Sunday 27 January 2019

Disadvantages Of Ebilling For Law Firms

By Jessica Graham


Sending invoices as written documents is prevalent among many legal institutions. Despite efforts to introduce the advantages of Ebilling for law firms, adoption has been slow. Various reasons have been attributed to this. Besides the fear of change, several other causes have been discussed in the paragraphs below.

Unlike paper-based invoicing, modern debiting applications are considered very complex. In paper-based invoicing, anybody in a firm would be able to do it. However, companies need to hire specialists to operate electronic systems. This complexity is added by the fact that one legal institution could have multiple clients whose invoicing guidelines are unique. Having each client receive as well as approve a document, is not only tedious but also time-consuming.

Another factor is lack of standardization on the part of vendors. No regulation bodies stipulate certain applications as well as system features. For this reason, various clients have particular guidelines of how invoices should be mailed. There are multiple emailing platforms to choose from. While one client may prefer one mode, the other could be different.

The different elements brought by customizable codes add up on the side of legal institutions who may have multiple clients. To elaborate on this, it is simple to provide two customizations for a single client but ineffective to provide 100 to 30 clients. As more organizations continue to adopt these systems, this problem will be much bigger.

The digital debiting process is different from the paper-based approach. In the paper method, debiting is as easy as taking that document to an attorney for review, printing on approval then mailing it to specific customers. The feedback is immediate hence less time-consuming. Conversely, digital charging must be done by a professional. At first, new consumers have to be added to that software. Such procedures may take up to one month especially if applications in place are new to legal companies.

If a customer is already hosted, charging process follows eight stages. At first, experts print out a copy of clientele document. This is shared with an attorney for review. The lawyer sends back that document having made minor or major observations. In case of presence of changes, specialists make adjustments manually. Afterward, they scan that document and upload it for the customer to review. If a consumer is satisfied with the content, experts document this. If otherwise, that process has to be repeated.

Repeating similar steps for countless customers consumes a lot of time as well as resources. While digital debiting is expected to save on time, sometimes this is not the case. When specialists are not used to such applications, the percentage of rejected invoices is high thus, the number of cycles. Consequently, a process that would normally take five days may prolong to eleven days. This also leads to resource wastage.

There is hope, however, in the end. Digital systems have become simpler as specialists get used to processes. Instead of clinging to the paper-work in fear of change, companies must brace themselves to counter these limitations. They may consider hiring a number of specialists as well as bench-marking successful companies. As a matter of fact, more clients are shifting from papers to electronic invoicing.




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