As legal professionals, our expertise is best spent on client service and legal work, not administrative tasks like invoice customization. Yet, personalizing invoices is essential to maintaining the professionalism that clients expect from their legal advisors. Recognizing this need, LeanLaw is thrilled to introduce a new invoicing PDF functionality that promises to transform the billing process for law firms and professional service firms.
Introducing LeanLaw’s Enhanced Invoicing
LeanLaw’s niche has always been to cater to the specific needs of law firms. With the recent updates in invoicing software, like QuickBooks altering their format, we at LeanLaw understood the necessity for a specialized invoicing solution that addresses the unique needs of law firms—something that may not always be provided by general accounting software.
A Closer Look at LeanLaw’s Invoicing Features
LeanLaw’s invoicing settings now offer multiple templates, including standard, without rates, and without trust, to cater to different client needs and practice areas. For Pro users, the ability to utilize up to three templates is available, while Core and Pioneer users will have access to one. This level of customization ensures that law firms can create invoices that reflect their brand and communicate clearly with clients.
When setting up the invoice email, firms can incorporate their logo, which automatically gets included in the invoice template, lending a professional touch to every communication. The template settings allow for summary selections, including account summaries, retainer summaries, and hours. These summaries provide crucial information such as balances carried forward, payments, and new charges, keeping the client informed about their financial interactions with the firm.
The invoice template also updates dynamically, reflecting any payments made at the time of invoice creation or immediately after. This ensures that clients always receive the most current account status, reducing confusion and enhancing transparency.
Why This Matters
The quality of your invoices is critical. It represents the culmination of a month’s hard work and is the point at which firms request payment. An invoice that doesn’t match the professionalism of the services provided can leave a lasting negative impression. LeanLaw’s new invoicing PDF functionality addresses this by making the invoicing process more intuitive and reflective of a firm’s commitment to excellence.
With these advancements, LeanLaw is helping law firms reduce the time spent on manual customization and administrative tasks, freeing up valuable hours to focus on what truly matters—providing exceptional legal services to clients. LeanLaw is dedicated to continuous innovation, ensuring that its solutions evolve with the changing needs of law firms.
Enhancing Law Firm Invoicing with LeanLaw’s Advanced PDF Functionality
LeanLaw is committed to solving invoicing challenges unique to law firms, and our latest PDF functionality is a testament to that commitment. This feature tackles the common struggles that come with account summaries in traditional accounting software, like QuickBooks, and provides tailored solutions for law firms.
Tailoring Invoicing to Your Firm’s Needs
With LeanLaw’s new invoicing capabilities, your firm can now create custom retainer summaries that display the starting and ending retainer balances, along with evergreen retainer amounts when applicable. This level of detail, including whether to show or hide retainers or trust information based on its relevance to your firm or certain clients, is now at your fingertips.
Furthermore, the new hour summary feature allows firms to include the average rates for each user on an invoice, which is particularly useful for matters that involve multiple contributors.
Dynamic Invoicing with LeanLaw
A standout improvement in LeanLaw’s invoicing functionality is the accurate reflection of actual payments made from retainers. This dynamic aspect ensures that payments are reflected in real-time, improving clarity for firms that need to communicate delays between invoicing and withdrawing funds from retainers or trust accounts. It’s a forward step in ensuring that firms can accurately represent financial transactions on invoices, adhering to state-specific regulations.
Full Customization and Bulk Updates
Law firms are now empowered to define up to eight columns in the activity table to fit their invoicing preferences. Whether it’s adjusting the order of the columns, swapping ‘matter name’ with ‘matter ID’, or including ‘initials’ for personalization, the interface is designed for easy drag-and-drop functionality.
Additionally, firms that deal with frequent write-downs can now include a ‘write down hours’ column directly on their invoices, providing transparency on discounts or adjustments made.
When it comes to applying these customizations, LeanLaw allows for a streamlined approach. Whether setting a new default template or assigning specific templates to different clients and matters, the process is straightforward and efficient.
