Reports and the firm's figures

The overview

Reports opens on the firm's headline figures for the year so far, set against the same months last year: fees billed and collected, work in progress, what clients owe, utilisation and realisation. Under them is what needs attention, what clients owe by age, and billing and collections month by month. Each figure opens the report behind it. You see only the figures your role lets you read.

The library

Library lists every report you may open, by what it answers: money, the financial statements, client money, people and time, matters, clients, intake, operations and compliance. The reports you opened lately come first, then the reports built in the firm, then each group, folded to its heading until you open it; the list beside the groups jumps to one, with how many reports it holds (on a phone, Go to a group). Find a report searches the names and what each answers as you type, marking the words, and opens every group with a match. Star a report to keep it at hand: Starred shows only those. Some entries open screens elsewhere that already report, such as the trial balance or the intake funnel. The full list of those is: Referral sources, Time in stage, Stale matters, Adjournments, Unallocated receipts, Withholding certificates outstanding, Residual client balances, Uncleared client money, Bank reconciliations, Financial statements (under Ledger, Statements), Audit trail, Data subject requests, FIC reports and Ethical walls.

The tabs across Reports are Overview, Library, Saved, Packs, Schedules, Alerts, Data feed and Definitions. Schedules and Data feed show only to those who may schedule reports or read the feed. The figures the firm aims for, which every report reads against, are set under Settings, Time & billing, Report targets; see Report targets.

Revenue and billing reports

• Billing and collections: what was billed, collected, credited and written off in the period, and what was still owed at its end, by lawyer, originator, practice area, office or client.
• Origination and credit: each lawyer's fees billed and collected under every credit (originated, responsible, billing and worked), opening to their share of each bill.
• Realisation: the period's time from recorded, to billed, to collected, with what was lost at each stage and why.
• Write-downs, write-offs and credits: what was written down on the bill, written off before billing, credited and written off after it, with the reason given for each.
• What clients owe (aged): what each client owes on the day and how long past due it is, in the firm's ageing bands, opening to the bills behind each figure.
• Unallocated receipts: money received and not yet applied to a bill, by how long it has waited.
• Withholding certificates outstanding: withholding tax clients deducted from their payments with the certificate still to come, so the firm can chase it before claiming the credit.
• Discounts given: every discount on the period's time, what it was given on, why, who asked for it and who approved it.
• Bill turnaround: the days from the work to the bill and from the bill to its last payment, and the period's bills still waiting to be paid.
• Payment plans: the plans running in the period, on track, behind (an instalment overdue past your collections grace days), completed or cancelled.
• Retainer and advance balances: what each matter holds on account on the day, against its retainer's minimum, target and floor, and what would top it up.
• Revenue trend: fees billed month by month by practice area, matter type, office or department, against the same months a year before.

Time reports

• Time recorded: the hours by person, day, matter or activity, chargeable and not, and what they are worth.
• Chargeable and not chargeable time: how much time was not to be billed and, by activity, what it went on.
• Utilisation and time against target: the hours people could work, recorded and chargeable, against their targets; each figure opens to the entries.
• Late time entry: entries put in more days after the work than your approval window for time allows, by person.
• Timer and typed time: how much time came from a running timer, how much was typed in after, and how much from a call or message. Entries made before 30 October 2026 count as typed in.
• Billed and unbilled hours: each person's and matter's chargeable hours billed, written off on a bill, or still waiting.
• Leave and what it took: the days and hours on approved leave, the chargeable hours they would have held, and what those hours are worth.
• Capacity next month: the hours each person has next month after leave and closures, against the open tasks due in it by their estimates and what is already overdue.

Matter reports

• Pipeline by stage: for each stage, the matters in it at the period's end, those that came in and moved on, how long a stay lasted and the matters stalled past the stage's own limit.
• Matters opened and closed: the counts against the same period a year before, how many days the matters closed in the period stayed open, and those open at its end. Each count opens to its matters.
• Fee earner margin over cost: what each fee earner's chargeable time is worth over what it cost the firm, from the cost rates. Only those who keep cost rates see it.
• What matters contribute: fees collected less the cost of the time and the disbursements not recovered. The fees open to the bills they were collected on, the cost to the time entries, and the disbursements to their write-offs.
• Budget against actual: each open matter with a budget, a fixed fee or a cap, the work on it so far, how much of what was agreed it has used and by how much it has run over.
• Dormant matters: open matters nobody has worked on lately, by how long they have been quiet. Each opens to its matters with the last thing done, by whom, and the unbilled work and client money waiting on them.
• Matters at risk: open matters that need putting right, such as no responsible partner, an unsigned engagement, a conflict check not cleared, a deadline overdue, over budget or quiet for 90 days. Group it by lawyer or area to count each need.
• Outcomes by matter type: how the matters closed in the period ended, from the outcome chosen at closing, and how many closed with none recorded.
• Workload per lawyer: each person's open matters, hours in the last 30 days, deadlines in the next 14 and tasks open and overdue.

