Serengeti 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, Serengeti automatically provides actual-to-budget comparisons by month, fiscal year, and life of matter. Budget reports help you assess outside counsel performancDueDiligenceCompareAlternativescontactContractsdefaultdemodemoThanksDocumentse against budget and identify developing trends. A separate internal budgeting module helps you prepare and track your departmental budget.
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." ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey Report |
Matter Budgets & Law Department Budgets
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 reforecasts 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.
CUSTOMER INSIGHT - SemitoolBEFORE: In a recovering economy, the importance of budgeting outside legal work has become crucial to cost control. Craig Bohn, chief IP counsel at SemiTool, also faced increasing supervisory responsibilities, and thus diminishing time to commit to budget oversight. “Before, either quarterly or at the end of the year we would see where we were, but any month wecould go over if we didn’t have budgets ahead of time—it was something we had to manage independently,” Bohn says. The company had an internal e-billing system, but it amounted to paper billing on a screen. AFTER: The IP team now has a matter management system that integrates billing to make budgeting automatic. When a SemiTool lawyer sets up a matter, outside lawyers get an e-mail notification that they need to submit a budget for the matter, which SemiTool can approve or adjust. If a law firm invoices for an amount above the set budget, the system will round it down. “It’s amazing how outside counsel have become very responsive to my desire for budgets and status reports,” Bohn says. “I used to get invoices without ever having received a budget, but now I’m committed—they already did the work without me asking.” Evidence of the system’s success is the fact that Bohn doesn’t even have to think about it. “It’s become intuitive,” he says. “It’s really three things you’re doing [as an in-house lawyer]: legal work, finance and the link between the two. Now those just blend together for me. ... It gives me peace of mind that I’m doing my best to manage the money.” The Evolution of E-billing Melissa Maleske | Inside Counsel | 05.12.2010 |
QUICK FACTS
• Request a budget by month,quarter, fiscal year, litigation
phase, or patent phase
• Automatic budget-to-actual
spending comparisons
• Alerts for new 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
