How Mintz reduces time spent editing bills by 30-40% with Intapp Billstream

Am Law 100 firm Mintz deploys Intapp Billstream to streamline and accelerate invoice management and gain greater visibility.

Mintz — a versatile Am Law 100 firm with more than 500 lawyers serving clients worldwide — advises business leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors on pivotal deals, disputes, and regulatory matters. The firm is strategically located to meet its clients’ needs with offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, London, and Washington, D.C.

Streamlined invoice management and processing

Am Law 100 firm Mintz sought to modernize its invoice processing and management as well as gain greater visibility into the process. At the time, Mintz had 18 legal billing specialists processing anywhere from 12,000 to 14,000 draft invoices each month — generating a lot of paper, and a lot of manual effort.

The Mintz legal billing team had been preparing draft invoices by printing out hard copies, distributing them to lawyers who marked them up, editing the bills in the practice management solution, and producing invoices. The legal billing team had little insight into where the invoice drafts were in the review process.

Mintz needed a solution to manage its volume of invoices more efficiently while also streamlining its processes. Visibility was a key driver as well, said Brian Mantarian, CFO at Mintz.

“We were looking to get an easier way to figure out the status of draft invoices, how long the process is taking, if multiple edits are going back and forth, and where the bottlenecks are,” Mantarian said. “We were looking for a way to get that automated.”

We’ve automated the approval process for write-offs. Realization is improving as a result.

BRIAN MANTARIAN, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, MINTZ

Smooth integration

Right from the start, Intapp Billstream offered smooth integration with Mintz’s financial management system, Elite 3E. The firm wanted a legal billing software to close gaps and inefficiencies in its processes, says Ronald Gagne, Manager of Billing at Mintz.

“We easily identified how Intapp Billstream could close those gaps. The reporting component was compelling to us as well, to better identify where we needed to take action to turn bills around more quickly,” Gagne says.

“When we showed Intapp Billstream to a couple of the billing lawyers who had been asking for a paperless solution, they loved it,” Mantarian adds. “And they still do.”

We’re seeing about a 35% to 40% reduction in time spent editing bills.

RONALD GAGNE, MANAGER OF BILLING, MINTZ

Rapid implementation; easy adoption

Mintz started with a small pilot, then quickly rolled the software out to all assistants. “Because Intapp Billstream is so easy to use, it’s that much easier to get it adopted,” says Gagne.

The COVID-19 pandemic made the timing of the rollout especially fortuitous. “We didn’t need to send anyone into the office,” Gagne said.

The firm has seen dramatic results.

“We’ve automated the approval process for write-offs,” said Mantarian. “Realization is improving as a result.”

“Intapp Billstream has created efficiencies by helping to streamline and organize the work our assistants and billing specialists do,” added Gagne. “We’re seeing about a 35% to 40% reduction in time spent editing bills. We can do more work in fewer hours with Intapp Billstream. We love the product. It has everything we needed.”

Executive Summary

Mintz, an Am Law 100 law firm, uses Intapp Billstream to automate the approval process for write-offs and streamline its work-to-bill lifecycle. The firm has closed gaps and inefficiencies in its legal billing processes and improved its realization.

Prior challenges

  • Outdated, manual, paper-based invoice processing required a lot of manual effort — and a lot of paper.
  • The team lacked visibility into review status, the number of versions being produced, bottlenecks, and process duration.

Results with Intapp

  • Reduced 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.
  • Improved visibility and collaboration: Professionals can quickly and easily review, edit, and collaborate in real time.