Legal Budgeting Project by Jason Huszar Overview Newland Communities Largest residential land developer in the United States 23 Offices Nationwide Approximately 200 employees IT Director Firefighter Oversee and manage IT operations and strategic technology initiatives Legal Department Approached to manage project Team Accounting Legal IT Software Provider Introduction Problem Statement The legal department lacks the ability to analyze legal expenses across projects by vendor Law Firms and cost codes Business Objective Conduct positive NPV project that will reduce the time requirements of Newland s General Counsel and staff to review legal expenses Constraints Maximum of 6 months to complete Minimize time commitment of team members Cannot Utilize Newland s in house developer General Counsel difficult requirements gathering Project not to exceed 30 000 Requirements Development a method for retaining vendor information when processing multi project invoices Cleanse accounting data to ensure accuracy and user acceptance Report formatting must be clearly labeled and easy to read Phase 2 incorporate budget variances Phase 3 Dev Advanced Analysis dashboard for General Counsel Time Region Vendor Type Problems Multi Project invoices lose vendor specific information during A P processing Vendor Duplication 2003 legal expenses miscoded Lack of procedure to prevent vendor duplication and miscoding of expenses Current accounting system report format Problem Solutions Multi Project Invoices Modify reimbursable corporate job master record to associate with respective project job Vendor Consolidation Develop vendor consolidation layout template for software provider and ensure proper implementation Miscoded Expense Obtain approval and reclassify all 2003 expenses to appropriate legal designated cost codes Problem Solutions Lack of Coding Procedures Create and disseminate proper legal coding procedures Current Report Format Unacceptable Develop cleaner on page layout and larger font size Progress Design Document Created Gen Counsel approved RFP submitted Proposal approved Reclassification of 2003 Expenses and Coding Procedure Implemented Vendor Consolidation List Created and Approved 6000 4000 Vendor Consolidation Tested in Test Environment Progress Reports Implemented in Test Environment Vendor Consolidation will be implemented into Production Environment July 12 2003 Formal Report Review on July 14 2003 Report Implemented into Production Environment on July 21 2003 Summary Within Budget Slightly Delayed Project resulted in many positive changes Phase 2 Budget Variance Reports Begin Mid Late August Phase 3 Legal Data Mart Advanced Analysis Dashboard Begin Early October Legal Budgeting Project Questions
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