1. Tips for Optimizing Your Firm's
Billing and Collections
Building a Successful Law Firm: Session 4
February 17, 2022
Rio Peterson

2. Housekeeping
● Session length: 60 minutes
● Use to engage with fellow meetup attendees
and select “everyone” in the dropdown
● Use to ask questions directly to panellists
● Please fill out the survey at the end of the session

3. 3
Agenda
● Meet the panel
● Billing & collections panel discussion
○ Improving billing & time keeping
○ Billing consistently
○ How to get paid faster
○ Compliance
○ Automation
○ Upfront payments
● Additional resources
● Additional Q&A

4. 4
Rio Peterson
Senior Affinity Partnerships
Manager, Clio
Angie Calliou
Today’s Speakers
Beau Atkins
Owner
Advantage Virtual Services
Founder
Evolve Family Law
Bryan Atkins
Executive
Evolve Family Law

5. 5
Which of the following
payment options are
you currently offering?
a. Credit card payment
b. Evergreen retainers
c. Payment plans
d. None, Iʼm thinking of or in the
process of opening my own firm

6. Panel
Discussion

7. Billing
Basics

8. Billing Basics/Essentials For New Firms
● Essential to have set up right away
● What can wait
● What to consider when designing your billing process
○ Lessons and Favourite tools
● Tips to improve billing productivity
○ Lessons and Favourite tools
● Things to watch out for: do’s and don'ts

9. Essentials
1. Map Processes (existing or optimal)
In Sequence
● Lawyer
● Administration | Intake
● Accounting
Repeat All Above
● Client (Perspective)
2. Trust Bank Account, Payment Processing Options,
Operating Account Credit Facilities

10. What Can Wait
● Some Technologies
● Advanced Automation
● Some Delegation
○ Process Setting Decisions
■ Delegate only when
process is confirmed
Live in Quadrant 2 as Much as you Can!

11. How Evolve Designed the Billing/Collection Process
Reviewed industry norms (Legal Trends Report)
○ Concerning utilization/collection rate
+ Previous experience (multiple firms)
○ Irregular and unpredictable client payments
○ High uncollectible fees
○ High Accounts Receivables
○ Headaches managing Trust accounts
○ Cash flow challenges
+ Examination of other industries (construction services, consumer goods - vehicle sales, etc)
○ Milestone related delivery
○ Progress billing
○ Instalment Payments (Payment Plans)
= Client Engagement Agreement | Standardized and Frequent Billing | Instalment Payment Plan Options

12. Sample Engagement
Scope
● Clearly defined Scope
● Built in Billing Milestones
● Disclaimers
● Fees & Extras
● Payment Due Date(s)
● Get it Signed

13. Billing/Collection Lessons and Favourite Tools
Lessons:
1. Payment Experience is Client Experience
2. SMS communication response rates are incomparably better than email
3. A sales pipeline should include tracking of the initial client payment
4. A Lawyer contacting a client for past due payment is often most effective
5. Fewer fees disputes arise when detailed agreements are signed.
Tools:
● Clio Grow with HelloSign (contract distribution)
● Microsoft Teams (internal communication)
● TextMagic (SMS notifications)
● Shared Email Templates

14. Tips to Improve Billing Productivity
● Send out Retainer/Engagement Agreements/Contracts to all clients
○ transparency is key
● Determine if work within a similar file type can be segmented
● Examine legal service production for patterns, find what work is repeated often enough to
document.
● Create sequenced tasks (add multiple list together to create workflows)
○ Use clear descriptions
● Follow a regular schedule for task completion
● Bill frequently, and consistently
● Automate, automate, automate
○ Explore flat rate fees

15. Sample Task List
● Clio task lists lets
you create
workflows
● Tasks can be
assigned to
different people
● Systematization
prepares
automation
● It also ensures
more consistency

16. Billing Productivity Lessons and Favourite Tools
Lessons:
1. Legal service work with a standardized workflow is beneficial for doer and reviewer
2. Matter/file switching is more effective when working off task lists
3. Batching work saves time
4. Setting a regular schedule (daily, weekly, etc) for certain billing task improves cash flow
5. Briefly stopping work and communicating such on a file with past due fees normally results in
immediate payment
6. Observe. Absorb. Read. Learn. Borrow. Steal. Create. Innovate. Collaborate. Communicate.
Tools:
● Clio Manage Tasks

17. Dos and Don’ts
● DO utilize client agreements (client contracts)
● DO document your processes (80% is plenty good)
● DO embrace technology
● DON’T begin work on a file until the agreement is signed and payment made/arranged
● DON’T be afraid to change a process/system/technology if its not working
● DON’T hesitate to ask colleagues, peers, or non-lawyers for advice or help

18. Improve Your
Time Keeping

19. Time tracking can be complicated and
often pain-inducing topic for lawyers.
Where Lawyer Time
Tracking Goes Wrong

20. 10 Ways to Improve Your
Time Tracking in Clio
1. Run a timer as you work
2. Log entries after the fact
3. Track time via mobile app
4. Log time from calendar entries
5. Log time from individual tasks
6. Log time from your email inbox
7. Use a passive time tracker
8. Log time via voice
9. Log time via text message
10. Automate time capture from your mobile device

