E-billing has steadily ascended the ladder of popularity and penetration among law departments. Accordingly, this blog has compiled at least 45 posts on e-billing (See my post of Aug. 15, 2008: ranking of e-billing as IT application; Aug. 27, 2008 #4: blog on e-billing; Jan. 4, 2006: spreading acceptance of e-billing; Sept. 13, 2005: a $2 billion market; and Aug. 21, 2005: e-billing software compared to matter management software.). Sometimes lessons appear from specific law departments (See my post of Feb. 4, 2007: IP e-billing at Honeywell; and Nov. 3, 2005: Microsoft and GE.).
A cluster of posts comment on vendors (See my post of April 17, 2008: pricing models of vendors; Oct. 18, 2006: leading e-billing vendors; July 11, 2006: cottage industry of e-billing; Oct. 18, 2006: leading e-billing software used by Amlaw 200 firms; Oct. 26, 2007: bizarre market share data from 2006 to 2007 on e-billing software; Nov. 4, 2007: comments on data; and Dec. 16, 2007 #1: additional comment;
Inside a law department, the introduction of electronically-received bills changes procedures (See my post of Nov. 20, 2007: e-billing might reduce fee-bill reductions; June 10, 2007: accounting complexities; Nov. 11, 2007: implementation tips; April 22, 2007: protections of an ASP platform; Sept 18, 2006: e-billing rules; Oct. 15, 2007: maintenance of e-billing systems; Nov. 28, 2007: internal staff required; Jan. 30, 2008: tips on e-billing implementations; and Aug. 21, 2005: invoice approval routing.).
Much of the material on e-billing discusses process benefits (See my post of Sept. 13, 2005: flags legal research; May 11, 2008: allows quicker payment at J&J; Oct. 15, 2007: supports challenges to bills; Aug. 18, 2008: several points on e-billing: and Oct. 25, 2007: e-billing software and abusive billing by the same lawyer across multiple matters.). Other posts comment on the savings that e-billing purportedly achieves (See my post of Sept. 14, 2005: savings; May 14, 2005: e-billing economies; Oct. 8, 2008: data on savings; June 20, 2008: more on e-billing savings; and April 8, 2008: reported savings.).
Law firms are hardly silent partners in the e-billing world (See my post of Dec. 2, 2007: sympathy for law firms besieged by e-billing systems; Dec. 2, 2007: law firms lower the boom on electronic invoicing; Nov. 28, 2007: electronic invoice transmission and law firm complaints; Dec. 1, 2007; eventual cost transfer of onerous e-billing demands; Nov. 30, 2007: mandating e-billing compliance; Feb. 21, 2007: law firm vexations; Nov. 17, 2006: multiple packages forced on firms; Sept. 5, 2007: require billing electronically by top firms; Sept. 5, 2007: whether to require e-billing only of your top-billing firms; and April 14, 2005: European law firms and electronic invoices.). E-billing injects law departments into the operations of the law firms that comply (See my post of March 6, 2007: modest penetration of e-billing and modest requirements of firms to comply; and May 11, 2008: changes how law firms do business.).
For more, see the PDF of my article on tips about e-billing systems and my collected posts on the e-billing standard, LEDES (See my post of Nov. 26, 2008: Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard.).