 |
|
|
Tracker budgeting helps you set expectations with outside counsel, and
deal with any spending problems right away, avoiding larger problems
down the road. Once you approve the budget, Tracker automatically
provides actual-to-budget comparisons by month, fiscal year, and life of
matter. Budget reports help you assess outside counsel performance
against budget and identify developing trends. A separate internal
budgeting module helps you prepare and track your departmental budget.
Matter Budgets & Law Department Budgets
As shown in the results of the 2006 ACC/Serengeti survey of
in-house law departments (see below), budgets are one of the most important tools
used by law departments to manage legal expenses. The budgeting tools in Serengeti Tracker are designed to simplify the
process by:
- Ensuring that required law firm budgets
are completed on time without the need for follow-up
If a budget is required, then the firm
cannot post invoices to that matter until a budget is provided.
- Collecting a budget in the preferred format
for the matter
Companies can select a budget format that best fits the type of
matter they are managing. Formats include: one budget number for the
entire fiscal year, quarterly estimates, monthly estimates,
estimates for each phase of litigation (e.g. initial case
assessment, discovery, trial, etc.), or estimates for each phase of
patent prosecution (e.g. preparation, office actions, prosecutions,
etc.).
- Reviewing new budgets and changes to
existing budgets
The built-in review process includes dashboard alerts and email
notification of new or updated budgets. It also records all in-house
approvals as a new budget version (which allows the law department
to view all prior versions of the budget if necessary).
- Managing your law firms' spending to budget
Budget to actual spending analysis by invoice, quarter, fiscal
year, and life of matter are automatically provided with each
invoice. Configurable invoice audits notify you if a bill exceeds
the budgeted amount for a specified time period. One-click reduction
to budgeted amount is also available.
- Preparing your company's own internal
budgets
The internal budget module allows companies to prepare a law
department budget by reviewing their law firms' budgets and
spending and then inputting a separate internal spending estimate
(which is not visible to the law firm).
- Preparing budget reforecasts
Required budget reforcasts can be assigned to require in-house
users to review their prior internal budget numbers and verify that
they are still accurate (or propose a revision). Again, these reforecasts rely in
part on the updated law firms budgets and spending that are
automatically captured in the system.
- Reporting on budget information
Numerous budget reports are pre-configured in the system to simplify
(1) comparing budget to actual spending, (2) identifying budgeting
trends, and (3) customizing exports for delivery to finance.
SURVEY RESULTS"Not only are more in-house counsel
requiring budgets every year, but the frequency with which they
require budgets is also increasing. For the first time [in the
five-year survey history] a majority of law departments required
budgets for some or all of their work with outside counsel.
Unlike some of the other management techniques covered by the
survey, budgets seem to have gained widespread support among a
majority of the in-house bar.
Budgets not only clarify spending
expectations between client and outside counsel, but also give
clients milestones against which to determine whether projects
are going as expected. Budgets are also driving in-house counsel
to technologies that ease budget administration, including
electronic billing systems that automatically compare bills with
budgets as part of the bill review process."
2006 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey Report |
■ top |
QUICK FACTS• Request a budget by Month,
Quarter, Fiscal Year, Litigation
Phase, or Patent Phase
• Automatic budget-to-actual
spending comparisons
• Alerts for news budgets and
changes to existing budgets
• Invoice audits for bills that
exceed the budget amount
• Assign in-house budgets and
reforecasts
• Customizable budget reports
and exports |
 |
|
|
