The Evidence for Collecting Against that Overdue Client - Attorney Billing Software

The end stage with a non-paying client is for you to sue in collections.

Why is it so off-putting to file a collections case to win the fees that you know you’ve already earned?  Could it be that you don’t want to show the judge your shoebox of handwritten billing slips?

Let’s get Easy Soft on board for your law office practice management software to make collections suits a less stressful experience.

Once you purchase and install Easy Soft’s integrated law firm billing software and trust accounting software, you have created a daily office atmosphere of routine business practices.  Each time you log into Easy Soft’s attorney billing software, you will set the timer running with all the fields complete.  Client name.  Date.  Start and stop time.  Billing rate.  Description of activity from a drop-down list or a customized text box.  Amount of funds on deposit or overdue balance.

If you’re in a multi-billing office, as the administrator, you can review the current billing activity on a client file for each authorized timekeeper.  Use Easy Soft’s legal time and billing software to see that the appropriate billing rate is being applied to each client file.  Monitor the descriptions and associated time.  Anticipate and correct potential problems before printing client invoices.

And, while we don’t like to brag about our top-selling products, one of your colleagues gave our Legal billing software a rather nice compliment.  Attorney Jason Flynn from New Jersey, gave an “excellent” rating to Easy Soft’s time and billing software for attorneys, saying “I use their programs daily, and they improve my firm’s efficiency, professionalism, accuracy and appearance.”

Isn’t that the kind of description you’d like to see in a judge’s opinion if you decide to pursue collections on your overdue accounts?  It all starts with a brief overview video and a free trial download of Easy Soft’s Lawyer Billing Software.

Fee Arbitration Requires Attention to Your Client Invoices

Most states now have a process for an attorney or a client to request fee arbitration.  In some cases, you’re the one seeking fee arbitration as a first step in the formal collections process.  In other cases, you’re defending against a client, likely one with an overdue balance.

If you want to be ready to bring or have to defend your billing in a fee arbitration setting, you need Easy Soft’s legal billing software and, then, you need to use on a daily basis.  You know the rules of admissibility and the strategy of winning.  We know you’re anxious about automating, so we’ve made simplicity our number one design consideration.

Step One:  use Easy Soft’s law firm billing software to generate monthly invoices that are professional, consistent, and easy-to-read.  When you use Easy Soft’s “Easy Time Bill,” you are establishing a business office routine that contributes to the inherent credibility and admissibility of your law office billing.

Step Two:  like clockwork, send clients monthly invoices using Easy Soft’s attorney billing program or attorney billing software.  Each time you send a periodic invoice, you create a demand for payment.  When your client doesn’t pay, but also doesn’t challenge the invoice, you create a presumption of the accuracy of the itemized activity.  Easy Soft’s law office billing software or lawyer billing software helps you remember to bill every client on a regular basis.

Step Three:  use reminder letters to request that clients refresh their advance retainer deposit, using templates available with the integrated law office trust fund accounting software and legal time and billing software.  Each time you pay attention to a client deposit, you create another opportunity to earn money, request to terminate services before the overdue balance gets too high, and document your client notification of work still to be done and charged.

We know from our attorney customers that having to participate in fee arbitration or collections activities is not what you want to be doing.  But when you use Easy Soft billing software for attorneys, it’s like having co-counsel with you for all of your fee arbitrations and collections activities.

An Invoice, All of Your Own - Lawyer Billing Software

Clients want to feel good about paying money to their lawyer.  They want to know that you have a particular presence in a competitive marketplace and that you are a top-notch professional.

Part of how you provide positive reinforcement to clients about your professionalism is to send clients a professional looking bill.  Well organized.  Consistent in appearance from month-to-month.  Easy-to-read information.  And a voucher slip to facilitate easy payment remittance.

To achieve this branding of your law firm and this increase in your bottom line, you need Easy Soft’s law office billing software. 

As soon as you install Easy Soft’s legal time and billing software for attorneys, it will prompt you to enter your basic law office information, including address, telephone, and fax.  This law office billing software also includes fields for your website address and e-mail address.  All of this information will automatically print in the header of your client invoices.

Easy Soft’s billing software for attorneys also allows each timekeeper to be set up by individual name and individual hourly billing rate.  Each timekeeper can also have different rates for different files.  This information of timekeeper plus rate will appear on each client invoice.

This legal billing software also comes with several template pages for invoices, cover letters, and remittance slips.  If one of these law office billing software templates fits your needs when you preview it, simply select that template for your invoice format default.  But, if you want to edit the template, Easy Soft’s attorney billing software allows you to click the “edit” button to rephrase words and rearrange formats.  When you click “save,” it becomes the new template.  Want to revert back to the original template?  Just click “restore.”

Easy Soft’s law firm billing software also comes with personal customer support, a set of on-line instructional videos and webinars.  You don’t need to be a computer programmer to have a customized invoice.  You just need Easy Soft.

