After you record a payment in LeanLaw, the revenue from that payment will be visible in the payment’s Allocation Details, in any distribution the payment is applied to, and in reports such as the Compensation Report. By default, 100% of revenue from hours worked will be allocated to the attorney who worked the hours.
However, you may also set up allocation percentages for things like Firm Share to compensate for your firm’s overhead costs, Responsible to compensate the lead attorney for their extra responsibilities, or Originating to compensate one or more users for things like signing bonuses. When set, these values will automatically (and retroactively) change how revenue is allocated in reports.
This article will show you how to set allocation settings across your firm, users, and matters. For more about where these values are found, check out our articles on the Compensation report and Distributions.
Table of Contents:
Configuring firm-wide allocation
Firm-wide allocation settings apply to all payments in the firm, but will be overridden by any user-specific or matter specific settings you apply.
1. Go to Settings
In the top right of your screen, click the gear ⚙️ icon to open your firm’s Settings page.
2. Click Reports (from the menu on the left)
From the settings menu on the left side, click Reports to open your firm’s Reports Settings page.
3. Enter allocation values
On the Reports Settings page, enter the values you wish for Originating Attorney Share, Responsible Attorney Share, and either Firm Share or Working Attorney—whichever one is not your calculated value. If you wish, click the green circle next to Calculated Value to swap the calculated value.
❓ What is Calculated Value? In a situation where your allocation values exceed the percentages set on the Reports Settings page, such as having multiple originators on a matter, or altering a matter’s allocation to exceed firm-wide allocation values, LeanLaw will need to take the revenue from one of your allocation values to compensate. Calculated Value indicates from which allocation value LeanLaw will automatically deduct when determining such compensation.
4. Save Changes
When you’re finished, click the green Save Settings button on the bottom of your screen to save your changes.
Configuring user-specific allocation
User-specific allocation values can be set in addition to, or in substitution of the above firm-wide allocation settings. Any user-specific allocation settings will override firm-wide allocation settings but will be overridden by matter-specific allocation settings.
1. Go to Settings
In the top right of your screen, click the gear ⚙️ icon to open your firm’s Settings page.
2. Click Reports (from the menu on the left)
From the settings menu on the left side, click Reports to open your firm’s Reports Settings page.
3. Click Show Users Allocation
To the right of Revenue Allocation for Users, click the button that says Show Users Allocation to expand the user-specific allocation table.
4. Set allocation values
In the User Allocation table, set any unique allocation settings you wish for your users. The table below offers more definition on the effects of user-specific allocation values:
Allocation (click to change allocation type) | Self: all revenue from this user's work will be assigned to the user, after other allocations.
Responsible: all revenue from the user's work will be assigned to the Responsible user on the matter.
Expenses: all revenue from this user's work will be considered an expense for revenue. |
Working | Allows you to override the firm-wide Working Attorney value for just this user, allocating this percentage of revenue from the user's work to the user's Share. This only applies while Working Attorney is not the Calculated Value. |
Origination | Allows you to override the firm-wide Origination value for just this user. Origination is allocated from all payments where a user has been marked as an originator for the matter. |
Configuring matter-specific allocation
You can also configure matter-specific allocation values in addition. Matter-specific allocation value will override both firm-wide and user-specific allocation values, but only when receiving payments for the matter which was edited.
1. Go to Matters
From the main navigation bar at the top of your screen, click Matters to open the Matters page.
2. Open your matter
From the Matters page, click the matter for which you wish to configure matter-specific allocation values.
3. Open Billing & Rates
Within the matter, click the Billing & Rates tab to open the matter's Billing & Rates settings.
4. Set the matter's allocation values
Within the matter's Billing & Rates settings, you can configure the matter's allocation in a number of ways:
Set a new user as Responsible by clicking the 3 dots next to a user's name. This will cause the new user to receive Responsible allocation for the matter, if any has been set in your Reports Settings.
Set one or more users as originators by checking the originating checkbox or entering a matter-specific origination value to the right of their name.
Customize a user's Working percentage to alter the percentage of their work that is allocated to them as revenue. Note: This option will only appear, and will only have effect, while Working is not your firm's calculated value.
⚠️ Warning: be mindful to never configure your allocation in a way that could cause more than 100% of a payment to be allocated, such as by setting many originators on a single matter or by setting a user's Working allocation to 90% when you already have 20% origination. We recommend that the largest value you wish to see in allocation, between Firm Share and Working, be left as your Calculated value.