Pricing schemes in Legalsense

Legalsense uses pricing schemes to determine the rate that needs to be charged to a cliënt or in a matter. In this article we focus on the existing pricing schemes and the differences between the available pricing schemes.

The default pricing schemes in Legalsense are:

- Fixed Fee;

- Fixed hourly rate, separate activity codes;

- Hourly rate per user;

- Hourly rate per user, separate activity codes;

- Legal aid;

- Capped price.

Separate activity codes

In some of the above pricing schemes the words “separate activity codes” are mentioned. This means that if the activity is setup to be shown separately on the invoice with his own rate, it will be billed with that rate instead of the hourly rate from the person that is writing time on this activity. This can be useful if you want to have a separate (lower) fixed rate for some activities. (For example: For travel time you don't want to charge the hourly rate of a person but you want to charge this at a lower (fixed) rate.

Fixed fee

A Fixed Fee within Legalsense a fixed price agreement. This is the amount that will be billed in this matter. When this pricing scheme is selected in a matter, an input field will be available in which the agreed fixed fee can entered;

Fixed hourly rate, separate activity codes

A fixed hourly rate with separate activity codes means that there will be one fixed hourly rate charged for the persons working in that matter. All the written time will be charged at this rate. This also means that rates setup in a user will be ignored;

Hourly rate per user

In this pricing scheme billable hours in a cliënt/matter are billed at the rate that is established at the user;

Hourly rate per user, separate activity codes

This works as described under 3. The difference is the pricing of the separate activities and where the hourly rate of the user is ignored;

Legal aid

If the Legal aid scheme is selected in a matter some additional fields must be entered. The main fields are the number of points assigned for this matter by the RvR and the contribution to be paid by the cliënt. The allocated points determine the amount that may be charged. Also a maximum budget will automatically be allocated to the matter based on the assigned points by the RvR;

Capped price

Capped price is basically the same as Fixed fee. The deviation is that until the capped price is reached the real value of the worked hours is billed while with a fixed fee the agreed fixed fee is billed to the cliënt. In the case of a capped price the invoice will not be higher than the agreed capped price.

Alternative pricing schemes

Besides the above standard pricing schemes, there are a few alternative pricing schemes available which are not setup by default:

1. Fee per activity;
2. Hourly rate per function.

Ad 1. fee per transaction

With this option, the rates are determined for each activity. Thus billable time will be charged at the rate for the activity and not the rate of a user. An example of this can be the activity "phone" which for example can be set with a rate of € 50. If 30 minutes of time on this activity is written, the value will be € 25;

Ad 2. Hourly rate per function

Hourly rate per function means that functions are setup with a rate in Legalsense and not the users. If a user is then grouped in this function his time is billed against the rate attached to this function. Example: For the function "Lawyer" an hourly rate of € 250 is setup. All users that have the function lawyer are then invoiced at the rate of € 250 => Lawyer X writes two hours on a matter => value is € 500.

The last two pricing schemes are not suitable for any office, and therefore these pricing schemes are not available by default in Legalsense.