Any successful attorney and practice manager knows that behind every good law firm is an excellent staff.
But in today’s competitive market, attracting and retaining top talent can be more challenging than ever.
Finding the best people to join your practice has become increasingly competitive, particularly in the area of billing coordinator jobs and accounting specialists.
Key Takeaways
- Having a highly-skilled and dedicated accounting department is going to make all the difference to a law firm’s long-term success and reputation.
- Attracting and retaining the right people for your accounting needs will mean that your firm will need to offer excellent incentives in order to compete in today’s market.
- A strong benefits and salary package, a positive work environment, remote work opportunities, and top rated billing software that makes their jobs easier will all be attractive features to any employee who is looking for billing and accounting work with your firm.
Individuals with strong legal billing experience are in high demand and the pool for the most qualified candidates is limited.
Not only that, but people who are seeking positions in billing, timekeeping, bookkeeping, and other administrative tasks have high expectations when it comes to workplace culture, good benefits packages, work schedule flexibility, and the tools that the are provided with to get their jobs done well.
Law firms must find ways to stand out in a competitive job market and be able to offer attractive incentives to find and retain the best staff possible, especially in their billing department.
In today’s competitive legal landscape, a law firm must constantly seek ways to attract and retain the top talent in the legal billing field. Attorney and their clients rely heavily on having the right billing specialists and accounting staff to ensure that billable hours are captured and recorded properly, that client billing is accurate and timely, and that trust accounts are reconciled correctly and according to industry standards and state bar guidelines.
If your firm is committed to finding and keeping the top talent on your team, there are a number of things you can do now to help make that possible in the future.
What Are the Benefits of a Highly Talented Accounting Department?
Having a highly-skilled and dedicated accounting department is going to make all the difference to a law firm’s long-term success and reputation.
Not only will the right people be able to increase your firm’s efficiency and accuracy, but they will also have extensive knowledge of new technology that’s introduced, such as e billing software or practice management software legal systems, and will understand the ways in which e billing can make a huge difference in time saved and profits gained for a quickly growing law firm.
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As more attorneys and legal practices begin to embrace the benefits of e billing and all the ways in which it can be used, having an intelligent and well-trained e billing team is going to be key to your firm’s ability to stay competitive…especially in a world where understanding and using technology is no longer an option but a necessity.
How Can My Firm Best Attract the Best Team for Our Accounting Department?
In order to find the right people to create the best accounting department, attorneys and their practice management team will need to consider a number of factors that have become increasingly important for employees.
From competitive benefits packages and salaries to flexible work schedules and remote work options, a law firm will have a much higher chance of attracting the best legal specialist or legal billing coordinator if they can offer some combination of these to any prospective employee.
1. Make Sure to Offer a Competitive Benefits Package and Salary
In today’s market, employees are more likely to look for jobs that provide them with a robust benefits package than ever before.
In fact, according to a recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management, over 40% of employees ranked good benefits as an important factor when considering their overall job satisfaction.
Not only that, but the same study showed that over 30% of employees stated that they would have no problem leaving a position for one with a stronger benefits package, even if the salary was unchanged.
From health insurance and retirement plans to paid time off and bereavement leave, more employees than ever before understand the value of the benefits a company can offer them.
For your law firm to be able to appeal to a strong legal billing specialist candidate you will need to put good thought into what types of benefits you are currently offering and if they are competitive with industry standards.
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Salary is important too.
In order to find out what the current salary expectations of a billing manager, billing coordinator, timekeeper, CPA, or billing specialist is in your area, start by researching salary data on websites such as Glassdoor, Indeed, or Salary.com.
These websites provide salary estimates based on location, experience, and other factors. You can also check with local staffing agencies or professional organizations in the legal industry to get an idea of the going rate for legal billing coordinators in your area.
Additionally, networking with professionals in the legal billing field or asking colleagues in your network can provide insight into the going rate for various law practice staff positions in your area.
2. Provide a Positive Work Culture
Providing a positive work culture in a law firm is crucial for all your employee’s satisfaction and retention.
Working in a law firm can be rewarding but challenging as well. Particularly for those in the billing department, when their workload is especially high, the need to wear multiple hats can negatively affect even the most skilled and resilient employees.