21. Bill Consistently

22. Implementing an Effective
Billing Policy
1. Provide a template and guidelines for your billing
procedures
2. Write out the flow of your law firm’s billing process
3. Set requirements for invoice review and approval
4. Integrate the finance team or accounting department
with your billing process to keep procedures consistent
5. Include a standard process for disputes and collections
6. Have a public billing policy for clients set out in your
retainer letter

23. How to Get Paid
Faster

24. Accept Credit Card
Payments
Legal Firms have unique challenges when it
comes to accepting credit card payments.

25. PCI Compliant

26. What is PCI Compliant?
Allowing you to operate in accordance to
PCI legislation.

27. Payment Plans + Flexible
Payment Options
Offering payment plans can be the
difference between getting paid or not.

28. Automation
Reducing
Administrative Time

29. Automate Your Overdue Bill
Reminders
1. Collecting unpaid invoices can be a very time consuming
and uncomfortable process
2. Leverage technology and use automated bill reminders to
save your firm time and money
3. Increase chances of getting paid with timely reminders
4. Allows you to focus on client relationship and avoid those
awkward phone calls
5. Stay on top of cash flow
6. Allows you to focus on income generating tasks instead of
administrative duties

30. Upfront Payment
(Trust Requests)

31. Use Evergreen Retainers to
Protect Your Firm’s Cash
Flow
1. Improve your firm’s cash flow and collection rate
2. Provide steady stream of revenue
3. Makes payments more manageable for your clients with
no surprises
4. Predictable and transparent process for all parties
5. Streamline accounting processes
6. Set and forget - set the evergreen amount and receive
reminders when the trust balance dips below the threshold
set

32. Improve Productivity with
the Right Technology
1. Automate time-consuming tasks, like intake, document
generation and invoicing
2. Focus more of your day on income- generating activities
3. Establish clear vision of what processes you want to
improve upon or automate before exploring technology
options
4. Enhance collaboration from wherever you are working
5. Streamline and customize workflows
6. Improve client communication

33. 33
Clio’s Offerings &
Additional Resources

34. Clio Manage
Legal practice management software
Our most popular product—the industryʼs leading solution
to help manage clients, organize cases, and automate
tedious tasks and month-end billing.
Clio Grow
Client intake and legal CRM software
Standardize the client intake process with online intake
forms, email automation, and e-signatures to build strong
relationships, and get powerful data insights to grow your firm.
The Clio Suite
Legal practice management, client intake and CRM software.
Get unmatched performance with Clio Suite, the industryʼs
only end-to-end software solution for your firm. Visit clio.com/pricing to learn more.
Clio’s Offerings

35. Clio Payments
Clio Manageʼs new online payments platform makes it easy for
your clients to pay online using a credit card, debit card, or
eCheck—without the need for a third-party payment processor.
Clio Drive
Securely create, access, edit, store, and collaborate on
documents without ever leaving your desktop.
Clio for Clients
Clio for Clients, Clioʼs new secure client portal allows you to
streamline communication with your clients.
Text Notifications and Reminders
Use text notifications and reminders to avoid the costly
no-shows and unnecessary administrative overhead that comes
with organizing client meetings.
Visit clio.com/features/whats-new to learn more.
What’s New In Clio

36. Polls for Non-Clio and Clio Customers
Poll 1: For Non-Clio Customers
Would you like to learn more about Clio?
a. Yes, I would like to learn more
about Clioʼs Suite of products
b. No, Iʼm not interested
c. Clio Cloud conference
d. No, Iʼm already a Clio Customer
36
Poll 2: For Clio Customers
Would you like to learn more about:
a. Adding Clio Grow to
streamline client intake
b. Adding Clio Payments
c. Clio Cloud Conference
d. No, Iʼm not interested
or I already use Clio Grow

37. An all-in-one solution for
legal practice management
and accounting
Eliminate manual work
and focus on your clients.
● Automatically sync transactions and stay on top of your firmʼs
financials.
● Make trust accounting easier and less intimidating with journal
entries and reports compliant with your bar association.
● Get more work done outside of the office with two cloud-based
tools. Work on the go and keep your records up to date.
Clio is a QuickBooks
Solution Provider
Get a 30% monthly discount off your QBO
subscription for your first 12 months.
Learn more about the QuickBooks Online
integration at Clio.com/Quickbooks

38. Additional Resources
38
● Blog by Angie Calliou: Boost Your Productivity and Profitability
● CLE-eligible webinar: Disaster and Succession Planning for Law Firms,
March 8, 2022
● Meetup: Law Firm Branding: How To Stand Out in a Crowded Market,
March 15, 2022
● Clio Cloud Conference October 10-11, 2022: Get your pass for $399

39. Additional Resources Continued
New App: Optimize and Automate

40. 40
Additional
Questions

41. 41
Thank You

42. Thank you!
www.clio.com
@RioFromClio
linkedin.com/in/rio-peterson/
rio.peterson@clio.com