Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld LLP is a midsize business law firm headquartered in Sacramento, California. Like many growing firms, Murphy Austin Attorneys in Sacramento reached a point where their previous financial management system simply could not keep up with how the firm bills, reports, and reimburses. After installing Orion, reporting is faster, tracking is more detailed, and day-to-day work for both attorneys and accounting staff is noticeably smoother.
Why Murphy Austin Attorneys in Sacramento Replaced Their Financial Management System
Murphy Austin’s previous system did not provide the robust reporting capabilities the firm needed. Leadership wanted clean, detailed views of timekeeper and firm productivity, including the ability to track client origination and split responsibility between two or more attorneys who share the management of the same client or matter. They also wanted the capability to track historical values for split assignments and percentages assigned at a point in time, which was not possible in the prior system.
Expense reimbursements were another sticking point. The firm had previously been calculating expense reimbursements manually, an approach that was neither sustainable nor easily trackable as the firm grew.
When Murphy Austin viewed Orion’s online demonstration, the team was pleased that Orion’s reporting capabilities directly addressed their needs. They found Orion’s interface to be more modern and its capabilities more targeted to a midsize firm than the alternatives they evaluated.
Reporting and Origination Tracking
With Orion in place, the management team at Murphy Austin can now access information from the system to assess timekeeper and firm productivity in much more detail. Origination splits, assignment history, and point-in-time percentages are captured in the system, so reports reflect how the firm actually compensates and credits its attorneys.
This is exactly the type of reporting Murphy Austin Attorneys in Sacramento were missing in their old environment, and it is one of the reasons accounting now spends less time reconciling and more time analyzing.
Expense Reimbursements with iOrion
Expense reimbursements at Murphy Austin can now easily be completed online. Users simply attach back-up documents by either scanning or taking photos of receipts inside iOrion, Orion’s mobile platform for iOS and Android. The result: much less paper, more accurate tracking, and faster turnaround than the firm’s previous manual process.
Attorneys, paralegals, and staff record reimbursement requests from the desktop application or from iOrion in the field, which has been particularly valuable for lawyers who travel for client meetings, depositions, and court appearances.
Faster Prebilling and Billing Cycles
Orion’s prebill feature has enabled Murphy Austin’s accounting department to bill clients much more quickly than before. Drafts move through the firm faster, edits are easier to track, and the time between work performed and invoice delivered has shortened. For a firm focused on cash flow and client service, that compression of the billing cycle is a meaningful operational gain.
Results for Murphy Austin Attorneys in Sacramento
“Orion has streamlined our accounting processes for both attorneys and staff,” said Sarah Soloaga, Controller at Murphy Austin, helping everyone at the firm work more efficiently and productively. For Murphy Austin Attorneys in Sacramento, the move to Orion meant deeper reporting, better expense workflows, and a faster path from time entry to invoice. It is the kind of upgrade that midsize firms expect from an enterprise financial management platform built specifically for law.