Brightflag’s invoice flags help you identify billing guideline breaches and billing inefficiencies on an invoice. These flags are powered by Brightflag’s artificial intelligence (AI) using language analysis.
🤖 How Does Brightflag’s AI Generate Flags?
Brightflag’s AI analyzes invoice narratives to detect billing breaches and inefficiencies.
These flagged line items are compared against your company’s billing guidelines and industry best practices.
Any violations are highlighted, allowing for quick review and action.
⚙️ How Are My Company’s Billing Guidelines Configured?
Your company’s billing guidelines are built into Brightflag’s rules engine.
Flags are triggered based on these pre-configured guidelines.
Your Brightflag system administrator can modify the flag configurations at any time.
📂 Flag Categories & Descriptions
👥 Staffing Flags
Flag | Description |
Non-Lawyer Time | Ensures only pre-approved timekeeper roles are permitted to bill. |
Significant Paralegal/Partner Time | Highlights excessive time spent by junior or senior lawyers on a matter. |
Staffing Supervision | Identifies lawyers billing for supervision of staffing issues. |
Read-In Time | Tracks time spent "getting up to speed" due to staff turnover. |
💰 Fee Flags
Flag | Description |
Research | Tracks time spent on any form of research. |
Administrative Support Costs | Highlights excessive time spent on admin tasks like printing, copying, or scanning. |
Internal Communications | Flags excessive internal emails, calls, and meetings. |
Billing Process | Identifies time spent on invoicing, budgeting, or submitting invoices. |
Meeting Participation | Tracks multiple timekeepers attending the same meetings or calls. |
Court Attendance | Tracks multiple timekeepers attending the same hearings or depositions. |
Time Recordings > X Days | Identifies time recordings exceeding a set number of hours per day. |
Training Time | Highlights time spent on legal training. |
Travel Time | Ensures work is performed while traveling or prohibits travel billing. |
Significant Time Spent on X | Flags billing for activities like audit letters, engagement letters, conflict checks, etc. |
📌 Expense Flags
Flag | Description |
Prohibited Expenses | Tracks and rejects law firm overhead expenses. |
Prior Approval Required Expenses | Flags expenses needing prior approval. |
Third-Party Expenses | Identifies third-party vendor charges (investigators, mediators, experts, etc.). |
Out-of-Town Travel Expenses | Highlights billed expenses related to travel (hotels, flights, meals, etc.). |
📝 Billing Format Flags
Flag | Description |
Block Billing | Prevents firms from combining multiple tasks into a single line item. |
Insufficient Narrative Detail | Flags vague or unclear descriptions. |
Insufficient Timekeeper Detail | Flags missing timekeeper rates or line totals. |
Non-English Narrative | Highlights line items billed in a language other than English. |
Time Increments > 6 Minutes | Identifies work not billed in six-minute increments. |
Unspecified Expenses | Flags disbursements labeled as "Misc" or with unclear descriptions. |
Repetitious Work | Highlights repeated tasks by the same timekeeper within an invoice. |
Repetitious Work Across Separate Invoices | Detects repeated work billed by the same vendor within a single matter. |
📊 Budget Flags
Flag | Description |
Budget Warning | Alerts when a matter is approaching its budget limit. |
Budget Overrun | Flags when a matter exceeds its budget. |
Vendor Budget Monthly Overrun | Detects when a vendor surpasses their monthly budget. |
Vendor Budget Fiscal Quarter Overrun | Detects when a vendor surpasses their quarterly budget. |
Matter Budget Fiscal Quarter Overrun | Flags when a matter exceeds its quarterly budget. |
Vendor Budget Fiscal Year Overrun | Flags when a vendor exceeds their yearly budget. |
Budget Overrun - Vendor Specific | Customizable vendor-specific budget overrun alerts (e.g., 75% or 150%). |
⚠️ Error Flags
Flag | Description |
Incorrect Gross Total | Ensures fees, expenses, and discounts add up correctly. |
Time Entry Calculation Error | Flags miscalculations of rate × hours worked. |
Discrepancy in Narrative Totals | Checks if the line total matches the overall invoice total. |
👤 Timekeeper Flags
Flag | Description |
New Timekeeper | Flags new timekeepers who haven’t been pre-approved. |
Timekeeper Rate Increase | Detects when a timekeeper charges more than their agreed rate. |
Rejected Rate Request | Flags timekeeper rates that were previously rejected but have been billed. |
Pending Rate Request | Identifies timekeeper rates that haven’t been approved yet. |
Incorrect Rate Period | Flags when a timekeeper charges a higher rate before the approval date. |