Why Work-Based Advance and Expense Tracking is Important for the Lawyers?

Pursuant to Article 35 of Attorneyship Law, providing opinion in legal matters; litigating and defending the rights of real persons and legal entities before courts, arbitrators, and other bodies invested with jurisdictional powers; and managing all documentation associated therewith are the sole prerogative of lawyers enrolled with bar associations.We, as lawyers, who are practicing law, also perform a consultancy profession in this respect. The essence of the consultancy profession is to generate income, based on the knowledge of a particular subject.This is also the case for the lawyers as we generate income in return for the legal informationwe provide to our clients with whom we establish a proxy relationship. However, if we cannot properly balance the income we generate with the expenses we incur while executing the work written in the law that we deserve this income, we may experience a loss of profit and meanwhile we may loose the trust of our clients.

The most significant part of the expense tracking that reflects to us as the lawyers, is to income and expense tracking. Yet, as lawyers, we all serve our clients and make ouroffers by considering other variables such as the way the work is done, the place where it will be done, the timeetc., and the actual expenses cause our income level to decrease at times and increase at other times. Especially when the work is required to be done in a city other than the bar association where we are registered, we set our fee by calculating hours or labor accordingly.Keeping track of expenses and being able to see when and how the relevant work is executed are crucial indicators for us when calculating the income we generate from the relevant work.

When it comes to expenses, obviously, there are certain legal costs such as some fixed and relative fees.However, if we fail to keep track of some expenses, it is inevitable that these expenses will be overlooked. The most obvious example of this is the transportation costs.When going to an official institution, court, or another address where a work will be done, some of us use public transportation, while others use taxi or their own vehicles.Although the transportation cost may seem like a minor expense item at first glance, this expense item can become quite burdensome when frequent transportation is required depending on the nature of the job. Therefore, it is particularly important for a lawyer to keep track of the expenses incurred.

The importance of expense tracking for the clients we serve should be evaluated in a completely different way. If we have received an advance payment from our client, we must be able to present the items on which this advance was spent as quickly as possible. From this aspect, we can understand how vital expense follow-up is also for the execution of the “Duty of Care” stipulated in Article 34 of the Attorneyship Law.

In addition to all these, it is particularly important to be able to track the expenses accurately, not only for existing clients, but also for proposals to be given to potential future clients.If we would be familiar with the information on how to make expenses related to similar works, we can optimize the advance notification before making the same expenses, and the cost control while making the expenses.

In short, a lawyer should be able to keep track of his/her expenses while generating income with his/her legal knowledge. In order to do so, it is necessary to take notes of the expenses immediately and keep the relevant document in a place that will not be lost if the expense is documented.It is quite possible to do all this with paper and pencil, but now the benefits of technology are indisputable. AdvoPass is a tool created by lawyers to assist lawyers in this regard. With AdvoPass you can both note your expenses instantly, in a way that will not be lost, and share them as a report upon the request of your client.