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Bill4Time Staff

Bill4Time is Excited to Announce a New Growth Investment from Francisco Partners

October 13, 2021 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

Today, Bill4Time along with the broader Paradigm team is thrilled to announce that we have teamed up with a new investment partner, Francisco Partners, to drive further innovation and growth within our product, team, and infrastructure. With more than $25 billion in assets under management and a track record of investing in more than 300 technology companies over the last two decades, Francisco Partners is one of the most active and longstanding technology-focused investment firms in the world.

This news is especially exciting as it allows us to double down on our commitment to you, our customers. With Francisco Partners’ financial support and extensive expertise in software and payments, we will be able to accelerate the pace of innovation within our world-class product while continuing to provide you with best-in-class customer service to help you manage, automate and grow your firm.

We are extremely grateful to our customers and the industry at large for helping us reach this milestone. We are proud to continue serving you as we embark on this new chapter together.

You can read the complete press release, here.

Filed Under: Blog

Spotting the Best Legal Practice Management Software

August 19, 2021 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

Typically, when customers are in the market for a particular type of software, they compare features. Tools with the largest feature-set, best reviews and the lowest price typically win. However, approaching software with a “less is more mindset,” you can find the best legal practice management software that your firm needs to improve performance. 

Why less is more with legal software

The vast majority of customers want more; it’s completely understandable. They’re focused on getting the most value for their money. They want a reliable provider who’s interested are aligned with their own. Features are a good indication of that, right? 

It’s actually the opposite. Features and benefits are a fantastic way to sell software to customers on the front end, but it’s a surefire way to lose them on the back end. 

There are a variety of unexpected factors law firms need to take into consideration. A large feature set exacerbates these problems, because they: 

  • Increase transitional pain due to the longer onboarding and training times needed to get up to speed
  • Large features spread the ROI out across the features. You’re getting 20 percent of your results from 80 percent of the features. It should be the opposite. 
  • More features mean it’s harder for your timekeepers to learn, which means they’re less likely to use it. Timekeepers are forced into no-win scenarios. Hitting their billable hours for the month or learn to use the software you’ve paid for? 
  • If your timekeepers are focused on learning how to use all of the features in your software, they’re not producing billable work. That also means your utilization rates are poor. 

All of this from a bloated features list. But most legal customers want a “robust feature list!” How can software providers and law firms get what they want? 

Start with a core set of features 

These are the important features that enable law firms to get their teams up and running in minutes. Time tracking, billing, invoices, calendaring. 

The legal industry is complicated. A good software provider, like Bill4Time, will keep things simple, using conventions your timekeepers are already familiar with and work to minimize downsides. Here’s a simple list of dos and don’ts you can use as a guide.

Your software won’t: 

  • Complicate your work unnecessarily 
  • Decrease the ROI you’re supposed to receive from your firm
  • Overcomplicate things for your employees or timekeepers, they’ll be able to jump in quickly
  • Won’t keep your team from working on the details that matter (e.g., billable hours, tasks, events, invoicing, etc.)

Now let’s take a look again at a real-life example of software that makes these mistakes. 

Poor Software
Don’t let a feature bloated software slow you down

This customer review, and others like it, show that this particular software provider has made all four of these mistakes. How do we know this? Look at the quote at the bottom of their review.

“This program literally has the potential to cause your business to fold, because it is impossible to evaluate success and change your process accordingly without robust, reliable reporting features.” 

Imagine being sold on a tool for your firm and experiencing this kind of outcome. Can you blame this law firm owner for being so upset? 

The best legal practice management software minimizes your problems

Customers want more features. Legal software providers should give their customers more features – at the appropriate time. As a legal professional, you’ll want to focus your attention on providers who can do two things: 

  1. Provide easy onboarding 
  2. Minimize transitional pain and unnecessary confusion

It’s a counterintuitive approach, and it’s one the best practice management software providers use often. Search for a provider with a “less is more” approach. Test their claims out for yourself. You’ll find the best software providers are eager to show you what their tools can do for your firm. 

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Filed Under: Blog

Law Firm Website Tips: 7 Ways to Attract the Right Clients

August 16, 2021 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

If you found yourself searching for law firm website tips, you understand the value a strong website has on your clients impression of your law firm. Client decision making is a process. Your clients all need the same ingredients to make their decision. When your website provides these ingredients, clients proceed to the next step. When they’re missing, clients raise objections or they walk away. 

