The client
Ridgeway Legal is a corporate and commercial law firm with more than 22 fee earners, providing M&A, commercial contracts and advisory services. The firm manages complex, high-value matters where clearly defined scope, accurate time recording and visibility over fees are essential to maintaining profitability.
As matter volumes increased, disconnected engagement letters, time records and billing processes made it harder for partners to understand whether work remained aligned with the original scope and budget.
Cinqd was introduced to create a stronger connection between client engagements, matter delivery, time, fees and operational reporting.
Cinqd capabilities implemented:
- Proposals and engagement management
- Matter and task management
- Structured workflows
- Time and budget tracking
- Document and approval management
- Analytics and reporting
The challenge
Ridgeway Legal had strong processes for delivering complex legal work, but the commercial information surrounding each matter was not always connected. Engagement scope and agreed fees could sit separately from the systems used to manage ongoing work and record time. Information sometimes had to be re-entered as matters progressed, creating additional administration and increasing the possibility of inconsistencies.
Partners also had limited visibility over how actual effort compared with the original matter budget until later in the billing cycle.
Where additional work had been completed outside the expected scope, the issue could become apparent only when invoices were being prepared. This contributed to write-offs and made matter margins less predictable. Ridgeway needed a clearer way to connect what had been agreed with the client to the work being delivered by the legal team.
How Cinqd helped Ridgeway connect engagements, delivery and billing
Creating clearer engagement scopes
Cinqd helped Ridgeway introduce structured engagement templates covering scope, fees and relevant commercial terms. This gave teams a clearer starting point for each matter and helped create greater consistency in how engagements were established.
Once an engagement was approved, relevant information could flow into the matter rather than requiring teams to recreate key details manually. This created a stronger connection between the original agreement and the work that followed.
Connecting time and effort to matter delivery
Time could be recorded against specific matter activities, giving Ridgeway greater visibility over where effort was being spent. Partners and managers could compare budgeted and actual effort as work progressed rather than waiting until the billing stage to assess performance.
This made it easier to identify matters where work was consuming more time than expected and investigate the cause earlier.
Bringing matter information together
Relevant documents, approvals, tasks and commercial information could be connected to the matter record. Instead of gathering information from separate systems when reviewing progress or preparing for billing, teams had a clearer view of the activity surrounding each engagement.
This reduced unnecessary data re-entry and gave employees greater context when matters moved between different stages or team members.
Giving partners earlier visibility of margin risk
Cinqd provided partners with clearer reporting around matter activity, budgets and actual effort. Potential margin pressure could be identified before the billing stage, giving partners more time to understand whether additional work reflected scope changes, unexpected complexity or another delivery issue.
This created greater commercial visibility without requiring partners to manually monitor every matter.
The results
Ridgeway Legal reported improvements in write-offs, billing predictability and matter profitability visibility after introducing Cinqd.
29% fewer write-offs
Greater alignment between engagement scope, matter activity and billing contributed to 29% fewer write-offs.
More predictable billing outcomes
Earlier visibility over budgeted and actual effort helped reduce surprises when matters reached the billing stage.
Improved pricing discipline
Structured engagement scopes gave the firm a clearer basis for defining fees and assessing whether additional work remained within the original agreement.
Stronger profitability visibility
Partners gained a clearer view of matter performance and potential margin pressure while work was still in progress.
Less duplicate administration
Connecting engagement and matter information reduced the need to manually re-enter the same details across multiple stages of client delivery.
Before and after Cinqd
| Before Cinqd | After Cinqd |
| Engagement scope and delivery were disconnected | Clearer engagement-to-matter continuity |
| Information required manual re-entry | Relevant information carried into matter delivery |
| Time and budgets were harder to compare | Budgeted and actual effort visible during delivery |
| Margin issues often surfaced at billing | Potential margin pressure identified earlier |
| Matter information spread across systems | More connected matter records |
| Write-offs occurred frequently at billing | Greater visibility before invoices were prepared |
The overall impact
Cinqd helped Ridgeway Legal create a stronger connection between the commercial terms agreed with clients and the work delivered by its legal teams. By bringing engagements, matter activity, time, budgets, documents and reporting into a more connected process, the firm gained earlier visibility over potential commercial issues.
Fee earners had clearer context around matter scope, while partners could monitor budget performance and identify potential margin pressure before matters reached the billing stage. The result was fewer write-offs, more predictable billing and greater visibility over matter profitability without adding unnecessary administrative work.
Could Cinqd help your law firm?
Cinqd brings engagements, matters, tasks, workflows, time, budgets and operational reporting together in one connected business operating system.
Create a clearer connection between what your firm agrees, what your teams deliver and how matter performance develops, giving partners greater commercial visibility throughout the engagement.
Book a demo to see how Cinqd can help your law firm manage matters with greater commercial control.
