Aderant: Friday Feature – The AFA Reallocation window
Welcome to our “Friday Feature” series: a space to highlight exceptional features unique to Aderant products. Check back every Friday as we introduce new ways to improve your firm’s efficiency and ease of operations.
Today, Aderant Product Manager Maria Mangubat is discussing the AFA Reallocation window of the Paperless Billing module within Expert Billing.
What is the AFA Reallocation window?
The AFA Reallocation window provides the Expert Paperless Billing user a straightforward way to manage the application of alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) on a prebill: it supplies detailed information on all fixed fees, flat fees, and capped fees. These AFAs can be set at the phase, task, and action code level, and the AFA Reallocation window provides information on the fee arrangement, the bill frequency, and the previously billed amount. From this window, the user can confirm the automatic adjustments made to applicable AFAs and make any necessary manual changes. If the user makes a manual change to the AFA, the firm can track the reason for the adjustment.
What problem does the AFA Reallocation window address for Aderant clients?
Each month, timekeepers must review and edit their prebills. For some, especially those in practice areas with a high volume of billing and fixed fee engagements, these bills could number in the hundreds. For lawyers often already strapped for time, reviewing the complex details of every fee arrangement means fewer billable hours and decreased productivity. The ability to edit these prebills quickly and accurately is critical to getting invoices out the door.
Prior to the release of the AFA Reallocation window, timekeepers had to refer to a separate application for the details of arrangements and then send instructions to the billing team on what adjustments to make. Because fixed fees, flat fees, and capped fees can be entered at the phase, task, and action code level, a single prebill could have several AFAs. Without the detail and automation provided by the AFA Reallocation window, the billing lawyer would have to spend inordinate amounts of time entering detailed instructions for each arrangement. They would then have to wait for the billing team to make those changes before they could see the result of those adjustments on the prebill. If an incorrect data entry was made, the lawyer would have to return it to the billing team, often resulting in costly inefficiencies.
What is the overall impact of the AFA Reallocation window on the legal industry as a whole?
The AFA Reallocation window helps firms shorten the WIP-to-Cash cycle by reducing the time, effort, and expense it takes to complete the billing process. By providing billing lawyers with all the AFA details they need, it increases the accuracy of invoices while reducing write-offs that result from noncompliance with the agreed-upon arrangements. The prebill can move more quickly through the billing process and save billing lawyers a substantial amount of time as the system automatically adjusts fees based on AFA configuration and gives lawyers the ability to review and apply adjustments to AFAs on their own.