Avoid Costly Trust Account Mistakes

If there is any one item you don’t want to mismanage, it is your escrow account.

Best practices indicate that simply reconciling your trust account bank statements at the end of every month is not enough to avoid costly mistakes.

Trust accounting software for attorneys can help you minimize the risk of an overdrawn IOLTA account or an individual excess withdrawal from co-mingled IOLTA funds.  Easy Soft programmed their trust fund accounting software for attorneys to reflect the ethics rules governing the handling of client trust accounts, from advance retainer deposits to real estate closing funds.

There is simply no reason to put off adopting “Easy Trust,” the attorney trust account software designed by Easy Soft, especially for attorneys.  Just purchase the software, install, and from the first screen, you will be guided to input basic information like your clients’ names, the current trust account balances, and any escrow agents.  Then, each time you are hired by a new client who makes a deposit, in less than five minutes, you can click to open the trust accounting software, and input that new client into the existing information.  It really is that easy to know who has what amount of money in trust with your firm.

Used with Easy Soft’s Legal billing software for attorneys, this powerful duo eliminates your trust accounting worries and helps you achieve full ethical compliance.  This law office trust accounting software is also designed for you to track the withdrawals against client deposits.  Because you are responsible for tracking each client’s IOLTA balance as if it were a separate bank account, you need this itemized information at your fingertips.

See your client’s current deposit balance each time you think about billing on a file.  Automatically see the balance and all activity each time you issue a client invoice.  Get a computer warning before you overdraw a trust account.  When you use Easy Soft’s trust fund accounting software for attorneys and attorney billing software, your accuracy goes up and your worries go down.

Now that’s a balance we bet you’d like to achieve.

One Batch Processing to Speed Up Collections - Law Firm Billing Software

Collections against your own clients are no fun.  You’ve been in battle together and now you’re in battle with each other.

The key to successful collections is continued billing and communication, but you need to simplify that so you don’t loose time you could be billing on a file with a client who has money on deposit.

When you select Easy Soft’s lawyer billing software you receive a suite of products that will simplify your billing and collection needs.

As soon as you install the software, “Easy Time Bill” will guide you through input of existing clients, mailing information, and account balances – including overdue accounts.  This law office billing software was designed to help you collect the fees that you have earned.

At the end of the month, simply enter the names of the clients to bill, and let Easy Soft’s billing software for attorneys do the rest.  Easy Soft’s law office billing software will automatically compute interest on overdue accounts, update any payments made, and show the balance due and owing.  This important feature of automated interest charges means that Easy Soft’s law office billing software saves you time punching digits and formulas into a calculator, as well as the possibility you make a math mistake in the process.

An additional tool to get your client’s attention is e-billing through this same legal billing software.  If you have your client’s e-mail address, “Easy Time Bill” allows you to select a print version of an invoice or an e-mail version of an invoice.  You might even choose to do both for your overdue accounts.

The simplicity of operating this time and billing software for attorneys means you to stop wasting time on collections that you could be spending on files with advance retainer deposits waiting to be earned.

Instead of reaching for that calculator, why not make it easy on yourself?  Click on “Buy Program Now” to get started with the attorney billing software that will let you look forward to the end of the month.

Stop Estimating, Start Recovering! - Divorce Settlement Software

You may be in a bad habit without even realizing that it is costing your client money.

When you are negotiating a matrimonial settlement, do you concentrate on two or three big assets, use estimates, and say each party ‘keeps their own’ for everything else?

The problem with the approach of concentrating on only two or three obvious assets, like the house and a couple of retirement accounts, is that you miss out on how much everything else is worth. 

Use Easy Soft’s “Divorce Software” to enter and add up checking accounts, savings accounts, savings bonds, stock certificates, rental deposits, and even cash in the cookie jar.  On the other side of the divorce settlement negotiations ledger, major credit cards, store credit cards, deferred store loans on furniture, and overdue income taxes are just some of the bills that may only be in only one party’s name.

When you use the Easy Soft networth statement, you start to systematically add up the details that can be worth thousands of dollars.  The client starts by filling out a questionnaire that is included with the Easy Soft Divorce Financials Software.  You then have a thorough and systematic approach to begin inserting that client information into the networth statement.

Once that data is input to the networth statement, your divorce settlement negotiations are easy.  Assign the asset and liability distribution and see the distribution lists and totals per party.  Now those “little” items reveal themselves as the not-so-little totals in the overall divorce settlement negotiations.

At Easy Soft, we design our family law software with a low cost to you for a solid rate of return for each one of your clients.  It’s no wonder “easy” is part of our name.

Cash Me Out! - Family Law Software

You’re working cases causing you to pull your hair out.  You win a good temporary alimony figure for one client, but it isn’t regularly paid.  Another client has a good case for an award of long-term alimony, but the breadwinner is on a short-term employment contract.  And then there’s the client who suddenly says remarriage is already in the cards.

