Use case · Corporate legal

Matter and spend analytics

Numbers about firms, rates and staffing that survive a conversation with finance.

The problem

The data is in the e-billing system. Getting a defensible answer out of it takes a week and a spreadsheet nobody else can reproduce.

How we would run it

  1. STAGE 1

    Evidence

    A written picture of the current state, with its gaps named.

    Pull billing, matter and rate data, and read the guidelines that are supposed to govern it. Establish what is reliably recorded and what is not.

  2. STAGE 2

    Baseline

    A baseline measurement both sides agree on.

    Produce the current position — spend by firm, matter type, rate and staffing mix — so later claims of improvement are checkable.

  3. STAGE 3

    Design

    A design your architecture and risk leads have approved.

    Define the measures with finance in the room, including what each one excludes. A measure nobody agrees on is worse than no measure.

  4. STAGE 4

    Ship

    Working software or a live process, in production.

    Build the reporting and run it alongside the existing process until the numbers reconcile.

  5. STAGE 5

    Prove

    A result measured against the baseline, and an instrument you keep.

    Report the change against the baseline and hand over the refresh steps, so the next cycle does not need us.

What you get

  • Spend model across firms, matter types, rates and staffing
  • Measures defined with formulas, owners and refresh cadence
  • Firm scorecards for panel reviews
  • Reporting your finance team can run

What it needs from you

  • Billing and matter data export, ideally two years
  • Current rate cards and billing guidelines
  • One finance stakeholder who will agree the definitions

Where the human stays

Nothing is presented as fact until it reconciles against finance's own numbers. Where the data cannot support a measure, we drop the measure rather than estimate it.

How we would know it worked

  • Whether the numbers reconcile with finance
  • Time to produce the quarterly pack
  • Decisions the reporting actually changed

Where it starts

Starts as a sprint

Spend Leakage Teardown

Take one invoice sample apart and show where the money goes.

Sprint details →

Grows into

Spend Intelligence

Turn invoice data into decisions about firms, rates and staffing.

Program details →
Scope this as a sprint →
Start here

Start with one sprint

Two to three weeks, one approver, a deliverable you keep. Tell us the problem and we'll come back within one business day with a scope, a date and a fee.

Scope a sprint →