Rocketship Solutions, LLC created BillBLAST, an eBilling software solution, to help law firms manage the increased demands for electronic invoicing from clients. The software automates billing tasks like emailing and faxing invoices, tracks invoice statuses, and provides reporting dashboards. It helped one law firm, McAngus Goudelock & Courie, reduce costs and improve cash flow by streamlining their billing processes and providing transparency into billing workflows and accounts receivable. The white paper recommends law firms find an eBilling system with features like BillBLAST's that offer flexibility, security, and advanced analytics to optimize their billing operations and bottom line.

1. A White Paper by Leah Beckham, CEO of Rocketship Solutions, LLC
© 2013 Rocketship Solutions, LLC

2. Rocketship Solutions, LLC is a collaboration of executives striving
to create software applications in emerging areas of needs for
the business community.
Summary
The recession impacted law firms across the nation based on growing scrutiny over corporate
legal spending. The demand for value and transparency is at an all time high. As a result, the
legal industry has experienced a dramatic increase in client demand for delivery of legal invoices
via eBilling, eMail and eFax.
Transitioning to electronic billing reduces the time-consuming inefficiency of paper bills and
allows corporate legal departments to track and justify outside legal spending more closely.
Electronic billing gives law firms the potential to improve cash flow, preemptively decrease
invoice errors, and enhance administrative efficiency. The challenge for law firms lies in finding
the right software solution.
The eBilling Evolution
If you ask any law firm today why eBilling has become so important, the answer will be because
clients demand it. Paper bills can be twenty-five pages or more and are often inefficient and
time-consuming to produce, circulate, review, modify, and deliver. Without an industry standard
governing law firm time entry, clients found themselves with stacks of paper almost impossible
to decode.
In 1995, a partnership was formed to create an industry standard for law firm billing. This large
group included the American Bar Association (ABA), Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC),
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) LLP, large legal services consumers, and law firms. They
developed the first generation of the ABA’s Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTMBS),
a set of codes designed to standardize activity performed by lawyers serving corporate clients.
The Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) for time entry delivery and capture was
also created with the goal of simplifying the exchange of electronic data related to activities
performed by law firms.
Sounds simple, right?
Demand for spend management software (which compares activity codes to those
pre-approved by clients) also grew, as corporations sought to reduce costs. New eBilling systems
were developed to automate and streamline the invoice review process, identify billing errors,
and save companies time and money.
The Challenge For Law Firms
The legal industry felt the impact across the nation, as demand for electronic invoicing more
than tripled for some firms. The eBilling process presented new time consuming demands;
attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, IT, accounting, and billing were all expected to understand the
seemingly endless new client requirements.
Among the new challenges facing law firms:
• Proper coding for time entries to meet new guidelines
• Successful submission of eBills to meet an endless combination of client requirements
• Tracking eBills to follow rejections, approvals, and revenue
• Training needs tailored to staff at all levels
• Mitigating risk for time entry modification by billing staff that could result in fraudulent
circumstances
Law firms are faced with changing their underlying business models to provide their services
profitably and make the new eBilling requirements work for their bottom line. When firms
embrace eBilling and put the right solution in place, they enjoy many benefits, including
strengthening their relationship with clients.
With the right solution, firms also benefit from:
• Critical Revenue Stream Business Intelligence
• Faster bill submission, processing, and payment
• Defined billing staff workflow to ensure timely submission and collection
• Lower delivery costs, lower staffing ratios, and greater client value
How One Firm Did It
In 2009, McAngus Goudelock & Courie (MG&C), one of the largest insurance defense law firms
in the Southeast, began seeing a dramatic increase in client demand for electronic invoices. This
shift presented a number of new business challenges for the firm:
• Staffing cost and training (growth and increased complexity)
• Centralized management and tracking of invoices
• Invoice submission delays
• Cash receipts delays
• Accounting and billing system limitations
• Increased write-offs appeals
The firm considered hiring additional staff members to handle their eBilling manually, but found
that option too expensive. They searched for an existing software application to address their
needs, but none of the products had the features they needed, until they tried BillBLAST™.
BillBLAST™ provides more flexibility over other software solutions, enabling mass eMail and auto
eFax invoicing. It interfaces with any time and billing system and offers eBill status tracking and
customizable reporting. The software is also highly secure; data resides with each law firm client,
so no privileged client data is stored or seen by a third party.
BillBLAST™ was created in 2010 by Rocketship Solutions, LLC to offer eBilling in the
cloud. BillBLAST delivers electronic bills as eMail, eFax or eBill to any client or third
party vendor via a Software as a Service (SaaS) structure that lets firms pay as they
use the software. Learn more at www.bill-blast.com
“Finally, this is a product that
provided me with the tools
I needed to manage my
cash flow at a glance.
No other product on the
market incorporated the
business issues of electronic
invoice processing and
management into that
scenario.
With BillBLAST™, we can
easily see money that is
pending due to electronic
billing issues and errors,
whether they are internal
issues with attorneys or
external issues with an eBilling
vendor or client.
There is now a way for an
executive to manage this
process at a glance and save a
business thousands of
dollars per year in FTE counts
and workflow process
improvements.”
Tammy Flowers,
Chief Financial Officer at
McAngus Goudelock & Courie

