If you’ve made the decision to find an integrated software solution for your law firm, you’re already half way to success. The best legal practice software can streamline the activities of your firm, optimize and improve your processes, meet client needs and increase your profits. But what tips are useful when choosing the best legal practice software?

1.    Invest In An Integrated Solution

Legal practice software such as LATERAL provides a “cover all the bases” solution. It covers time and expense tracking, billing, accounting, and case and matter management. Look beyond the obvious needs that you believe you have when it comes to legal practice software, and consider all aspects of how your legal practice functions. Can the software you’re considering truly meet your needs? LATERAL offers both a built-in time tracking tool and integration with our legal time tracking partner eBility.  With these cloud-based tools, time can be tracked from anywhere while doing any task.

Unfortunately not all tenants are reliable when it comes to paying their rent, and the longer the outstanding debt remains unpaid, the less likely you are to collect the money you’re owed. Here we outline some useful tips for successful rent recovery:

ACT STRAIGHT AWAY AND IN THE RIGHT WAY

When a rental payment is overdue, it’s important you don’t delay and act upon it promptly. If you invest in rent recovery software you will no longer have to spend valuable time chasing the debtors for their rent, and you can focus on running your business instead. LATERAL’S omni-channel rent recovery software removes the need for frequent and uncomfortable phone conversations. Instead, automated correspondence via text, email and live chat, works on your behalf, to much higher levels of success.  

PAYMENT PLANS 

Payment plans are often a great way to pursue rent recovery. Approach the tenant and enquire if they can pay their arrears in installments, as this can be a useful way of getting things back on track. If you don’t propose a payment plan, then it is unlikely that the tenant will make the effort to clear the arrears.

Developments in machine learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are having a great impact on the debt collection industry. At its core Machine Learning generates predictive models using algorithms that learn from data. The idea is that if we can input enough useful and reliable data, we can build models which can make predictions on our behalf.

There are a number of ways in which machine learning can aid and improve the debt collection process:

Reduce Workloads

Collections departments place calls, send countless emails, and seek to work out payment plans — and very frequently none of the above activities translate into the successful recovery of debt. With ML this changes. Since tasks are automated, users experience higher productivity and less time spent on labour-intensive tasks.

Protecting Your Business Reputation

Since ML can automate communication, you know that all your business correspondence will be professional, methodical and unambiguous. LATERAL’S debt collections software provides its users with a non-intrusive, customer-driven point of engagement, which is proven to be highly successful.  

Legal case management software is increasingly popular today owing to the benefits it provides law firms. There are two types of software available in the market today. One is server-based legal case management software, and the other is cloud-based legal case management software.

Cloud-based software: hosted on the vendor’s servers and accessed through a web browser.

On-premise software: installed locally, on your company’s own computers and servers.

Both on-premise and cloud computing software may provide your business with the IT infrastructure it needs. However, when it comes to security, case management software that is cloud-based has many distinct and important advantages. And this is why Gartner predicts that cloud data centres will process 92 percent of workloads by 2020.  

The estimated underlying liquidation rate in 2018 was 1 company liquidation per 249 active companies, up from 1 in 264 in 2017. This is a sobering statistics for small businesses. The fact is that most enterprises fail as a direct result of bad debt and cash flow issues. And when added to the continuing uncertainty of the current economic climate pre-Brexit, it has become more important than ever for organisations to make credit control their top priority.  

Cash is the lifeblood of any organisation, so it must be treated as such. So with that in mind here are some top tips from LATERAL to help you become more vigilant and thorough when it comes to credit control within your organisation.

Chasing unpaid debt can be a huge drain on your time and resources. It’s important to be methodical, determined and to avoid some common and obvious pitfalls:

• Not Having a Strong Relationship With Your Customer

It’s important to have an understanding of your customer. It pays to have strong relationships and good channels of communication. This way it’s much easier to chase overdue invoices and payments. Whether you’re a debt collection agency pursuing debt recovery, or a small business owner, you have to maintain strong customer ties. So avoid aggressive correspondence, or you run the risk of offending important clients.

• You Don’t Agree Terms Upfront

In order to effectively manage your cashflow it’s imperative that you agree invoice payment terms in advance. If you don’t agree a payment timescale you’re not prepared, and you’re unable to pre-empt cash flow fluctuations, which could have hugely negative impact. 

The debt collection landscape is always evolving. There is a growing influx of new debt, but today the latest technologies can enable a more successful debt collection process. Studies show that 60% of people prefer businesses that interact across multiple platforms, and this is what omni-channel debt collection software can provide. By pursuing your debt via email, text, WhatsApp, VOIP and live chat, as opposed to traditional telephone calls and letters, you gain better recovery rates, and are provided with a real opportunity to improve long-term customer loyalty. 

But what are some tips for successful debt collection by text and email?

Today software can help firms make the most of their resources and help them innovate in an increasingly competitive marketplace. But with so many matter management software options out there, which one is right for you?

WHAT IS MATTER MANAGEMENT? 

Faced with countless legal matters each year, from both internal and external sources, means many legal firms now manage their own processes using a software platform. Without it there are too many tasks, too much data, and let’s face it: time is money.

How can you make sure you’re choosing the best case management software for your law firm?

The first generation of case management software was introduced to the marketplace in the early 1990s. Since then thousands of law firms have invested in such software as a means to improve their firm’s overall efficiency, provide better service to their clients, and to reduce expenditure. But with so many software options now available, how can you make sure you’re choosing the best case management software for your law firm?

The problem of late payment has become so acute across the UK economy, and has such a heavy impact upon SMEs, that the government has originated the role of “Small Business Commissioner” to tackle the matter head on.  

According to research conducted by Bacs Payment Schemes, 47% of SMEs surveyed are paid late by their customers on a regular basis. Even more shocking is that the average small business is owed £32,185 in late payments. Credit control software, such as LATERAL, is the innovative means by which late payments can be prevented.

Businesses, local authorities, government agencies and law firms still spend an unwarranted amount of time attending to administrative tasks and looking for much-needed information. This can be a drain on resources and can have a direct impact on cash flow. Matter management systems, such as LATERAL, are complex software applications, which are intended to help organisations become more efficient and productive. The old adage is true: time is money. And so organisations can thrive if they can devote less time to certain tasks and procedures.  

Your goal is prompt and successful debt recovery, but what methods or processes might be inhibiting you?

How can case management software help your business?

39% of UK businesses spend up to 4 hours per week chasing invoices. Their credit control methods have to improve.

Up and down the country local authorities are pursuing various debt recovery methods. But what are the secrets to success?

Parking fine debt collection can be a challenging and time consuming process. So what tips can you implement to achieve success?

We spoke with Ian McManus, Co-Founder and CTO of LATERAL, to get his insight on today’s tech climate.

Names are important, and we have decided to change ours. We originated with the name ClickDebt, but as our business has evolved, so as our name, and we now proudly call ourselves LATERAL.

Now AI can vastly improve debt collection processes by delivering previously unattainable effectiveness and efficiently levels.

It is essential that lenders leverage all potential channels of communication to reach delinquent borrowers.