Use this procedure to complete the Fee Earner Details tab when adding a new fee earner. This involves completing general, employment, anti-money laundering, and annual budget information.
To add fee earner details:
In the Earner Details screen, click the Fee Earner Details tab (if not already selected).
Under General Info, complete the following:
Earner Ref. Shows the fee earner's reference, as already specified.
Earner Type. Shows the fee earner's earner type, as already specified.
Earner Grade. Specifies the grade of time rates for criminal public funding (Legal Aid) matters. Each fee earner must have an earner grade selected.
Civil Earner Grade. Specifies the grade of time rates for civil public funding (Legal Aid) matters. Each fee earner must have a civil earner grade selected.
Cost Rate p/h. Specifies the cost to firm for the fee earner to carry out work for one hour.
Recordable Hours p/a. Specifies the annual target of chargeable and non-chargeable hours. For example, with 4 weeks leave per annum, on a full-time basis; 48 weeks x 5 days x 7 hours = 1680.
Roll Number. Specifies the practising certificate number.
Daily Target Hours.
Daily Target Charge.
Archived. Archives the fee earner. See Edit, delete, or archive fee earners.
Under Employment Dates, complete the following:
Commencement. Specifies the date the fee earner commenced employment.
Admission. Specifies the date the fee earner was admitted as a solicitor.
Leaving. Specifies the date the fee earner ceased employment.
Under Anti-money Laundering, complete the following if the Anti-money Laundering module is being used:
Authoriser. Specifies whether the fee earner is permitted to authorise positive client identifications.
Password. Specifies a password if you require the authorisation to be password protected.
Under Annual Budget, complete the following budget information for use with KPI reports:
Budget Private Matter Starts. Specifies the target number of non-public funding work type files opened by the fee earner.
Budget Public Matter Starts. Specifies the target number of public funding work type files opened by the fee earner.
Budget Hours. Specifies the target for time recorded by the fee earner.
Budget Billed Time. Specifies the annual fees target for the fee earner and feeds into the relevant actual to budget fees reports.
Budget Posted Time. Specifies the target for time posted to the ledger, at charge, for the fee earner.
Budget Draft Billed Time. Specifies the target for time billed at charge, using the draft billing tool, for the fee earner.
Budget Claimed Value. Specifies the target for time transactions marked as claimed through the public funding modules.
Budget Unbilled Time. Specifies the budget for time posted to the ledger that has not been billed at charge rate for the fee earner.
Budget Time Written Off. Specifies the budget for time posted to the ledger that has been written off for the fee earner.
Budget Fees Written Off. Specifies the budget for costs billed that have been written off for the fee earner.
To define a budget, refer to the procedure below.
To complete the annual budget figures:
Use this procedure to specify the annual budget figures (as shown above) for the fee earner. These can be are entered for the financial year of your choice, broken down into 12 periods. They can be entered for each individual period or as a yearly figure that is divided equally across each period. You can still manually adjust the figures, but they must add up to the global total or you will not be able to apply them. Having a monthly breakdown enables your firm to assess the performance of fee earners that join part-way through the year.
Click a lookup adjacent to a budget field.
When the Earner Budget Figures screen opens, select your Financial Year.
Specify how you want to enter the budget figures:
If you want to enter the budget figures individually, select Individual and enter the figures into the Period boxes.
If you want to enter a yearly figure, select Global and enter the figure into the Budget box. The budget is distributed across the 12 periods. However, you can adjust the figures manually, but they must add up to the budget total.
To exclude a period, untick its check box.
To enter budget figures as time values, type the time in minutes.
Click OK to add the budget figures and then repeat until all budgets have been entered.
Notes
The budget figures are available for the fee earner to view in PMS, in the Budgets element of My Home Page.
The budgets set for fee earners are used in the following reports: