Client Success Story

Financial Reporting & Analysis Implementation Services Client Story

Manatt:
Ensuring Accuracy at Scale with a Trusted Implementation Partner

Accuracy

Key Facts of Manatt Phelps & Phillips

Multidisciplinary, integrated national professional services firm known for quality and an extraordinary commitment to clients.

450+ Professionals specializing in Business Strategy and Consulting Corporate and Finance Government and Regulatory Litigation

On the 2024 Global 200 survey, Manatt ranked as the 148th highest grossing law firm in the world

Introduction

ProLytics Consulting Group has solidified its reputation as an award-winning Vena Implementation Partner, renowned for delivering tailored FP&A solutions that maximize value and drive impactful insights. Our collaboration with a leading legal professional services firm showcases how ProLytics’ intimate knowledge of Vena and the unique needs of law firms can transform financial operations, enhance profitability analysis, and deliver strategic value. This is how ProLytics helped the firm elevate its finance capabilities and redefine its growth trajectory. 

ProLytics has been an incredible partner, helping us transform our FP&A processes.

Sr. Manager, Financial Analytics
Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP

Resolving Long Reporting
& Analysis Cycles

The Challenge: Before implementing Vena with ProLytics’ expertise, the firm faced significant challenges. Monthly reporting was rigid, time-consuming, and heavily reliant on manual data aggregation and validation from multiple sources. The lack of flexibility hindered ad hoc reporting, and insights were often delayed or incomplete. As a result, the finance team spent more time preparing reports than analyzing them, limiting their ability to drive strategic initiatives.

Leveraging an FP&A Platform and Shaping it for Legal Finance

The Solution: ProLytics partnered with the firm to implement Vena, integrating it seamlessly with their existing accounting and operational systems. By tailoring Vena’s capabilities to the firm’s specific needs, ProLytics delivered a solution that enabled dynamic reporting, streamlined workflows, and improved data accuracy.

The implementation included Law Finance specific features empowering reporting innovation at Manatt:

  • Setting up ETL processes to automate data flows.
  • Designing utilization tracking for timekeepers.
  • Configuring dynamic, drillable reports for profitability analysis.
  • Establishing a foundation for future API integrations to unlock additional data sources.

“The flexibility of Vena, its seamless integration with Office, and the ability to save and analyze historical data have been game-changers. Monthly reporting is now completed in a fraction of the time, allowing us to focus on strategic insights rather than data validation”

Sr. Manager, Financial Analytics
Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP

Lessons for Law Firms of Any Size

One of the most profound impacts of ProLytics’ implementation support is how the partnership has empowered the firm to transition from data preparation to actionable insights. By reducing the time required for monthly reporting from five days to just one, the finance team can now focus on analyzing trends and driving strategic decisions that shape the firm’s future.

For law firms, both large and small, insights derived from financial and operational data are pivotal. The ability to analyze timekeeper utilization—tracking compensation benchmarks against billable hours—provides critical visibility into workforce planning and profitability. This enables firm leadership to make informed decisions about staffing, resource allocation, and practice area investments.

Driving Insights and Strategic Value

Dynamic reporting features such as cascading filters and process variables allow the firm to drill down from firm-level metrics to specific business units and individual timekeepers. This granularity helps identify areas of underperformance and opportunities for growth. For instance, rolling six-month analyses and year-over-year comparisons enable the firm to monitor trends beyond static, prior-year benchmarks. This level of insight allows leadership to make proactive adjustments in pricing strategies, service offerings, and resource distribution.

Moreover, Vena’s PowerPoint integration has revolutionized board presentations, cutting preparation time dramatically while enhancing the quality and reliability of the insights presented. These streamlined workflows free up the finance team to engage in higher-value activities, such as strategic forecasting and revenue optimization.

For smaller law firms, adopting such an approach can level the playing field, enabling them to compete with larger counterparts by leveraging the same caliber of financial analytics and insights. For larger firms, these tools ensure scalable solutions that maintain accuracy and efficiency across a complex organizational structure.

The ability to forecast revenue more effectively and integrate operational and financial metrics has proven invaluable. By aligning financial insights with operational goals, the firm can identify which practice areas offer the most growth potential, helping prioritize investments and streamline underperforming sectors. These insights not only enhance profitability but also provide a clear roadmap for sustainable growth.

Ongoing Partnership and Results

ProLytics continues to provide managed services that support the firm’s evolving needs. With a proactive approach to client engagement, the team ensures the firm maximizes its Vena investment. The ongoing development of API integrations and additional reporting capabilities demonstrates ProLytics’ commitment to driving continuous improvement.

Through this partnership, the firm has not only achieved operational efficiency but also positioned itself as a data-driven organization capable of navigating the challenges of the modern legal landscape. By saving time, improving accuracy, and delivering actionable insights, ProLytics has become a trusted partner in the firm’s success story.

Prolytics logo

Free Law Firm Profitability Analysis Template

Leverage this free template to gain insight into the performance and profitability of different timekeepers to make informed decisions.

With this Excel template, Excel-users can experience our Profitability Analysis using the PCS solution front-end, albeit missing the backend functionality of a complete Vena implementation to support the solution. 

How is your company looking at Managed Services?

Discover how we have helped other organizations

Creative Energy LLC

How ProLytics Helped Creative Energy Navigate a Financial Transition with Managed Services

HFI Inc.

Building an Transformative Budgeting Process

Place Service Inc.

Streamlined Quote Information into a Centralized Data Model across 15+ Divisions

Powerful Analytics. Proven Delivery.

Our team of experts is committed to working closely with each customer to achieve their goals, to deliver value-added technology solutions, and to aid informed business decision-making.