Slap A Finance Charge On It – Legal Time & Billing Software

By Author: Mayank Kapur
Total Articles: 277
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Late payments from clients. No fun, right? No matter what kind of legal billing software you have, late payments require you to send (yet) another bill and nag your client—neither of these fun tasks. And statistics show: the longer it takes for a bill to get paid, the harder it is to collect.
The way we look at it, you might as well get something for your troubles. And if that something is a finance charge, then your client is put on notice—and realizes that there's a cost factor attached to his or her delay. If push ever comes to shove, a finance charge also provides additional leverage for you. In short, finance charges are a winning scenario for attorneys all around.
Easy Soft's Easy TimeBill program, our law office software now comes with a new feature: automatic assessments of finance charges on unpaid invoices (provided you wish to apply finance charges).
A little background here. We found out that our software clients-from solo practitioners to medium-sized law firms—were willing to assess finance charges for late payments. But they don't.
9 times ...
... out of 10, you're not refraining out of courtesy. You're refraining because there's no easy way to make the calculation—and compound it as time goes on. Add in partial payments—and the scenario gets even more math-heavy. (And we know from previous posts how much you love math!)
Nightmare no more! Easy TimeBill's new finance charge feature allows you to set the interest rate (say 12%) and the grace period (say 30 days). You're in complete control.
As you generate invoices, Easy TimeBill will look at unpaid invoices, apply the grace period, and assess any necessary finance charges.
To activate the feature, simply go to Tools. Then you select Billing Settings, then Finance Charge Settings. Then, you type in the desired interest rate, grace period, and charge type (simple or compound). Voila! Your global preferences are set, and your client now has a great reason to pay today .
Exceptions aren't an issue: you simply uncheck the option for certain clients.
No one likes to be paid late. Time to fight back!
To learn more about our Attorney billing software, call us at 800-905-7638.

Author Bio

Easy Soft specializes in helping law firms automate their processes with law office software. Easy Soft has automated software solutions for virtually every practice area, from case management, document assembly and time & billing, to time and billing software.