Legal offices and consultancies
Your unit of account is the matter, not the invoice
Fees accrue against an open matter for months. Court fees and disbursements go out in the firm’s name and come back later. The question at year end is not "what did we bill" but "which matters actually made money" — and an invoice list cannot answer it. Dimensions in Mezan can.
- Every matter is its own dimension: fees, disbursements, profitability
- Retainers drawn down invoice by invoice as the matter runs
- Disbursements advanced for the client, kept apart from fee income
- Invoices compliant with ZATCA e-invoicing
The actual work
What happens between engagement and closing the file
A law firm is not a sales business. It is a portfolio of open files, each with its own engagement, fees, disbursements and timeline.
A file per matter, from day one
Every case or advisory engagement opens as its own dimension, collecting fees, disbursements and receipts. At any moment you know the balance of the matter, not just the balance of the client.
Retainers drawn down over time
An advance is not earned revenue. It sits as a liability of the firm and is drawn down against each fee invoice until it is used or returned. The remaining balance is in front of you before the client asks for it.
Disbursements paid for the client
Court, enforcement, translation and expert fees go out in the firm’s name and are recovered later. They are recorded separately from fee income so profitability is not polluted by money that is only passing through.
Annual advisory contracts
The monthly retainer invoices itself on its date without anyone remembering it, and its renewal surfaces early enough to be negotiated rather than defended.
Partners, associates and payroll
Payroll is the firm’s largest cost. Salaries, leave, allowances and end-of-service sit on the same platform, charged to the right cost centre instead of landing as one line.
Profit per file, not revenue per firm
Total firm revenue is a comforting number that says nothing. The dimension report puts every matter beside its own income and direct cost, so you can see which kinds of work deserve the firm’s hours.
The documents
What actually leaves the office
Each of these has its own accounting treatment and its own class under e-invoicing. A firm does not just issue "invoices".
- Engagement letter
- The basis for everything after it: the fee, how it is calculated, and the payment schedule. Claims are built from it and tied to the file.
- Fee invoice
- A stage fee, a contract instalment or billed hours. Usually issued to a corporate client, which makes it a standard tax invoice. Standard tax invoice (B2B) — cleared before delivery
- Disbursement claim
- Recovery of fees and costs advanced for the client, evidenced by the underlying documents and kept apart from the fee line.
- Matter statement
- Fees billed, disbursements, retainer drawn down and balance. The document that ends most client conversations before they start.
- Retainer receipt
- Proof the advance was received and tied to the file, while it remains a liability of the firm until it is drawn down.
- Credit note
- When a fee is settled down, or the engagement ends before the billed stage completes. Issued electronically and linked to the original invoice. In scope for e-invoicing
Mezan products
The parts of the platform you actually need
A legal office has no stock and no till. These are the pieces that serve it, and nothing else.
Mezan Core
Dimensions make every matter its own cost and revenue centre. With it: recurring invoicing for advisory contracts, client accounts, and reporting that measures profit per file rather than revenue per firm.
Learn moreMezan HR
Payroll for partners, associates and administrators, with leave, allowances and end-of-service charged to the right cost centres instead of landing as a single number at the bottom of the P&L.
Learn moreMezan Workflows
Approve an engagement letter before it is signed, and a discount or write-off before it is booked. The path is written once, then runs itself.
Learn moreNour AI
Supplier invoices and fee receipts read by computer vision and posted to the right file, instead of being keyed in line by line at month end.
Learn moreE-invoicing
Your fees are a tax invoice, not a receipt
Most legal clients are businesses, which means most of your invoices are standard tax invoices (B2B): under Phase 2 the invoice does not reach the client until Fatoora has cleared it. The common failure here is not technical but organisational — invoices are raised long after the work, so a month of claims all lands on the last day.
Read the e-invoicing page- A standard tax invoice is submitted for clearance and comes back stamped, with a QR code, before it goes to the client
- A credit note settling a fee is in scope for e-invoicing exactly as the invoice is
- Disbursements paid on the client’s behalf have their own tax treatment — your accountant decides it, Mezan records it as decided
- A non-resident client is treated differently from one inside the Kingdom, and the system keeps them apart on the invoice and in the return
Frequently asked
Can Mezan keep client money apart from the firm’s money?
Yes, through separate accounts and dimensions: retainers are recorded as a liability of the firm rather than revenue, and disbursements advanced for a client sit as a receivable against that file. The precise statutory treatment remains your accountant’s call — Mezan implements it as decided and shows both balances separately at any moment.
We bill hourly on some matters and fixed-fee on others. Is that a problem?
No. An invoice is built from lines, and a line can be hours at a rate, a fixed amount for a stage, or an instalment of a contract. What matters is that the line is attached to the right file, because the profitability report reads from there.
Can we migrate from our current system or from spreadsheets?
Yes. Client balances, open matters and the chart of accounts are migrated before go-live, against an agreed cut-off date at which the old balances close. Show us your files in the demo and we will tell you honestly how much work it is before you commit.
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