Consistency Across Platforms
While the invoicing interface in LeanLaw allows for intricate customization, it’s important to note that the appearance of invoices within QuickBooks will remain as currently styled. This separation means that LeanLaw can offer advanced features without being limited by QuickBooks’ styling constraints.
Customizing Client Invoices: A Deep Dive into LeanLaw’s Advanced Invoicing Features
LeanLaw’s advanced invoicing feature set is designed to address the unique needs of law firms, offering unparalleled customization for client invoices. This flexibility is particularly advantageous for clients who scrutinize the details of their bills.
Tailored Invoice Templates
With LeanLaw, firms can create multiple invoice templates to cater to different client preferences and requirements. For example, if certain clients prefer not to see the hourly rates but want to know the total amount, a customized template excluding hourly rates can be configured for them. This personalized approach can help firms maintain better relationships with their clients by respecting their preferences.
Easy Template Application
Changing templates for clients is simple. With just a few clicks, a firm can assign a new ‘standard’ template to a client, which will then apply to all future invoices for that client. This process streamlines billing operations and ensures consistency across client accounts.
Retaining Lead Information
The new invoicing system ensures that the essential lead information remains intact. Whether you enable new invoicing features or not, your leads file will continue to look the same. This means that the operational flow related to leads remains unaffected, ensuring a seamless transition to the new system.
Invoice Numbering and Schema
LeanLaw continues to support existing invoice numbering systems, so there is no need to change anything if you are already using a numbering schema. The system automatically picks up the existing invoice numbers, maintaining continuity and making it easy for you to find invoices in both LeanLaw and QuickBooks using the same reference.
Invoice Presentation
The new invoicing system has been thoughtfully designed to present information clearly and concisely. Every number now defaults to two decimal places, ensuring neat alignment and a professional look. Even small details like this are taken into account to enhance the overall presentation of the invoices.
Maintaining QuickBooks Compatibility
It’s important to note that while LeanLaw offers advanced customization for invoices, the appearance and underlying data of the invoices within QuickBooks remain unchanged. This means accountants or anyone else reviewing the QuickBooks will still see all the pertinent information, just not in the customized LeanLaw format.
Client Transparency and Professional Branding
The LeanLaw version of the invoice is optimized for client transparency and professional branding. Although QuickBooks remains unaffected by the new formatting, LeanLaw’s version allows law firms to offer their clients a clear, detailed view of their invoice while still maintaining the firm’s professional branding.
Getting Involved with Advanced Invoicing
LeanLaw’s advanced invoicing features are currently in early access, and firms interested in taking advantage of these capabilities can explore how to get involved. As the feature is rolled out to all users, the default template will be applied to all clients and matters, ensuring a smooth transition for firms looking to adopt this new system.
Revolutionizing Law Firm Invoicing with LeanLaw’s Early Release Program
LeanLaw is at the forefront of offering tailored invoicing solutions for law firms, and the launch of our Early Release Program is a testament to our commitment to innovation and customer-centric design. The program is an exciting opportunity for law firms to use invoices that are specifically designed to meet their unique needs.
Customization at Its Core
LeanLaw recognizes that one size does not fit all when it comes to law firm invoicing. That’s why we are giving firms the ability to personalize their invoices to an unprecedented degree. From the Retainer Trust Summary improvements to customizable columns with key data, the program allows for a degree of personalization that has the potential to drastically improve workflow efficiency.
Template Flexibility
Understanding the dynamic nature of law firms, LeanLaw is offering the ability to assign templates by matter, which is crucial for large firms or those where attorneys have varying preferences. This feature eliminates the need to go back and forth between QuickBooks and LeanLaw to change default settings, thereby streamlining the invoicing process.
Key Upcoming Features
Among the enhancements being made, LeanLaw is focusing on:
- Custom Field Support: Integrating case numbers, billing periods, and other key data from QuickBooks into invoices.
- Expense Amount Visibility: Enabling firms to show or hide individual expense amounts based on the need for transparency or privacy.