Client reports

• Client revenue and concentration: what each client was billed and paid against the same period a year before, its share of the fees, what it owes and how quickly it pays, and how much the firm leans on its ten largest.
• Client lifetime value: since each client's first matter, its matters, the fees billed, paid and written off, what it owes now and what that comes to a year.
• New and returning clients: the clients who brought a matter in the period, those new to the firm and those coming back, by practice area, office or lawyer.
• Clients gone quiet: clients with no new matter and nothing done on any of theirs for six months or more, the latest gone quiet first.
• Where clients come from: new clients by the source and referrer that brought them and what each source cost; by source, the matters it brought and the fees billed on them against its cost.
• Contact list: every client with its number, email, phone and address. Columns chooses what shows and what is exported.
• Birthdays and anniversaries: clients' birthdays, companies' incorporation days and the anniversaries of becoming a client, in the next thirty days.

Intake reports

• Lead funnel: the enquiries received in the period and how many reached each step on the way to a matter: answered, consultation booked, consultation held, fees proposed and became a matter, with the share kept at each step. Group it by referral source, owner, lawyer, practice area, office or month to see every step side by side.
• Time to respond: how long enquiries waited for a first answer, the middle wait, how many were answered by their target, how many were late and how many still wait.
• Lost enquiries and why: the enquiries closed without becoming a matter, by how each ended and the reason given, the most common first.
• Consultation outcomes: consultations booked for the period, how many were held, missed, cancelled or moved, and what the enquiries came to after one was held.
• Time in each intake stage: for every pipeline enquiries moved through, how long the middle enquiry stayed in each stage, the longest tenth, and how many are there now.
• Cost per client gained: what each referral source cost in the period against the enquiries it brought and those that became matters.

Every figure in these reports opens to the enquiries, or the consultations, behind it.

Client account reports

• Client money held: the money held for clients on a day, by currency, as the matters' client ledgers stood, with each currency turned into the base currency at that day's rate.
• Three way reconciliation: for each client bank account, its last reconciliation: the bank statement adjusted for items in transit against the cash book, and the cash book against the matters' client ledgers, with the books as they stand on the day beside it. An account is out of balance, waiting for review, or overdue once no reviewed reconciliation reaches last month's end within the firm's days (Settings, ledger). A difference opens to the reconciliation's items.
• Client ledger by client and matter: each matter's client ledger over the period: brought forward, money in, money out and held at the end. Money in and out open to the ledger lines. The report checks that the ledgers agree with the client funds held in the books, in every currency.
• Low and negative client balances: ledgers below nought, quarantined, short of payments asked for and not yet made, short of what is earmarked, or holding only money not yet cleared, with how far each is short.
• Uncleared client money: client money received and not yet cleared by the bank, which may not be paid out until it clears.
• Residual client balances: small balances left on finished matters, to be returned or dealt with under the client account rules.
• Client money by how long it has been held: the money each ledger holds on the day, by the days since it last moved. Money still for more than 90 days counts as idle: check whether it should go back to the client.
• Transfers to office: client money moved to the office account in the period, the bill each settled, who approved it and the bank's reference.
• Interest on client money: interest the banks credited on client accounts, and where the firm's policy sent it.
• Client account exceptions: movements refused for want of money, money paid out before it cleared, ledgers found below nought or with earmarks above the balance, and reconciliations that did not balance, each with who and when.
• Outstanding funds requests, Earmarked funds, Suspense ageing and Statements due: what clients were asked to pay on account and still owe, money set aside for a purpose, money nobody has identified yet, and clients whose client money statement is overdue. Each now states its headline figure against the period before.

