Innovative Discount System Created With DirectInvoice

DirectInvoice enables our department to receive all invoices from outside law firms electronically. Once invoices are received, they are routed, adjusted and approved with invoice information stored in an online financial repository. The electronic billing system essentially makes it a paperless process. No manual data entry is required because we receive an electronic file that is sent securely via the Internet from our outside counsel.

The invoicing system has allowed us to implement two early payment discounts with our outside firms. The first is a 3.25% discount on every bill that we pay to the firms within 20 days of receiving the invoice. This has been very well received, with the majority of the law firms happy to give us the discount in exchange for getting paid so quickly. In most cases, the firms are getting their payments within about a week of submitting the invoice. The second discount is a 15% reduction on all invoices submitted to us for work that was performed more than 90 days before our receipt of the invoice. It was frustrating to receive a bill in January for work that had been done the preceding June. There is no excuse for bills coming in this late. It creates extra work, costs us money and makes it difficult to budget accurately and keep our budget on target. Once lawyers realized they would be giving us a 15% discount for late invoice submissions, the problem fixed itself immediately.

The discounting “rules” are built into the electronic invoicing system so it automatically takes the discount if the bill is paid within 20 days and automatically deducts 15% for work done more than 90 days before the invoice date. Having these rules built in to the system is vital because, if the discounts had to be calculated manually for every invoice, it wouldn't be worth the time and the discount would not always be applied. Although the savings on each invoice may not always amount to a lot of money, they do add up. The built-in, automatic mechanism is important because it lets us take full advantage of the discount policy.

Security

The e-invoicing system has comprehensive security features that allow both our department and outside law firms to gain access to detailed invoice data. While our department can access any invoice, law firms are able to view only those invoices that they have submitted to the system. The user is also able to see what invoices have been submitted, where they are in the approval process and even in whose electronic in-box a particular invoice is sitting.

In addition, the system delivers a set of standard reports that give our department the ability to “slice and dice” billing data. With the touch of a few buttons, we can create reports such as matter type comparisons, invoice data by firm, and matter assignments to in-house attorneys. With these reports, our department can quickly and easily analyze invoice processing and outside counsel expenditures.

Atlantic Bank also implemented DirectInvoice's optional Extended Data Set module (XDS). XDS allows our departments to track other information associated with a matter and facilitates secure collaboration within the law department as well as with outside counsel. The module also provides a set of software tools to help the attorneys and our legal administrator manage complex legal matters. Our department can now monitor and track notes, expenditures, events, key dates, personnel, budgets and other documents and, subject to security, share them with outside counsel as appropriate.

Implementation

The implementation of the system was pretty simple. One of the greatest attractions is that it is Web-based, so I didn't have to consume the bank's IT resources to get the software installed. All of our data and information was downloaded from the old system and converted to the new one by Deloitte. That took some time since there was an 8-year accumulation of data.

Deloitte & Touche performed some basic system planning and business process reengineering to determine how we could best use the e-invoicing application. They then configured DirectInvoice to match our needs and requirements. This included routing and approval process setup, drop down list configuration, etc. Matter and invoicing data was then extracted from our legacy matter-management application and converted into the new application. Deloitte worked with many of our law firms to prepare them for electronic invoice submission. Through Deloitte, we were able to streamline the initial matter setup that allowed us to go “live” with the new system.

Deloitte then designed and configured various matter and invoice data reports, as well as a custom Accounts Payable interface that allows the DirectInvoice application to utilize invoice data without any manual re-keying of information. Finally, Deloitte trained our users and provided support to law firms that needed help during the initial rollout period.

There were a couple of weeks of checking and reconciling the data, and then once we were fairly confident that the data was accurately in the new system, all of the users were given access to the system. The users include our three in-house attorneys, the legal department administrator, the billing administrators and all of the staff in accounts payable who approve invoices, including the heads of the business units that work with the outside counsel.

We gave outside firms 3 months notice before the new invoice discounting system went into effect. To date, we have met little resistance. The firms are happy to give Atlantic the discount in exchange for quick payments. There has been a little hesitation regarding the 15% discount taken for late bills. When we gave them a detailed explanation of the system's capabilities along with the actuality of expedited payment from our end, the firms quickly saw the benefit. One hurdle we had to overcome was complaints from some law firms that the paperwork for implementation on their end is a bit cumbersome, so Tripoint is working to simplify that part of the process.

Overall, working with the implementation team was a pleasure. They have been extremely accommodating in making changes and implementing suggested modifications. Our application had to be customized a bit, and we were able to shape the system to meet our specific needs.

We accomplished several important goals with the new electronic invoicing system. We not only established a discounting policy that saves our department money but also achieved a collaborative work environment with our in-house and law firm counsel. The ability to save money, improve efficiency and streamline communication with one system has been tremendous.

Our legal department at Atlantic Bank of New York was looking for an electronic invoicing system to make our outside counsel billing process more manageable. What we found was new technology and software that enabled us not only to improve the overall efficiency of our system but also to implement an invoice discounting policy that saves us money and gets our outside counsel paid quickly. The discounting policy lets us reduce payments to outside counsel by a set percentage if we pay their bills within 20 days and reduces the fees further in the event of late invoice submission. Because the new invoicing system lets us turn invoices around so quickly, we have achieved such significant savings that we expect the invoicing system to pay for itself within just a few years.