- Client Facing Custom Annotation Field: Offering the ability to summarize the work done in a clear and prominent text field within the invoice.
- Subtotal and Bisection: Providing clear breakdowns of expenses, entries, and fixed fees.
- Trust vs. Retainer Language: Allowing firms to reflect their actual practices accurately.
How to Gain Access
The program is available to core, pioneer, and pro users of LeanLaw. Access can be obtained by submitting or having an approved confido application. This ties directly into Lena line, LeanLaw’s robust invoicing system. Those interested in signing up for the early access can reach out to our support team for assistance.
Your Voice Matters
Joining the early release program is more than just leveraging advanced features; it’s about shaping the future of invoicing customization. Your feedback and suggestions will inform how LeanLaw develops solutions that will benefit thousands of users across the legal industry.
For those who choose to wait, the official release is slated for Fall 2024. However, those participating in the Early Release Program will not only benefit sooner but will also have the opportunity to have their voices heard and contribute to the evolution of LeanLaw invoicing.
If you’re ready to transform your law firm’s invoicing and have a say in the future of LeanLaw’s features, reach out to the support team at [email protected] to get started.
Navigating Your Law Firm’s Invoicing with LeanLaw’s New Features
LeanLaw is continuously advancing to meet the needs of modern law firms, and we’re excited to share the latest developments in our invoicing system that will benefit your practice.
Questions Answered: Your Invoicing Concerns
We’ve received numerous queries from our clients, and while we may not be able to address each one during our webinars, rest assured that all questions are recorded and will be followed up through email or our usual communication channels.
If you’re not seeing the invoice settings or features we’ve showcased, it’s likely because they haven’t been enabled for your firm yet. This is part of our early access program which firms can opt into.
Improvements in Trust and Retainer Handling
A standout question from a client concerned the payment from retainers and whether it shows up in drafts. Our new system ensures that the retainer summary will only display real payments made from the retainer on that invoice—offering clarity and precision.
Custom Field Support
For those looking to add matter names under the bill to section or adjust the width of the columns, LeanLaw is introducing custom field support. This feature allows for further customization of your invoices, tailoring them to the unique needs of your firm.
Downloading Invoices Directly
You still have the ability to download invoices from LeanLaw if you prefer not to email them. Our system offers a seamless print or download option for multiple invoices, maintaining the integrity and format you desire.
Visibility and Control Over Invoice Presentation
A question arose regarding the display of table fields on final invoices and their ability to accommodate lengthy descriptions. LeanLaw ensures that all content is fully visible, with the cell width adjusting to prevent any cut-off text, maintaining a professional look for your invoices.
Understanding the Timing and Application of New Features
There was some confusion about when these invoice features would apply to existing LeanLaw accounts. The timing of this rollout is set for the fall of 2024, and we are currently in an opt-in phase for this program. The new invoice format is designed to provide you with additional control and to avoid the changes that QuickBooks has made to their invoice formatting.
Access Based on Subscription Type
In terms of template access, those with a LeanLaw Pro subscription will have access to three templates, while Core or Pioneer subscribers will have one template available. This ensures that firms of all sizes and needs can benefit from our invoicing system.
A Future-Forward Approach
LeanLaw is not just responding to immediate needs but also looking ahead. The final availability of these features is targeted for the fall of 2024, and we are exploring the possibility of including these enhancements as part of subscriptions or as an add-on. We invite you to join our waitlist to stay informed and be part of our development journey.
At LeanLaw, we believe in providing tools that not only meet the demands of today’s legal practices but also anticipate the needs of tomorrow. Stay tuned as we continue to refine and enhance our software to support the success of your firm.
Streamlining Invoicing in LeanLaw: Clarity and Control for Law Firms
LeanLaw’s commitment to enhancing the invoicing process is evident with its latest updates, addressing crucial concerns and questions from law firms to ensure a seamless billing experience.
