How AJS Can Help You

To Track Key Performance Indicators

We wrote about Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) in January. The hope is that it would help you understand the metrics that you should be tracking in your law firm in order to understand how well or conversely how poorly your law firm is doing. 

And it got us thinking – we have all these nifty and rather handy tools available within our legal accounting and practice management software, why don’t we shed some light – with pictures – on what they are in order to put the power into your hands and enable you to properly track all the key metrics within your firm. 

And if you aren’t already with AJS, perhaps seeing how we can help you track your performance – on an ongoing basis (and pretty easily we might add) – may entice you to join the family. 

So, without further ado, we give you – 

AJS’ Key Performance Indicators Tools

We measure KPI’s because they indicate how your firm is progressing towards a strategic business goal. They provide focus for strategic improvement where needed, create a basis for decision making and they help to focus attention on what matters most to your firm. They also assist in setting targets (the desired level of performance) – like how many new clients should be targeted – and (most importantly) track the progress towards that target.

There are 6 KPI’s that should be tracked, and they include – 

1.         Client and Matter Development KPIs – tracking client and matter development can help your law firm understand how well you’re retaining clients and developing new business.

2.         Client Satisfaction KPIs – client satisfaction is at the core of your firm’s success. In order to foster a business clients want to work with, it’s critical to keep a close eye on the experience each client has when using your legal services.

3.         Marketing KPIs – marketing your firm will help you to generate new leads and capture interest from your target audience. When spending money to acquire new clients, you’ll want to track your expenses and efforts to make sure the investment creates optimal results.

4.         Financial KPIs – tracking financial KPIs can help your law firm understand its financial health and identify areas where you may need to adjust the budget.

5.         Individual Performance KPIs – monitoring team productivity is difficult when you’re busy with your day-to-day workload. Time is of the essence, and you want your team to work efficiently to generate healthy revenue.

6.         Lead Analysis KPIs – acquiring new clients is crucial to your law firm’s success but finding them isn’t always as simple. Check which channels bring the highest number of leads by recording how prospective clients find your firm.

Where AJS can specifically provide an abundance of insight is with client and matter development KPI’s, financial KPI’s as well as individual performance KPI’s. 

Let’s show you exactly how this can be done – 

1.         In order to get a great overall sense of how your firm is doing, you’re able to view dashboards – of which there’s a wide range that can be set up on AJS. Widgets such as – 

These can give you an overall idea of how your firm is looking. For example, billing summary will show a summary of billed fees and disbursements as well as WIP and unbilled fees. The Client Fees widget on the other hand shows month to date and year to date fees per client (with drill down). Both of these can contribute not only to the client and matter development KPI’s but to the financial KPI’s as well. 

As you can see from the table above, there are a wide range of widgets available to customise the dashboards with information relevant to your role.

2.         There is even a transaction graph widget that can be customised to show several different options – you can even choose from Pie or Bar chart formats. For example, Month to Date WIP by Fee Earner or Month to Date Fees by Fee Earner or Month to Date Fees by Matter Type – there’s just so much you can do and so much you can track, it’s phenomenal (if we do say so ourselves) – 

3.         To give you a sense of what the dashboards will look like, they will look something like this and will give you a great overview and sense of the health of your firm – 

4.         To accurately get a sense of the financial health of your firm, you are able to draw up a budget which will show you your monthly law firm revenue and which can also simply be added to the nominal ledger accounts. 

5.         These budgets can then be used in reports or dashboards. And with AJS’ reports you can report on just about any metric within in your firm, together with the corresponding budget it can shine a massive spotlight on all operations within your firm – 

6.         At a glance, you’re also able to monitor your billing activity for the month and spot if there are any gaps (for example days where you may have forgotten to capture your fees) or days where invoicing has not yet been done, further enhancing oversight as far as your financial KPI’s are concerned –

We repeat the takeaway from our previous article – KPIs can accurately measure your law firm’s performance. And having quantifiable, outcome-based analytics will assist your practice – and your team – monitor the progress towards goals and objectives set. 

In this pursuit, we wish you the best of luck!

In the meantime, it’s important to note that if you’re using legal accounting software, you should check if financial reporting tools are available. With AJS’ full stack legal accounting and practice management software, we make it easy to access real-time data about your law firm’s transactions, accounts receivable, aging invoices, and more. As you can see from the above, our reports are also customisable, so that you can tailor the data to reveal valuable insights that keep your law firm on track with its financial goals. 

This isn’t the only area where we can help with your KPIs. Get in touch with us to see how we can best support your strategic goal setting and progress tracking needs. 

In addition, if you are ready to incorporate a new tool into your existing accounting and practice management suite, or if you need to start from scratch, we have the right combination of systems, resources and business partnerships to assist you with incorporating supportive legal technology into your practice. Effortlessly.

AJS is always here to help you, wherever and whenever possible!

– Written by Alicia Koch on behalf of AJS

(This article is provided for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. For more information on the topic, please contact the author/s or the relevant provider)