Budget Requests - All You Need to Know

Essential Reading

For a detailed list of all budget types available on Brightflag, please refer to the following help articles:

What are Budget Requests?

Setting up and keeping budgets up to date is a vital step towards effective cost control and spend forecasting.

Budget Requests are submitted by vendor law firms through the Brightflag Law Firm Portal. The internal matter lead (IML) within your company will be notified via email when a budget request is submitted by a vendor and ready for review.

Note: The IML receives an email notification if a budget request is submitted for their matter.

When a budget is approved, it will become the new budget for the matter, overwriting any previous budgets.

How Do I Review Budget Requests?

You can review budget requests manually or in bulk. For detailed steps on each process, see the following help articles:

Bulk Reviewing Budget Requests

After approving or rejecting a budget, you will have the option to send an email comment to the vendor user who submitted the budget request.

If you reject the budget request, it's important that you explain why so that the vendor can amend the request and resubmit it.

Can I Set Budgets Based on Different Data Points?

Yes, you have several ways to set matter budgets: Total, Month, Phase, or Quarter.

For detailed steps on how to set budgets for each data point, see the following video guides:

Periodic Budgets
Phased Budgets

Do Vendor Law Firms Receive Reminder Emails?

No, when budget requests are turned on no reminder emails are sent to vendor law firms.

How Do I Notify Vendor Law Firms to Complete Budget Requests?

To notify your law firm to submit their budget request you must do this notification outside of Brightflag

How Do Vendor Law Firms Submit Budget Requests?

For detailed step-by-step guides on how vendors can submit budget requests, please see the following help article:

Submitting Budget Requests: for Vendors (Law Firms)

How are vendor budget requests handled?

Vendor budget requests can be submitted for each month or each fiscal quarter. These requests can only be made in the current or future months/quarters and are not restricted by the budget end date you have set.
- If a periodic (monthly or FQ) vendor budget request is submitted to a matter that is Life-of-Matter or phased, the entire budget will be overwritten to match the budget request.
  - Note: This only happens when the current matter budget is Phase or Life-of-Matter style.
- If a periodic (monthly or FQ) vendor budget request is submitted to a matter that is already periodic (monthly / FQ/ FY), the original budget granularity will remain in place. For example, if the current budget on the matter is Fiscal Year but the vendor budget request is by month, after approving the request the budget will remain as Fiscal Year but the underlying numbers will update to reflect the request.