How Pierstone reduced billing admin by 50% while preparing for Peppol

A week-long billing cycle

As Project Manager, Alex Hunter oversaw billing alongside finance, HR, and recruitment. Billing took around two working days a month to prepare, with lawyer review extending the full cycle to close to a week. Disbursements were tracked, but bringing them into invoices took manual work in the old system, and invoice numbering could fall out of order while drafts waited for review. With Legalsense, costs are logged against the matter the moment they are incurred, so they are already in place when the invoice is prepared.

At the same time, Belgium's move to mandatory e-invoicing through Peppol was approaching. Rather than treat that as a separate compliance project, Pierstone used it as a reason to rethink billing altogether.

Implementation built on preparation

Replacing a practice management system meant replacing the operational backbone without disrupting daily work. Alex became the firm's central point of contact through planning, data migration, validation, and training. Multiple migration rounds compared transferred data against the original system before go-live, and finance and lawyer training ran as separate, flexible sessions. Go-live followed a short planning adjustment, and the platform was part of the firm's routine within weeks.

Results from the first billing cycle

The impact showed up almost immediately. Instead of building invoices one matter at a time, Alex could generate drafts for an entire billing period at once, cutting time spent on billing administration by roughly 50%.

"Now it probably takes half the time it used to, especially when it comes to creating the invoices." 
— Alex Hunter, Project Manager at Pierstone

Disbursements are now recorded the moment they're incurred rather than reconstructed from memory at month-end, and invoice numbers are assigned only once an invoice is actually sent, so numbering stays chronological. The broader gain was visibility. Legalsense keeps a continuous view of recorded time and billing status, so outstanding billable work is visible without anyone having to track it manually.

Building on a stronger foundation

With Peppol in mind from the start, Pierstone connected eConnect and is now sending live invoices through the network as XML, a process the firm found straightforward once set up. Sending PDF versions by email is next on its list. The firm is also implementing Epona as a document management system, extending a best-of-breed landscape that connects matter management, documents, and finance.

As Alex put it: "I think I probably would recommend it. You definitely need one person who really understands the system well, because it is a more advanced platform. But for what I have to do, it's extremely useful."

Key outcomes:

• ~50% less billing administration

• Billing cycle cut from up to a week

• Disbursements recorded at source

• Invoice numbering stays chronological

• Ready for Peppol e-invoicing