How Glade.ai Makes Collecting Payment Easy for This Bankruptcy Firm

he Modern Law Firm series delves into how AI can streamline your law firm — whether it’s by saving you time and money, eliminating mistakes and redundancies or making your workflow more efficient. 

Getting paid is an important part of running a business. And it’s no different for bankruptcy firms. For one Florida-based company, Glade.ai is making that process simpler. 

Read on to learn more about how Van Horn Law Group, P.A. collects payments.

Before Technology

The Van Horn Law Group didn’t always have such a smooth payment collection process. In fact, it was anything but. According Gray Van Horn, who started working at the firm to help his brother grow the business, “They literally were managing payment plans on a piece of paper.”

As part of the makeshift filing system, the firm would date the paper with the day they were supposed to run the transaction. “So [they would] literally key in the numbers and pull up the tabs, and I was like this is crazy. We obviously moved from this to newer technology.”

Integrating With Glade.Ai 

One issue that Van Horn Law Group faced when it started to modernize its law firm was that its legal team was using too many programs. It meant using several logins. When it switched to Glade.Ai, it finally had one space to work out of because of the integration capabilities. This was especially useful for collecting payments. Clients can sign in and customize their payment plans.

Tailoring Payments With Glade.Ai

Glade also makes it possible to have different payment plans for difference cases, For example, for a Chapter 7, there’s a bifurcated plan. “A client pays some portion of their retainer or their filing fees before the case is filed,” Van Horn says. “When we actually file their case, they sign a post retainer and they finish out their payment plan. For the rest of their fees, as it relates to their case, [Glade] allows them to actually sign up and make a payment within some parameters that we put and [it automatically runs].”

When it comes to bankruptcy law, there are guidelines law firms must follow to remain complaint, and Glade also lets firms tailor the payment system. For example, bankruptcy firms cannot accept credit card payments from clients. 

“We can accept obviously for bankruptcy a debit card or an ACH,” Van Horn says. “We can't accept a credit card. There is [an exception] if a family members paying or something like that, but we can manage that individually on a personal basis. This keeps us compliant.”

Following Up With Clients

Sometimes it takes following up with clients to receive payment. Other times, you want to give a client a heads up that they’ll payment will be deducted from their account, but following up can be time consuming. Glade makes it easy by handling follow ups.

“This automatically follows up with the client,” Van Horn adds. “It will also give notifications saying, ‘Hey, tomorrow we're going to run your next payment.” 

How Glade.Ai Enhances Your Payment Process

There are many ways to meet your clients where they are, making the payment process easier than ever. 

Automatic Invoicing

Glade can send invoices for you, making it one less task you have to worry about. Glade generates PDFs and sends them to clients at the appropriate time. Our AI functions also follow up with clients until they pay their invoices, saving you from having to reach out to clients. 

Secure payments

Glade offers secure payments. With about 60 percent of cyber attacks affecting small- and medium-sized businesses, your firm is at risk of fraud. Glade works to combat that.

QR Codes, One-Link and More

You don’t have to accept payment in one way. You can send a QR code, your One-Link (which includes all your services and prices), a payment link via messaging or a buy button on your website. Sticking to one method likely won’t work for all customers, which is why gives you options. 

Multiple Payment Methods

Glade has flexible payment methods. Clients can pay with a debit card as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Customers can choose the payment method that’s most convenient for them. 

All Transactions in One Place

Regardless of how clients pay, your Glade dashboard will keep track of all transactions in one central location. This allows you to easily know when you are missing payments.