Guide · Law firm KPIs
The law firm KPI dashboard, explained.
What is a law firm KPI dashboard?
A law firm KPI dashboard is one screen that shows whether the firm is healthy: how much work was done, how much of it was billed, how much was actually collected, and whether new cases are coming in. The useful ones read straight from your case management system, so nobody has to build a report by hand.
Which KPIs should a law firm track?
Eight numbers cover almost every hourly firm. The first three follow the definitions Clio publishes in its guide to law firm KPIs, in plain terms. Clio's own dashboard counts collection in hours and subtracts discounted hours, so expect small differences if you compare against it.
| KPI | What it tells you | How to calculate it |
|---|---|---|
| Utilization rate | How much of the workday turns into billable work. | Billable hours worked ÷ hours available in the workday |
| Realization rate | How much of that work actually makes it onto an invoice. | Billable hours invoiced ÷ billable hours worked |
| Collection rate | How much of what you invoiced you actually got paid. | Amount collected ÷ amount invoiced |
| Revenue against goal | Whether the year is on track while there is still time to fix it. | Collected so far ÷ annual goal, next to where you should be by this week |
| New matters opened | Whether the pipeline is filling or drying up. | Matters opened in the period, by practice area |
| Intake conversion | How many people who called you became clients. | Signed clients ÷ qualified inquiries |
| Accounts receivable age | How long money sits unpaid, and how much of it is going stale. | Open invoices grouped by age: 0 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, over 90 days |
| Revenue by practice area | Which kinds of work actually pay for the firm. | Collected revenue split by the practice area on each matter |
What should a contingency firm track instead?
If most of your fees come from settlements, utilization and realization barely matter. Nobody invoices hours on a personal injury case. The questions change to: are cases coming in, are they moving, and what is each one worth when it closes.
Signed cases
New contingency agreements signed in the period, by case type and source
Cases by stage
How many open cases sit in intake, treatment, demand, negotiation and litigation
Days from sign-up to settlement
The average age of a case when it resolves, by case type
Costs advanced
Money the firm has spent on open cases that it has not recovered yet
Fee per resolved case
The firm's fee on each case that closed, averaged by case type
Referral source
Where your signed cases came from, so you know what to keep paying for
What does a good one look like?
Top of the screen: the year against your goal, in dollars, so a bad quarter is visible in the quarter. Below it, the same numbers per attorney. The test is simple: can a partner read it in thirty seconds on a Monday morning and know what to do?
Firm overview
Made-up exampleCollected this year
$1.18M
59% of a $2M goal
Where you should be
$1.37M
Behind pace by $190K
Collection rate
91%
Last 90 days
New matters
23
This month
| Attorney | Hours this week | Collected this month |
|---|---|---|
| Attorney A | 34.5 | $42,100 |
| Attorney B | 29.0 | $37,800 |
| Attorney C | 18.5 | $12,400 |
Do you need a custom dashboard, or is Clio's enough?
If you run on Clio Manage and the three rates above are what you want, use the dashboard Clio Manage already includes. It is good at those numbers.
A custom dashboard is worth it when the questions get more specific than that: collections against this year's goal, profit by practice area, which attorney is carrying the month, unpaid invoices by age, or numbers that live outside your case system, like calls and intake. Those are the ones partners end up rebuilding in a spreadsheet every week.
The rule we use: if someone at your firm spends part of every week copying numbers into a spreadsheet, a dashboard pays for itself. If nobody does, you probably do not need one yet.
How we build a law firm dashboard
We build these for law firms, on the firm's own data. Ours is live today at a multi-attorney firm. Here is what it does:
- Reads straight from Clio through its own connection. Nobody exports anything.
- Refreshes itself every few minutes, so the partners read today, not last Friday.
- Shows collections against the firm's annual goal, and whether the firm is ahead or behind pace.
- Tracks each attorney's hours week by week.
- Keeps the attorney list current on its own. A new hire in Clio shows up without anyone setting them up.
- Breaks revenue out by practice area and shows unpaid invoices by age.
- Writes a short plain-English note on what changed. The AI behind it only ever sees totals, never client names or case details.
The full story is in the law firm dashboard case study. Dashboards are one piece of what we build; the rest is on our law firm page.
Common questions
Which KPIs should a small law firm start with?
Start with three: collection rate, revenue against your goal, and new matters opened. Together they tell you whether money is coming in, whether the year is on track, and whether next year's work is showing up. Add the rest once those three are read every week.
How often should a law firm look at its KPIs?
Weekly for the partners, monthly with the whole team. Weekly is often enough to catch a slow month while there is still time to act. Anything slower and the dashboard becomes a history lesson.
Does Clio have a KPI dashboard?
Yes. Clio Manage has a built-in dashboard that tracks utilization, realization and collection rates. If those three numbers are all you need, use it. A custom dashboard earns its place when you want your goal, practice areas, intake and other systems on the same screen.
Can a KPI dashboard work with the software we already use?
It should. A good dashboard reads from your case management system directly, so the number on the screen is the same number in the file. You should not have to switch software to get one.
What about client confidentiality?
A KPI dashboard needs totals, not client stories. The plain-English weekly note on ours is written by AI from totals only: firm numbers, attorney initials and practice areas, never client names, matter titles or case details.
How long does it take to build one?
It depends on what your systems hold and how clean the data is, so we will not guess before we have looked. That is exactly what the consult is for.
Want your firm's numbers on one screen?
Tell us which numbers you rebuild by hand today. We will tell you what a dashboard would take.
Book a $250 ConsultThe consult: one hour with the team, not a salesperson. You leave with a real number. The $250 comes off your build if you move forward. You pick your time right after checkout.
Not ready to pay yet? Get a free 30-minute AI Map for your firm.