Transforming Your Law Firm’s Cash Flow
Philip Kelvin
VP of Product Strategy, Elite
Most law firms know only too well that delivering excellent legal work to clients doesn’t necessarily mean getting paid swiftly. Often, it can take months for firms to be paid after completing the work—with delays stemming from ensuring time has been accurately recorded to finalizing proformas and manually sending invoices out individually. Also, the lack of a straightforward system makes it difficult for clients to pay once they receive the bill or multiple bills.
Although law firms can create invoices digitally out of their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, plenty of other manual processes are still involved, requiring multiple people’s input along the way. This can lead to invoices being sent out in an unstructured manner and decentralized from finance and billing teams. Keeping track and making sure the payment matches the invoice when it comes back then becomes a huge task. That’s especially true when payments are not made electronically, which remains commonplace in some geographies like the United States where around 30% of invoices are still paid by check.
A major opportunity exists for law firms to turn this situation around and transform their cash flow by harnessing technologies that automate and streamline invoicing and payment processes—and as part of its ongoing commitment to help law firms evolve the way they work and improve operational efficiency, earlier this year Elite announced the acquisition of Tranch, a leading B2B invoice automation and payments platform which I co-founded.
Over the past few years, Tranch has been filling a vital gap in the legal market: providing seamless invoice management and turnkey payment options for law firms and their clients. Today, Tranch offers invoice delivery automation and a range of electronic payment options, including:
Pay Now via ACH and the Real-Time Payment network securely
Pay by Card where billing teams can also access virtual card terminals
Pay Later which allows a law firm’s commercial clients to pay in installments, giving clients a range of options while delivering immediate cash flow to law firms
By embedding Tranch’s products within the Elite portfolio of solutions, customers benefit from even more flexibility and choice and, together, these solutions make the work to cash process more efficient, connecting all the steps from end to end, resulting in faster payments.
Cash flow, client relationships, scope for growth, and ultimately profitability are all impacted by invoicing and payment processes at law firms, and with the number of lock-up days or days sales outstanding on the rise, addressing the final step in the collection cycle process—getting paid—is still an urgent priority at many firms. Getting the work completed for a client may have been a long road, but getting paid for that work doesn’t have to be.
Watch our on-demand webinar to discover how your firm can realize faster and easier payments.