best practices for client billing - pa …（客户账单的最佳实践u2014u2014爸爸u2026）.pdf

BEST PRACTICES FOR CLIENT BILLING Ellen Freedman, CLM © 2008 Freedman Consulting, Inc. Most attorneys understand that their bills have the power to convey or confirm an image of the firm to its clients. However, many fail to understand j ust how that occurs. As a consequence, opportunities to maximize the advantage of an important client communication are often missed. Many firms also overlook many other essential elements which are part and parcel of the best billing practices. What follows is not a fully comprehensive accounting of all of the best billing practices; you may want to review Drafting Bills Clients Rush to Pay by Jay Foonberg for a more comprehensive look at this topic. RECORDING YOUR TIME Ask any consultant, and he or she will confirm that failure to record time contemporaneously can cost you upwards of 40% in shrinkage. The simple fact is that when you try to recollect what you worked on, and for how long, even if only a day later, your accuracy will suffer. Small increments of time are easily lost, and they can add up to big dollars and a huge gap between hours worked and hours recorded, by the end of the year. Along with loss of time come the inaccuracies which are inevitable – some clients will be charged for more than the time worked, and some occasionally charged for time worked for an entirely different client. Of course, the ethical implications are obvious when the time recorded and charged may be -- is likely to be -- inaccurate. I’m almost embarrassed to acknowledge how many attorneys I come in contact with who still routinely create their timesheets using a “hindsight method” at the end of the month, despite readily available tools to make contemporaneous and accurate recordings. Why their firms still tolerate a practice which is clearly flawed and inaccurate is beyond me. Every attorney, ev