Reece Guida

How to Decide Between On-Premises and Cloud-Based Time and Billing Software

September 7, 2020 By Reece Guida Leave a Comment

Trying to choose between on-premises and cloud-based time and billing software? We’re here to help.

Even though we specialize in selling cloud-based software to all sorts of professionals who need to track their time and bill for it, our goal is to provide you with information to make the right decision based on your organization’s individual needs.

Key Differences Between Cloud and On-Premises Timekeeping and Billing Software

Both cloud-based and on-premises time and billing software have document management, time entry, accounting, and billing features. When trying to see which option is better, firms should hone in on the following four areas:

1. Data Access

Cloud-based software runs on the internet and can be accessed from a laptop, mobile phone, or tablet.
On-premises software runs on a local server stored in the office.

2. Cost

Cloud-based software is sold on either a monthly or annual subscription model.
On-premises software is sold on a contract-basis. Ongoing server-maintenance fees are an additional expense.

3. Security

Cloud-based software providers are responsible for the security and maintenance of the platform, as well as the physical security of their data centers. You are responsible for selecting secure usernames and passwords to prevent unauthorized access to your account.
On-premises security is very hands on. Providers leave protecting and maintaining your data up to you. Common protections include firewalls, antivirus, and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

4. User Experience

Cloud-based software is typically user-friendly. Providers are obligated to guarantee that the software is running properly, with little to no outages. By design, this creates broader storage capabilities and reliable access. For help with day-to-day use, providers publish online libraries of documents and videos that help users get the most out of the platform.
On-premises software user experience depends on the health of the server. If the server is cared for and updated whenever possible, there will be no issues. If users are having trouble remoting into the server, especially during COVID-19, then they will lose productivity and be frustrated with the software. Firms often hire IT staff who are considered “pro users” at the software to help the firm navigate and maintain the software.

Accessing Data: On-Premises vs Cloud-Hosted Time and Billing Systems

Why is access critical? Because every moment spent tracking down information costs time and money.

On average, attorneys spend more than two hours a week searching for documents, and over 80% of law firms find it challenging to share information across multiple platforms.
All this scrambling translates to real dollars lost — an additional $9,071 per person, per year to be exact (not to mention the additional 8% decrease in productivity).
In all, attorneys lose about 6 hours per day on non-billable work. This loss becomes even more significant as hourly rates rise and realization rates continue to fall.

How to Access Data On-Premises

Use a local server: Many on-premises programs are run on a local server so organizations can link their computers together into a network. Without a network, individual computers running server-based software on-premises operate in a silo. This makes sharing information difficult.

Use a desktop in the office or remote in to the server a laptop: Users can access the server via desktop in the office or remotely on a laptop through a secure VPN.

How to Access Data in the Cloud

Use servers owned by the cloud provider: With critical documents stored in a secured online location, everyone at the firm can access information instantly.

Use any device: Because cloud providers run their software on the internet, access works across devices. Cloud-based time and billing providers usually have a mobile app for quick access.

The Cost of On-Premises vs Cloud Time & Billing Solutions

In 2016, a survey by the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) revealed that almost half of all respondents spent $5,000-11,000 per attorney on technology.

Their top five costs?

Computers
Network upgrades
Servers
Printers
Other multifunctional devices, and antivirus, antispam, and spyware services.

Not on the list as a significant expense? Software.

How to Pay for On-Premises Costs

Upgrade your hardware: Any device, be it your mobile phone, laptop, or database server, need upgrades to function properly. In fact, most firms end up replacing their servers every three years, spending thousands on upgrades and maintenance.

Hire IT staff: Maintaining and depending on a local server is expensive. IT staff, whether on the payroll or through a third-party vendor, carry a high price-tag.

How to Pay for Cloud Costs

Pay subscription fees based on usage: With SaaS, there’s no hefty upfront fee or capital expense, just a monthly or annual bill and sometimes, an initial setup charge. There are no upgrade costs because the software is always kept up-to-date.

