Write-off

Recorded time removed before or after billing, with a reason code, which reduces billing realisation on that client and matter.

DefinitionRecorded time removed before or after billing, with a reason code, which reduces billing realisation on that client and matter.

A write-off is time recorded and not billed, or billed and then credited. Each write-off carries a matter, a fee earner, an amount and a reason code, and the sum of write-offs per client over time is how a discount grows without anyone deciding it. The identity, time at standard equals billed plus written off plus written down plus open WIP, is what makes the write-off total checkable.

How it is computed

Recorded time removed before billing, or billed and then credited, with a matter, a fee earner, an amount and a reason code, totalled per client over time.

Example

Nine matters for one client carry write-offs totalling $115,000 over three years, all coded as client relationship. Its realisation fell from 91 to 78 percent.

Where it goes wrong

Approved matter by matter. Nobody sees that the same client receives one every quarter.

Articles that use this term

Board and management reporting · Law firms

Lock-up by client: the cash a matter ties up, and the clients that tie up most

How a law firm measures lock-up per client from time entries, bills and receipts: work in progress days and debtor days, the total days between work done and cash received, the norm per practice from the firm's own book, the clients whose lock-up is well above it, the partners whose books carry the most, and the two levers, billing cadence and collection, that the split points to.

16 Sept 20262 min read Board and management reporting · Law firms

Realisation by client: the clients whose discount grew without anyone deciding it

How a law firm measures realisation per client from time entries and bills: billed value over worked value at standard rates, the write-downs and write-offs behind the gap, the trend per client and per partner, and the clients whose effective discount has widened year on year through a hundred small decisions that nobody made as a policy.

16 Sept 20262 min read Board and management reporting · Law firms

Ten questions a managing partner asks about the firm's clients, and the table that answers each

The ten questions a managing partner of a law or accounting firm puts to the partners about the book, which clients use one practice, whose book depends on one client, which clients drifted in price, which have not started this season, where is the cash locked up, which partners send work across the firm, which proposals cost more than they win, what triggers sit in the compliance data, which matters were staffed above their price, and what changed, each with the table from the practice management system, the identity behind it, and the answer a managing partner should send back.

16 Sept 20262 min read Alternatives and comparisons · Law firms

How to choose analytics software for law firms: questions, data and traps

How law firms should choose analytics software: start from the questions, check the data you hold, ask vendors ten questions, avoid the traps.

24 Sept 20264 min read Board and management reporting · Law firms

Client and business development KPIs for law firms: ten measures that matter, each with its formula and the export it comes from

The ten client KPIs a law firm should run on, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you: practice areas per client against the norm, dormant clients by prior fees, billing and collection realisation by client, lock-up by client, partner book concentration, cross-referral between partners, matter profitability by leverage, client fee concentration, share of client legal spend, and new matter origination. Also the three measures most firms miss, the figures to drop, the identities, and who owns what.

17 Sept 20264 min read Board and management reporting · Law firms

Lock-up on five clients: the whole arithmetic on one page

The complete lock-up calculation on five clients of a professional firm, small enough to check by hand: worked value from time entries, billed from bills, received from receipts, unbilled WIP and outstanding debtors, average daily billing, WIP days, debtor days, lock-up days and lock-up cash, the split that says whether the delay is billing or collection, the practice norm, and the identity that WIP and debtors reconcile, so a reader can reproduce every figure and then run it on their own practice management exports.

17 Sept 20262 min read