When it comes to managing your practice, it can feel like there is a lot on your plate. It is not only practicing law and everything that comes with it that you have to worry about. You also need a solid billing system to continue to fuel your law firm with money coming in on a regular basis. For smaller firms, this can feel like quite the balancing act. The question then becomes what to do about your billing.

Some attorneys choose to outsource their billing to a bookkeeping agency. Outsourcing can carry a sizable price tag. You also lose that real-time view of your finances within your practice. For a young small firm, this could be detrimental to your business growth. Most business coaches will tell you that your law firm’s success depends on knowing your numbers.

That is why a lot of attorneys choose to use law firm billing software. With the right legal billing software, you can keep everything in-house and even hand it off to an office assistant if needed. That is because good legal billing software will make the process and accounting powerful and easy. What makes legal software good? It is kind of like a suit. You can buy plenty of suits off the rack in a department store. But a good suit is tailored just for you. In the same way, a good legal e-billing software will be tailored specifically to the legal industry. It makes such a difference to have invoice templates and expense tracking that is formulated precisely for attorneys. You will also want to look for law firm billing software that is highly rated with consistent user reviews. One of the best legal billing software options available is BigTime.

Legal Billing Software For Small Firms

BigTime provides the best legal billing and invoicing software for small firms. Since it is industry-specific, you can manage all of your projects with ease. You can also be sure that you are not missing any billable hours. In addition to flexible invoicing, there is one more important differentiator between BigTime and other billing software for law firms. BigTime is legal billing software that integrates with QuickBooks.

As a legal billing software for small firms, BigTime is rated 4.6 out of 5 stars by QuickBooks Users. It is an official Intuit-Integrated Application that seamlessly syncs with QuickBooks Online and Desktop. You can even use the Intuit cloud within BigTime to transfer data. This means that data migration, timesheet tracking, clients, and projects can all be synced easily between the two platforms.

BigTime makes it easy to integrate by adapting to your existing settings in QuickBooks. This eliminates any need for double data entry between the two platforms. You can also choose to import all of your company-specific labor and expense codes from QuickBooks. This will automatically link imported codes to their QuickBooks counterparts. It also allows administrators to delete, create, and re-link an expense or labor code as needed.

This kind of seamless integration with QuickBooks is a powerful feature for any legal billing software for small firms. BigTime gives you the option to import things like timesheets and invoice history from QuickBooks. This allows you to control what data is imported and exported to customize project views. You can also set up a specific time period or client if you do not want to import all historical data.

While you can always choose to bill your clients through either platform, BigTime’s legal software provides law firms with the tools to effortlessly create LEDES 1998B invoices with just a few clicks.

Stand Alone Legal Billing Software

If you are a law firm that is looking for simple legal billing software, then you are aware of how different your invoices are than any other business. No matter the size, law firms follow a unique billing format when you compare it to any other industry. Legal billing forms are known as LEDES 1998B invoices. BigTime gives you the tools to easily create these invoices. Even if that is the only thing you used BigTime for, it would be worth it. Of course, this legal billing software is way more robust than that. Just because it is simple does not mean it is not incredibly powerful. That is what makes BigTime such a popular option as stand-alone legal billing software. It is so easy to use and at the same time anything but rudimentary.

The American Bar Association (ABA) recently published an article on how even simple legal billing software can ensure you get paid. They stress that especially during trying times how important it is to have stand-alone legal billing. This means that you can access your accounting anywhere at any time. This allows you to continue your practice, as usual, no matter where you are working from or what is going on in the world. But whatever stand-alone legal billing software you choose, the ABA stresses that you also make sure that you can trust your firm’s data with that software platform. They recommend that during your vetting process, you find out how your firm’s data will be handled, who will have access to it, and how that company will back it up and where. They also mention the cloud-based legal particle management software Clio as a comprehensive all-in-one platform for client intake, case management and billing and payments.

Clio Billing Software

Clio legal software is one of the leading cloud-based legal practice management solutions on the market today. Regardless of your law firm’s size, Clio is there to help you in every area of your practice. They enable law firms to track and manage clients and cases from intake all the way to billing. So whether it is client-facing management or internal business and accounting operations, Clio manages everything.

The Clio app even segments between practice areas such as personal injury law, civil litigation or criminal defense. Clio legal software is available as a full suite, or in the two different service options of growth or management. Clio Grow is your client intake and CRM software. It is the add-on platform option that handles things like client intake, relationship management and workflow automation. Clio Manage is your legal practice management software, and comparable to BigTime, is the main offering platform option that handles things like billing, case management and time, and expense tracking.

In a lot of ways, Clio Manage is similar to BigTime. They both do a lot of the same industry-tailored functions of billing and time tracking. They both integrate with QuickBooks. Clio is a bit of a giant within the legal billing software world. They will work with any firm no matter the size. BigTime has more of a personal touch and prides itself on working with smaller firms. Without surprise, one of the most glaring differences between the two legal billing software offerings is their pricing. Clio’s pricing starts at $39 per month and goes all the way up to $125 per month, with unlisted enterprise packages. BigTime’s pricing starts at $10 per month and goes all the way up to $40 per month. BigTime is also the #1 rated Professional Services Automation software in customer satisfaction by G2 user reviews.

Best Legal Billing Software

At the end of the day, what makes the best legal billing software is whatever option you find that works best for you and your practice. You know the way you work best and nobody else knows your business better than you do. As you continue to research and learn more about the many legal billing options available to your law firm, do not forget to read the reviews. Just as you have worked hard for your reputation, you will want to make sure that the software platform you are choosing for your practice has a good reputation, too. It's also vital that the legal billing software that you select is continuing to improve their products and services offerings, to remain relevant in an ever-changing industry.

G2 is one of the best places online to search through reviews from real users and compare companies and products. For being an industry leader and for their size, it is surprising to see that Clio has a little over 250 reviews. This one-star review claims that “Clio is forgetting its customers”, while this no-star review details how it was a “Nightmare to convert.” In contrast, BigTime is the #1 rated in its field by G2 user reviews. They do not have any one-star or no-star reviews. Their customers praise them for their “Outstanding customer support” and “Great product at a great price”.

BigTime and Clio are only two of many choices out there when it comes to law firm billing. Almost all of them have comparable foundational offerings. Just as there are so many attorneys out there available to hire, the best legal billing software is always going to be the one you feel the best about trusting with your future.