Demo Meridian Legal: matter-to-cash day

Demo Meridian Legal LLP advises clients in UAE, India, and England on disputes, transactions, and employment matters. It bills in AED, INR, GBP, and USD, holds client money separately, pays experts and court fees, and must protect legal privilege. OSERP connects the client, matter, engagement, time, expense, retainer, invoice, receipt, and trust reconciliation without exposing privileged narrative to general finance users.

1. Open a client and matter

Create a client record with legal name, registration, billing contact, tax number, currency, credit terms, risk class, and communication preference. A matter header records matter number, practice area, responsible partner, team, opened date, expected close, client, opposing party, jurisdiction, fee arrangement, budget, and confidentiality class.

Field	Demo value	Impact
Matter	ML-DXB-2026-0421	Time, billing, and audit key
Client	Gulf Meridian Holdings	Receivable owner
Practice	Commercial dispute	Rate card and staffing
Fee model	Hourly with cap	Billing and WIP control
Budget	AED 480,000	Matter profitability
Retainer	AED 100,000	Client advance liability
Currency	AED	Invoice and settlement
Privilege class	Highly restricted	Role and export controls
Trust account	CCH-CLIENT-AED	Segregated client money
Tax treatment	UAE legal services	Tax code and invoice

Conflict checking records client, affiliates, opposing parties, beneficial owners, search date, reviewer, result, and waiver. A matter cannot open until the conflict status is clear or an authorised waiver is attached.

2. Create engagement and rate cards

The engagement letter stores scope, exclusions, fee model, rates, cap, success fee, retainer, billing frequency, payment term, and approval. Rate cards define partner, associate, paralegal, and specialist rates by currency and effective date. Historic time must retain the rate version used at posting.

For a partner at AED 1,800/hour, associate AED 950/hour, and paralegal AED 450/hour, a 40-hour month produces transparent WIP. A cap of AED 480,000 triggers a warning at 80% and approval at 100%; users cannot hide over-cap work by moving it to overhead.

3. Capture time and disbursements

Time entries include matter, date, lawyer, activity code, hours, narrative classification, billable flag, rate, currency, and approval. Privileged narrative is stored under restricted access while invoices use a safe billing description. A partner approves weekly time; rejected entries return with reason.

Disbursements record matter, supplier, date, category, amount, currency, tax, receipt, recoverability, and client approval. Court filing fee AED 15,000 is recoverable; internal travel may be non-recoverable. A supplier invoice matched to an expense prevents duplicate reimbursement.

4. Manage client retainer and trust funds

A retainer receipt of AED 100,000 is recorded as client funds liability, not revenue. The trust account transaction records client, matter, bank, currency, amount, value date, source, and restriction. A transfer from trust to operating account requires approved invoice, amount, authoriser, and reference.

When an invoice of AED 72,500 is approved, apply the retainer to the invoice and transfer the exact amount under the engagement rule. The trust reconciliation shows opening balance, deposits, transfers, refunds, and closing bank balance by client and matter. Client funds must never pay a firm supplier directly.

5. Draft and issue an invoice

The billing run selects client, matter, period, currency, WIP status, time, expenses, retainer, discount, tax, and partner approval. Header fields include invoice number, tax date, due date, payment term, billing contact, and source matter. Detail lines show activity, hours, rate, amount, expense, tax, and safe description.

Suppose approved time is partner 12 hours (AED 21,600), associate 30 hours (AED 28,500), paralegal 20 hours (AED 9,000), plus recoverable filing fee AED 15,000. Gross is AED 74,100. A negotiated discount of AED 1,600 gives net professional and expense billing AED 72,500 before tax according to configured rules. Posting debits receivable and credits legal revenue, expense recovery, and output tax.

Invoice regeneration is idempotent by matter and billing period. A credit note references the original invoice and reason; it does not alter posted time.

6. Collections and write-offs

The receivables view shows invoice age, matter, client, dispute, retainer, currency, and partner. A client pays AED 50,000; allocate it to the invoice and leave AED 22,500 open or disputed. A disputed line records reason, correspondence, owner, and expected resolution.

Bad debt or write-off requires partner and finance approval, reason, tax treatment, and recovery plan. A write-off should not remove the invoice from matter profitability; it remains visible as loss against the engagement.

7. Experts, vendors, and multi-currency

An expert witness invoice in GBP is matched to approved matter expense, engagement scope, and purchase order. Payment from the GBP account posts realised FX; open payable is revalued at month end. An expert advance is tracked separately from final invoice and reimbursed only after evidence.

Cross-border client settlement in USD records bank rate, value date, fees, withholding, and matter. FX variance is reported separately from legal margin. Tax and withholding certificates remain linked to the payment.

8. Close the matter and protect data

Matter closure requires final invoice, trust balance zero or approved refund, open WIP decision, vendor settlement, document retention class, conflicts update, and partner sign-off. A closed matter is read-only except for controlled credit or adjustment.

Confidentiality permissions separate matter view, time entry, billing, trust, export, and administration. Privileged documents are encrypted or stored in the approved document system with reference, access log, and retention. General ledger reports use matter code and amount, not privileged narrative.

9. Management and close metrics

Month end reconciles time to WIP, WIP to invoices, retainers to trust bank, vendor expenses, receivables, tax, FX, payroll allocation, and matter budgets. A partner dashboard shows realisation, collection, budget, cap exposure, and margin by practice.

KPI	Baseline	After OSERP discipline	Improvement
Time-entry approval lag	9 days	2 days	78% faster
Invoice leakage	6.2%	1.1%	82% lower
Trust reconciliation	4 days	3 hours	97% faster
Retainer application errors	8.5%	0.7%	92% lower
Matter budget surprises	18%	5%	72% lower
Privileged-export exceptions	4/qtr	0	Blocked

Practice challenge

Open a matter after conflict clearance, configure rates and a cap, post time and expenses, receive a retainer, draft and approve an invoice, transfer trust funds, collect a partial payment, settle a GBP expert, revalue FX, and close the matter. Explain every field, confidentiality rule, approval, journal, trust movement, tax result, and drill-down. Then attempt to invoice unapproved time and move client funds without an invoice; prove both controls reject the action.

Related: Consulting engagement, Multi-currency settlement, Advanced GL Mapping, Month-end close, and API library.