Serengeti includes both matter management and electronic billing in one system, which provides a number of unique benefits. Our electronic invoicing module permits law departments to efficiently route, audit, and approve bills online, then deliver them to AP for payment.
CUSTOMER INSIGHT - Jamba Juice"It just makes life easier," said Michael Fox, the only in-house lawyer at Jamba Juice Co., the Emeryville operator of smoothie shops nationwide. Fox switched to an e-billing system from a paper-based system shortly after joining the company 2 1/2 years ago.Fox's system lets him keep especially close tabs on the cost of lease-related work, a critical area to a company that has 640 locations. "That would almost be impossible to do on paper (bills). It would take too much time to figure it out. ... It's well worth the money." Paper is Going the Way of Dinosaur, But Not Easily Eric Young | San Francisco Business Times | 09.28.07 |
Additional Features
- Use tabbed invoicing to see all relevant invoice information and analysis in a single invoice view that includes: budget/spending comparisons, status reports, billing guideline audits, prior bills, staffing analyses, and matter details (including exposure estimates and reserves).
- Easily search the online database of over law firms that are currently billing through Serengeti or quickly add new firms and offices if necessary.
- Manually enter paper invoices as "Live" or "Memo Entries" to track spending from non-e-billing vendors.
- Let the system tell you when there is a new timekeeper, a change in billing rates, or a violation of your outside counsel expense guidelines.
- Check staffing levels and budget comparisons as part of bill review.
- Route invoices electronically through multiple approvers with individual approval authority thresholds. Add additional approvers to the standard route ad-hoc.
- Capture invoice adjustments and comments at each stage of approval, and immediately convey the "external" comments back to the firm attorney and billing clerk when the bill is finally approved.
- Run a "Stuck Invoices" exception report to determine who has unapproved invoices and how long they have been pending. Quickly deliver reminder emails from the report screen.
- Deliver configurable billing approval data to the company's AP system
- Assemble the law department budget (and reforecasts during the year) from the project budgets and historical spending already in the system
- Instantly access spending and budget reports
online, without having to reenter any data
LAW FIRM INSIGHT - Sargent & Krahn"After using Serengeti for over four years with more than a dozen clients, I can say with confidence that it is a great fit for international law firms like ours. Although our firm is based in Santiago, Chile, we've had no trouble setting up the system or using the various features. Serengeti makes it much easier to share information directly with our corporate clients around the world."Viviane Paeile Sargent & Krahn - Santiago, Chile |
CUSTOMER INSIGHT - Blue Shield of CaliforniaFor Trudy Johnson, keeping track of legal spending at Blue Shield of California required repetitive, old-fashioned techniques.It started with Johnson, the legal business manager, tearing open the paper bills that law firms mailed to her office. Then someone in her group would make sure the bill met expense guidelines and copy the data from the bill onto a spreadsheet before sending it to accounts payable. "It was very, very manual," said Johnson, who was determined to find a better way. Johnson found it six months ago when Blue Shield dropped its paper-based procedures for an electronic billing system. The web-based program allows Blue Shield to automate the billing process and quickly sort data, meaning Blue Shield can keep closer tabs on legal spending. "We have been reaping the benefits ever since," said Johnson, whose company installed a program by Serengeti Law. Paper is Going the Way of Dinosaur, But Not Easily Eric Young | San Francisco Business Times | 09.28.07 |
QUICK FACTS
• Receives legal invoicesfrom 100% of your firms—
domestic and international
• Accepts LEDES invoices
without modification to the
LEDES 1998B standard
• Accepts non-LEDES invoices
and receipts
• UTBMS task & activity codes
accepted, but not required
• Compares invoices to budgets
for month, year, & cumulative
• Routes invoices to multiple
approvers (with thresholds)
• Audits invoices
• Ability to track paper invoices
as "live" or "memo" entries
• Convenient transfer or upload
of approved invoice data to
AP
