Confronting Common Mistakes in Managing A/R: It's Time to Face Up to Facts

All talk, no action. That would be a good description of the way some firms choose to address (or, more accurately, NOT address) their accounts receivable issues. There are various problems and stories behind A/R numbers that can delay payment, and there may not be anything that can be done about them. But do not assume that is typically the case.
Frequently, firms are not doing a good job at collecting their A/R, but they cannot admit it, or they are unsure of how to move forward or where the problems lie. Or they believe -- in error -- that they are doing a good job and the money will just begin rolling in. Take time to recognize some common misconceptions and the reality behind them:

• Most attorneys collect their bills timely and efficiently -- Actually, attorneys are most concerned about servicing their clients and are not giving a lot of thought to when they are going to get paid. Moreover, they are not held accountable for not collecting receivables and they are given too much autonomy.
• Clients understand payment obligations -- Cilents are smart. Because they realize that lawyers and law firms are poor A/R managers, it is they, rather than the lawyers, who dictate when -- and, sometimes, if -- they will pay. Be as smart as your clients and factor that into your thinking.
• Collection problems begin when receivables age past 90 days -- Yes, many clients have their own policy dictating when they pay their bills. But if you have not been paid within 30 days, you've gotten the first sign that you may have a collections problem.
• Clients will call if they have a problem with your bills -- Some clients will, in fact, be quick to call if they perceive a problem. Most, however, will not because they are uncomfortable talking about money, they are confused about the bill and services, they are unprepared for the amount they owe or find themselves unable to pay.
• Administrative staff is in place to help manage and collect our A/R -- Do they have other accounting duties and/or are they spending their A/R time mailing reminder statements, generating reports or attending to attorneys' requests? They must have the expertise, desire and time to do the job. And their work must be measured by how many contacts they make daily and how many dollars they are collecting, especially the older accounts.

Understanding and addressing some basic misconceptions won't solve all your ageing A/R problems, but it will help your firm move forward in the right direction. Learn more on our web-site at http://www.clientci.com/

AR Management - Start 2016 Strong

The business environment has evolved. Mindsets have changed, as have business practices. Because law firms are doing business in a different world, it also requires that they routinely communicate with their clients about unpaid bills to ensure timely payment or resolve problem issues. Although some clients have set rules of when payments will be made, firms must institute regular, steady, professional follow-up of unpaid bills to secure dates of when payment can be expected to help guide future follow-up. By showing clients that the firm is regularly contacting them and monitoring their payment status, they will learn that you are well-aware of their bills and that you expect payment.

At this time of year, frequent questions we hear include:

How do we make our collection efforts a priority throughout the year instead of waiting until the last couple of months?

Throughout the year, stop tolerating “good clients” who don’t pay their bills. Although waiting until year-end may work for some institutional clients, many clients require effort throughout the year. Be realistic about whether the firm is underachieving in its collections goals and has developed bad collection habits.

How should we evaluate administrative staff dedicated to managing and collecting our A/R?

Do not evaluate your staff on how well they keep the attorneys happy by getting them copies of bills and reports; anybody can do such administrative work. Instead, determine:

• What age group of receivables are they working?
• Are they successful with good-paying clients that just need reminding, or are they making collecting older, difficult accounts the focus of their efforts?
• How many direct contacts are they making daily with clients?
• How many accounts are they handling?

And, most important:

• How many actual dollars are they collecting (especially the older, difficult accounts that continue to age)?

How can we overcome the backlog of our older, difficult A/R?

There must be dedicated, consistent efforts, with status reports going to the leadership of the firm to ensure progress is being made. Typically, firms focus their efforts on those clients that pay timely and avoid working with older accounts because they take time and are often not pleasant to deal with. Consistent follow-up efforts are the key to making progress with these types of accounts. Law firms are making a big mistake if they think these types of receivables will be paid without working closely with clients and letting clients know their account is being monitored.

We invite you to learn more on our web-site at http://www.clientci.com/

Law Firms May Face Worse Collections Crunch This Year

Sure, you have heard that warning from us before.

