How a litigation boutique collected $31K in outstanding invoices in 60 days and cut AR from 67 to 29 days

$31K in outstanding invoices. 67-day average AR. Monthly billing with manual follow-up: two emails per overdue invoice, then the process stopped. Clients had learned that invoices could be ignored for 60 days without consequence. The managing partner was personally calling clients for balances over $5K.

Weekly invoicing cadence in Clio replacing the monthly cycle. Automated payment reminders via LawPay at 7, 14, 30, and 45 days post-invoice — each with escalating urgency. Hard-stop escalation protocol at 60 days: account flagged, no new work without prior balance resolution unless managing partner override. Payment plan templates documented in Clio with auto-reminders on each installment date.

Weekly billing changes client psychology: smaller, more frequent invoices feel less daunting than one large monthly statement. The 4-touch reminder sequence was calibrated against legal industry norms — 7 days prevents the "I forgot" response. The hard-stop at 60 days was the behavior change that made the whole system credible: once clients understood that work would pause for unpaid balances, AR dropped permanently.