Clarifying Write-Downs and Invoice Editing
A recurring question from firms has been the visibility of write-down amounts on invoices. Currently, LeanLaw allows you to show the number of hours written down, and if the rate and the amount are visible, the total value of the write-down can be inferred. However, a feature request to display a separate line item for the total value of the write-down hours has been noted.
For those editing invoices, the process remains entirely within LeanLaw, with the system sending the information to QuickBooks. The LeanLaw version of the invoice reflects the firm’s desired appearance, while the QuickBooks format remains for accounting purposes.
Upcoming Features: Subtotals and Address Customization
In response to the demand for better subtotal functionality, LeanLaw is excited to announce that a feature supporting fee subtotals and expense totals is in the works. This addition will provide firms with more detailed and organized invoices. Furthermore, firms will soon have the ability to customize or remove the company email address from the invoice, with more flexibility anticipated in the upcoming month.
Enhancements to Invoice Attachments
The possibility of including attachments with invoices sent from LeanLaw has been a popular request. Currently, attachments added in QuickBooks will be included when the invoice is emailed from LeanLaw. Expanding on this, LeanLaw aims to integrate attachment capabilities directly from its platform, especially for Pro firms that will have the option to sync expense attachments automatically in invoice emails.
Consistency with Leads and Multiple Matter Handling
For firms concerned about their current settings with leads, LeanLaw confirms that invoicing with leads remains unchanged. Additionally, to address queries regarding the separation of expenses and services on invoices, LeanLaw clarifies that headers can be enabled in invoice presentation, which may result in splits for each matter on a client invoice. Firms invoicing for a single matter will not experience multiple splits.
Secure Payment Alternatives and Excel Detail Attachments
Firms have inquired about adding wire transfer instructions in the invoice memo section. While possible, LeanLaw recommends using their payments partner, Confido, for a more secure and seamless payment process. As for Excel detail attachments, LeanLaw ensures that such features will remain unchanged, and firms are invited to provide feedback during the opt-in early access program to ensure all necessary features are included before wider implementation.
LeanLaw’s dedication to providing a billing system that allows for customization, detailed reporting, and an efficient workflow reflects its understanding of the unique invoicing needs of law firms. With client feedback driving the development of new features, LeanLaw is poised to offer a more tailored and robust invoicing experience.
Exciting New Updates in LeanLaw: Streamlined Client Matter Management and Invoice Customization
LeanLaw is rolling out updates that promise to enhance the user experience with improved invoice customization and client matter management. The updated software will offer users the ability to opt-in to new features, ensuring that the transition is as smooth as possible.
Upon opting in, users will need to set templates for each current client matter. However, to streamline the process, LeanLaw is working on a solution to automatically add the default template to all clients and matters as soon as the feature is enabled. This will be in place before the feature becomes generally available, ensuring a hassle-free update for all users.
Users curious about the new features or eager to enable them can reach out to LeanLaw’s support team, who are ready to assist with enabling the update or providing necessary information. The goal is to ensure that everyone is comfortable with the new system and has direct communication channels open before widespread implementation.
LeanLaw is committed to addressing specific feature requests from firms and encourages users to communicate their needs. The team at LeanLaw is attentive to user feedback and is actively following up with those who have shown interest in the updates or have opted in via the product update newsletter.
If there are additional features that users are interested in that were not discussed in the latest webinar or included in the upcoming roadmap, LeanLaw’s team, especially Melissa from LeanLaw, is open to discussing these and finding solutions.
As the chats continue to be active with inquiries and feedback, LeanLaw is enthusiastic about addressing questions and ensuring users’ needs are met. The new functionalities are part of LeanLaw’s ongoing effort to provide a system that empowers law firms with more control, customization, and a streamlined invoicing process.
The team is thrilled to share these updates and remains dedicated to supporting users through the transition. For any unresolved questions or further information, users are encouraged to utilize the chat feature or email support at LeanLaw for comprehensive assistance.
LeanLaw is excited about the new functionalities and looks forward to enhancing the user experience. The team sends off with a message of gratitude and encouragement, inviting everyone to explore the new updates and enjoy the benefits they bring to the table.