Other cost-benefits of cloud-based software include:

Predictable software costs
Little or no burden to your IT department
Fast start for a quick ROI

There’s also greater cost flexibility depending on usage at the firm:

Usage can be increased or decreased as needed.
Software can be easily scaled to staffing changes. This allows your software to grow with your organization so you can stay lean and agile in your operations.

The Security of On-Premises vs Cloud Time & Billing Software

Cyberattacks are becoming more common and sophisticated.

According to the American Bar Association, nearly a quarter of all law firms experienced a data breach in 2017.
Non-compliance, lack of security protocols, and inadequate training of staff also leave organizations vulnerable.
A majority of firms are their own weak link, with no incident response plans for data breaches.

How to Secure On-Premises Software

Store your server in a locked room to prevent outside access: Only key personnel should be able to access the locked room in which servers are stored.

Regularly back up data: Even in the most secure of rooms, data backups are necessary. Without a backup on another server, any interference — including hardware failure, power outage, fire, or natural disaster — data will be lost.

Hire dedicated IT staff to protect the infrastructure: A skilled IT department and up-to-date server technology translate into a reliable, secure database.

How to Secure Cloud Software

Make sure that your cloud provider offers the following features:

Storage redundancies mean even if one database goes down, there are numerous copies of data on other servers, so data is never lost.
Large database servers like Amazon Web Services use extensive physical security measures like PINs, video surveillance, security guards, and more. And they’re backed by an endless budget.
Automatic encryption and backups provide even more data security and reliability.

User Experience: Cloud vs On-Premises Solutions

Productivity and efficiency are the keystones of any organization, especially when billable hours dictate the profit margin. COVID-19 has made the ability to work remotely more important than ever, so user experience needs to be consistent outside of the office.

How Users Experience On-Premises Time and Billing Solutions

When the network is local, and the server is onsite, access to information can be challenging.

Server vulnerability and remote access issues:

Server failures happen. When the servers are down, nobody can access the data or documents they need. Hours, even days, of productivity, can be lost.
Servers are vulnerable: one power outage, fire, or natural disaster, and you lose everything.
There can be limits to how many users can log on to the server remotely, and the process can be sluggish and inconvenient.
Remote access to the local server also limits a team’s ability to work collaboratively. Connectivity issues can cause frustration and even impede task management.

Hiring an in-house IT expert or contractor can solve these technical challenges, especially if they’re certified “pro users” of the software you’re using.

How Users Experience Cloud Time and Billing Solutions

Reliable service, thanks to Service Level Agreements (SLAs):

Cloud time and billing software providers are committed to having no disruptions in the user experience.
This implicit agreement between the provider and user sets expectations for what will happen if the software experiences technical difficulties, and how the provider will remedy that.
When the 99.9% uptime guarantee is breached, cloud providers typically offer users a discount on their monthly bill to make it up to them.

Better storage capability and expanded access to critical information:

Because the cloud is so flexible, users enjoy unlimited or near-unlimited storage options for their documents and data.
Online software allows them to access critical information on the go, whether it be on a cell phone in the court room or on a laptop in an airplane.
Most of your clients are already in the cloud, so going online can help streamline communication and collaboration.

How to Choose Between Cloud vs. On-Premises Time and Billing Software

The COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call for on-premises providers and users. Firms relying on on-premises billing and document management solutions who have had difficulty remoting into their server are taking notice. As a result, they’re considering implementing cloud-based billing software.

Organizations that swiftly pivoted to remote work are seeing their investment in cloud-based systems pay off. “What you will probably find working in the time of corona, more people will become more used to [working remotely] and more comfortable using it, it won’t go away,” Stephen Allen, Hogan Lovells’ head of innovation and digital, recently told Law.com. “The trend we have seen in the last three or four years of being cloud accessible will be nudged along the line more.”

But regardless of the coronavirus, the decision to switch to cloud-based billing software remains an individual issue based on the needs, challenges, and budget of your organization.

