Fee Management and Billing for Law Firms
Fee calculations, automated proposals, billing review, and profitability analysis for law firms.
From fee proposal to payment, with flexible calculations, control over billing, and information to manage the firm.
A law firm’s financial management starts with the fee arrangements negotiated with each client. The same firm may charge hourly rates, recurring fees, fees per matter, milestone payments, and compensation tied to outcomes. These arrangements often combine caps, tiers, allowances, and specific conditions for calculating and billing fees.
Managing this variety means connecting the engagement agreement to the work performed, calculating fees under the agreed rules, and allowing the lawyers responsible for the client to decide how and when to bill. It also means understanding how each engagement contributes to the firm’s results.
Looplex’s Fee Management and Billing solution brings these capabilities together through Looplex Finance. It connects fee calculations, billing review, financial tracking, and management reporting, with the option to incorporate automated fee proposals and engagement agreements.
Calculations that reflect each fee arrangement
Each engagement can have its own compensation structure. A client may have negotiated hourly rates for advisory work, a recurring fee for a litigation portfolio, and success fees for selected matters.
The solution organizes these terms by client, agreement, matter, or group of matters, reflecting the arrangements and combinations applicable to the work.
| Fee arrangement | Rules used in the calculation |
|---|---|
| Hourly fees | Time worked and rates applicable to the professional, seniority level, client, or matter, under the agreed rate schedule. |
| Hourly fees with a cap or floor | A maximum charge (cap) and a minimum fee (floor), applied to the relevant period and scope. |
| Hour banks | Contracted hours, usage, and remaining balances, with rules for excess hours and use of the allowance. |
| Tiered fees | Rates that vary with hours worked or work volume, under the agreed method for applying each tier. |
| Events and milestones | Fees triggered by an event or completed stage, such as a hearing, an injunction being granted, delivery of a legal opinion, or closure of a matter. |
| Recurring fees and matter volumes | Periodic fees for a defined scope of services, including Brazilian partido arrangements, with allowances, matter counts, and additional billing rules. |
| Success fees and quota litis | Compensation tied to an outcome, with the percentage, calculation basis, economic benefit, and billing condition defined in the agreement. |
| Combined arrangements | A combination of fixed fees, hours, events, and success fees, respecting the limits and relationships between those components. |
The calculation considers both the formula and the context in which it applies. A monthly cap works differently from a limit for the entire project; a tier applied only to excess hours differs from a rate that applies to all hours in the period. These distinctions are part of the billing rule configuration.
Success fees with a defined economic basis
For success fees, the calculation depends on how the agreement defines the outcome that earns the fee. The economic benefit may be an amount recovered, a reduction in a liability, or savings measured over a defined period, according to the agreed criterion.
The solution organizes the inputs needed for the calculation: the reference amount, outcome achieved, components included in the basis, applicable percentage, and the point at which billing is permitted. This connects the fee to the economic calculation supporting it.
In a simplified example, if an agreement provides for a 10% fee on the reduction of a reference liability from BRL 1 million to BRL 700,000, measured on a comparable basis, the economic benefit is BRL 300,000 and the fee is BRL 30,000. When that amount can be billed depends on the event specified in the agreement.
Separating the calculated outcome from the billing condition matters: a favorable decision, final resolution of the dispute, and the client’s receipt of funds may occur at different times. The agreed terms determine which event authorizes billing.
Fee proposals connected to financial management
Automating proposals helps organize commercial terms from the start of an engagement. With templates configured in Looplex Builder, firms can generate proposals and engagement agreements from structured information about the client, scope, fee arrangements, amounts, limits, and payment terms.
This structure helps keep the selected terms consistent with the document’s clauses. It also standardizes the presentation of proposals while incorporating the specifics of each negotiation.
When integrated with the financial workflow, the structured data approved during contracting can be reused to configure calculation and billing rules. The extent of this reuse depends on the templates and integrations configured for the firm.
