Getting paid on time

Bill on the same day every month

At Fairlie & Co. we used to bill whenever a lawyer found the time. Some matters went three months without an invoice, and clients were surprised by the total. Now every open matter with unbilled work is reviewed on the first business day of the month.

A fixed billing date gives clients a rhythm and gives lawyers a deadline. It also makes cash flow much easier to forecast. Lawyers now finalise their time in the last week of the month because they know the date is coming, and our average debtor days went from 64 to 31 in the first year.

The review itself is short. Each lawyer opens their draft invoices, checks narratives and write-downs and approves them. A partner reviews anything over a set amount or anything with a write-off. Bills go out by the third business day, and the whole firm knows it.

It also changed how lawyers record time. When everyone knows the bills go out on the first business day, nobody wants to be the one whose time is still missing. Our unbilled time at month end dropped sharply in the first quarter.

Make the invoice easy to pay

• Narratives a client can understand without calling you

• A clear due date, 14 days in our case

• A card and bank payment link on every invoice

• Any trust funds applied, shown on the invoice, so the client sees what is still owing

Since we added payment links, about half our invoices are paid online, most of them within a week. The link removes the step where a client means to pay and forgets.

We also stopped sending invoices as attachments from a lawyer’s own inbox. They now go from Filebird with the payment link, and a copy sits on the matter. When a client says they never received an invoice, we can see when it was sent and when it was opened.

For larger bills, offer a payment plan before the client has to ask. A plan agreed at the start is far more likely to be kept than one negotiated after a reminder. Record the plan on the matter so the reminders follow it rather than the original due date.

Transfer from trust properly

Where you hold money in trust for costs, the rules on when and how it can pay an invoice vary by jurisdiction, including what notice the client must receive and how long you wait. Check your law society or state bar’s requirements and write them into your billing routine, step by step.

In Filebird, the transfer is recorded against both the client ledger and the invoice. Our bookkeeper sees it in the next daily reconciliation, so nothing waits until month end to be explained.

Handle queries before they become debts

Most overdue invoices are not about money. They are about a line the client did not understand or a total they did not expect. Treat a query as the start of a conversation, not a delay tactic.

• Call within a day of the query, ideally the lawyer who did the work.

• Explain the entries in plain language before offering any discount.

• If a write-down is fair, make it quickly and send a revised invoice the same day.

• Record what happened on the matter, so the next bill avoids the same problem.

The most common query we see is about a single entry the client did not recognise. Better narratives prevent most of them, which is why the narrative review on billing day matters as much as the totals.

A reminder schedule that works

1. Day 0: invoice sent with payment links.

2. Day 7: a friendly reminder with the link again.

3. Day 15: a reminder noting the invoice is overdue.

4. Day 30: a call from the responsible lawyer, not another email.

5. Day 45: a review with the partner on next steps.

The first three are emails we schedule when the invoice goes out. The call at day 30 matters most, because by then the reason is rarely forgetfulness. It is usually a question about the bill that nobody asked out loud.

Keep the tone of every reminder neutral and attach the invoice each time. A client who has lost the first email should not have to ask for it, and a polite message makes it easier for them to raise a query than to ignore you.

Scheduling the reminders in Filebird means they go out whether or not anyone remembers. The lawyer only steps in at day 30, when a personal call is what the situation needs.

Watch the right numbers

We track three numbers every month, and the partners see them on one page.

1. Debtor days: how long, on average, invoices take to be paid. Ours went from 64 to 31.

2. Unbilled work in progress by lawyer, so time does not sit on matters for months.

3. Aged debtors over 60 days, by client, so the day-45 review actually happens.

Each one points to a different fix. High debtor days mean the reminder schedule is not being followed. High work in progress means billing day is being skipped. A long aged list usually means a few clients who need a conversation, not more emails.

We look at the trend rather than a single month. One bad month is usually a large invoice to a slow payer. Three bad months in a row means a habit has slipped, and it is easier to fix before it becomes the norm.

Talk about money early

The firms with the lowest debtor days are not the strictest. They are the ones that talked about costs at the start and kept the client updated as the estimate moved.

Ravi Kapoor, Billing specialist, Filebird

Send a costs update whenever a matter is likely to run past its estimate. A client who has been warned usually pays. A client who is surprised usually disputes.

We also ask lawyers to mention the coming invoice on any client call in the week before billing day. It takes one sentence, and the bill then arrives as expected rather than as news.

What changed for us

A year on, the difference is less about cash and more about calm. Billing day is predictable, lawyers know what is expected of them and the month-end scramble has gone. Our bookkeeper spends her time on exceptions rather than chasing paperwork.

None of it needed new rules. It needed a fixed date, invoices that were easy to pay and a schedule that everyone followed, partners included.