Q:  We’ve been using electronic billing for years, but still receive too many paper invoices. Is there any way to include paper invoices in my legal spend management solution?

Answer: Despite the widespread adoption of legal spend management solutions, many corporate legal departments and insurance companies still complain they’re ‘drowning in paper’.

Advanced legal spend management solutions boost efficiency by automatically routing invoices to the proper recipient, flagging noncompliant line items, and eliminating manual data entry and the mistakes that come with it. In addition, electronic data allows for sophisticated reporting and analysis in order to better plan for the future. Even companies that mandate that their firms participate in electronic invoicing find, however, that they continue to receive paper invoices. Why? Some law firms are reluctant to participate, and find reasons to continue sending paper bills. In addition, ancillary vendors that provide litigation support are often unable to produce electronic invoices. As a result, companies report that it’s not unusual for 20% or even 30% of their total legal spend to continue to arrive via paper.

This represents both an operational challenge and a missed opportunity. First, the legal or claims department must maintain two distinct processes for receiving and approving invoices (one manual, and one electronic). This introduces unnecessary complexity to an already over-taxed department. Second, if some data escapes the electronic system, reports are incomplete and their utility as a decision-making device is compromised. For example, if an executive wants to know how much the department spent on depositions last year, her e-billing system can provide this information at the touch of a button. But depositions invoiced on paper escape the electronic system, and the reports are thus incomplete.

Bottomline has introduced a process that neatly solves these issues. Legal eXchange clients ask their vendors to mail their paper invoices to a dedicated post office box, where they are received, scanned and converted into LEDES-formatted electronic data. These invoices are then identical, in most respects, to electronic invoices. They are loaded into Legal eXchange and become part of one legal spend management system that combines electronic and paper invoices. This way all invoices follow a standard process regardless of origin.

The scanned invoices can now go through the same validation procedures as those received electronically. For example, each line item is run through the rules engine to ensure guideline compliance. Users are also able to set up specific workflow processes for different types of invoices., invoices that are exempt from UTBMS task codes can be set up to bypass task code rules. Users may also choose different rules for invoices from law firms versus ancillary service providers, so staff can readily review each invoice type with the knowledge that the appropriate rules have been applied. Finally, comprehensive analysis and reporting can be conducted on all legal spend, including the paper invoices that previously were not included in the system.

A completely paperless system provides significant advantages over a hybrid system and can result in a substantially greater return on investment. Paper invoice processing closes a critical gap in practicing comprehensive legal spend management. It not only streamlines duplicative processes, it offers access to 100% of legal spend data and provides companies with new information that empowers them to make better decisions when assigning work and deciding on case strategy. With new technologies and proven processes, corporations and insurance companies can now leverage their legal spend management solution across their entire legal spend.