Your clients use this unspoken decision-making process to determine whether your firm is a good fit for them (or not). Work with them and you’ll attract the kind of high-quality clients your firm deserves. Ignore these ingredients and you’ll repel them. 

Let’s take a look at the top 7 law firm website tips that will create a steady stream of prospective clients.

Tip #1: Targeting clients precisely

If you’re a savvy attorney, you’re targeting clients who meet three simple criteria. 

  1. They want your services.
  2. They’re able to pay for your services. 
  3. They’re willing to pay for your services. 

Simple, right? Any client who fails to meet these criteria should be disqualified (i.e., removed from consideration as a possible client). Finding answers to these questions requires research – sitting down with clients, surveying clients, running split tests, etc.

How does your website fit in? Your website lays out the information that gets clients to qualify or disqualify themselves (i.e., real estate is our only practice area). 

Tip #2: Amplifying your client’s problems

Your clients have problems.  Many of them prefer to ignore these problems, to put them off until completely necessary. When they finally arrive on your doorstep, these clients expect you to create miracles on their behalf. Sometimes you can, and sometimes you can’t. 

When it comes to your client’s problems, your website should do several things well. 

  • Explain their problem fully. 
  • Grab their attention immediately (i.e., 90% of fathers lose custody of their kids when they make this mistake)
  • Outline the emotional weight, suffering and loss associated with their problem. 
  • Amplify the consequences of the problem (denial, for most clients, is a self-protective measure that needs to be addressed)
  • State the outcomes clearly if they do something vs. do nothing. 

Here’s why this is crucial. 

  • Problems create stress and anxiety
  • Hiring you gives them a solution and begins to relieve that stress and anxiety

You’ll want to lead with your client’s biggest problems. 

The problem/solution paradigm isn’t the only method, but it is one that gets clients to see their problems as you do; a serious issue that requires their immediate attention. 

Tip #3: Make the solution easy 

Do you provide cognitive fluency? Not sure what that is? You’re in good company. Cognitive fluency is defined as: 

“Cognitive fluency is the ease with which we process information to generate an understanding of what that information means. This ease or difficulty refers not only to the experience of a task or instruction itself, but the feeling people associate with that task.” 

Here’s what this means. 

EasyHard
Three blind mice,
Three blind mice
See how they run.See how they run!
They all ran after
The farmer’s wife,
She cut off their tails
With a carving knife,
Did you ever see
Such a sight in your life
As three blind mice?
A trio of sightless rodents,A trio of sightless rodents,
Observe how they perambulate, Observe how they perambulate;
They all pursued the agriculturalist’s spouse,
Who severed their caudal appendages with a carving utensil.
Have you previously observed such a phenomenon in your existence
As a trio of sightless rodents? 

The “easy” version of our three blind mice story worked well because it increased cognitive fluency. It made the story easy to read, so it took less effort, mental energy and processing power. This applies to visual, written and auditory content. 

Communicating with simplicity, clarity and preciseness means your website easier to process. 

Tip #4: Answer client objections 

It’s common for firms to run from their client’s objections. Questions like “How much does this cost” or “What’s your hourly rate” seem to be avoided by firms until it’s absolutely necessary. Many firms do their very best to avoid client objections until they’re able to get them in for an in-person meeting. 

They hope they’ll be able to “close” them anyway. Most of the time, these clients move on, preferring to work with a firm that faces their objections head-on. 

Why does this happen? 

Objections are the inevitable part of business development and marketing that gets worse if you run. We all make objections to protect ourselves. Objections keep us safe. They protect us from making a mistake (and the embarrassment that follows). When we decide anything, we do our best to justify that decision in our heads. Objections are part of the justification process. We want to be sure we’re making the right choice.

Your clients are no different. 

Your clients may have objections about your trustworthiness, pricing or the timing of the engagement. They may be disinterested but unwilling to tell you. But these objections, whatever the case, need to be addressed fully. Contrary to popular belief, objections aren’t the enemy. 

Tip #5: Online reviews borrow trust

Reviews answer the question of trustworthiness. Online reviews from both happy and unhappy clients painted an accurate picture of the relative trustworthiness of your firm. These reviews have a significant impact on your firm’s sales and revenue.

Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center analyzed 57,000 reviews from anonymous consumers and 65,000 reviews from verified buyers of more than 13,500 unique products in diverse categories. Their findings mentioned reviews could increase conversion rates by 270%!
Imagine that! A 270% lift in the number of clients signing up with your law firm. 

