Law Firm Office Manager Billing Habits to Live By

Being an office manager at a law firm is so much more than answering phones and managing calendars. You’re the firm’s beating heart and several of its major arteries, too! Between having the pulse on your firm’s clients, schedules, and case files, you’re at the center of it all.

We’ve heard from you that one of the biggest pain points lies in the bottom line: billing and invoicing. As one of the most essential parts of the business (because yes, law firm’s are a business), it is also one of the biggest challenges. How do you keep attorneys tracking and submitting their time? How do you solicit late payments from clients?

Often these matters are time and emotionally sensitive. Good news? We’ve outlined proven billing habits (straight from real law firms like yours) that you can adopt to make your life easier.

Set Clear Billing and Invoicing Deadlines and Stick to Them

After speaking to many firms about what makes their billing truly run well, one word kept coming up: deadlines. Your billing deadlines should not be a suggestion, but a mandatory framework that your firm follows. The exact structure is up to you and what works best for your unique practice, but the key is consistency. To help get you started, here are a few tried and true tactics:

• Daily Time Entries: Attorneys and staff logging their billable hours daily, not at the end of the week or month, is essential for accuracy. Delaying time entries can cost the firm 10-15% of billable hours. With daily entries, each task is top of mind and recorded realistically. Technology like automatic time tracking programs ease the burden of time capture immensely.
• ‍Weekly Time Reports: Providing an all-firm report that details each timekeeper’s billing progress toward the firm’s monthly goal incentivizes motion. Transparency leads to accountability, which means less tracking down for you later.
• ‍Time Entry Deadlines: Enforce strict deadlines for submitting time (e.g., every Monday by 9 am) and implement a clear protocol for missed deadlines (e.g., missed time entries are called-out in weekly meetings).

“Successful billers keep hard deadlines, they’re not suggestions”
- Emily Prazak, Douglas Law Offices

• Pre-Bill Review: Run pre-bills at the start of every month. Have attorneys review them within 24 hours to avoid delays in final billing. ‍
• Finalize Invoices Quickly: Once pre-bills are finalized, send out the final invoices within 24 hours. The quicker you send out invoices, the faster you’ll collect payments and the less details get left behind.

Consider this! Reward consistent time entries with positive reinforcement to encourage good habits.

Proactively Collect Payments

If time tracking is the first pain point, collecting payments is its twin sibling. Putting a process in place that creates a clear, consistent process that sets expectations, builds transparency, and gives clients a few gentle nudges along the way is the key to mitigating late payments and frustrating communication.

We asked firms to share with us their favorite ways for making payment collection way less painful:

Three-Step Follow-Up System: If payments are overdue, don’t leave things up to chance. Have a solid follow-up process in place. Office managers with collection success suggest sending your first follow-up as soon as two weeks after the invoice is sent out. You can send these follow-ups easily through your billing management software or via email. Still missing payment? Proceed to follow up a week later until the invoice is resolved. This consistent cadence not only keeps your firm’s communication professional and proactive, but also helps avoid “billing shock” by keeping clients updated in real time--not months down the line when tensions (and totals) have built up.

Monthly AR Meetings: Schedule monthly accounts receivable meetings with your timekeepers to discuss each client’s payment status. This ensures that any overdue accounts are flagged early, and specific communication efforts can be made for slow payers (maybe a client only responds to email, etc.).

Consider this! For emotionally sensitive or ongoing cases, like family law, offer payment plans to clients once the case is closed and the invoice is overdue.

Take Transparency Seriously

Every best billing practice has one thing in common holding it together: transparency. It’s the hero that keeps the whole operation afloat. Being up front with your team and your clients keeps everyone on the same page from day one. Inside the firm, transparency means your team always knows where things stand, what’s working, and what’s falling through the cracks. This offers clarity, accountability and smoother operations. Some of suggested best practices to achieve billing transparency:

Regular reviews: Review time logs and hold attorneys accountable for missed time tracking in weekly meetings. If a timekeeper is behind, make it visible in a non-punitive way.

Communication Channels: Set up a dedicated billing channel in your case management software where team members can communicate about billing statuses, potential out of office conflicts, and any potential issues.

Tip: Keep the tone positive! encourage good habits through positive reinforcement but make it clear that timely billing affects the whole firm.

As an office manager, you’re already managing a thousand things, and billing is just one (very big) piece of the puzzle. But it doesn’t have to be your biggest headache. Setting firm deadlines, clear communication, and a strong follow-up process turns your billing operations into the well-oiled machine it was made to be.