Financially Legal

Have you ever experienced sticker shock while shopping for legal case or practice management software? Have you ever opted for lower-cost software to run your firm, because you just couldn't stomach the expensive option? Maybe you have even tried to cobble together solutions to stay under free trial limits?

Confido Legal: Embedded Finance for Legal 

In industries like retail, software developers have great tools to embed payments into their applications. These engineers create powerful, seamless payments experiences for consumers and the businesses from which they buy. But things aren’t quite so seamless for law firms. Law firms have specific financial needs: 

• Multiple bank accounts
• High dollar transactions
• A variety of payment methods; and 
• Strict rules of professional conduct that govern how money is handled 

These idiosyncrasies prevent legal technology engineers from using best-in-class embedded payments tools. That’s where we come in.  

Expanded transaction handling in GraphQL API. 

This month we have some significant updates to our GraphQL API. 

As the legal tech industry undergoes rapid transformation and modernization, software developers are constantly seeking methods to enhance their applications and boost efficiency. Integrating online payments into complex legal case management and billing systems has long been a significant challenge in the legal tech domain.

Introduction

Why do you have to submit so much information when applying for a payment processing account? There are two reasons:

1. The government enlists payment processors to help combat financial crimes. As a result, processors are required to take certain steps to verify the legitimacy of a firm.
   
   
2. When a firm accepts online payments, financial risk is created for both the firm and the payment processor. Processors ask for documentation on the firm to help prevent these losses. 

Recently, Confido Legal teamed up with CPA Academy to host an informative webinar on optimizing accounts receivable and collections processes for law firms. This session provided practical strategies and tools to improve collection rates and streamline cash flow. With a focus on the Collections Optimizer, participants explored various billing models and table stakes items that contribute to enhanced collection rates. In this blog post, we'll delve into the highlights from the webinar and uncover the valuable insights shared.

Today we spent some time testing the new plugins feature for ChatGPT. Specifically, we took a look at the Zapier plugin, which allows you to connect thousands of apps and their Zapier Actions to ChatGPT. Of course, we used the Confido Legal Zapier Actions as our test case. 

For law firms looking to automate firm-specific processes, customize workflows and provide a highly tailored client experience, Litify is the platform. Built on Salesforce, Litify combines the flexibility of the cloud’s most powerful CRM with a dynamic, legal-specific toolbox to transform your firm into an efficient, collaborative growth machine. 

If you invest a dollar into your law firm, what do you expect to get back?

Why is the answer to this question so important? It helps you decide what initiatives to pursue and what initiatives to cut. It also tells you whether you are building the right financial opportunity for yourself and your partners. If you are only getting a dollar out for every dollar you put in, you’d be better off keeping that dollar. If this is the case, it’s time to rethink the firm’s strategy and take a closer look at the financial “leaks” in the business. 

Wire transfers are a common method of accepting payment for law firms, but they can be risky for both your firm and your clients. This article outlines the dangers and downsides associated with accepting wire transfers and best practices for avoiding these traps. 

The two most controversial topics for law firms related to client payments and collections are:

1. Should law firms charge credit card fees to clients?
2. Should law firms hire a collections agency to recoup long outstanding accounts receivable?

We have published substantial information to help you make a decision on on whether to charge card fees to clients but very little on navigating the collections agency conundrum.

We at Confido Legal strongly believe that firms and clients benefit most when firms offer clients a variety of options to pay. Firms invest significant dollars to get clients in the door. It’s a waste of those resources to have a would-be paying client walk out the door simply because the firm doesn’t offer payment plans (i.e. doesn’t want to be the client’s bank), the client doesn’t have a credit card, or because the firm won’t offer third-party funding.

The decision to hire a collections agency is a difficult one, and although most law firms are collections curious, the majority of firms we talk to have not hired one. That said, the feedback from law firms who have hired an agency is pretty darn positive. 

Immigration law firms have unique billing practices. Most immigration firms we encounter either predominantly or exclusively put clients on payments plans. These plans involve the client entering their payment information so they can be automatically billed on a regular schedule until a specified dollar amount is reached.

Do you have practice management or accounting software that does your trust accounting? Great. This post is NOT for you.

Let's face it. Most bankers have no idea what an IOLTA account is. These types of accounts are an afterthought - one of those banking products that gets little attention. We hear horror stories of banks regularly debiting fees from IOLTA accounts or sending erroneous overdraft notifications to the Bar. We recently spoke to a firm that had to call their bank to speak with a real live human being every time they wanted to check their IOLTA balance. 

We believe lawyers and law firms have the power to change the world. Every day we interact with lawyers making positive change, sticking up for the underdog and expanding access to the justice system. But we recognize there can be tradeoffs between pursuing these aims and paying the bills. 

Millions of business use QuickBooks as their accounting platform. From sole proprietors to large corporations, from cobblers to manufacturing firms, QuickBooks users come from all corners of the business world. With QuickBooks serving such a diverse set of clients, there are certain industries and business types with unique accounting needs that QuickBooks doesn't fully support out-of-the-box. Law firms fit into this category.  

Trust or IOLTA accounts evoke feelings of fear and frustration. Untangling trust accounting mistakes can devour precious hours, and the risk of running afoul of the rules of professional conduct is constant. Yet for all the bad, retainers (in particular evergreen retainers) are one of the top ways to improve your firm’s collection rate. With collection rates averaging around 85% according to the 2021 Clio Trends Report, collections is a major financial drain on the legal industry.  

Whether a client unilaterally decided not to pay your firm, or you made a legitimate mistake in your billing process, disputes or chargebacks on credit card transactions do occur. The card brands have processes in place for settling these disputes, and this article outlines the actions your firm can take after receiving notice of a chargeback. For information on how to avoid chargebacks, see How to Protect Your Law Firm from Chargebacks.

Although electronic payments are not relevant for every firm, most law firms do at least a portion of their business by issuing ongoing invoices. For these firms, the data is clear: Electronic payments matter.

Subscriptions were the name of the game when Dan Lear recently chatted with Houston Estate Planning attorney John Strohmeyer, the namesake of Strohmeyer Law, on John's podcast, Five Star Counsel.

Allison Williams, the Law Firm Mentor, helps law firms grow and reach their full potential. Her podcast, Crushing Chaos, tackles all sorts of issues lawyers face while working to grow their firms. 

Even with the effects of COVID still lingering, we as attorneys have an opportunity to make 2021 our firms' best year yet. Join Confido Legal and law firm financial consultant Devon Thurtle Anderson of Skepsis Technologies as we explore the unique opportunities 2021 offers for law firms. We'll discuss how firms can seize these opportunities to realize both short and long-term growth. Spoiler alert: Our strategies don't require raising rates or working more hours! In fact, we specifically recommend against that.

Some of the topics we'll cover include:

Zapier is a no-code platform that helps businesses and individuals automate work by connecting different applications. But don't let "no-code" fool you. There is a learning curve associated with Zapier. This post explains the basics of Zapier and how it works with Confido Legal. If you want to go one level deeper and see some examples of legal-specific Zaps as well learn more about the "why" of Zapier, check out our recent longer-form post on automating legal payments with Zapier.

A chargeback is a credit card processing term for a transaction that is processed successfully but is later reversed. This article is focused on how to limit chargebacks before they occur. If your law firm has already received a chargeback notification, see How to Dispute a Chargeback for Law Firms.