Tip #6: Risk reversals remove buyer’s remorse

Josh Kaufman, author of the book, The Personal MBA, describes a risk reversal this way: 

“Risk Reversal is a strategy that transfers some (or all) of the risk of a transaction from the buyer to the seller. The seller agrees to make things right in advance if the purchaser doesn’t end up satisfied. Risk Reversal is a great way to eliminate some Barriers to Purchase.

This strategy may be feel uncomfortable to the seller as well, because no one wants to lose. The difference is that a seller can spread that risk among many customers. The customer can’t do the same.

By eliminating the risk of purchase, you’ll close more sales and eventually make more money than what you’ll lose if some customers take advantage of your generosity.”

Pretty self-explanatory, right? To be fair, this is much more difficult in the legal industry but it can be done. This can be done in a variety of ways: 

  • Promises: Our clients have 24/7 access to an associate who’s working on your case
  • Warranties: 10 years 100,000 mile warranty
  • Guarantees: We’ll return your call within 30 min. or we’ll pay you $500
  • Free consultation: We’ll provide you with a free consultation if you’re able to…

I’ll cover this in more detail in future posts. 

Tip #7: Uniqueness shows clients you’re the only firm for them

A strong value proposition meets four distinct criteria in your client’s mind:

  1. I want what this law firm is offering
  2. I can’t get this specific offering (or combination of offerings) anywhere else 
  3. I’m able to understand their message
  4. I truly believe you and your law firm are trustworthy.

If your value proposition doesn’t meet all four criteria, you don’t have a strong value proposition. It takes a significant amount of time to come up with something truly unique. The good news is this: a strong value proposition is created; it’s not inherent. 

Here are some examples in other industries:

  • M&Ms: Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.
  • Dominos Pizza: You get a fresh, hot pizza in 30 minutes or it’s free. 
  • FedEx: When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight

These are classic examples. These businesses drew a line in the sand; they decided to stand for something significant. Something that meets all four of the criteria I’ve laid out above. 

These law firm website tips will attract clients

Provide clients with the resources they need, and it’s easy for them to say “yes.” Ignore these details and you inadvertently repel clients, pushing them away from your firm. 

By using the law firm website tips, you’ll find that more clients are attracted to your firm, value proposition and quality of service you provide.

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Filed Under: Blog

How Your Business Can Stay Productive During the COVID-19 Pandemic

March 23, 2020 By Bill4Time Staff

How Your Business Can Stay Productive During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Through the evolving situation and abrupt changes brought on by COVID-19, we at Bill4Time are committed to providing you with consistent service. For those who have been displaced from your regular work space, we understand that the changes to your business can be disorienting. 

We are here to help you get the most out of features that will be particularly helpful in this remote work environment. 

Working remotely with Bill4Time throughout your day

As you move away from your dedicated office space, it’s important to stay organized. Make sure that all information relevant to your business is being tracked, added, updated, and reviewed in Bill4Time. 

Stay on track with the dashboard 

Use the dashboard cards to organize essential information at a high level. To keep your daily routine intact as you work remotely, review your billable hours, recent time entries, updates to matters, and whatever else helps you keep that critical info top of mind.

Keep track of the time you spend working

Don’t lose time while you are working from home. Use the timers to make sure that every second spent working is accounted for.

Give your clients the option to pay electronically

Clients will want to know that you remain dedicated to their needs, even as business generally slows across industries. Sending electronic invoices to your clients via email will re-assure them that you are still working hard for their best interests. Keeping them informed virtually also reduces in-person contact at a time when we are all being encouraged to stay home and avoid travel.

Use bookmarks in your browser to quickly access key reports

Set up bookmarks for your most used reports and review them frequently. Some key reports might include Account Balance, Balances, and User and Client summaries. Set a time on your calendar to review these reports at the beginning and end of your day. Familiar processes like this create structure at a time when normal structure has been upended.

We’re here to help

As the entire Bill4Time team works remotely to curb the spread of COVID-19, we want you to know that our services are fully operational. We are fully devoting our attention to the quality of your service, and continuing to protect your data in Bill4Time with the best security standards in the industry.

We will continue to provide you with reliable, high quality customer service during these uncertain times. Our customer support team is committed to helping in any way possible and continues to be available from 9AM to 7PM EST, Monday – Friday via phone, chat, or email.  

Filed Under: Blog, In The News

A Bright Year Ahead for Bill4Time

January 6, 2020 By Bill4Time Staff

 

2020

From all of us at Bill4Time, thank you for your continued support as we head into a new year together. We’re inspired by the work that you do everyday for your clients and are so honored that you’ve chosen Bill4Time to support your practice.

