Sunday 27 January 2019

Hindrances 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.

Suppose such a company has many customers with different applications. It means specialists need to learn how to use all those platforms. On top of this, each consumer must have their own customizable codes which further complicates digital invoicing. Unfortunately, it never gets easy. As corporate increase their customers, the software becomes more complicated.

Another challenge lies in the invoicing process. It is expected the use of electronic debiting will be more complicated as more customers need it. It takes approximately one month to host one customer online. If such a client is using an application from a familiar seller, that process is much simpler, unlike if the application is all new. Averagely, a single debiting process takes eight steps to complete. This is different for paper debiting where after being reviewed by an attorney, what follows is printing, packaging in envelopes and mailing to clients.

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.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment