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APS Billback…so much more than Cost Recovery

There’s no doubt about it, there has been a quiet software and solutions revolution going on at Billback – now APS Billback -since it merged into the Australian-based APS Group just 12 months ago. For those in the know, APS is the producer and supplier of ‘high performance’ practice software and solutions for progressive legal and accounting firms – where their software and consulting team has gained a big following for their ability to help in maximising day-to-day practice productivity.

Across the accounting profession the APS tentacles have spread into more than 70 of the Top 100 practices. In the legal profession, you will most likely know APS from its Billback roots in cost recovery. Things have moved quickly however since the 2009 merger and as part of the APS Group the Billback offering has been significantly expanded to form the Billback Advantage Suite of Solutions. In essence, the Advantage Suite is a fully integrated practice solution that ‘collects, connects and transforms’ data into revenue, efficient processes and decision-making information.

So, what does this mean in practice? Looking to the big picture, APS Group CEO Brian Armstrong tells us that the Advantage Suite gives law firms the ability to connect a host of disparate systems within a firm and draw meaningful data from them that can then be applied to enhance billings, reduce and manage costs and generate efficiencies in areas such as scanning and print controls – all linked to client, matter, whole-offirm or other codes. The Advantage Suite also integrates directly with whatever practice management and accounting system a firm is using.

Brian explains further, “Yes, that’s correct. Integration of systems is critical and the Advantage Suite exists to help managing partners and practice managers gain far greater visibility and control over the day-to-day workings of their firm. Put simply the suite can capture costs and control the build-up of expenses in all areas. It can manage and set print controls across the practice, linked to client, matter and other codes. It will generate efficiencies in process and time spent on scanning, integrating directly to the incumbent document management system. It will find ‘lost’ WIP by connecting with data from systems across your firm, gain visibility over costs for more accurate decision-making and integrate with your practice management and accounting systems. Essentially, the suite gives you real-time visibility with the ability to run reports on the costs associated with running your practice and servicing your clients with reports available on a matter, client, team member, team, division or whole-of-firm basis.”

Taking a closer look at the Advantage Suite, there are eight key elements to the suite, as follows:

	Enterprise Platform Robust, flexible, comprehensive. Business rules engine. Workflow & approvals. Exceptions editor. Multi-site / language / currency.		Expense Manager Capture & track all firm’s expenses for cost clarity Streamline creditor and expense data import, cleansing and upload to a client or matter in Practice Management.
	Revenue Management Cost recovery. Accurately track & charge for all soft & hard disbursements. WIP Finder Diary of user activities One click creation of WIP entries into your timesheets.		Document Services Automation Print room job management & costing. Virtual filing, scan to DMS document routing. pdfDOCS suite & document production.
	Business Process Automation Streamline and integrate Advanced Business Alerts. Workflow. Document Automation. Subscriptions & Requests. Integration. Web Content Publishing.		Print Manager Reduce print volume, reduce wastage. Print Profiles, rules based document output format control. Print Roaming, authenticate to release print control.
	Practice IQ Business intelligence. Data warehouse with RM and EM data. Powerful slice & dice querying. Visibility of non-WIP costs.		Document Management Interwoven Worksite gold partner Implementation, configuration and consultancy services.