The proposal therefore establishes the commercial basis for managing the engagement. Changes negotiated during the relationship should be reflected both in the documentation and in the terms used for subsequent billing.
Billing review controlled by the lawyers responsible for the client
Calculated fees are reviewed by the professionals who understand the work and the client relationship. Partners, senior lawyers, and finance teams need to understand each charge, identify adjustments, and decide which items will proceed to billing.
Looplex Finance’s pre-billing workflow brings entries together in a prebill for review. A view organized by client and matter allows reviewers to examine hours, activities, expenses, and calculated fees before an invoice is issued.
During this process, reviewers can:
- Review time entries, service descriptions, and expenses associated with the work.
- Check how the agreed fee terms have been applied.
- Adjust amounts, discounts, and items to be included in the invoice.
- Defer or hold items and schedule billing according to work progress and the client relationship.
- Approve the final billing breakdown under the firm’s assigned responsibilities.
Recording adjustments and approvals helps explain the difference between the original calculation and the amount ultimately billed. Finance teams can carry out billing with guidance from the lawyers responsible for the client, while partners track outstanding decisions.
One prebill. Different fee rules.
Aurora Technology · October 2026
Fee items
Select an item to reviewHours with a monthly cap
Advisory services agreement
- Hourly rate
- BRL 500
- 64 h × BRL 500
- BRL 32,000
- Agreed monthly cap
- BRL 25,000
- Fees after applying the cap
- BRL 25,000
Event-based billing
Matter 0248 · evidentiary hearing
- Hearing date
- Oct 21, 2026
- Confirmed quantity
- 1 event
- Fee per event
- BRL 4,500
- Calculated fees
- BRL 4,500
Success fee on recovered funds
Matter 0312 · debt recovery
- Calculated recovery amount
- BRL 300,000
- Agreed percentage
- 10%
- Calculated fees
- BRL 30,000
Visibility into work not yet billed
Between performing a service and issuing an invoice, a firm may accumulate hours, expenses, and fees awaiting review or a contractual milestone.
Work in Progress, or WIP, tracking shows work performed that has not yet been billed. This view helps identify older entries, pending reviews, held items, and amounts whose billing needs to be scheduled.
The analysis distinguishes work performed, amounts released for billing, and fees that depend on future conditions. This improves visibility into revenue potential and avoids treating every billing expectation as an established receivable.
Profitability and the outlook for the coming months
Dashboards and management reports connect legal work to financial results. Partners and managers can examine performance by client, matter, portfolio, practice area, and responsible professional, taking account of the associated revenue and costs.
These views help answer questions such as:
- Which clients and types of work are most profitable?
- How much of the work performed is being converted into billing and collections?
- Where are discounts, reductions, and unbilled amounts concentrated?
- Which engagements consume more hours and resources than expected?
- What is the billing and cash outlook for the coming months?
For fixed-fee or recurring engagements, recording hours also helps reveal the effort involved and the effective hourly rate. Profitability analysis takes account of direct costs and the firm’s chosen allocation criteria.
Forecasts combine recurring commitments, scheduled billing, work in progress, and accounts receivable. Fees contingent on future events are considered under their assumptions, distinguishing expected receipts from opportunities that still depend on how matters develop.
This information supports decisions on fee negotiations, scope changes, work allocation, and financial planning.
What results is the work producing?
Entire firm · October 2026
Billing and direct costs by client
Amounts in BRL thousands · select a row to explore
Financial operations that complete the cycle
Billing is supported by accounts payable and receivable, bank reconciliation, due-date and payment tracking, and the issuance of electronic service tax invoices in hundreds of Brazilian municipalities, subject to integration coverage and the issuer’s registration and configuration.
Expenses and court costs associated with matters can also be tracked, identifying amounts to be reimbursed by the client, covered by advances, or absorbed by the firm. This information supports both billing and the analysis of each engagement’s results.
The connection to matter management keeps the legal context associated with financial information. From the engagement agreement to recording payment, the firm can see how the work was compensated, which amounts remain outstanding, and what each engagement contributed.