Law firms use legal billing software to claim their time. Lawyer invoice generator is especially helpful for solo practitioners or new legal firms, where two people run the entire company, including the part of invoicing, billing, and closing invoices. While some large firms have fully-fledged staff of lawyers specialized in handling the whole task of invoicing and billing, others use legal billing software to speed up their workflow.
Are you a one-person law office, or a large firm? Legal billing software for small firms and software for large firms has a lot of overlap, but a few big differences as well. Knowing what those differences are can help you decide which billing software best fits your needs as a lawyer. As a solo practitioner myself, billing is always an issue. And as someone who previously worked at the largest law firms in the country, I saw first hand how legal billing software can dramatically improve your bottom line as an attorney. Here’s my take on legal billing software for small firms versus large firms that you might find helpful when deciding which best fits your practice.
Clio
Manage your law firm from home with Clio — G2’s favorite legal case management solution. Clio clearly stands above the rest with the most 5-star reviews. Keep all your cases, contacts, bills, calendars, and more organized in one place. With unlimited document storage and the ability to access case details from anywhere, a solution like this will be your law firm’s critical hub when working remotely. Schedule a demo today to learn more. The Clio Suite is comprised of two components: Clio Manage: The industry’s #1 cloud-based legal case management software. Clio Grow: Powerful client intake for law firms—simplified. The complete client intake and client relationship management (CRM) platform that streamlines processes, organization, and law firm growth. Learn more at www.clio.com
Smokeball
Smokeball is the first and only cloud-based legal practice management software to automatically record time for you, allowing you to increase your firm’s profitability and productivity by over 30%. Whether you bill hourly, fixed fee, or on contingency, Smokeball provides you the insights you need to run a more profitable law firm. Plus, with over 17,000 automated forms and the most robust MS Word and Outlook integration in the industry, managing your firm has never been so consistent – and easy. Access all matters on the go with Smokeball’s mobile app built for iPhone and Android. Learn more at www.smokeball.com.
PracticePanther
PracticePanther is a leading cloud-based law practice management software solution recognized by G2 that serves tens of thousands of legal professionals in 170 countries. Through its intuitive and user-friendly interface, PracticePanther offers features in case management, time tracking, billing, client intake, payment processing, calendaring, eSignature, and much more to empower lawyers to automate their practices. Our law practice management software streamlines your workflows, supercharges your profits, and helps you increase client satisfaction. We make it easier and faster to practice law and allow your firm to work from anywhere, on any device, and get world-class support by phone, email, or live chat. Learn more: https://www.practicepanther.com
App4Legal
App4Legal is a comprehensive Legal Practice Management Solution with a complete legal billing module that addresses the entire market of legal practitioners in law firms and in-house legal departments. App4Legal automates time tracking, billing, calendaring and accounting for legal practitioners in law firms and in-house legal teams. All money transactions can be managed and tracked in the built-in money module that tracks accounts, bills, expenses, invoices, statements, reports and more.
MyCase
MyCase is another complete client portal with time entry and document management. Inside, you can store all your important case data, including related documents. You can even attach emails to your cases. If that’s not enough, MyCase even tracks your invoices within the same application.
MyCase costs a bit more than Clio, at $49 per user, per month. On the other hand, it also comes with a 14-day free trial for new accounts.
TimeSolv
TimeSolv is a longstanding legal billing software that’s been around since 1999. The neat thing about TimeSolv is that it predates the cloud, so it can be used both online and off. You can access your time tracking from anywhere via the smartphone app, or work locally on an old-school laptop. You can also use LawPay and Client Portal to accept online payments.
TimeSolv comes with a 30-day free trial, enough for you to get a taste for it. After that, the normal licensing fee is $35.96 per user, per month. They also offer bulk discounts for larger law firms.
Quickbooks Online Software
QuickBooks Online enables users to download and reconcile credit card transactions that allows businesses to organize weekly timesheets and track bank deposits.
What is Quickbooks Online?
Quickbooks Online is a web-based accounting software that controls all aspects of the financial side of the business. The software can be used in multiple areas such as bookkeeping, payroll, invoice management, bank reconciliation, expense tracking, financial reporting, tax management, and more.
How do you use Quickbooks Online?
Quickbooks is a web-based system, which can be accessed from any web browser. There are no installations or downloads necessary to use the software. Users can take photos of bills and submit them as expense proofs or share with the concerned stakeholders as well as download and reconcile credit card transactions.
Who uses Quickbooks Online?
Quickbooks Online can be used by freelancers, small businesses, and mid-sized businesses in any industry including restaurant, retail, construction, legal, nonprofit, and more.
How much does Quickbooks Online cost?
Quickbooks Online offers 5 pricing plans to cater to business needs. The plans are subscription based and billed on a per-month rate that can be canceled at any time. Each plan comes with free expert setup. The lowest plan begins at $7.50 per month that is intended for freelancers or self-employed individuals. The simple start plan for small businesses is priced at $12.50 per month that includes invoice management and auto generated tax reports while the essentials plan is priced at $25 per month that includes more users, time tracking, and bill payments. The plus plan is priced at $40 per month and comes with more user seats, inventory tracking and project profitability tracking. The Advanced plan for mid-sized enterprises is priced at $95 per month and comes with 25 seats, on demand training, batch invoices, premium apps, and more.
Does Quickbooks Online have an app?
Quickbooks Online comes with free intuit mobile apps for Android and IOS devices.
Zola Suite
Zola Suite is the industry’s only end-to-end practice management platform that connects front-office and back-office tools to deliver a single source of truth. With best-in-class matter management tools and robust billing, accounting and reporting, Zola Suite eliminates data silos and helps your firm maximize efficiency and increase profitability. Features include: – Built-in Billing & Accounting – Intelligent Email – Advanced Reporting – A Complete CRM for Prospect & Intake Management – Document Management & Automation – Legal Calendaring – Task Management – Secure Client Portal
LawPay
LawPay was developed specifically for the legal industry, providing attorneys and their accounts receivable/collections departments with a simple way to accept online credit card and eCheck payments from clients. Over the past 15 years we have built a reputation as the go-to payment solution for firms of all sizes and the only payment technology vetted and approved by all 50 state bars, more than 60 local and specialty bars, the American Bar Association, and the Association of Legal Administrators. We built LawPay with input from bar association partners and their ethics committees to ensure all credit card, debit card, and eCheck payments are processed in compliance with attorney trust accounting rules. We know there are serious consequences for trust account violations, which is why we’re committed to keeping you compliant. Additionally, we ensure your IOLTA account is protected against any third-party debiting.
Conclusion:
The legal billing software for a small law firm is often different from the billing invoicing software for a large law firm. Likewise, the rules and regulations governing legal billing vary from place to place around the globe. For example, in North America, there are various laws as well as various levels of professional responsibility both state and provincial as well as nationwide where as in Australia, there has been a move away from paper to electronic submissions of legal bills saving expenses and time. Legal billing software is therefore helping lawyers streamline their processes saving them money, time and the hassle.