Invoice follow-up for law firms
Chasing a client for fees is the most uncomfortable exercise in the profession — so it gets postponed, and the fee notes age. The agent chases each outstanding note with courtesy and method, recalls the engagement letter, and stops dead the moment a client disputes.
In your day-to-day
- 01
Reminders on overdue fee notes, recalling the engagement letter and the detail of the work billed.
- 02
Tracking of payments on account to request before each new phase of a matter, flagged to the responsible partner.
- 03
Escalation to the partner when a client’s outstanding balance exceeds the threshold the firm sets, before new work is undertaken.
A typical scenario
A six-lawyer firm — three partners, three associates — collects 40% of its fee notes beyond 60 days, with reminders handled by the office manager “between two emergencies”.
- 01
Every Monday, the overdue-notes review arrives sorted by age and by partner, with a draft reminder calibrated for each client — institutional, corporate, private individual.
- 02
A client replies questioning the detail of the work billed: the sequence stops on its own and the partner receives the complete file, correspondence included.
- 03
As a pleading hearing approaches, the agent flags that the payment on account provided for in the engagement letter has not been requested.
What changes
Collections become a firm process rather than a personal chore — and the discomfort of “asking for money” no longer lets fee notes age.
Order of magnitude
Working assumptions
- →€900k in fees collected per year
- →average collection at 75 days
- →methodical follow-up typically wins back 10 to 15 days
On the order of €25k to €37k in cash permanently returned to the firm (€900k × 10–15/365) — without one more awkward conversation.
Indicative estimate built on average sector assumptions — it gets recalibrated on your actual volumes during scoping.
What eats your days
- →
Fee reminders and requests for payment on account come after the casework — and the firm’s cash flow pays for it every quarter.
- →
Procedural-deadline tracking rests on diaries kept by hand — and one missed deadline engages the firm’s liability.
- →
The firm’s inbox mixes court notifications, opposing counsel’s submissions, client documents and prospect enquiries — everything arrives at the same level.
How it works
- 1
Plugged into your invoicing
The agent reads your existing tool — invoicing, accounting, ERP — with no migration and no double entry. It knows every invoice, its due date and its history.
- 2
Written reminders, not templates
Each reminder is written for that client: friendly for a good payer one week late, firm and documented by the third notice. You approve the policy once; the agent applies it.
- 3
Escalation and audit trail
Sensitive account, dispute, large amount: the agent hands over to a human with full context. Every action is logged, every euro recovered is attributed.
Typical results
-30%
average collection delay, typical order of magnitude
100%
of overdue invoices chased, no exceptions, no oversights
0 h
of human time on first-level reminders
Orders of magnitude observed in production; your diagnostic sets your own baseline and targets.
Frequently asked questions
Is the tone of an automated reminder compatible with a firm’s client relationships?+
That is the starting condition: reminders are courteous, factual, grounded in the engagement letter, and you approve each escalation step before go-live. An institutional client and a private individual do not receive the same reminder.
What does the agent do if a client disputes their fees?+
It immediately suspends the sequence and hands the matter to the partner with the full history. A fee dispute belongs to the client relationship — and where applicable to bar procedures — never to an agent.
Is this the problem eating your team’s time?
Tell us how you work today — 30-minute call, then a free written diagnostic of what this agent would change for you, with numbers.
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