If you’re interested in a time and billing solution that gives you helpful insights into your productivity and efficiency, then consider signing up for a personalized demonstration of Bill4Time.

How Colón Ramirez LLC Survived Disaster and Built His Firm from a Laptop

July 13, 2020 By Reece Guida Leave a Comment

With no capital or cushion, Francisco Colón founded his own insurance defense firm in 2017. Bill4Time helped Colón Ramirez LLC get up and running quickly, even as Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, where the firm is based. In the years since, Francisco’s firm has grown with the help of Bill4Time’s intuitive interface, easy invoicing, and insightful analytics.

Surviving Two Hurricanes and a Pandemic

As if starting Colón Ramirez LLC weren’t already difficult enough, two natural disasters happened immediately after he opened his practice.

Category 5 hurricanes Irma and Maria struck Puerto Rico in quick succession, leaving approximately 3.4 million residents without electricity. For law firms relying on server-based technology to manage their practice, this severely impacted their business. But Francisco didn’t need to rely on a server in his office. He only needed WiFi. Francisco says, “The fact that I could access Bill4Time when disaster hit allowed me to mitigate the economic fallout. I don’t even want to think about the bind I would’ve been in if I weren’t able to bill.”

Three years later, disaster struck again. This time, Puerto Rico wasn’t the only one affected. In 2020, COVID-19 reached every corner of the globe, fundamentally changing the way we socialize and work.

Did COVID-19 have any impact on your practice?

Colón Ramirez LLC: Yes, the courts closed down. It took about 4-6 weeks for them to pivot to Zoom conferences. Beyond that, we did see a reduction in billable hours because overall business went down. Fortunately, my overhead is so low with Bill4Time. Even with the reduction of billable hours, I can survive and still pay my people.

Was there any adjustment period to remote work?

Colón Ramirez LLC: I would say that I don’t work remotely. My office exists wherever my laptop is. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the ability to remain completely operational, no matter what or where. That’s a testament to cloud-based software: wherever you are becomes your office. Some people view this as being chained to work, but I see it as not being chained to the physical office. It’s all about perspective.

Leaving Server-Based Time and Billing Behind

Francisco used TimeSlips for more than two decades when he worked at his father’s law firm. He knows about making the move from on-premises time and billing to a cloud-based system better than anyone.

What were some of the challenges using a server-based billing solution?

Colón Ramirez LLC: It takes a lot of time and overhead to run an on-premise time and billing platform.

First, there’s the investment of capital to set up an in-house billing program. Compare this to the subscription model offered by modern time and billing solutions: it’s more convenient paying a monthly subscription fee, versus dropping thousands of dollars every five years or so to upgrade servers and the program itself. There’s also the cost of implementing and adjusting to that big change.

Getting started is only half the battle. Actually using the program involved a lot of clicks and steps. This ended up affecting overhead. We actually had two out of the five full-time employees whose sole purpose was billing.

Saving Time and Making the Most of It

Moving from TimeSlips to Bill4Time was initially disorienting. Francisco recalls “When I first fired up Bill4Time, it’s very deceptive because it looked simple. It’s hard to believe that there’s so much information and possibilities at your fingertips.”

What are your favorite things about Bill4Time?

Colón Ramirez LLC: I love the Batch Entry feature and the ability to clone prior entries. That’s what really sold me on your product. All it takes is a click of a toggle and I’m saving so much time not doing manual data entry. It’s also very easy to correct invoices that need to be updated.

Are you leveraging any reports in Bill4Time?

Colón Ramirez LLC: My favorite is the User Efficiency Report. These were a big headache in TimeSlips, and they weren’t intuitive to find. In Bill4Time, I just go to “Reports”, “Entry and User”, “User Efficiency”, and click “Generate”. 1, 2, 3, and I have my report. It’s just so easy I want to cry. I can see what the attorneys at the firm billed last month, if attorneys at the firm met their individual targets, and if they earned their bonus. With Bill4Time, I am collecting over 97% on my bills.