The technology that made this possible is DirectInvoice.com from Tripoint Systems Development Corporation. As executive vice president and general counsel, I was responsible for selecting new matter tracking and electronic invoicing systems for the bank's legal department. With the help of Deloitte & Touche, I identified the needs of my department and the bank, assessed a number of systems and finally settled on DirectInvoice. Our legal department had installed a matter management system in the early 1990s, but by 2002 that system was outdated. We wanted a more advanced, more sophisticated system offering an array of features that would increase the amount, quality and efficiency of our work. Most importantly, we wanted an electronic invoicing system to replace our manual paper system, which was labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Previously, a bill would come into the legal department and be sent to the business contact for the matter. The business contact would then prepare a payment request form and do some data entry to keep some of the billing information in the business unit. Next, the business contact would take the bill and the form and send it to the legal department, where we would do our own data entry. The invoice was finally sent to our accounts payable area, whose personnel would complete another round of data entry and finally send out a check. With the new e-invoicing technology, there is no paper and much less manual data entry in the payment process.

DirectInvoice enables our department to receive all invoices from outside law firms electronically. Once invoices are received, they are routed, adjusted and approved with invoice information stored in an online financial repository. The electronic billing system essentially makes it a paperless process. No manual data entry is required because we receive an electronic file that is sent securely via the Internet from our outside counsel.

The invoicing system has allowed us to implement two early payment discounts with our outside firms. The first is a 3.25% discount on every bill that we pay to the firms within 20 days of receiving the invoice. This has been very well received, with the majority of the law firms happy to give us the discount in exchange for getting paid so quickly. In most cases, the firms are getting their payments within about a week of submitting the invoice. The second discount is a 15% reduction on all invoices submitted to us for work that was performed more than 90 days before our receipt of the invoice. It was frustrating to receive a bill in January for work that had been done the preceding June. There is no excuse for bills coming in this late. It creates extra work, costs us money and makes it difficult to budget accurately and keep our budget on target. Once lawyers realized they would be giving us a 15% discount for late invoice submissions, the problem fixed itself immediately.

The discounting “rules” are built into the electronic invoicing system so it automatically takes the discount if the bill is paid within 20 days and automatically deducts 15% for work done more than 90 days before the invoice date. Having these rules built in to the system is vital because, if the discounts had to be calculated manually for every invoice, it wouldn't be worth the time and the discount would not always be applied. Although the savings on each invoice may not always amount to a lot of money, they do add up. The built-in, automatic mechanism is important because it lets us take full advantage of the discount policy.

Security

The e-invoicing system has comprehensive security features that allow both our department and outside law firms to gain access to detailed invoice data. While our department can access any invoice, law firms are able to view only those invoices that they have submitted to the system. The user is also able to see what invoices have been submitted, where they are in the approval process and even in whose electronic in-box a particular invoice is sitting.

In addition, the system delivers a set of standard reports that give our department the ability to “slice and dice” billing data. With the touch of a few buttons, we can create reports such as matter type comparisons, invoice data by firm, and matter assignments to in-house attorneys. With these reports, our department can quickly and easily analyze invoice processing and outside counsel expenditures.

Atlantic Bank also implemented DirectInvoice's optional Extended Data Set module (XDS). XDS allows our departments to track other information associated with a matter and facilitates secure collaboration within the law department as well as with outside counsel. The module also provides a set of software tools to help the attorneys and our legal administrator manage complex legal matters. Our department can now monitor and track notes, expenditures, events, key dates, personnel, budgets and other documents and, subject to security, share them with outside counsel as appropriate.

Implementation

The implementation of the system was pretty simple. One of the greatest attractions is that it is Web-based, so I didn't have to consume the bank's IT resources to get the software installed. All of our data and information was downloaded from the old system and converted to the new one by Deloitte. That took some time since there was an 8-year accumulation of data.

Deloitte & Touche performed some basic system planning and business process reengineering to determine how we could best use the e-invoicing application. They then configured DirectInvoice to match our needs and requirements. This included routing and approval process setup, drop down list configuration, etc. Matter and invoicing data was then extracted from our legacy matter-management application and converted into the new application. Deloitte worked with many of our law firms to prepare them for electronic invoice submission. Through Deloitte, we were able to streamline the initial matter setup that allowed us to go “live” with the new system.

Deloitte then designed and configured various matter and invoice data reports, as well as a custom Accounts Payable interface that allows the DirectInvoice application to utilize invoice data without any manual re-keying of information. Finally, Deloitte trained our users and provided support to law firms that needed help during the initial rollout period.

There were a couple of weeks of checking and reconciling the data, and then once we were fairly confident that the data was accurately in the new system, all of the users were given access to the system. The users include our three in-house attorneys, the legal department administrator, the billing administrators and all of the staff in accounts payable who approve invoices, including the heads of the business units that work with the outside counsel.

We gave outside firms 3 months notice before the new invoice discounting system went into effect. To date, we have met little resistance. The firms are happy to give Atlantic the discount in exchange for quick payments. There has been a little hesitation regarding the 15% discount taken for late bills. When we gave them a detailed explanation of the system's capabilities along with the actuality of expedited payment from our end, the firms quickly saw the benefit. One hurdle we had to overcome was complaints from some law firms that the paperwork for implementation on their end is a bit cumbersome, so Tripoint is working to simplify that part of the process.

Overall, working with the implementation team was a pleasure. They have been extremely accommodating in making changes and implementing suggested modifications. Our application had to be customized a bit, and we were able to shape the system to meet our specific needs.

We accomplished several important goals with the new electronic invoicing system. We not only established a discounting policy that saves our department money but also achieved a collaborative work environment with our in-house and law firm counsel. The ability to save money, improve efficiency and streamline communication with one system has been tremendous.