Finance reports

• Profit and loss and Balance sheet: read from the firm's own layouts (Settings, ledger), by office, practice area, department or partner, against the period compared. Each states its headline figures (income, expenses and net profit; net assets), and a line opens to the accounts behind it. The check below says whether every account with a balance sits on a line. A bank account the firm adds under a heading reports on that heading's line.
• Trial balance: every account's debit or credit balance on the day, with the check that the debits add up to the credits. An account opens to its postings.
• Cash flow: where the firm's own cash came from and went, worked out from the office books. Each line opens to the postings behind it.
• Expense analysis: what the firm spent in the period, account by account or by office, area or partner, each with its share and against the period compared. A figure opens to the postings.
• Aged creditors: what the firm owes suppliers, by how long past due. It checks its total against its control account (Trade payables). What clients owe has its own report, What clients owe (aged), under Revenue and billing.
• Supplier bills due, Supplier statements, Suppliers' costs on matters and Tax withheld from suppliers: bills falling due, each supplier's account over the period, the costs suppliers billed on matters and what became of each, and the tax withheld for the GRA. Each figure opens to the bills, costs or payments behind it.
• VAT and levies return: supplies, each tax and levy as the firm's tax settings name it, the tax charged, the input tax claimed on suppliers' bills, and what is owed to the GRA, by month. A figure opens to the bills, credit notes and suppliers' bills behind it.
• Bank reconciliation status: every bank account, office and client, with its last reconciliation, whether it balanced, and which are overdue. Office accounts are due within the days set under Settings, ledger, as client accounts are.
• Work in progress (aged), Billing and collections and Disbursements: work not yet billed, what was billed and collected, and disbursements and what became of them. Each figure opens to its records.
• Money taken online, Scheduled charges that failed and Provider payouts and fees: payments taken through the firm's providers with their fees, scheduled charges that failed every try, and the providers' payouts into the bank with any fees that differed from what was said. Each figure opens to the payments, charges or payouts behind it.

Compliance and risk reports

• Deadlines and limitation exposure: every open deadline the firm owes, by how soon it falls due: overdue, within 7 days, within 30 days, later, or not yet dated. It shows the limitation periods among them and those a rule worked out that nobody has confirmed. A figure opens to the deadlines.
• Missed and near-missed dates: dates marked missed, met late, or met only within the near-miss window (Settings, deadlines) in the period, by who held them.
• KYC due or expired: clients whose identity checks need attention, read the same way as the KYC worklist: a possible screening match, expired, due for refresh within the firm's notice days, or never started, by risk band.
• Conflict checks run and cleared: every check run in the period, what raised it, who ran it, whether it found anything and how it was decided.
• Undertakings open: undertakings given or received and neither discharged nor released on the day, by when they fall due, with those overdue, breached, high risk or waiting for a partner's leave.
• Complaints: complaints received in the period by category, who handled them, whether they were acknowledged and answered in time, and how they ended. A complaint about you is left out unless you handle complaints.
• File reviews: reviews due in the period by fee earner, those completed and overdue, their average score and those found unsatisfactory.
• Gifts and hospitality and Outside interests: gifts given and received in the period with their value, and the interests people held on the day and whether each was reviewed.
• Access audit: who looked at what: documents viewed, previewed, downloaded or opened to edit, restricted reports read or exported, and records whose opening the audit trail keeps, by person, by kind and by month. A figure opens to each look with its time.

Task reports

• Overdue tasks: open tasks and those past their due date, by person or department, with the overdue share.
• Tasks done and on time: tasks done in the period, those done on or before their due date and those done late, and the on-time rate.
• Time on tasks against estimate: time recorded on the tasks done in the period against their estimates, and how many ran over.
• Completion targets missed: tasks whose completion target fell in the period, and those that missed it.
• Workload by week: open tasks due in each of the next twelve weeks, their estimated hours and how many carry no estimate.

A task held by several people counts once for each of them. Every figure opens to the tasks behind it, with their matters and who holds them.

Use and people reports

• Use by person: what each person used of the assistant, texts, emails and storage in the period, beside the period before. It shows each person's monthly assistant limit and how much of it they used, the furthest over first. Group it by office or by day. A figure opens to what the use was spent on.
• Use against the plan, with a forecast: this month's use of each kind against the plan's allowance and the top-ups bought, with the months before. It also shows the day the allowance runs out at this month's rate so far, and what to buy to last the month.
• Assistant limits review: people at or over their assistant limit in each of the last three months, with the extra granted. A figure opens to the requests for more and who decided them.
• What drives use: each kind of use by the feature, reminder or notice behind it, and how much ran with no person behind it.
• Lawyer scorecard: each lawyer's hours against their chargeable target, fees billed and collected on the matters they are responsible for, the matters they carry, and their tasks done on time. Hours open to the time entries, fees to the bills, tasks to the tasks.
• Team comparison: each office side by side, with its people and hours and fees per head.
• Twelve months per person: a person's hours, fees and tasks done, month by month, for the twelve months to the end of the period. With nobody chosen, it shows everyone you may read.