Building a Practice from the Cloud Up

Reflecting on how far he’s come since moving time and billing to the cloud, Francisco says, “I can do everything in Bill4Time that my old law firm used to do with TimeSlips, and then some. But it’s about 90% more straightforward. Think about it for a second — there are people who make a living as a TimeSlips advisor. I can’t imagine there’d ever be a Bill4Time advisor — you wouldn’t ever need one! You can figure it out. It’s super easy.”

Starting your own law firm isn’t easy, but finding the tools that make the most of your time can help make that journey easier. “I want to help people who are on the journey I was on,” says Francisco. “Bill4Time delivered in a time of need for me and allowed me to become what I am today.”

Bill4Time Customer Spotlight: How Dr. Donna Is Embracing Tech During COVID-19

June 9, 2020 By Reece Guida Leave a Comment

Customer-Testimonial-Donna-Seibert-Bill4Time

“What causes the most anxiety is not knowing.” Donna Seibert lives in the unknown. Her job is to get people through it.

As a healthcare advocate and the CEO of Alongside Medical Ally, Dr. Donna Seibert (who goes by Dr. Donna) helps people of all ages in the Boston area navigate the healthcare system. In addition to being a physician for over 30 years, Dr. Seibert has experience in nursing and higher education, giving her a broad prospective on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the larger healthcare system.

The coronavirus has challenged how Dr. Donna does her job. Ever resilient, she’s embraced technology, remote work, and Bill4Time to help her patients from afar.

What Is A Healthcare Advocate?

Dr. Donna facilitates communication and care on the patient’s behalf — and on the behalf of their families, who are often too overwhelmed by their loved one’s illness and the visits to the doctor’s office. Donna even gives the doctors she works with a detailed medical profile which lists pertinent medical and contact information about her patients.

Each medical profile concludes with a care plan and intimate insights about the patient. They need to have pills in their applesauce. They are hard of hearing, so speak into their left ear.

Managing the healthcare system for so many people can get complicated, and Dr. Donna relies on Bill4Time to help.

How Bill4Time Helps

Dr. Donna uses Bill4Time to organize documents, notes, communications, and medical files for each client. She uses the quick and easy invoicing in Bill4Time to save her time so she can focus on what matters most: taking care of her patients.

In this interview, Dr. Donna has some advice for everyone on getting through COVID-19, adapting to remote work, using Bill4Time to become more efficient, and maintaining a healthy perspective.

Dr. Donna on Transitioning to Remote Work

Before COVID-19, what was a typical work day like?

“I’d say that 60% of my time was spent problem-solving on the phone orchestrating healthcare and getting services. Another 30% of my time was spent going to doctors’ appointments, answering clients’ questions, or listening to their concerns. The last 10% of my time was spent consulting new patients and their families.

Those in-person consultations would happen at the client’s home after an initial phone call. At that point, I would approach them with a medical profile and a care plan that we’d review, as well as a list of their medical issues and how to respond to them. From there, they’d decide if they’d hire me as an advocate, where I’d manage the healthcare process for the family. Or they might hire me as a consultant, where I’d advise the patient on what questions to ask the doctor, and how to come up with a written agenda for their visit.”

How has your work changed since COVID-19?

“Since COVID-19 began, hospitals have restricted who can enter. All but essential doctor appointments are held by teleconferencing and I join patients on these calls. Today, I’d say I spend 25-30% of my time on Zoom meetings.

Like everyone else, I miss the in-person interaction that comes with my job. I rely on visual interaction to navigate the healthcare journey with my clients — especially for in-person consultations.

When I’m getting to know a new client, going into their family’s home can be very helpful. I can see who is depended on the most in the family and assess the family dynamics. Now, I have to rely on the tone of voice in phone calls, or facial expressions in Zoom. I appreciate Zoom and FaceTime, but it’s not the same!”