These scenarios and more are why we invented Easy Soft’s alimony buyout software.  When you’re unsure whether a stream of alimony payments is going to benefit your client and there are assets against which to take an offset, why not use the Easy Soft Divorce Settlement Software, including its alimony buyout calculator to figure out the best divorce financial settlement for your client?

While you may end up using an accountant or CPA to arrive at the final figures before signing a deal, at the least, the Easy Soft Divorce Financial Settlement Software will give you figures you can use for estimates, negotiations, and agreements in principle – even for an alimony buyout computation.

Using the Divorce Software, you can enter up to five asset and liability configurations side-by-side and make comparisons.  You can also change variables for the amount, duration, and discount rate used in performing the alimony buyout computation.  During divorce settlement negotiations, use the alimony buyout computations as potential asset values and you can imagine how the payor can compensate your client for the value of the alimony claim.

So What is an Alimony Buy-Out, Anyway?

You’ve heard the phrase before “alimony buy-out,” but what does that really mean?

Alimony is typically a periodic payment, paid monthly or per paycheck, over a period of years.

When you “buyout” alimony, a calculation is made of how much that stream of periodic payments would be worth if it was paid in full today.  In an alimony buy-out, a lump sum is given to compensate the receipt all-at-once instead of waiting for the string of periodic payments.

In fancier language, the alimony buy-out is a math formula known as a “present value”.  The calculation of the total of the string of payments is the easier part; it’s amount times duration.  The calculation for the “discount” is the harder part.  The “discount” is the percentage deduction to reduce the string of payments into its value all-at-once, today.

Aren’t you glad Easy Soft has alimony buyout software so that you don’t have to do this on your own?

Included in Easy Soft’s “Divorce Financials Software” is an alimony buyout calculator.  Perhaps you are looking for an estimated alimony buyout, early in the divorce settlement negotiations.  Or perhaps you have a report from the opposing party, and you’re interesting in spinning up to five alimony buyout computations, side-by-side.

Performing the alimony buyout computation takes on value when it is readily available for you to consider how it might fit into the overall divorce financials settlement.  For example, will your client be awarded a stream of payments that she never collects in full or will she get to keep all of the house equity, outright?  Only when you have Easy Soft’s alimony buyout software will you be able to insert the buyout figure into the equitable distribution mix to maximize your client’s financial position.

Easy Soft’s alimony buyout software is so indispensable that there’s even a divorce financials App version for your smart phone and tablet.  We don’t want you to find yourself in divorce settlement negotiations without it.

And, who knows?  By the time you play around enough with Easy Soft’s Divorce Financials Software you might decide that you do like math, after all.

Marital Lifestyle & Alimony

One of the topics discussed at the 2012 Family Law Symposium under section "Arguments Lawyers Fail to Make" was related to the inadequacy of New Jersey's official CIS form in the budget's left hand column labeled "Joint Life Style" for the purpose of an alimony claim trial.

The logic goes like this; Marital Lifestyle figures for the supported spouse are likely to include the supporting spouse's expenses that will not be paid by the supported spouse after the divorce. Normally, marital lifestyle figures play a critical role in alimony determination, but these figures are meant to include marital lifestyle of the supported spouse only.

The proposed supported spouse’s attorney questions the supported spouse, who says, "Yes, those are my expenses." Then, the other party's attorney should point out that the line item is, in fact, for the entire family before the separation. The supported spouse is put in a situation where he/she has to subtract from each line item, expenditures for the supporting spouse and the children. After all, why should the supported spouse receive alimony for expenditures that he/she would not and could not incur post judgment? However, is this common flaw in marital lifestyle budget presentations picked up and argued by lawyers regularly?

As your technology provider, we routinely work with lawyers and pro-actively provide practice solutions. We cannot and do not practice law, but we do provide you tools to solve issues like marital lifestyle and alimony issues very easily within our CIS software, New Jersey’s most popular child support program.

In your CIS program, section Part-D, click on "Show Individual Historical Expenditure." Here, you can breakdown marital expenses - Expenses for the plaintiff only or for the defendant and children. You can then print a separate Lifestyle Expenditure report, which will show five columns side by side and is ready to enter as a trial exhibit, for an Early Settlement Panel or Economic Mediation. (Click here for an example sheet).

For trial preparation, have the litigant break down the marital lifestyle figures individually, so you do not count the supporting spouse's expenses and the children's expenses in the supported spouse’s lifestyle figures, thereby avoiding the aforementioned trap.

While we are on this topic, for the purpose of breakdown, children's expenditures might be less critical because they are not expected to have separate expenses in each category. However, categorizing children's expenses separately may be helpful because they will be useful for other purposes, such as quantifying extraordinary expenses for children, i.e. automobile insurance.

To learn more about this topic as well as many other program features you may not be utilizing or to watch an overview video, visit CIS Software’s web page.