Many modern billing and accounting software applications offer the ability to generate PDF versions of their invoices, and send those PDF’s directly to customers/clients via an integration with Outlook.
Some of these applications also offer the capability to store these PDF invoices somewhere within their system.
That may not be the most efficient way to store and retrieve copies of sent invoices, however, since not everyone who needs to see a copy of a bill necessarily has access to the billing system. Invoices are really just another type of document.
Why shouldn’t you store your client invoices with the rest of your documents that are related to that client and/or matter?
Storing those invoices in some type of document management system, separate from your billing system, is the best way to address this situation. This gives everyone with the appropriate access to the client’s documents the ability to retrieve those invoices as needed, without having to search in the billing system itself.
And if your document management system (you do have a document management system, don’t you) can accept documents via email, you can completely automate the process for storing those invoices.
NetDocuments, a leading Cloud-based document management system, offers an easy solution for this storage issue.
Since all NetDocuments folders and client “workspaces” are automatically assigned an email address upon creation, it is possible to email copies of all of your invoices directly into NetDocuments for storage from your email-enabled billing software, making it much easier to retrieve those copies for whatever purpose may arise, with no extra staff effort required to store them there.
Here are the steps that need to be performed in NetDocuments, or any other dedicated document management system, to implement this invoice storage solution:
1. Add a new “document type” to your list of profile attributes, called something like “client invoice”
2. Add a new “author” to your list of profile attributes, called something like “Billing System”
3. Add a custom folder to your client “workspaces” called something like “Client Invoices”
4. Profile this new folder with the new “document type” and “author” as the folder profile defaults (client and author will be inherited from the client workspace)
5. “Harvest” the new folder’s email address from within the client workspace, and assign that email address as a cc: mailing address for the client in your billing system.
If you are just starting out with NetDocuments, a lot of this can be set up as part of the initial system configuration, using workspace templates and a set of tools (made available to certified NetDocuments partners, of which we are one) for creating a complete list of folder email addresses in CSV format, for importing directly into your billing system.
Interested in learning more about storing those client invoices for quick and simple retrieval?
Give us a call at 877-367-0555, or email us at [email protected]
to discuss your options for getting this set up.
Jack Schaller has been active in the field of law office technology since 1989, and has worked with a variety of commercial accounting, legal billing, practice management, and document management software products during his twenty plus years in the software consulting field. During his tenure as a software consultant he has garnered many sales and service awards for his work with legal software products. Jack is a frequent presenter at legal conferences and seminars, and is a regular contributor to TechnoLawyer and other technology publications.