Billing Guidelines Compliance Can Boost Client-Firm Relationships & Firm Revenue

We all understand that compliance with billing guidelines improves client-firm relationships, but do you know how it also improves your firm’s revenue? Billings are the lifeblood of any business. They are a representation of how much a client is spending with a firm and how much revenue that firm is generating from those clients. Billing guidelines compliance helps to avoid billing disputes and problems that can cause a rift in relationships between firms and their clients. A recent study by the American Bar Association found that billing guidelines compliance is an important factor in client-firm relationships. The study found that 91% of respondents said that billing guidelines compliance was important in maintaining client relations, while 93% said it was important in maintaining firm revenue. Some of the benefits of billing guidelines compliance are clear and include boosting client-firm relationships, increasing revenue, improving staff morale, reducing the risk of client disputes, and ensuring that the firm is meeting all government regulations.

According to the 2020 Legal Trends Report, lawyers spent on non-billable tasks, including billing-related activities such as preparing and sending invoices, processing payments, and updating trust ledgers, and spend only 2.5 billable hours per day. Billing guidelines used by insurers, TPAs, and the self-insured vary in shape and size. As clients implement their own set of billing rules, attorneys are under a lot of pressure to follow these various guidelines. In addition to the new billing guidelines, attorneys must keep up with updates to existing ones. Based on a survey conducted by the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium, e-billing was put in place by US legal firms to reduce the time and cost associated with manual billing processes. Almost 80% of clients of law firms use an e-billing vendor to turn to AI to enforce their policies, as they comply with billing guidelines by up to 20%. This has resulted in increased efficiency and more accurate billing, resulting in lower costs, improved cash flow, and higher profits. By ensuring that billing rules are followed, firms can improve the accuracy of invoices they send, thereby reducing time spent on invoice disputes and money wasted due to incorrect or excessive fees.

When it comes to invoicing, 60% of law firms rely on billing partners rather than timekeepers to ensure compliance. Law firms that are not compliant with guidelines could face problems in client-firm relationships as well as revenue loss. ALB AI Time Entry Cleansing can lead to more efficient practices, improved client relations, and increased profits. The client is aware of all charges associated with the services they are receiving which helps to reduce misunderstandings and potential disputes between the attorney and the client. It also helps to ensure that the attorney is being transparent with their client and is not charging them for services that are not necessary.