Demo LexBridge Legal: a matter and client-trust day

Demo LexBridge Legal advises clients in the UAE, India, Kenya, and the UK on construction disputes, acquisitions, employment, and regulatory investigations. It maintains strict separation between operating funds and client trust funds, bills by time and stage, pays experts and court fees, receives retainers, and reports profitability by matter, partner, office, and currency. OSERP connects lead, engagement, matter, budget, time, expense, trust receipt, invoice, payment, recovery, and general ledger.

1. Configure offices, entities, and trust accounts

Create a legal entity for each jurisdiction, then offices, practice groups, partners, matters, cost centres, operating bank accounts, and client-trust accounts. Configure local currency, group currency, tax profile, fiscal periods, numbering series, rate cards, approval limits, and period locks. A trust account is a custody ledger; it is not a revenue or expense account.

Setup field	Demo value	Impact
Company	LexBridge UAE Advocates LLC	Statutory books and tax
Office	Dubai Disputes	Matter and partner reporting
Practice	Construction arbitration	Rate card and expertise
Matter	LB-ARB-26041	Trace key for every event
Operating bank	UAE-OPS-01	Firm cash and expenses
Trust bank	UAE-TRUST-01	Client-money custody
Currency	AED	Local ledger precision
Group currency	USD	Consolidated view

Users are scoped by office, practice, and role. A clerk may record a receipt or time entry, but only an authorised finance user can move funds from trust to operating bank. Bank-detail changes require verification, dual approval, and an audit event.

2. Open a client, lead, and matter

The client master stores legal name, registration, tax status, beneficial owner, contacts, billing address, preferred currency, conflict-check result, sanctions result, and status. A lead stores service request, source, estimated value, probability, responsible partner, and next action. Conflict clearance is a prerequisite for engagement; an unresolved conflict blocks matter opening.

The engagement letter stores client, matter type, governing law, responsible partner, fee basis, rate card, retainer, budget, billing currency, payment terms, trust instructions, confidentiality, and effective dates. The matter header stores court or tribunal, case number, opponent, jurisdiction, stage, limitation date, status, and document links.

Matter statuses are Prospect → Open → Active → On hold → Closed, with controlled Declined, Settled, and Archived exits. Closing a matter requires trust balance zero or an approved transfer/refund, outstanding invoice decision, document retention date, and partner sign-off.

3. Build a budget and fee arrangement

Matter budgets store phase, activity, planned hours, rate, fixed fee, expected disbursements, external counsel, contingency, currency, and approval. Fee arrangements can be hourly, fixed, capped, contingency, success fee, or blended. Each arrangement stores effective dates, exclusions, discounts, tax, billing trigger, and approval authority.

Example: LB-ARB-26041 has a cap of AED 900,000, an AED 200,000 retainer, and a 15% success fee on recovered damages. The budget separates partner, associate, paralegal, expert, court, travel, and translation cost. A time entry above the cap creates an alert; it does not silently stop work or create an unbillable write-off.

4. Capture time with evidential detail

Time entries store user, date, matter, phase, task, narrative, hours, rate, currency, billable flag, work location, client confidentiality, and status. The narrative must explain what was done and why it relates to the matter. A copied or overlapping entry is flagged for review. Approved time is immutable; corrections use reversal and replacement.

Time field	Demo value	Why it matters
Matter	LB-ARB-26041	Client and profitability link
Phase	Pleadings	Budget consumption
Task	Review expert report	Billable narrative
Hours	3.50	Decimal precision and rate calculation
Rate	AED 1,200/hour	Effective rate card
Billable	Yes	Invoice eligibility
Approval	Partner approved	Release to billing

The billing engine applies the rate effective on the work date, not the invoice date. A partner can discount a line only with a reason and approval. Non-billable time remains visible for capacity and margin analysis.

5. Record disbursements and recoveries

Expense entries store matter, date, supplier, category, currency, gross amount, tax, recoverable flag, receipt, traveller, and approval. Disbursements include court fees, expert invoices, translations, travel, filing fees, and courier charges. A supplier invoice for an expert is payable cost; a client-recoverable court fee is a matter receivable component with its own evidence.

For a GBP expert invoice, OSERP retains supplier currency, transaction rate, source, timestamp, tax, matter, phase, and allocation. A personal expense reimbursement cannot be paid from trust funds. Missing receipts or a cost above policy threshold routes to exception review.

