Attorney & Professionals Time and Billing Software with Task Based and Electronic Billing Capabilities

PRODUCTS - Time & Billing

FSLI’s Time and Billing software module enables firms to track fees and expenses, generate bills and collect receivables associated with those bills.  The software is multi-user and fully integrated with all other FSLI modules.  It is also capable of electronic billing, thus eliminating the need for a separate electronic billing software. FSLI products are designed for today’s Windows/SQL/Web environments.

FSLI's professionals time and billing software includes:Time Entry, Expense Recovery, Proof & Final Billing Options, Real-time Bill Editing Features, Automatic Bill Reversals, Task Based Billing and Electronic Billing. “Ask Priscilla” on-line video tutorials are available as a standard feature on selected programs. The Time & Billing module is designed to give firms all of the tools they need to effectively track and bill time & costs in a format acceptable to their clients.

Time Entry: FSLI’s system includes multiple Time Entry programs. PD Partner includes both a “Professional” version and a “Administrative” version of Time Entry.  The Professional version includes features designed for billing professionals such as timers, personalized speed codes (currently active files), duplicate, copy and paste, spell check and on-line narrative macros.  The “Administrative” version of Time entry contains many of the same features but lists multiple time entries on a page, much like a traditional timesheet, and does not display rates or billing values.

Both programs are designed to ensure fast and accurate input and include table lookups, on-line help and validation on required fields.  Automatic defaults are engineered into all input screens eliminating the need to re-key data in repetitive fields.

Logs are available on all transaction input.  Time entries that were incorrectly recorded to a client/ project/ matter can be globally transferred to the correct file at the touch of a few keys.  Missing time can be determined with the Missing Time Reports.

Transaction detail is available and can be used to generate an unlimited number of reports or inquiries. FSLI’s engineering philosophy demands the capture of the maximum detail at the lowest level.  By storing 42+ fields on time & expense records, your current and future reporting needs become a reality.

Billing: FSLI’s billing system can help firms respond to increasing client demands for unique and detailed bill styles, bill frequency and overall approach to billing for services.  The system can accommodate an unlimited number of bill styles that can be unique to client, project, matter, phase, task and sub-matter.  Quality bill formats can be produced directly from the system, eliminating the need to download to word processing.  Invoices can include as much or as little detail as needed and can include information on budgets, accounts receivable and escrow balances or transaction detail.

Electronic Billing - PD Partner makes Electronic Billing easy.  The system can export bills in any number of formats including: LEDES 98, LEDES 2000, Timetrix and others.  Any bill can be exported in a variety of file types including; text, rich text, PDF, MS Excel, MS Word or SCV.   The billing system can be configured to automatically e-mail client invoices as bills are generated.

The system will accommodate a variety of billing options including time & materials, task based billing, fixed fee, cost plus, job, advanced bills, fee award, retainer, contingency, percentage, split fee billing, expenses and time.  Invoices can be processed by unique firm-definable billing groups, at the client, project, case, phase, matter or sub-matter level, on demand, or on a regular basis.

PD Partner’s billing system has a wide range of criteria for defining and generating bills that can help the firm spread the billing workload more effectively throughout the month or across a distributed work environment.  Statements can be unique by client, project, phase, case, job or sub-matter and matter.  The flexibility in the FSLI billing process enables firms to gain greater control over who, when and what to bill.  This can have a significant impact on your firm’s cash flow.

Rates: The time billing software system includes unlimited rate capabilities which can include rates by any combination of clients, projects, matters, timekeepers, timekeeper classes, department, office, type of work and task codes.  Firms can further define employee rates to include standard, discounted, premium, negotiated, payroll multiplier, overhead plus or any other unique rate.  Rates are date sensitive so that as new rates are entered, they do not overwrite existing rates.  In that way, the integrity of the rate history is preserved.  Retroactive rate changes can be done at any time for a single individual, client, project, sub-matter, matter, transaction or range of these and other criteria.  Rates can be adjusted via a limited access supervisory screen and through the FSLI Write-Up-Write-Down bill editor program.  Firms can use the existing FSLI rate-oriented reports or create any number of unique reports to track the effectiveness of billings.

Other Features:

Lookups - FSLI’s Time & Billing Module includes on-screen lookups, help functions and table validation throughout the system.

Field Lengths - The software accommodates up to 15 alpha-numeric characters for client number and matter number  for firms who have large client bases or unique numbering requirements.

Clients / Matters - Referred to as “KeyField Records”, these records include both required fields and a large number of firm definable fields that are useful in billing and management reporting.  Additionally, there are four levels of key fields that can be named by your firm.  For example, a traditional general practice firm may use only client and matter nomenclature, where as an international IP firm may use client, matter, region and country.  Under this scenario, any number of countries could be rolled up into a regional bill.

Contacts - Master files also support an unlimited number of contacts which may include the client’s name, title, phone number, extension, and e-mail address.  E-mail lists may be generated from within the PD Partner KeyField program.

Multiple Addresses - Each master file can have up to four addresses.  The labels for these addresses are definable at the firm level.

Unlimited Origination Splits - Each file can contain an unlimited number of originating attorneys, each with their own percentage of origination credit (provided of course they all add up to 100%).

Split Billing - FSLI provides a global transaction transfer program designed specifically for split billing scenarios.  You can split time and costs among as many parties as needed for billing purposes.  Once transactions are split and posted under the new client matter number, as an option, they can be re-rated automatically.  Each transaction carries the original full value of the transaction and the current client’s distributed total to satisfy even the most complex split billing invoice styles.

Automatic Rounding  - Both Time Entry programs provide an automatic rounding feature that ensures time transactions will be rounded up to the nearest minimum firm-specific increment.  As an example, if the firm standard is 6 minute increments and an attorney turns on the time for 1.5 minutes the timecard will be valued at 6     minutes or 1/10 of an hour.

Unlimited User Defined Fields  - At both the KeyField and the Employee level, PD Partner provides the ability to customize an unlimited number of firm definable fields.  For each field, the firm can designate the label, the type and even validation variables.  The ability to define custom fields will ensure PD Partner meets the ever changing information tracking and reporting needs of your firm.

Conclusion: A law firm’s inventory is its time.  Proper tracking and billing of this inventory is vital to the success of the organization.  When considering a solution, ask yourself: Does the product meet my needs today?  Does it solve my current problems?  Will it continue to meet the firm’s needs as they change over time?  For over 23 years, users of our Time & Billing system have been able to answer yes to all of these questions, making it the ideal attorney time and billing software.