How Bevan Brittan accelerates the work-to-bill lifecycle with Intapp Billstream

A U.K. Top 100 law firm uses Intapp Billstream to automate its work-to-bill lifecycle, improving realization by billing faster and more accurately.

Bevan Brittan — a U.K. Top 100 national law firm — provides a comprehensive range of legal and advisory services to more than 800 businesses, as well organizations in health and social care, housing, and local and central government. Its award-winning teams provide commercial, corporate, property, regulatory, employment, and litigation (commercial and clinical negligence) legal advice.

A tailored solution for work-to-bill concerns

Bevan Brittan sought to reduce manual input and minimize inaccuracies caused by the re-keying of information by multiple users. Firm leaders wanted to give professionals the ability to easily review bills and collaborate in real time within a single source of truth. They also sought to automate the work-to-bill lifecycle to minimize delays in bill production and delivery to improve realization.

“After documenting our business requirements and evaluating several options, Intapp Billstream was the clear winner,” said Nick Hodgson, Finance Director at Bevan Brittan. “The technical and functional knowledge of the Intapp Billstream team is second to none. They were exceptionally responsive and collaborative as we discussed the design of a workflow to automate the input of billing data.”

Our users are now able to collaborate from their desktops for quick review and markup of draft invoices in a very intuitive way. We have been able to reduce the time spent on our billing processes.  We’re able to get bills out the door quicker.

NICK HODGSON, FINANCE DIRECTOR, BEVAN BRITTAN

Streamlined implementation and customization

The firm chose to deploy Intapp Billstream to improve creation, review, and completion of draft-to-final bills by lawyers and fee earners.

The implementation project began with a 2-day discovery meeting that resulted in a detailed solutions-design document that formed the structure for the delivery of the software.

“The scoping meeting … ensured that our functional requirements were well understood, … which ultimately created the foundation for a successful implementation,” Hodgson said. “The dedicated team for this project was kept small. This helped to ensure that we made decisions quickly and accurately, enabling a very effective relationship with the team.”

A dedicated Intapp Billstream resource rapidly and effectively addressed issues that arose. In many cases, time-zone differences meant that the developers completed fixes overnight, making them ready for testing at the firm the next day.

“They effectively designed a solution that meets our functional requirements with minimal customizations to reduce our long-term total cost of ownership,” Hodgson said. “Plus, the software offers a comprehensive roadmap of functionality that will be beneficial to our firm in the future.”

 There is less work in progress remaining at the end of the month as we can include more time on each draft invoice we produce.

NICK HODGSON, FINANCE DIRECTOR, BEVAN BRITTAN

Automated legal billing and improved realization

The Intapp Billstream solution — which integrates with the firm’s existing firm management system — now reduces manual input throughout the financial lifecycle of an engagement. Intapp Billstream automates the work-to-bill lifecycle to minimize the risk of human error, improve realization, and accelerate the legal billing process.

“There is less work in progress remaining at the end of the month as we can include more time on each draft invoice we produce,” said Hodgson.

As an additional bonus, the software also fosters collaboration, helping professionals quickly and easily review, edit, and collaborate in real time — all from their desktop systems.

“Our users are now able to collaborate from their desktops for quick review and markup of draft invoices in a very intuitive way,” said Hodgson. “We have been able to reduce the time spent on our billing processes.  We’re able to get bills out the door quicker.”

Executive Summary

Bevan Brittan, a U.K. Top 100 national law firm, uses Intapp Billstream to automate its work-to-bill lifecycle. The firm has since improved realization by speeding up the legal billing process and minimizing errors and delays in bill production and delivery.

Challenges

  • A slow, manual legal billing process that increased the risk of inaccuracies caused by the re-keying of information by multiple users
  • The inability to easily review bills and collaborate in real time within a single source of truth.

Results with Intapp

  • Reduces manual input: Intapp Billstream automates the work-to-bill lifecycle to accelerate the legal billing process, minimize the risk of human error, and improve realization.
  • Promotes collaboration: Professionals can quickly and easily review, edit, and collaborate in real time — all from their individual workstations.