Billing Formats for Clients for Communications & Media Made Easy

Billing formats for clients for Communications & Media

hi I'm Paul Osborne and I'm pleased to have the opportunity to visit with you about billing for the last 37 years I've practiced with affirm by the name of Ward Murray pace in Johnson which has offices in Sterling and Dixon in the northwest corner of the state we currently have 12 partners and two associates but I'm also blessed with eight of counseled and retired partners who are some of the best lawyers and teachers I know they always taught me that billing was like every other client contact an opportunity for positive communication my particular areas of practice include banking and transactional law where I advise a number of community banks and credit unions and I also practice some family law those two areas of practice have provided me with opportunities to view a number of bills that other attorneys send to their clients and I'm always shocked by how little information other attorneys provide to their clients and how little they seize the opportunity for positive client communication if you want to see the effect that positive client communication has on clients take a minute to view my Avvo profile Paul Osborne you'll see the reviews that my own clients provide and inevitably they focus on my communication with them for example the bills that I see from other attorneys often have entries like phone conference with other counsel for tense or court appearance eight-tenths how simple it would be for those time entries to provide a greater narrative that explains to the client exactly what was done for example telephone conference with opposing counsel regarding delays in turnover of tax returns or income documentation for tense or court appearance for the entry of a case management order setting deadlines for completion of discovery eight-tenths when you provide the narrative that explains what you did you not only are effectively positively communicating with your client about the progress and status of the case you're giving them the opportunity to understand how you are providing value to them you know I used to have a landline and I got a bill from AT&T that would have 14 line items on it not a single one of those line items ever expressed to me how I was getting value from retaining that landline we all know AT&T had data on me how many calls I received how many calls I made but none of that information was in the bill after I got another $44 monthly bill I finally gave up and terminated the landline don't let your clients terminate you one other tip about billing how many of you are still using snail mail to send out your bills think about what your clients have to go through they have to write a check get an envelope address the envelope buy a stamp put it in the mail just so you can get paid all of us these days get two kinds of bills the snail mail bills that we put in a pile and maybe get around to by the end of the month and electronic bills that have a link to allow us to pay immediately when you convert your system from snail mail to electronic billing you will thank that guy from the is be a quick takes when you get paid the same day you send out the bill I'm Paul Osborn thanks for paying attention to this is be a quick takes to access more isba resources on best practices in billing visit the ISB a practice HQ website you