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Table of Contents

• What is Legal Billing Software?
• The benefits of Legal Billing Software
• Typical features of Legal Billing Software
• The cost of Legal Billing Software
• Considerations when purchasing Legal Billing Software
• Relevant Legal Billing Software trends

What is Legal Billing Software?

Legal billing software (LBS) helps law practices manage and send electronic invoices to clients. It tracks lawyers’ billable hours and allows users to create custom invoices within the tool.

LBS specializes in time-tracking and trust-accounting features. It’s a strong choice for smaller law firms that don’t have the need or budget for law practice management software, which serves a wider range of needs.

The Benefits of Legal Billing Software

• Converts billable activities into billable time: Tracks billable hours against time spent with each client. Some solutions convert billable activities (such as time spent in court) into billable time on invoices.
• Streamlines client projects: Keeps a database of client engagements and helps users manage activities per client.
• Lowers invoicing costs: Decreases or erases the need to print and send manual invoices by mail. Some LBS tools allow clients to include payment links within invoices.

Typical features of Legal Billing Software

• Time tracking: Track billable hours so that users know how much time to invoice per client, and convert billable activities into billable time on an invoice.
• Billing and invoicing: Create and manage monetary interactions (i.e., bills and invoices) between parties.
• Accounting management: Manage accounting processes or integrate with a third-party accounting system.
• Case management: Work on a set of tasks related to a specific charge, client, legal issue, or any other complex entity or process.
• Expense tracking: Maintain a detailed log and record of costs.
• Calendar management: Create, manage, and share multiple calendars.

The cost of Legal Billing Software

Most products in the market are priced on a per user, per month basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price.

Price ranges*:

• $16 - $36
• $36 - $59
• $59+

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offerings found on vendor websites as of Feb. 27, 2020. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

Considerations when purchasing Legal Billing Software

• Prioritize lifetime value over monthly cost: As with most software vendors, paying more for an LBS system often provides access to premium features like payment links embedded within invoices for direct client payments. Rather than selecting the cheapest payment plan, consider which core features you need from your LBS tool first.
• Shop for an LBS tool if you don’t need law practice management software: Along with core features such as billing and time tracking, legal practice management software manages a firm’s case and client records. By contrast, an LBS tool offers a smaller range of features for a smaller amount of use cases. If your business needs eclipse an LBS tool's offerings, you might consider law practice management software.

Relevant legal billing software trends

• Increasing use of AI for e-discovery: Certain AI technologies, like natural language processing (NLP), skim large amounts of text in shorter periods of time than humans can achieve on their own. This helps lawyers find specific content within a wide range of documentation. To meet customer needs, LBS vendors will add AI-powered features in the next five to ten years.
• Direct client service engagement within software: As LBS features evolve, more direct client interaction will occur within software tools. This includes the ability for clients to pay and sign off on invoices from within the software. As a result, expect LBS software use to decrease the length of time between the initial invoice request and client payment.