Connected CRM, matter pipeline, WIP, billing, and disbursements

Client Overview

Company Name

Barton Smythe Solicitors LLP.

Company Address

22 Colmore Row, Birmingham, B3 2QD, England.

Industry Details

Commercial law firm advising owner-managed businesses, property investors, and corporate clients on corporate transactions, commercial property, employment law, and dispute resolution.

Entity Size

Around 65 employees including fee earners, paralegals, secretarial, and business services.

Product/Solutions Implemented

Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Duration of Project

7 months.

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We deployed Dynamics 365 Sales and Business Central at Barton Smythe Solicitors to connect client relationships, matter pipeline tracking, time recording visibility, WIP reporting, and disbursement management.

A law firm where the relationship is with the partner but the money is in the matter. When partner relationships have no system and billing takes 18 days each month, neither asset is being managed properly.

Professional Services - Commercial LawDynamics 365 SalesDynamics 365 Business Central
Dynamics 365 implementation for commercial law operations

Claire Barton, Managing Partner, Barton Smythe Solicitors LLP

The Challenge

  • Client relationship management was partner-dependent, with business development activity and referral intelligence held in notebooks and individual memory.
  • The management team had no real-time view of new matter pipeline, likely fee value, or practice-area conversion rates.
  • Accounts spent days chasing missing time entries at month-end, delaying billing by an average of 12 days.
  • Aged WIP was not visible to partners in real time and average WIP lock-up had grown to 94 days.
  • Disbursements were tracked manually in matter files and often omitted from bills.
  • Client billing took 18 working days each month across five practice areas.

Our Solution

Client Relationship and Matter Pipeline Management

  • Dynamics 365 Sales was deployed as the firm-wide CRM with client records, relationship history, matter links, referral sources, and key contacts.
  • A new matter pipeline logs instructions with estimated fee value and practice area at enquiry stage.
  • Business development activities, referrer meetings, events, proposals, and cross-referral opportunities are logged against client and referrer records.

WIP, Billing, and Disbursement Management

  • Business Central was deployed as the finance platform integrated with the practice management system.
  • Daily exception reports identify fee earners with unbilled time more than 48 hours old.
  • WIP reporting is available to partners in real time by matter and client, with aged WIP prompts at 60, 90, and 120 days.
  • Disbursements are recorded against matters at the point of expenditure and included automatically in bill drafts.
  • Monthly billing runs in BC now complete in 6 working days with digital partner approval.

The Impact

Barton Smythe connected client relationships, matter pipeline, WIP visibility, billing workflow, and disbursement management in Dynamics 365.

0%

WIP Lock-Up Reduced

Real-time WIP visibility and aged WIP alerts cut average WIP lock-up from 94 days to 62 days.

0

Monthly Billing Days

BC billing workflow reduced monthly billing from 18 working days to 6.

0k

Unbilled Disbursements Recovered

Disbursement recording at point of expenditure recovered GBP 28,000 identified in audit and removed the omission issue.


A law firm's money is in its WIP. If you cannot see it, you cannot manage it. And if you cannot bill it in a reasonable time, it is not really money yet. Dynamics gave us both and the business development picture the management team had been asking for since the firm was founded.

Claire Barton
Managing Partner
Barton Smythe Solicitors LLP

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