But now a recent article in The American Lawyer predicts that 2015 may prove to be a tougher year for collections than 2014 was. The article cites a report by Citi Private Bank's Law Firm Group, showing that firms took longer to convert entries on their timesheets into cash in the first three quarters of 2015, compared with 2014. The report says that revenue growth for law firms has also slowed this year, suggesting that there could be an especially large collections push at the end of this year. Gretta Rusanow, who heads advisory services at Citi's Law Firm Group, says that realization rates at law firms dropped during the years after the 2008 Great Recession, and they have not yet fully rebounded. Pre-2008, realization rates were around 94%; now the industry average is closer to 86%.

So what can you do to see that the firm is taking every possible step to ensure December ends on a high note?

• Start the month off by meeting with attorneys to determine what help they need getting their accounts collected. Don't just drop in -- schedule a meeting in advance to go over their A/R and find out how you can give them some hands-on help.
• Get payment commitments from clients who are expected to pay by year-end and the exact date when payments can be expected. This information should drive your follow-up collection effort. This is very important!
• Provide the attorneys a checklist of items that will help ensure payments are made, such as: verifying clients have copies of all outstanding invoices, determining if clients' offices will be closed the last week of December (to make sure payments have been processed before they close), providing the attorneys with routing instructions if payment is to be sent by wire, or an overnight express mail account number for quick delivery, etc.
• Get out of your comfort zone and regularly walk the halls and check in with the attorneys during December. If your firm is large or has outer offices, get others to walk the halls, too.

I know you are busy, but take ownership of what needs to get done. Get more familiar with us on our web-site at: http://www.clientci.com/
Happy Holidays!  I look forward to talking to you next year!

Recognizing When Ageing and Old A/R Have Worn Out Their Welcome

Have you had houseguests who didn't ever seem to want to leave? Once they finally vacate your premises, you swear that you will never have them back. They are something like ageing accounts receivable: if you don't watch out, they start to become a permanent fixture, with no intention of going away.

When receivables get too old, the typical response in law firms -- especially at year-end -- is to ignore them rather than take action to collect them. Sometimes firms with sizable numbers of old receivables have a false sense of well-being, believing that they can expect a lot of potential revenue. Firms wait and wait and wait to pursue these older, difficult accounts rather than facing up to problem A/R and making the most of what they can. Remember -- once receivables hit 120 days past due, they have a 50% chance of being collected -- and the likelihood of collection drops off dramatically after that. 

Consider these 4 steps January through December:

• Honestly evaluate the age of the balances of the receivables and the stories that go with them, and decide on your plan of action. Is the receivable over 120 days or is it really over 360? Acknowledging and understanding the problems and determining how collectable the receivables are will help determine if the firm has the resources and time to pursue them.
• Decide whether it is productive to focus on all the old receivables or to concentrate on those over a certain dollar amount. Be realistic and establish a cut-off, depending on how high the majority of the balance levels are for the receivables.
• Tell the attorneys that you are counting on them to be truthful about the likelihood of payment for their receivables, putting aside posturing and wishful thinking. At the same time, be thorough. Understand when the last time was that the balance was discussed with the client. But remember, clients are smart; they are not going to write a check if they are not asked to. You may be surprised to locate found money if you put some effort into it.
• Determine if you have the right people in place to help you move the ball forward. Consider whether you need experts to help deal with the backlog of older receivables and make recommendations for preventing these problems in the future, in line with the firm's management objectives, practice areas and client types.

Learn from your mistakes. Determine why clients did not pay, and start making corrections to help minimize these problems in the future. A successful law practice requires clients that pay their bills. Write-offs won't help. Learn more at our web-site at: http://www.clientci.com/

Who's On First?

Scrambling to figure out if your firm is accurately managing its accounts receivable is, for many firms, like the old comedy routine of "Who's on first? What's on second?  Yes, you do have good paying clients.  But what about all those accounts over 90 days that remain unpaid, that are getting older, with a smaller window of opportunity to collect as they age?  There's just not a clear picture of what's going on with those receivables. 

Collections for law firms are often all over the map: from not knowing if collection efforts are being properly performed, to being unsure of when and if clients will pay -- and even worse -- to having no idea at all what's going on. There is no excuse for this kind of A/R management problem in today's legal profession.

At minimum, you need to know an account's payment status: whether the account is actively being pursued, who is pursuing the collection efforts and whether they are getting results. If a client is not paying, you need to determine why and what needs to be done to get them to pay. Categorize receivables, for accounts being handled by attorneys and staff, to determine:

• Is it collectible? If so, when can we expect payment?
• Is it problematic? How good are the chances we will get paid?
• Is it simply not collectible?