6. Receive and manage retainers in trust

Trust receipts store client, matter, bank, value date, currency, amount, external reference, purpose, and allocation status. The receipt creates a client-money liability, not revenue. A retainer ledger shows received, reserved, transferred, refunded, and available balance by matter and currency.

Example: The client deposits AED 200,000 into the trust account. AED 75,000 is reserved for court and expert costs, while AED 125,000 remains available. OSERP prevents a transfer to operating funds greater than the available amount and requires an approved bill or cost event. An unapplied receipt has an owner and ageing until allocated.

7. Generate stage and time invoices

The billing run selects approved time, approved expenses, fixed-fee milestones, and recoverable disbursements. Invoice headers store client, matter, office, partner, currency, billing period, tax profile, payment terms, trust allocation instruction, and status. Detail rows retain phase, task, time or expense source, hours, rate, discount, tax, and narrative.

For the arbitration, a stage invoice of AED 180,000 includes AED 150,000 fixed pleadings fee and AED 30,000 approved expert cost. A trust transfer applies the client’s available funds to the invoice only after partner approval and finance review. The invoice remains linked to the original time and expense evidence; staff must not replace the narrative with a summary that loses traceability.

8. Transfer earned fees from trust to operating funds

The trust-transfer document stores matter, client, invoice, trust bank, operating bank, amount, currency, date, approval, and legal basis. It checks that the invoice is approved, funds are available, the amount is not already transferred, and the currency rule is satisfied. The transfer reduces the client-money liability and clears the firm receivable; it does not create a second revenue posting.

Refunds store original receipt, client, matter, amount, currency, reason, bank validation, approval, and payment reference. A closed matter cannot retain an unexplained trust balance. Interest or bank charges are classified according to the jurisdiction’s trust policy and separately mapped.

9. Handle recoveries, settlements, and success fees

A settlement record stores matter, counterparty, settlement date, gross recovery, legal costs, client share, firm share, tax, currency, trust allocation, and approval. A success fee calculates from the approved fee arrangement and records the base, rate, exclusions, and cap. A recovery receipt remains client money until the settlement distribution is approved.

For a USD 4,000,000 recovery with a 15% success fee, OSERP calculates the fee according to the arrangement, records client entitlement, preserves the settlement statement, and requires partner and client-account approval before distribution. A disputed amount remains reserved and cannot be presented as available cash.

10. Pay suppliers and allocate overhead

Supplier profiles store legal identity, tax, bank, currency, panel status, insurance, and approval. Purchase orders or service requests for experts and counsel include matter, scope, rate, estimate, confidentiality, and acceptance criteria. Supplier invoices match approved service evidence before payment.

Office overhead, software, rent, and support payroll are allocated to matters or practices using documented drivers such as hours, headcount, or revenue. The driver version and period are stored. A partner can see contribution margin without seeing restricted salary details unless permitted.

11. Close trust, matters, and multi-currency books

Close reconciles trust bank statements to trust receipts and transfers, matter ledgers to invoices, approved time and expenses to billing, supplier payables, client balances, success fees, tax, payroll, work in progress, write-offs, and intercompany balances. Each trust reconciliation records book balance, bank balance, outstanding items, owner, evidence, reviewer, and sign-off.

An AED matter may incur GBP expert costs and receive USD settlement. Transaction rate, rate source, date, realised FX, and revaluation status remain on each event. Revaluation of operating receivables does not change client-money liability. Period lock blocks backdated trust movements; correction documents reference the original event and legal basis.

KPI	Before OSERP discipline	After OSERP discipline	Improvement
Approved-time-to-invoice lag	11 days	2 days	82% faster
Trust reconciliation exceptions	5.9%	0.7%	88% lower
Unbilled WIP ageing	42 days	14 days	67% lower
Disbursement recovery rate	81%	96%	+15 points
Matter margin forecast variance	13.4 points	4.2 points	69% lower
Month-end close	16 days	6 days	63% faster

Practice challenge

Create LexBridge UAE, a conflict-cleared client, an arbitration matter, fee cap and retainer, approved time entries, a GBP expert invoice, a trust receipt, a stage invoice, an approved trust-to-operating transfer, a settlement and success fee, a refund, a supplier payment, multi-currency revaluation, and matter close. For every field, explain its type, length or precision, source, permission, validation, accounting impact, tax result, API identifier, exception path, and audit event.

Related: Professional services lab, AR Invoice field guide, AP Invoice field guide, Bank Reconciliation field guide, GL mapping guide, Multi-currency lab, and API cookbook.