As a consultant or entrepreneur, you probably now invoice for services and do not need help preparing invoices to send to clients. If you need a new or more efficient method, QuickBooks is useful software that can manage your finances and prepare invoices for clients. You also keep track of how much money individual clients owe you for legal services.

Clients frequently write checks to attorneys for their services, and their bill payments then come from clients’ accounts at the law firm. In these cases, the attorney or their law firm will pay your bills when you submit them. sometimes customers will pay their bills directly. However, either way, take the time to document your work and prepare invoices for shipment. To keep everyone informed of your progress, it is best to send a copy of your invoice to both the client and the attorney. As your work progresses, keep records of what you do, the dates you do it, how long it passes, who you have met, and who you have spoken to. These records will help you prepare your invoices.

You should always provide minimal details on an invoice and it should never contain sensitive data. For example, it should not include details of private conversations. You can write that you spoke or met with a person, read something, or do a series of tests. Put dates and a brief summary but no further details on the invoice. Submit your invoices regularly, depending on the amount of work or time you put in.

Keep a record in your file folder of your time and expenses. Assign one or more lines each day you work on the case. Write down the date and time you spent and what you did. If you have different billing rates for different activities, keep track of those activities separately.

You should keep a record of every phone call from the attorney about the case. When you receive a call from a lawyer, write down the start time of the call, the date and the end time of the call. You should include these phone conversations as part of your regular billing, but again, do not write any confidential information in your notes or on the bill.

Also, keep track of out-of-pocket expenses that you may also be charged for. This includes copying, binding, or printing. It also includes third-party services for graphics and exhibit preparation, shipping, and travel expenses for hotels, food, taxis, and rental cars.

You can take the approach that you earn such a high salary for your time as an expert that charging for petty expenses is negligible. That’s reasonable, but you will still have non-trivial additional expenses and must charge for them.

There is a final note on charging for anything, trivial or not. Once you have established yourself as an expert witness, you may occasionally be asked to offer your services at no cost (‘pro bono’ work) or at discounted rates. Usually this only happens after you have established a reputation. People who cannot otherwise afford an expert witness may come to you for help and will expect to get your help at no cost. At other times, foundations or charities may ask you to offer their services at reduced rates because of the good works they do. In both cases, you have the opportunity to do wonderful work at a nominal cost to you, in addition to the time you could spend doing it. Let your morals and ethics, and hopefully your willingness to contribute to the community, be your guide. However, as a bonus, all of these cases add to the overall experience that you can claim and can be applied in future case work as well.