21. Why Are Some Bills Easier to Collect than Others?

The client who gets a good outcome, on time and on budget, without any unnecessary drama, has no reason to challenge the bill. Not just no reason, but no basis or incentive.

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It’s that time of the year again. We are now entering the height of collection and budgeting season. The drum beat from firm management will be familiar: you need to make your personal numbers, the firm needs to make budget, and so everyone has to play their part. This will have been a recurring message throughout the year, only now the tone is louder and more urgent. In the eyes of firm management, this issue goes a long way to separate the good citizens from the usual suspects. Given that the year-end collection push is followed by the compensation review cycle, you really want to be on the right side of these optics. Needless to say, this topic gains extra importance if your January business plan contained grand promises or optimistic predictions.

So why is it that for some people this issue seems to take care of itself, and their realization statistics are consistently high, while for others this is a perennial struggle? Why do some people sail through the entire budgeting, billing and collection process, while for others collection always means trepidation? If you’re in the second group, the season when you need every precious minute to get time-sensitive work across the line and have a strong finish, is exactly when you don’t want to lose valuable hours trying to get proforma agreed with clients, or getting caught up in disputes over old bills. We all know how this ends. In most cases, there’s an awkward discussion with firm management, a write-off and an ex-client to eliminate from next year’s business plan.

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