In the world of legal billing, questions like “Has the invoice been sent?” are commonplace. Billing coordinators and operators often face such queries from attorneys or team members they collaborate with. LeanLaw has developed functionalities to answer these questions with ease and efficiency.
Enhancing Legal Billing Efficiency with LeanLaw
The ‘Track Sent Emails’ feature within LeanLaw allows for a quick review of trust requests, invoice emails, and reminders sent to clients. It gives real-time updates on whether a client, say Melissa, has received and opened a trust request. Furthermore, it enables users to quickly identify unpaid invoices that are older than a month and send out reminders in a streamlined fashion. This feature ensures that all necessary follow-ups are at the top of the client’s inbox, making it highly convenient for both the billing team and the clients.
These functionalities are particularly beneficial for maintaining coordination and tracking within large teams or for individual practitioners managing their workload. The goal is to provide tools that are specifically designed for the legal industry, rather than relying on general accounting tools like QuickBooks. Although QuickBooks is a robust platform and serves as the backbone for LeanLaw’s integration, LeanLaw is tailored for the unique needs of lawyers and legal administrators, aiming to deliver the right information when needed without a cumbersome search.
Centralizing information is another key aspect. LeanLaw offers a centralized ‘Track Sent Emails’ page to review all communications and issue reminders as needed. This allows for a single source of truth that eliminates the need to verify sent items through personal email or access QuickBooks, which may not be accessible to everyone.
Automations such as email template settings and attachment settings, which automatically include documents like trust statements, are designed to save time in the long run. These tools are built to streamline the billing process, making it easier and more efficient for law firms.
While some features, such as generating granular account statements that show each invoice and payment, are not currently available, LeanLaw is open to incorporating them based on user feedback and firm preferences. Feature requests like these are welcomed as they strive to meet the evolving needs of their users.
LeanLaw ensures that features like sending customized invoice emails will be available to all users, regardless of their subscription tier. For functionalities that require integration, such as using payment links that update QuickBooks balances automatically, the integration with ConfID will be necessary.
LeanLaw is committed to providing efficient and accessible billing solutions for law firms. Whether it’s through simplifying the sending of invoice emails, utilizing payment links, or centralizing invoice management, LeanLaw is paving the way for streamlined billing processes within the legal industry.
Leveraging LeanLaw and Confido for Seamless Legal Billing
LeanLaw’s billing system offers a convenient feature for generating payment links directly from the billing platform. This link is specifically tied to the amount due on the invoice, ensuring clients are clear on the exact payment they need to make. While the link doesn’t automatically include the full balance for a matter, firms have expressed interest in this capability, and LeanLaw is considering adding such a feature, acknowledging the complexities involved in aggregating payment amounts in real-time as opposed to the point of invoicing.
The upcoming changes in LeanLaw’s user interface (UI) are set to be rolled out starting April 21, promising a new level of email customization directly through LeanLaw, without the need to access QuickBooks. This advancement means the email service will be transformed, offering the ability to incorporate firm logos, templates, and other personalized elements into client communications.
From the client’s perspective, these emails will appear differently, which is something for firms to prepare for. LeanLaw is eager to assist with any concerns or questions regarding implementation, emphasizing a phased rollout to ensure individual support can be provided.
LeanLaw’s partnership with Confido, their payments partner, enhances this billing process by enabling the creation of payment links that reflect the current amount due on an invoice or the client’s matter balance, depending on the accounting level. These payments are processed directly to QuickBooks and are associated with the corresponding invoice, allowing the balance to update automatically both for the firm and in the client’s view.
Confido’s pricing is competitive within the industry, with credit and debit card transactions at 2.95% and ACH transactions at 1%, capped at $30. This service is optional and not a requirement for sending invoice emails through LeanLaw, but it is seen as a value-add for automating payments in QuickBooks and reducing manual recording efforts.
Setting up with Confido is straightforward. Firms can sign up to learn more through the LeanLaw settings and complete a simple application process that collects necessary information for payment processing, such as ownership details, anticipated payment processing volume, and bank account information for deposits. For firms that handle trust accounting, the system allows for trust deposits to be routed directly to the appropriate accounts, avoiding any auditing complications.
There is no monthly fee for using Confido, making it a risk-free option for firms. All related functionality is included with the LeanLaw subscription, and once approved, firms can set up customized invoice emails, reminders, and trust requests. Trust requests require a Confido integration, as they need a payment link for dispatch through LeanLaw’s email service.
LeanLaw remains committed to meeting the diverse needs of law firms, ensuring that invoices created in QuickBooks are seamlessly attached to emails sent through their service. The platform attaches the invoice based on the firm’s settings in QuickBooks, preserving the integrity of the billing process.
LeanLaw recognizes the various processes firms may have in place and is open to learning more about specific needs to ensure that their service aligns with these workflows. They welcome questions and are prepared to engage with firms to tailor the LeanLaw experience to their unique billing practices.
Exciting Updates and Features Coming to LeanLaw Users
LeanLaw is excited to announce that the new email customization UI, showcased in our latest webinar, will be available to all users by April 21st. This innovative feature is part of our commitment to providing law firms with powerful, user-friendly tools that streamline their billing processes. For those eager to access the new UI sooner, we encourage you to reach out to our support team at [email protected] or directly to Melissa at [email protected], and we’ll gladly expedite the setup for your firm.
In addition to the email customization capabilities, we’re also ready to assist you with our integration with payment links. If you’re looking to learn more about this feature and how it can benefit your billing workflow, don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.
We thank everyone who participated in our webinar, and for those who couldn’t join us, rest assured that a recording will be sent out to all registrants. This will allow you to review the content at your convenience and ensure you’re up to date with the latest enhancements to our service.
During the session, we received some insightful questions, including inquiries about the possibility of incorporating a ‘find and replace’ feature for invoice drafting. While this functionality isn’t currently available, we’ve noted the interest and will consider it for our feature request pipeline.
We also clarified that the payment link generated through LeanLaw will reflect the full balance due for all invoices related to a matter if there is an outstanding amount in QuickBooks. This ensures that your clients have a clear understanding of their total liabilities at any given time.
Our aim with these updates is to provide a service that not only meets but exceeds the needs of your law firm, saving you valuable time and streamlining your billing operations. We appreciate the thoughtful questions and discussions that arose during the webinar and are here to address any further queries or specific concerns you may have as we transition to this new email service.
LeanLaw is dedicated to supporting you and your firm through this exciting time of growth and innovation. If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to our support team or directly to me. We look forward to helping you make the most of these new features. Thank you for choosing LeanLaw, and we’re excited to continue our journey together in optimizing your legal billing experience.