Running a report

Choose the period, or the day for a report that stands on a day, such as what clients owe. Compare it with the period before or the same period last year, choose how to group it, and narrow it by office, practice area or person. A figure you can click opens the records behind it: the bills behind an amount owed, the time entries behind work in progress.

Every report reads only the matters you may read. A matter behind an ethical wall that keeps you out is never counted.

Under each report are the definitions of its figures, the notes on how it was worked out, and when it was run. Definitions lists every figure in one place, grouped by the part of the practice it is drawn from (billing, the books, client account, time and people, matters, intake, risk and the firm's use of Docavra), and searched the same way.

Exporting

Export a report as PDF, Excel or CSV. You are asked first, and every export is recorded against you. The file carries the period, the definitions and who ran it.

Saved views, packs, schedules and alerts

• Save this view keeps a report with its settings under a name. With the right to share, you may share it with the firm; each person who opens it reads only what they may.
• Packs put saved views together to export as one PDF, such as a monthly finance pack. Start from a pack makes the monthly partner pack or the board pack your own: a saved view of each report in it you may read, compared with the same period last year.
• Schedules send a saved view, or a pack as one PDF, every day, week or month to the people you choose. Each receives it as they may read it when it goes out. Anyone who may no longer read it is skipped, and you are told.
• Alerts watch a figure on a saved view and tell you the first morning it crosses the line you set.

Building your own report

Reports, Library, Build a report makes a report the library does not hold. Choose a data set (matters, contacts on matters, time entries, expenses, bills, payments received, client account movements, enquiries, tasks, calendar events, documents, suppliers' bills, or the use of the plan), then:

• Columns: the fields shown, a row a record. Group the report and the columns become the figures for each group, with the number of records.
• Group by and Then by: a second grouping subtotals the first, or lays the report out as a grid with the second field across.
• Filters: a field, how it compares (is, is not, contains, empty, on or after, between, at least and so on) and the value.
• Sort by: the usual order, or a field largest or smallest first.

The preview under the form reads the report as it stands, over the period you choose. Build keeps it under your name and opens it as any report opens: run it for any period, save views of it, export it, schedule it, put it in a pack or on a dashboard.

A built report reads the same records under the same rules as the standard reports, so its totals agree with theirs. It reads only what you may read, and a field your role does not show, such as the cost of time, is left out with a note. From its menu, Share shows it to people or roles (each reads only what they may), Change how it is built opens the form again, and Remove takes it away with the saved views, schedules, alerts and dashboard tiles that named it. Building needs the right to build reports; sharing, the right to share them.

The data feed for Power BI and Excel

Reports, Data feed holds keys your own tools read the firm's data with. New key asks for a name, the data sets it may read and, if you wish, the last day it works. The key is shown once: copy it then.

In Power BI or Excel choose a web source, paste the address of the data set and choose Basic sign-in, with any user name and the key as the password. The feed answers a page at a time, which both tools follow; add ?format=csv for a CSV file, and from and to (dates) to read one period. It reads as you may read: if you lose the right to the data feed or to a data set, the key stops reading it. Revoke stops a key at once. Every read is recorded, and the list shows when each key was last used.

Cost rates and what matters contribute

Settings, Time & billing, Rates, Cost rates holds what an hour of each person costs the firm, from a day. What matters contribute takes fees collected, less the cost of the time spent and the disbursements not recovered. It is a contribution, not profit: the firm's overheads are not taken off. Cost rates show what people are paid, so only those who keep them see them.

Closing a financial year

Ledger, Year end shows the year's income, expenses and profit and what stops the year closing. Close every month of the year but the last, then choose Close the year: one journal on the year's last day moves the profit into retained earnings. The profit and loss still reads the year as it was earned. Reversing the journal opens the year again.

The full steps, and what can stop a year closing, are in Closing the financial year.

Download the auditor pack gives the firm's auditors one zip with the trial balance, the general ledger, the profit and loss, the balance sheet and each month's bank reconciliation standing.