Timeframe and TranslatorHQ

Billing quick wins How you bill your clients makes a big difference to cash flow. The way you bill has everything to do with how payment will be made. Are you giving your clients an easy excuse to not pay you?   1. State the payment terms Firms traditionally offer credit easily. Whilst new clients are accepted through a risk analysis process the voice of the Credit Controller is not heard enough. These processes should identify potential risks through references to available searches and past history including the firm’s own records. Before you offer credit make sure you agree and negotiate the terms of payment. You do not have to accept the 30 days from the end of the month the invoice was received. You are allowed to ask for a shorter term. What is important is that the client understands the terms and agrees to these terms before you start the matter. As a reminder, always ensure that the payment terms are listed on every bill. State the actual due date wh...

Embracing AFAs? - By Reda Bennani, Consultant We all agree that most major change initiatives—whether intended to boost quality, improve culture, or reverse a corporate death spiral—generate half-hearted results. While the use of Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFA's) is rapidly growing, with variations likely to become as common as hourly rate billing, there are ongoing debates about their implementation based on law firms’ needs, their changing business model and their willing to track budgets and deliver a world-class service.   Clients have been “pushing” law firms into joining them in adopting better business practices and reduction of their historically high profit margins.   These same clients have been embracing the innovative realm of AFA’s that have been bringing value “SAVING MONEY” and delivering results with “NO FUSS”. While there are numerous AFAs types, processes have not been established on how to implement these new billing models by the vendors. Law fir...