Regular Management Reports - you may know how much money is in your bank account, but are you regularly analyzing WIP, Aged Debtors, Staff Productivity and Client Billings?

Work in Progress (unbilled time and disbursements) - This report tells you what time and disbursements you have accrued to date that have not yet been billed. Staying on top of these numbers and billing regularly means a better cash flow for your business. If someone leaves your firm, make sure you review their WIP and either bill it or write it off before you close the timekeeper.

Accounts Receivable - Aged Debtors (unpaid invoices) - If you are not reviewing this report regularly you may not realize how old a debtors balance is. Generate Statements from Timeslips to send to your clients showing what invoices are outstanding and how old they are. Or show the Aged A/R Balances Table on your Invoices.

Timekeeper Productivity and Profitability - Reviewing productivity of your staff helps to ensure they are accurately recording their billable and non-billable time. Reviewing non-billable time and knowing the difference between what was worked v what was billed is especially important in setting realistic goals and budgets for staff.

Client Billings - Review your client billings each month - an invoice listing or a simple slip summary report by client will show you who was billed and how much.

Manage your database - We all know that it's important to maintain a good relationship with current clients, as they are most often the source of new referrals.

With the use of Timeslips Custom Fields, you can utilize the information captured in Timeslips to keep in contact with your client base as well as generating reports based on filters and sorts from this information.

With this basic data management feature, you are able to track when the client came to your firm, how they were referred, and keep an up to date mailing list - just to name a few suggestions.

If marketing and relationship building is going to be a big part of your strategy to prosper in an economic downturn, you may consider a more sophisticated management software solution. Visit our website to learn more about Time Matters - a great practice management solution that links with Timeslips to allow the exchange of information.

Continue to invest in technology and training - Knowing that better times are ahead; if you are quiet at the moment make the most of it by enhancing your current systems to improve productivity and streamline tasks.

Use any "downtime" to train staff to fully understand the capabilities of your billing software, so that your firm is as efficient as it can be.

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Timeslips 2009 - Feature review

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Transactions - Increase Invoice Details and Decrease Invoice Details - what are these transactions used for?

e.g. If you need to reduce the invoiced Fees amount on an invoice and reduce the GST amount charged, but leave the Disbursements (expenses) untouched - use the Decrease Invoice Details transaction, this allows you to specifically reduce the amount of Fees and Tax on an invoice without adjusting the Disbursements (expenses).

You can then use the Adjustment Note report (listed under Reports, Tax) to show the client the reduction in Fees and GST.

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Please forward this newsletter to a colleague who needs to improve their productivity. We're looking for new businesses to read our articles, and of course, new clients to make their businesses more productive.

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