Attorneys need to present a professional image in everything from office decor to physical appearance to correspondence. Every letter or invoice produced by your attorney time and billing software sends a message about your firm and you don’t want that message to be, “I’m running this business out of my mom’s basement until my fast food career takes off.”
A professional image can be bought just like you bought the high quality furniture in your office. However you didn’t simply pick furnishings at random. You wanted to create an authoritative atmosphere but you also wanted to put your personal stamp on it. How can you adopt the same strategy with your lawyer billing software?
- Do It Yourself – You can create your own manual invoices and correspondence, taking information from your legal billing and accounting software. This is slow, inefficient, and requires that you have design skills most attorneys don’t have.
- Stock Letterhead – Stationary and office supply stores will sell you “customized” letterhead, and by customized we mean they will print your name on one of a handful of standard templates. Your letters look just like the correspondence of every other attorney, real estate agent and plumber out there.
- Hire Consultants – Just as people hire you for your legal expertise, you can contract with someone who understands document design to create a unique letterhead. Unfortunately this often means companies that impose their idea of professionalism rather than listening to your thoughts. Plus these consultants are not cheap, and you have to pay them again every time you need to change your documents.
- Buy The Right Software – The flexibility of modern computers allows firms to use time and billing software for lawyers to create a professional and unique look to their invoices and correspondence. You start with high-quality document designs but can customize them as needed. This can be something as simple as adding your practice’s logo or as complex as completely designing every line on an itemized invoice.
Not all billing software offers the capability so be careful. Check out time billing software reviews to ensure that feature exists before committing to a product. Easy TimeBill comes with a built-in editor that allows you to tailor our professional-looking documents to meet your needs.