3. BillBLAST™: A Better System with Better Results
MG&C found that with the right eBilling software, their firm was benefitting in a number of ways, including costs
savings, new efficiencies, and improved relationships with clients. Using BillBLAST to automate and streamline its
billing, MG&C has processed more than 130,000 invoices. The firm’s administrative efficiency and cash flow have
improved dramatically:
• Billing staff capacity increased by 160%
• Mass eMail and eFax invoices delivery is fully automated
• Cash flow from collections improved
o Invoice delivery improved by weeks
o Accounts receivable (A/R) payment cycle reduction
o Automation of Past Due A/R notices
• Billing department efficiency improved
o Productivity and workload transparency
o Centralized platform for firm wide collections activity
o Reduction in billing and accounting staff
• Billing submission errors decreased
o Systematic, centralized identification of client eBilling vendors
o Ease of training billing staff
• Postage and other soft costs decreased
o Transition of paper invoice delivery to eMail and eFax
o Elimination in need to print eBills prior to submission
Choose the eBilling System That Works for Your Firm
How can your law firm make eBilling work? Look for a system that is as cost efficient as it is flexible. BillBLAST™’s
SaaS (software as a service) platform is priced on a subscription basis and lets you pay as you go. SaaS systems are
securely accessed and run over the Internet to deliver business applications anywhere, anytime. In addition to SaaS,
look for these benefits from your eBilling software:
• Executive Level Dashboard Billing and A/R Reporting
• eBilling
• Mass, Automated eMail and eFax
• Invoice Submission Status Tracking
• Accounts Receivable (A/R) Reporting and Management
• Transparency — Billing Staff Work Load Management and Monitoring
• Customizable Reporting
• Communication Portal for Lawyers and Billing Staff
• Security — Client Billing Data Not Exposed
• Centralized Management of eBilling Site Credentials
• Template Design
Conclusion
The right eBilling system gives law firms an opportunity to improve their bottom line with streamlined billing
processes and daily actionable billing and A/R Reporting. Make sure your eBilling system has the features your firm
needs. Look for flexibility, security, and advanced reporting and analytics to get the best results for your firm.
About the Author
In a left-brain meets right-brain kind of way, Leah Beckham is an engineer with an artist’s soul. Skilled
in maximizing efficiency and profitability through technological solutions, she’s also the creative
entrepreneurial spirit that drives our innovations. As a former law firm executive, Leah has extensive
experience in the design and development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics for the
legal professional. Leah has a degree in English and Psychology from the University of South Carolina.