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The accruals module in Serengeti provides an integrated, efficient, and auditable process for collecting accrual data (law firm work in progress amounts and estimates of spending through the end of the accounting period) and sending it to your company's finance department. Essentially, this module converts what was a difficult manual process into an automated, Web-based process. It is similar to the conversion of paper bills to electronic invoices that Serengeti facilitates, except this data involves unbilled amounts rather than actual invoices.

Read about the rapid adoption of the accruals module
Over 1,000 firms in 160 countries used the module in the first 6 months.

View an online demonstration of the accruals functionality
And learn which of your firms use Serengeti to send financial data to clients

SURVEY RESULTS

A recent survey of Association of Corporate Counsel members found the following with regard to accrual reporting:

80% of the law departments must report accrued law firm spending at least once a year.
40% of law departments must report accrued law firm spending every month.

2009 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey Report

Responding to an Urgent need

With the enhanced scrutiny of Sarbanes-Oxley and other financial regulations, most corporate law departments are required to produce detailed accrual-based legal spending reports. These accrual reports must include not only pending law firm bills, but also spending for completed work that has not yet been billed (i.e. work in progress, as well as estimates of spending through the end of the accounting period).

Until now, the only way to collect this accrual information, even for law departments receiving electronic bills, was manual: issuing emails to law firms, following up with phone calls, and then re-entering the information into a spreadsheet or database. With hundreds of active matters being handled by many different law firms, corporations spend significant time trying to collect timely accruals—an inefficient exercise that many law departments must repeat every month.

"At Albemarle, we took a time consuming manual process for collecting monthly accruals from more than 75 law firms and converted it to the on-line accrual reporting system in Serengeti Tracker. This new workflow allowed us to streamline our entire process for collecting unbilled amounts and future spending estimates. Setting up the module was simple, and now our monthly accruals are gathered automatically by running one report."

Margaret Wendt
Law Department Administrator
Albemarle Corporation

Over 1,000 Law Firms Adopt Serengeti Accrual Reporting
Serengeti | Press Release | 09.18.2008

Leveraging the E-billing Connection to Collect Accruals

Serengeti gives corporate law departments an efficient way to request and collect accrual data online from law firms that are already connected for electronic billing. Law firm billing managers can either input accruals for individual matters or upload accrual data for hundreds of matters with a single mouse click using Serengeti’s innovative SpeedPost™ technology.

The accrual data flows directly from law firm systems into the client’s Serengeti databases and is immediately available for law department reporting without the delay and inaccuracy of data re-entry. In addition, built-in workflows provide all required notifications, response tracking, and law department adjustments to accrual estimates. As with other functions in Serengeti, data integrity is ensured with a system audit log of all data that is submitted, modified, or deleted.

LAW FIRM INSIGHT - Kilpatrick Stockton LLP

"I use Serengeti Tracker to submit unbilled time every month. From the Kilpatrick Stockton Law Firm perspective, the automated system is definitely the quickest, easiest way to handle accruals. Once the attorneys approve the time, I just enter the amounts, click the save button, and it’s done—I don’t have to think about it anymore."

Andrea Williams
Senior Billing Specialist
Kilpatrick Stockton LLP

Google Automates Accruals with Tracker
Serengeti | Case Study

COMBINE ACCRUAL DATA WITH BUDGETS & REPORTS

Additional workflows automatically incorporate the accrual information into fiscal year budgets and reforecasts. New reports also allow law departments to easily compare prior unbilled spending, the current month’s predicted spending, and the accrual balance remaining for the year. The process is completed with online transmission of accrual data directly to a company’s finance department or accounting system.

BEFORE: The law department at Olin Corp. has a quarterly obligation to report to the finance division any accrued law firm spending—all billings stuck in the approval pipeline or not yet received from law firms. The task should be familiar for many—according to a recent ACC/Serengeti survey, 80 percent of law departments have an obligation to report accruals at least annually, and 40 percent monthly.

“We used to have to pull each law firm’s e-mails and create a spreadsheet of the responses of what the unbilled amounts were for each quarter,” says Stu Roth, senior deputy general counsel. “We were using a system that didn’t provide nearly the functionality or the e-billing capability that our system provides for us now.”

AFTER: Olin upgraded to a system with more bells and whistles, including a function that automatically collects unbilled amounts from law firms and creates an accrual report that Roth can hand to finance. The Serengeti application also gives a snapshot of invoices stuck somewhere in the approval chain. “Between the two,” Roth says, “we know exactly how much we might be accountable for in a particular quarter, and that gives
comfort to finance and the outside accountants.”

Stu Roth
Senior Deputy General Counsel
Olin Corp.

The Evolution of E-billing
Melissa Maleske | Inside Counsel | 05.12.2010

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QUICK FACTS

Company Features

• Receive 100% of your
accruals directly in Serengeti
• Automatically generate
accrual estimates from
budget data (for months you
don't collect data directly
from firms)
• Optional company
review/adjustment
• Complete audit history of
accrual changes/updates
• Automated email notices and
reminders to firms when
accruals are due/overdue
• Aggregate accrual data into
reports and export for
delivery to finance
• End of month/quarter/year
accrual reconciliation reports
• Integration with budgets &
summaries of actual spend

Law Firm Features

• Manually input individual
accruals or use SpeedPost™
to upload multiple accruals with one click
• Review and run reports on
accruals prior to submission