The Gazette 1986

JULY/AUGUST

1

GAZETTE

7 your chances of a mild heart attack. In the meantime, he will have produced a qualified report or, worse, a declaration that your client accounts do not comply with the regulations. Should you miraculously avoid the physical after-effects normally associated with an accountant's fee-note, the Society's institution of disciplinary proceedings will almost certainly cause a similar reaction. A time-recording facility has recently been incorporated into most legal accounting packages. Our profession has been slow to charge for its services on the basis time spent. Accountants, by way of contrast, have not been so reluctant to bill their clients according to an hours and minutes calculation. As the scale fee in conveyancing and probate becomes less remunerative in real terms, particularly in the case of lengthy and difficult transactions, solicitors will look to time-costing to maintain their level of profit. Were a lawyer to confront his accountant with a time-based professional fee, the coronary effect posited would be equally debilitating but, fortunately, the role is reversed. If you are considering the purchase of an accounts program, a time-recording option should be available for future reference, even if not immediately required. Any system must observe the Accounts Regulations in three essential respects: office and client monies kept apart, safeguard against creating a debit balance on client account and easy 6-monthly reconciliation of client funds. 2. Fee-Earning —word-processing, information retrieval, tele- communications, support/event-driven systems, and automatic document formation. A vast array of computer options are available to assist the fee-earner. Word-processing allows the creation and storage of routine letters to be produced as required. Furthermore, a complex once-off document or letter may be processed on the computer through the manipulation of text, inserting a paragraph here or a sentence there. The operator merely inputs the variable items such as name and address, which are then merged with the body of the document. The advantages of a word-processor mainly concern the saving of secretarial time. Typing mistakes are easily corrected and letters printed quickly. The editing of any text must still be directed by the solicitor. Furthermore, word-processing places great demands on the equipment in terms of memory size and speed of processing required. A recent development has seen the emergence of support or event-driven systems designed to assist in the co-ordination of legal casework. These programs afford a series of procedural steps for routine conveyances, recovery of debts, etc. Client records are permanently stored on a database as are those precedent letters and documents appropriate to particular transactions. The essential benefit lies in the automatic production of the document(s) relating to whatever stage the matter has reached. Based on a word-processor, the event-driven system also permits the editing or amendment of text at arty time. The distinction here is between data-

business; their services will not be secured by the prospect of Dickensian office procedures. While gaining staff co-operation in the proposed venture, do not overlook the importance of your own involvement. After the decision to install a particular system, you must take an active part in supervision of the new fixed asset. A wise purchaser will learn to use the equipment himself in case of emergency as when your operator is either on holidays or has suffered a nervous breakdown from the whole affair. The Law Society Technology Committee Handbook provides a useful set of recommendations for the guidance of intending purchasers. It lists those suppliers who have promised to observe a Code of Standards drawn up by the Society. You should furnish a profile of the firm to your prospective supplier who is responsible for matching his wares against your requirements. Unless you either hold a Master's Degree in Computer Science or delight at the sound of bytes, synchronous transmission and toggle switches, leave the technical details to the supplier. Your only concern is whether the equipment and software under review perform the required tasks. Based on the findings of your office survey, hopefully you will have identified the specific areas of practice that may profitably admit of automation. These divide into 2 functional categories: 1. Administration —client and matter accounting, nominal ledger, payroll, petty cash, billing, time-recording, client index, archive. The efficient management of internal office procedures is a pre-requisite to increasing your practice's fee-income. Several programs on the market will automate a number of these administrative routines. For example, your client accounting will greatly benefit from the automatic posting of cash received or payments made to the appropriate client ledger card. Similarly, transfers between office and client accounts will be entered on the ledger card, debits and credits noted and all balances updated at once. Some accounts packages allow unpaid outlay on behalf of clients, e.g. searches, to be posted as a debit to the office account on the appropriate ledger card(s). This enables any V.A.T. on the amount to be reclaimed at the earliest date — before the disbursement is paid. It is also a safeguard to ensure that the cost is ultimately recovered from your client. The pursuit of efficiency for its own sake may be highly desirable but will not necessarily lead to greater profits. A streamlined operation is the means, not the end. However, due to the recent introduction of the new Solicitors' Accounts Regulations, many practices will decide to automate their book-keeping for reasons other than financial gain. The new rules impose, inter alia , a twice-yearly reconciliation of client funds. If your accounts are not maintained in some degree of order, your friendly auditor — who must report what he finds to the Law Society — will spend 2 weeks pouring over the books, become more and more confused and finally land you with a bill guaranteed to increase by a factor of

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