Vendor Reporting

How are your law firms spending YOUR money?

You probably ‘get’ the big picture when it comes to your total legal spend and likely have a sense of which law firms are managing your cases better than others. However, do you realize that many of your law firms are still managing their workflow process in the same way it was done in the 19th century? And guess who’s paying for these outdated workflow processes? You are, of course.

With technological advances, law firms have better means of seeking greater efficiencies in order to pass along lower rates to their clients. So how do you truly know which of your firms are using your dollars most efficiently?

Imagine being able to see a true apples-to-apples comparison across firms, across tasks, and across the country to measure efficiency?

Acuity’s Electronic Legal Billing disseminates law firm invoice data and gives you the ability to generate reports on every single invoice line item. Acuity’s reporting tools allow you to define ‘best practices’ for specific tasks, such as how much time should be spent performing research, or managing subpoena requests and records retrieval.

Acuity’s Vendor Reporting features include:
  • Tools to measure legal spend patterns and identify trends
  • Ability to compare data across practice areas, matters, law firms, timekeepers and tasks
  • Customized on-demand reports based on filter and format criteria you choose
  • Budget reports that compare budget and actual costs as invoices are processed against cases and/or reserves
  • Law firm violation and adjustment reports
  • Audit reports that monitor members’ usage and actions, as well as log-in/log-out history
  • Automatic email delivery of reports straight to your desktop
  • On-line charts and graphs for quick, easy review of pertinent matter and invoice data
  • Preformatted standard reports, such as Diversity Reports, Firm Comparison Reports, Approved Invoices Reports, Too Much Time Reports, etc.
  • Ad hoc reporting that allows the client to customize reports to their specifications
  • Downloadable reports into Microsoft Excel for further manipulation and charting

Get Started:

REPORT: Select Case Types across law firms to determine annual legal spend variations from year-to year.

VendorConnect Reporting

How much do you spend on ‘legal support vendor’services?

Prior to Acuity’s VendorConnect service that assists clients with better managing court reporting,photocopying, and document retrieval services, clients were receiving hardcopy bills either through the law firm invoices, or directly. Much of the time, the bills were simply paid without review. For court reporting services, quotes differ for each client depending upon the volume of work the vendor assumes it may receive from that client. Rates also vary per state, and additional costs are tagged on for experts and other fees, making the invoicing process very convoluted.

Imagine being able to disseminate and report on this data to determine how to better manage legal support vendors.

With Acuity’s VendorConnect service, legal support vendors upload their invoices directly into Acuity’s Electronic Billing system. Acuity’s legal support vendor codes and rules audit the invoices to ensure rate compliance on upload. The data is disseminated and vendors are to correct any violations before submitting the invoices to the client. Once completed, the invoices are ready for client review and reporting.

Acuity’s VendorConnect service allows clients to report on the invoice data to determine:
  • Total legal spend for a specific legal support vendor’s service
  • Breakdown of costs for each task provided by the supporting vendor
  • Cost increases for each task from year-to-year
  • Best practices for managing the support vendor’s services

Being able to report on this data has allowed Acuity’s clients to determine which parts of these services can be eliminated. Once you are able to report on this data, clients can then define ‘best practices’ for managing the workflow processes for the supporting vendor’s services, and thereby gain further cost savings.

Get Started:

REPORT: Select specific expenses across matters to determine annual costs per expense.
Cancellation Fees can be minimized if law firms cancel ahead of deposition start time.
(Chart shows client spent >$62k on this expense in Year 2009.)

Delivery Rush Fees can be minimized if law firms are required to get prior approval from client if wanting an expedited deposition.
(Chart shows client spent >$150k on this expense in Year 2009.)