avoid them completely by allowing clients to pay
in manageable amounts.
● Customized payment plans
● Flexibility
● Accessibility to legal representation

31.
32
Saving payment
methods at intake
Make pre-billing even easier by charging payment
methods already stored by clients at intake (or any
time).
● PCI-compliant
● Quick ʻrequest paymentʼ link
● Manage payment methods from the contact
or matter dashboard
● Save multiple methods at once
● Credit card, eCheck/ACH

32.
33
Make it universally easy
to get paid
Embed QR codes on your website or print off the
code and display it in your office.
● QR code in-person
● Pay now button or QR code embedded on
your website

33.
Poll Question #2
Do you regularly reconcile funds in trust?
a. Yes
b. Not always - itʼs a pain
c. No, I donʼt manage trust funds
34

34.
Evergreen Trust
The same collections functionality you would
add to your billing also applies to trust.
● Get notice when a clientʼs trust balance
drops below an agreed threshold
● Same easy payment options through
Clio Payments
○ Secure click-to-pay links
○ QR codes and website links
● IOLTA compliant

35.
The impact of trust
accounts on your
realization and collection
rates

36.
Adjust your trust accounting practices to gain even
more efficiency
● Automate transaction matching
with a business accounting
program that integrates with
Clio
● Use Clio for trust reconciliation

37.
38
Takeaways
● Automate repetitive tasks by delegating
work to Clio
● Getting paid with Clio is better than other
methods and providers due to:
○ IOLTA compliance
○ Simple, transparent pricing
○ Available already in your
subscription
● Keep your financials all together

38.
39
Whether you’re not
processing online
payments or using the
LawPay integration,
switching to Clio is easy.
● Already available in your account
● Everything is in one place
● Clients get more ways to pay
● Simple, transparent pricing with no
hidden fees
● IOLTA account protection & PCI compliant

39.
40
Questions

40.
Thank You