Embracing Technology During COVID-19

Before you used Bill4Time, how were you running your business?

“Before Bill4Time, I was manually billing — and it would take about an hour per client to find all of my billable items, transcribe them to the invoice, and then add them up and manually deduct from the retainer.

I used a template from Word. (There were many issues with this.) Of course, this meant I would try to bill as infrequently as possible!”

How does Bill4Time help you work remotely?

“With Bill4Time, all of my billables are in one spot. I can look at them throughout the month to see how much of the retainer has been used for each client and determine if I need to let them know if the retainer needs to be refilled before the end of the month.

With the extra downtime I have during COVID-19, I’ve learned the system even better from YouTube and made great gains. For learners like myself, these training videos are very useful for learning your way around Bill4Time. They show the depth of this program and what it could really do for me.

In particular, I needed some help with retainers and pulling the money from them. Oh, and finding the Reports section was HUGE, especially at tax time!”

Does remote work create opportunities to improve and modernize your business?

“One pro of remote work in the age of coronavirus is having more time to learn more technology that enables me to improve or streamline my business. I’ve also found that my clients are more open to trying new things such as Zoom.

Before this happened, some clients were not open to Zoom video conferencing. When I needed to have this face time in the past, I had no problem commuting. But I can no longer see my clients — who live anywhere from the South Shore all the way to New Hampshire.

Under these circumstances, I’m thankful that Zoom can give me a look into my clients’ facial expressions. We’ve both adapted. Now that they’re more used to Zoom, I can imagine that we’ll be using it instead of phone calls in the future.”

Managing Your Work and Mental Health During COVID-19

Do you have recommendations for professionals who might not be used to remote work?

“If you don’t make a schedule, you’re very easily distracted at home. Each day, write down your priorities. If I don’t do this, I’ll forget what I need to do. You should also write down your weekly goals to identify the most important tasks among your daily priorities.”

What would you like to say to anyone who is afraid about their job and their health during this time?

“Be careful and stay well, but don’t be afraid. You will get through this. You’ve been through worse. Remember to live more mindfully and be compassionate.

To get a greater perspective on life and health, read Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. It makes you realize that you have a lot of control over your health and mindset — at a time where you need to remember this more than ever.”

Top 3 Takeaways From the Interview

With COVID-19 fundamentally changing the healthcare system and putting the elderly at risk, Donna’s job has become more important than ever.

We can all learn something from Dr. Donna. Here are the top 3 takeaways from our interview, with a focus on working remotely and maintaining a healthy perspective during COVID-19.

Takeaway #1: If you’re intimated by billing, invoicing, and accounting, Bill4Time can do the heavy lifting for you.

Takeaway #2: Bill4Time has a complete library of YouTube training videos that empower you to manage your business, whether you’re a medical advocate, lawyer, or graphic designer.

Takeaway #3: Whenever possible, substitute phone calls with Zoom calls so you can get face time with your clients.

Even though we’re more alone than ever before, Donna put it best: “You don’t have to do it all by yourself.”

About Donna Seibert

Donna Seibert, M.D. is a private professional healthcare advocate and founder of Alongside Medical Ally.

She has a background in nursing, higher education, and medicine which enables her to provide excellent care to her clients. She earned her M.D. degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Working as an advocate, Dr. Donna has successfully guided patients through healthcare dilemmas, found healthcare solutions, shared needed resources and most importantly, optimized the patient experience for her clients. She keeps the patient at the center of care and uses her breadth of knowledge to come alongside the patient to improve patient outcomes. Dr. Donna works to promote advocacy through her memberships in the National Association of Healthcare Advocacy, the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates, and the local group of advocates, Massachusetts Health Care Advocates. She is also a board member of the Ipswich Refugee Program and acts as a medical resource for them. Dr. Donna recently had an op ed letter about advocacy published in the Boston Globe. She loves spreading the word about advocacy and welcomes general inquiries about this important work.

She can be reached at: dr.donna.north.shore@gmail.com