Take for example, the beginning of the month. Most firms send out their invoices the first week and this can put an enormous amount of pressure on your billing department, as they scramble to get everything sent out at once.
IOLTA inflow and outflow accountability
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Request a DemoFrom demanding clients to multi-layered workflow, those who work with accounts receivable can experience burnout quickly if a positive work culture isn’t put in place by those in charge.
Make sure that everyone in your firm is aware of the regular demands that are placed on your billing coordinator and/or your billing staff.
Making sure that there is open communication, mutual respect and an environment that encourages questions and rewards for quality work is going to make the overall experience much more pleasurable for your billing staff and result in your employees not only liking their job more, but producing higher quality work as well.
3. Provide the Best Legal Accounting Technology Possible
All of us use technology daily. From setting alarms on our phones to asking our car’s navigation systems for directions, software applications have become part of the fabric of our daily lives.
The same holds true in a workspace. As employees become more comfortable with using and trusting technology to help them complete a myriad of daily workflow tasks, providing your staff with the latest and most innovative ways in which to get their jobs done is going to be highly attractive to any potential employee, especially those who work in the billing and accounting department.
Good legal billing software will make life much easier and more rewarding for your e billing employees by streamlining everything from monthly invoices to processing payments and reconciling trust accounts.
Not only that, but good legal billing software will also allow for a huge reduction in errors and time wasted.
Take, for instance, a legal billing software system like LeanLaw.
A law firm that decides to integrate LeanLaw into its tech stack of practice management tools will find that its entire accounting department will be able to easily generate client invoices, track time and expenses, and record billing attorney hours in one organized and easy-to-understand software system.
Legal billing software made easy.
For Everyone
LeanLaw is the legal billing software for law firms built on QuickBooks Online that makes running a profitable law firm straightforward and simple for everyone involved.
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Trust accounting
Reports & Compensation tracking
Legal billing
Matter management
Time tracking & expenses
Client experience
Plus, LeanLaw can help automate many of your billing department’s ongoing monthly billing tasks.
The software can also generate reports and analytics, giving billing managers and managing attorneys better insight into the financial health of the firm.
Additionally, LeanLaw is designed to integrate with other essential law firm tools, such as case management software and document management systems, further increasing efficiency and reducing the need for manual data entry.
Sophisticated but simple-to-use software is going to make a big difference in your accounting department’s overall efficiency as well as your staff’s productivity and peace of mind.
Highly-skilled employees who are looking for legal billing coordinator jobs are looking for firms that have the type of technology that will help them do their job well. Investing in software like LeanLaw sends a signal to your potential employees that you value their time and workload.
4. Find Ways to Allow Billing Specialists to Work Remotely
Allowing your legal accounting staff to work remotely may be one of the biggest job perks a law firm can offer today.
Remote work has been proven to increase employee satisfaction and work-life balance, leading to improved morale and decreased turnover rates.
According to a 2019 survey conducted by Owl Labs, 75% of remote workers have reported having a better work-life balance, while 91% said they felt more productive when they could choose to work from home.
These numbers have only increased post-pandemic.
Remote work also offers the potential for cost savings for a law firm by reducing overhead expenses associated with maintaining a physical office space for all its employees. And thanks to advancements in billing technology (like LeanLaw’s cloud based legal accounting software) remote billing staff will have no trouble accessing the tools they need as well as the documents necessary to get their work done accurately and well.
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Being able to work from home has never been easier with platforms like LeanLaw. Implementing this type of legal billing software is going to save your firm money while giving your legal billing employees the flexibility that even the best benefits package simply can’t offer.
LeanLaw: The Tool to Help Your Top Talent Survive and Thrive in the Changing Legal Industry
When you have decided that it’s time for a change in your legal accounting software, reach out to LeanLaw for a free demo that can better show you what our legal accounting system can bring to your practice.
From helping your staff create electronic invoices to implementing ways to record billable hours, designed for legal billing increments, and track time, LeanLaw is the software solution that legal accounting departments everywhere have embraced as the best tool yet for maximizing profits, reducing overhead, and creating an environment that potential employees everywhere will be proud to work for.
