Clients Want More Than LEDES Files Submitted Via their eBill Vendor: eBilling the Other Requests
Backup and Support Documentation Requests
Legal eBillers and Billers do much more than hit submit when submitting LEDES. Not providing certain information can cause nonpayment of an invoice, or a client's system audit will block the invoice from being transferred to the client until the information is provided or accepted.
Corporate clients often request support documentation to be submitted with a LEDES file. Support documentation requests may range from a PDF copy of the invoice to itemized receipts for approved expenses to confirmation of no costs or all of the above. A PDF copy of the invoice must be formatted according to the client's preferred format. One must have the correct information and enough discernment to determine what should not show on the invoice template. Backup is also known as receipts for legally incurred expenses, and in rare instances, backup is required to support some fees as well. Itemized receipts are generally preferred, and some clients want to see a PDF copy of the invoice and backup for expenses with every invoice. Even if there are no expenses on an invoice, one may be required to submit a piece of paper confirming the same.
Submitting Timekeepers, Rates, and Staffing Matter Plans
More often than not, clients want to know exactly who is working on their legal matters. What timekeepers have you assigned for a legal project? Several ebill systems simultaneously allow the submission of a timekeeper and a rate for client approval. The rate is effective for a specified period, regularly one year. And a new rate must be submitted for approval every year. Other ebill systems allow the submission of a timekeeper as a request for authorization to work on an organization's matters. Then a rate is typically submitted once the timekeepers have been approved and active on a client.
Some ebill systems require law firms to submit all timekeepers simultaneously, even if there is an addition to the team months after the engagement and timekeepers have been actively billing the client. For approval, the client may ask you to submit a fee offer, including all timekeepers' names, rates, and sometimes years of experience. Several corporations will only allow first-year or summer associates to bill on some issues.
A Staffing matter plan can be challenging to provide, as it may be as specific as projecting exactly how many hours each timekeeper will be during the life of the matter and/or agreement. If this is not calculated correctly, a firm may run the risk of nonpayment for services rendered.
Matter IDs, Matter Creation, and Updating the Matter Profile
Just as matters are created in a legal time and billing system at a law firm, matters are made in the corporate clients' legal operations department and their ebilling system. For a law firm to bill a matter, they must either have the client's matter ID in the law firm's LEDES file, or the law firm matter ID must be added to the client's matter in their ebill system or both. Matter IDs work like a lock and Key, and both parties should have both numbers for their records.
Specific ebill systems require the law firm to create the matter for billing in their ebill system before invoices can be issued. And other systems allow corporations to turn on system audits that require law firms to populate certain matter information before they can bill the matter such as the expected amount of time to complete the work or close the matter, including a file or application number, etc.
Budgets, Purchase Orders, Status Reports & Accruals
Submitting timekeeper rates and staffing matters plans are only some ways corporations can monitor the legal work being provided. They can also either give an electronic budget that the law firm has to accept or approve, or they can request a law firm to submit a budget for approval. Budgets can be created for a particular billing period, the matter's phase, or the matter's life.
Purchase orders(POs) or digital purchase orders are often created by corporations that confirm they are requesting services at least up to the amounts provided in the PO. Once the PO has been maxed out or the firm has billed all the allocated amounts, a new PO can be requested or created.
Some corporations want to inquire about the work while the work is ongoing. A status report may be digitally requested regularly to see if there has been a change in the status of the matter. For example, if a firm was hired to file a patent application and the application has been abandoned, the law firm may continue to bill their client for the work that was completed; however, there has now been a change in the status of the matter, and the client wants to be informed of the status.
An accrual estimate estimates incurred fees and expenses during a specific period or billing cycle. A client may request monthly or quarterly accrual before an invoice is issued. And if the accrual estimate needs to be more accurate or close to correct, the law firm again runs the risk of nonpayment of services rendered.
The possibilities of what a corporate ebill client can ask for via an ebill system are endless. They may even ask a law firm to accept the billing guidelines in an ebill system before invoices can be submitted. To learn more about Billing Guidelines' importance, Billing Teams Must Read Outside Counsel Guidelines before setting up a client account for ebilling.
There is a lot to monitor while ebilling high-profile corporate clients; as seen here, several factors can cause rejections other than timing, LEDES formats, and descriptions.
Smart eBill Team is equipped with the knowledge and a team with over 500 years of combined ebilling experience to help legal billing professionals and legal and operational Team maneuver through intricate ebill systems and complete tedious ebilling transactions. Don't hesitate to contact Smart eBill Team to learn more about our services today.