To help build performance measures, do two things:

Give your attorneys less autonomy
Attorneys are given too much leeway in dealing with their clients during the first three quarters of the year, only to have their feet held to the fire during the year-end stretch. When looking at how you are handling over-90 day accounts, work to change the traditional culture of forgiveness. Replace it with high expectations that these accounts must be collected sooner rather than later. At minimum, give them a specific time frame to achieve results.

Evaluate whether you have the right staff
Staff must have a clear understanding of what is required to resolve payment issues for different kinds of transactions and practices. They must know -- and have access to -- the right techniques and resources for getting bills paid. They must be expected to handle collections on a day-to-day basis, but equally important, evaluated on their ability to get concrete results. Recognize collection managers as the "rainmakers" they can be. Although they are making rain in a different way than the attorneys, the value they can add to the bottom line can be equally great.

Want to learn more? Visit us on our web-site at http://www.clientci.com

Managing A/R: So Much More Productive When You Have More Time to Do It

Last week, we issued our new newsletter, "Take Decisive Action Before Summer Breezes Take on Autumn's Chill". In the newsletter, we talk about the need to take advantage of the mid-year mark to set the tone of how your firm will pursue collection efforts before the hectic last quarter begins.

However, many of us have dozens of things on our plate each week that often continually prevent us from tackling projects like improving year-end collection efforts, until the end of the year stares us in the face. Planning can be tough when time is limited and you are confronted with the day-to-day crunch of putting out fires. But it is vital to recognize that collecting A/R can be tougher if we don't take the time to take action before our backs are against the wall.

In addition to tips in the newsletter for the next six months, here are a few more suggestions you should consider:

• Let your attorneys know that consistent communications to clients requesting payment remains solution #1 for getting paid. Clients of law firms have come to expect that nothing will occur if they don't pay timely -- or not at all. For many, paying legal bills does not carry the same urgency as payment to others. Don't give your clients leverage not to pay; it will be as much your fault as theirs for not having tried.
• Urge firm leadership to be decisive and step in to take action. Leadership must stop tolerating attorney responses like -- "I'm working on it" or "I'll look into it". For firms that are mid-size or larger, give serious thought to forming and empowering a committee to help attack problems. For smaller firms, this problem rests squarely on the shoulders of the firm's leaders.
• When managing the backlog of receivables, look first at your oldest receivables and work your way back to those that are newer. It may seem harder (I'm not saying that it's not!), but it will be productive to spend time now with the oldest receivables, moving forward to determine their collectability.

Years ago, there was a telephone commercial with the tagline: "you can pay me now or pay me later". I'm sure many firms would be satisfied with getting paid later if they would actually get paid. That will depend, to a great extent, what actions you choose to take now. Learn more on our web-site at: http://www.clientci.com/

 

Talk to you next month!

Preventing Payment Headaches Before They Start

Summer is here and the heat of looking at those payment problems can only make you thirsty for solutions. The great American author Mark Twain once said, "The secret of getting ahead is getting started." In the world of receivables, taking the time to pre-qualify new clients gives firms a leg up on the payment challenges that lie ahead. Firms must evaluate prospective clients to determine if they can and will pay their bills. Some potential clients can handle the initial costs, but don't have enough cash flow to pay later, when fees and expenses grow larger than anticipated. Other potential clients simply do not have the resources to pay even relatively small legal bills. Then there are those that have the means to pay, but are unwilling to do so in a timely way.

 

• Here are three essential tips to minimize payment problems:   
• Make sure lawyers share with their clients expectations about the amount and kind of work that will be done, including the anticipated costs.
• Learn how to use a retainer to help stay in front of potential payment problems.
• Establish financial payment thresholds and set parameters around what clients can realistically incur. Be honest with yourself and your clients about payment expectations.

Taking decisive action to help prevent payment problems requires discipline and the right mindset, but it can be done. Resolving accounts receivable management problems may require fundamental long-term changes to your processes and procedures. Otherwise, lawyers may quickly return to bad habits, and the firm will find itself in the same bind down the road.

 

Although an unsettled economy still causes uncertainty for many law firms, it will especially hurt those firms that are without proper client intake processes and efficient accounts receivable management efforts. Don't fool yourself into thinking your firm has a results-oriented system in place when it doesn't.

 

Stay cool and learn more on our web-site at... http://www.clientci.com/