For us, each year is all about you – our legal and professional services community – and every second, minute or hour we’ve helped save your firm, so you can practice more and manage less.

We invite you to reflect on 2019 with us and share in our excitement for what’s to come in 2020.

Best wishes,
The Bill4Time Team 

 

We’ve been building.

Last year was a foundational year – we focused on infrastructure and working behind the scenes to set up for an innovative 2020.

Quick, at a glance metrics.

Bill4Time's Dashboard

Based on your feedback, we launched an exciting new dashboard to bring you key information and business insights, all in one place. With seventeen new, unique views, you can quickly enter time and expenses, see recent entries or get a snapshot of your accounts receivable. 

 

 

An intuitive mobile application.

Bill4Time Mobile App

You spoke, and we listened. Our iOS and Android apps were completely redesigned for a cleaner, more intuitive look. We also introduced new summaries and charts to track your billable hours and give you a quick snapshot of your daily, weekly and monthly progress. Whether you’re in the office or on the go, we keep you connected.

 


We’re ready for 2020.

We’re excited to bring you more time and billing efficiencies, new audit trails and new possibilities through integrations.

 

Increased workflow efficiencies for time and billing.

Increased work flow

We know what we do best and we know you agree. In 2020 we are doubling down on time and billing with enhanced workflows, a simplified user experience, and a more intuitive customer experience.

 

Powerful new reporting.

Powerful reporting

In 2020, we’re delivering new audit trails to help with tracking and security, so you can rest assured that your line-items are always in line. Additionally, we’re building new reporting capabilities to give you easy access to your current clients, open projects and outstanding receivables.

 

 

Premier integrations, endless possibilities.

Endless possibilities

We’re adding more integrations so that you can connect to your favorite apps, or even discover new ones.  Our roadmap includes robust, yet simple to use integrations that will allow you to work the way that you want to, all in one place.

 

 


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Filed Under: Blog, News, What's New

New Feature Set – Task Management: Tasks and Task Workflows

August 28, 2018 By Bill4Time Staff 4 Comments

Update 10/9/2018: 

Task and Workflows is now out of beta. The features are now available. Bill4Time customers on the Time & Billing plan now have access to the ‘Tasks’ feature. All higher-tier plans now have access to Tasks _and_ Task Workflows.

To upgrade to a higher tier please reach out to Bill4Time support.

Bill4Time Task Management Features

Your company’s operations consist of tasks that must be completed on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis to ensure that it runs smoothly. If these processes aren’t standardized, you’re inviting chaos and ambiguity into your firm’s operations. Every business, including law firms, can benefit from developing a structure to their most common actions and procedures.

Bill4Time’s Tasks and Workflow templates feature is designed to make keeping track of your top-priorities simple and straightforward. Beginning with an individual task, you can define the scope, methods, and provide detailed instructions, for an action needing to be undertaken – and then assign that task to be completed on behalf of a client and delegated to an associate.

Some projects have several moving parts and may be better captured among several tasks that are to be completed in a specific sequence – this is where Task Workflows are used. A Task Workflow is a group of individual tasks that are a component of an overall project. The individual tasks contain bite-sized actions that incrementally contribute to the project. These individual tasks may be sequenced, prioritized, and assigned across teams to ensure the proper resources are utilized for each task.

 

Matter Tasks Screenshot

Once a Task Workflow is created, it can be used again for a new project of the same type. By designing a standard workflow of tasks for projects that involve performing similar actions, you’ll know the concise status for a project and can then determine if an important document has been researched, drafted, and whether your firm is on track to meet a deadline.

 

As an experienced practitioner, you know that while each client may be unique – their projects can often be handled in the same way. Even though you’re designing a workflow for projects you expect to handle similarly, the Task Workflows setup allows you to account for variations in the client and project. So if you need to observe a holiday, an expedited time frame, or delegate beyond the norm – Bill4Time’s Task Workflows feature enables you to apply a workflow and override the template of tasks to better align each task to any unique needs of a project.

Every task — especially those you’ve delegated — requires rules that define the scope, quality, and methods to be followed. If you don’t standardize these rules, you can’t have visibility over whether you’re ensuring quality and reducing human error. Standardization means that your employees have an established, time-tested process to use. When done well, standardization can decrease ambiguity and guesswork, guarantee quality, boost productivity, and increase employee morale.

Filed Under: What's New

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