Blog · Board and management reporting · Legal services
A law firm dashboard connects matter economics, capacity, billing aging, and client development. This worked example separates billed-fee contribution from cash receipts and shows the effect of a single billing adjustment.
A law firm dashboard compares matter profitability, utilization, billing aging, and client development from the firm's time, billing, finance, and intake exports. It should separate recorded work, issued bills, and collected cash. Each stage creates a different management question, and combining them can hide the reason a profitable-looking practice is short of cash.
The integrated view below is for a hypothetical US firm. The deeper methods belong in law firm financial analysis and law firm profitability analysis; this page shows how their outputs fit into a single operating review.
Bring the time register, invoice register, receipt applications, open receivables, cost allocations, and intake export. Retain stable matter and client IDs, dates, fee arrangements, responsible partners, and practice groups. Descriptive client names are unnecessary for the calculations in this example.
The State Bar of Texas discussion of practice indicators identifies hours logged, fees invoiced, revenue collected, and the amount and age of receivables as measures available from firm records. Those are related measures, but they should remain separate in the dashboard.
| Dashboard section | Question it answers | Primary file |
|---|---|---|
| Matter economics | What remains after defined delivery costs? | Invoice and cost-allocation exports |
| Capacity | How much available time became billable work? | Approved time register and capacity schedule |
| Billing | How much recorded standard value became billed fees? | Time valuation and invoice register |
| Aging | Which issued bills remain unpaid after their deadlines? | Open invoice and receipt records |
| Client development | Which qualified opportunities became new matters? | Intake cohort export |
Use separate populations for hourly, fixed-fee, and contingent matters when their economics differ. A recorded-time valuation can help analyze hourly billing adjustments, but it does not determine the agreed fee for every arrangement.
The firm reviews September 2026. These three hourly matters are the complete financial population for this simplified example. All recorded billable work shown was billed during the month, with no opening or closing unbilled work. The standard hourly rate is $400, while actual billed fees reflect approved adjustments.
Labor cost includes the firm's assigned salary and benefit cost for the work behind those bills. Direct cost means firm-borne matter expenses; client-reimbursable disbursements are excluded from both fees and costs here.
| Matter | Recorded billable hours | Standard value calculation | Standard value (USD) | Billed fees (USD) | Assigned labor cost (USD) | Direct cost (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-A | 300 | 300 × 400 | 120,000 | 108,000 | 30,000 | 8,000 |
| M-B | 280 | 280 × 400 | 112,000 | 95,200 | 32,000 | 6,000 |
| M-C | 240 | 240 × 400 | 96,000 | 91,200 | 28,000 | 5,000 |
| Total | 820 | 820 × 400 | 328,000 | 294,400 | 90,000 | 19,000 |
Billed-fee contribution = Billed fees − Assigned labor cost − Direct cost
Contribution margin = Billed-fee contribution / Billed fees
Billing realization = Billed fees / Recorded standard value
| Matter | Contribution calculation (USD) | Contribution (USD) | Contribution margin | Billing realization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-A | 108,000 − 30,000 − 8,000 | 70,000 | 64.8% | 90.0% |
| M-B | 95,200 − 32,000 − 6,000 | 57,200 | 60.1% | 85.0% |
| M-C | 91,200 − 28,000 − 5,000 | 58,200 | 63.8% | 95.0% |
| Total | 294,400 − 90,000 − 19,000 | 185,400 | 63.0% | 89.8% |
Percentages are rounded to one decimal place, using unrounded inputs. Total margin is 185,400 / 294,400, and total billing realization is 294,400 / 328,000. Do not average the matter percentages.
This is contribution on a billed-fee basis. Office rent, central support, other overhead, and any required revenue accounting adjustments still need their own bridge before the firm reports net profit. The cost allocation also needs to identify the treatment of partner time.
The firm's approved capacity schedule contains 1,200 available work hours for the team serving these matters. Its policy excludes approved leave but includes time available for business development, training, and administration. Recorded billable utilization is 820 / 1,200 = 68.3%.
Show the denominator policy with the result. Removing business development hours from the denominator would answer a different question and make period comparisons unreliable.
The State Bar of Texas internal-control guidance calls for recording both billable time against the correct client file and nonbillable time against appropriate activities. That distinction helps explain capacity without treating necessary firm management as missing work.
Cash received against matter invoices during the month is shown below. It can include payments of earlier bills, so it is not evidence of September invoice recovery.
| Cash receipt grouping | Amount received (USD) |
|---|---|
| M-A invoices | 70,000 |
| M-B invoices | 65,000 |
| M-C invoices | 60,000 |
| Total | 195,000 |
The opening receivables balance is $80,600. There are no credits, write-offs, or other receivable movements in the example:
Closing receivables = 80,600 + 294,400 − 195,000 = 180,000
The aging export must reconcile to that same balance:
| Due-date status at September 30, 2026 | Open balance (USD) |
|---|---|
| Not yet due | 90,000 |
| Overdue by up to 30 days | 60,000 |
| Overdue by more than 30 days | 30,000 |
| Total | 180,000 |
Overdue balances are 60,000 + 30,000 = $90,000, or 90,000 / 180,000 = 50.0% of receivables. Assign follow-up by responsible partner and invoice, with disputes identified separately. Days sales outstanding provides a broader collection measure; the aging rows identify the bills that need attention.
Use a fixed intake cohort rather than dividing new matters by unrelated current-month inquiries. For example, the firm follows July 2026's qualified opportunities through September 30, 2026:
| Intake source | Qualified opportunities | Opportunities opening a matter |
|---|---|---|
| Client referrals | 10 | 4 |
| Professional referrals | 8 | 2 |
| Other inquiries | 6 | 3 |
| Total | 24 | 9 |
The cohort conversion is 9 / 24 = 37.5%. These are intake outcomes, separate from the active matters in the financial example. Keep pending opportunities visible and record the cohort's follow-up cutoff so an unfinished decision is not silently treated as a rejection.
Suppose M-B's approved billed fee changes from $95,200 to $85,000 while its recorded hours and costs stay unchanged. Its contribution becomes 85,000 − 32,000 − 6,000 = $47,000, and its margin becomes 47,000 / 85,000 = 55.3%.
Firm billed fees fall to 108,000 + 85,000 + 91,200 = $284,200. Contribution becomes 284,200 − 90,000 − 19,000 = $175,200, a $10,200 decline. Utilization remains 68.3% because no hours changed. This isolates the billing decision instead of attributing the change to employee output.
Upload your matter, billing, time, and aging exports to Covirage; it maps the columns, and its tools compute and check the figures. The external AI model explains the results with every figure traced to its rows. Create a free Covirage account, then set up your firm and bring a sample of your own data.
See law firm analytics for the supporting industry context.
Show fees billed, cash received, open receivables, overdue balances, and matter contribution after defined delivery costs. Include the period and accounting basis. A billed-fee contribution measure is an operating view and should not be labeled net profit without the remaining expenses and accounting adjustments.
Choose and document the time basis first. This example divides recorded billable hours by available work hours after the firm's stated exclusions. Other definitions use different denominators. Keep the same policy across periods and compare comparable roles rather than treating every employee's work as billable.
That ratio can describe period cash flow, but it does not measure recovery of a specific month's invoices when collections include older bills. For invoice recovery, match receipts to the invoices being evaluated and allow for the time customers have had to pay.