Billing & Invoicing is a vital and essential part of any business, especially when it comes to transparency with the clients. We all want to build a trustworthy relationship with our clients and provide a fair and straightforward service.
Earlier working professionals used to spend a substantial amount of time in maintaining invoicing and billing in the traditional method.
That not only included overwhelming paperwork but with countless tasks around, tracking time manually was also difficult.
Luckily, that’s where time and billing software comes into the picture.
Make most of your billable hours and non-billable hours
With the software, time tracking and billing become an easy process, you can give your clients a clear report of your billable hours.
This article will briefly explain how billing works and how to track time, what are the key features of billing and time tracking to look into software as well as a list of the best time and billing software available in the market.
What is Timekeeping and Billing Software?
Whether you are a working professional or an owner of a small business, we all want to have a better understanding of our work time. While working on a certain project or task, there are countless other duties to look at that’s where we lost the track of our billable time.
For the business to prosper, we should have a fair record of the amount spent at work and how much of it can be billed and conclusively presented to the clients.
If we look at billing methods, there are two types of billing-
- Flat rate – employed by law firms and solo practitioners who charge a fixed amount of rate per case, no matter how much time was spent on completing it;
- Hourly rate – employed by law firms and solo practitioners who charge on an hourly basis on the time spent on any case.
When looking for legal billing and timekeeping software, one should ensure that he or she is selecting the software which has features for both flat-free and hourly billing, so that they can generate invoices without restrictions. Those who aim to bill per hour are usually professionals working by certain skills like designers, freelance writers, accountants, attorneys, paralegals, etc.
Now let’s move forward with the need for the software as mentioned above. Manually maintaining hordes of bills and invoices is very stressful and hectic, technology has given us an option to automate our tasks to regain focus on more important tasks.
To automate billing, you will need time tracking and billing software. But how will you know what to choose?
The following section should help you identify what kind of time and billing software would work best for your particular needs.
What are the key features to look into in timekeeping and billing software?
Once you start looking for time and billing software you are bound to hit a rock – which one is the best because there are infinite choices in the tech market.
While time and billing software depend on which sector you are working in, there are some key features that need to be checked out for having the best option in hand.
In the section, we’ll give you more info about the features of billing and timekeeping software and why you need them.
1. Task Assignment
The software you select should allow you to divide your project into tasks, schedule them, and track time for everyone.
Since not everything you are doing is going to be billable time, you would like to be ready to differentiate between work that you simply can charge, and therefore the one you can’t.
Secondly, if you’re managing a team, you’ll want the power to line up different rates for every team member, assign them tasks and projects.
2. Time Tracking
Once you’ve assigned the tasks, the software should help you to trace the hours spent on the project. If it has a choice to mark the task as being billable or non-billable, it would be a great assistance. it’ll only help in creating the final reports.
What’s more, you’ll need the choice to trace these hours across multiple projects or clients. After all, only a few professionals have one project at a time on hand, and it’s tough to keep track of all of them simultaneously.
3. Billing Reports
The sole purpose of tracking time and billing is to fairly charge for time spent for the legal services which your law firm provides. Billing reports assist you to create accurate invoices and be completely transparent and clear-cut with your clients.
Any professional and full-featured software will give you the choice of making a billing report at the end of your case. With billable and non-billable hours displayed in a graph, a spreadsheet, or a document, it’ll be much easier to prepare an invoice and obtain additional insight into your workflow.
Additionally, on an off chance that a client wants to avoid paying you fully or has a problem with the charge, you’ll use it to contest their arguments. consider billing reports as a security net in extreme cases by showing them in clear the billable hours you have charged and the non-billable hours which you haven’t.
4. Invoice Creation
After creating a billing report, you’ll have a way easier time making an invoice.
Not each piece of software will have invoicing included in it, and lots of those software companies choose to partner up with a service like PayPal, Payoneer, or LawPay.
5. A Stable Mobile App
You and your team (if you’re employed with one) will get the foremost out of the software if it offers a mobile app also. Apps usually have a way simpler interface and are more accessible, thanks to the restrictions of smartphones.
6. Affordability
It’s only natural that you’ll want to have an advantage over the price
When it involves choosing the simplest software for your business, you’ll want to seek out people who offer a minimum of free trials.
For example, CaseFox gives a lifetime free trial with limited users with all features.
These six features can make or break a time and billing software, and now that you simply know a touch more, let’s see the list of top-notch time and billing software
The Best Timekeeping and Billing Software
1. CaseFox
CaseFox is a legal software ideal for attorneys and any professionals who need their invoices and expenses more in-depth. Apart from having all features of regular time tracking tools, CaseFox offers trust accounting, a client portal, case management, detailed reports, calendar management, and much more. CaseFox is affordable yet packed with a box of features and world-class customer service.
| Task/ Client Assignments | Yes |
| Time Tracking | Yes |
| Billing Reports | Yes |
| Invoice Creation | Yes |
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Pricing | Basic Plan comes for Free- Forever |
2. Bill4time
Bill4Time legal practice management software helping law professionals to streamline their day-to-day service. With invoicing and time tracking also gives other features like calendaring, task management & others. It is a solution for all sizes of firms, apart from the basic features it provides advanced features with the higher-priced plan.
| Task/ Client Assignment | Yes |
| Time Tracking | Yes |
| Billing Reports | Yes |
| Invoice Creation | Yes |
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Pricing | Free trial, with paid plans, only starting at $27. |
3. Toggl
Toggle is a well-known time tracking software that with time tracking offers payroll management and employee activity monitoring. It is more focused on the productivity side of things, helping identify wasted time, as well as any potential for improvement in your time spent.
| Task/ Client Assignment | Yes |
| Time Tracking | Yes |
| Billing Reports | Yes, with limited options in the free plan |
| Invoice Creation | No, but there are invoice app integrations |
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Pricing | Free plan + paid plans for full features |
4. Paymo
Primarily a project management tool, Paymo may be a solution to several small and medium businesses’ troubles with keeping project tracking and billing in one place. It’s an honest time and billing software for freelancers thanks to the free version, while teams will need to choose one among the paid plans.
| Task/ Client Assignment | Yes |
| Time Tracking | Yes |
| Billing Reports | Yes |
| Invoice Creation | Yes, 3 in the free plan, unlimited in the paid plan. |
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Pricing | Free plan + paid plans for full features. |
5. Clio
Clio is a case management software basically made for attorneys, accountants, lawyers, and paralegals. With time tracking and billing, it also provides a bunch of other features like client portals, CRM, calendar management, etc. It comes with separate plans with a suite of features but the plans are feature restricted like if you want all the features incorporated then you need to switch to the highest plan.
| Task/ Client Assignment | Yes |
| Time Tracking | Yes |
| Billing Reports | Yes |
| Invoice Creation | Yes |
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Pricing | 7 days free trial after plans starting at $39 |
Conclusion
Choosing the best time and billing software will mostly depend on your or your company’s need for the software. Depending on the size of your company, the number of clients you are dealing with, and what’s your priority is when it comes to invoicing and billing and still if you are not sure go for the software which comes at an affordable price with the most features .