Legal Bill Auditor
Reads the law firm's invoice against the guidelines you agreed
$1,605 (8.2%) of this bill can be disputed.
18 entries, 57.5 hours, $19.5K billed; blended rate $339 an hour.
2 entries bill above the $450 cap: $245 over it.
1 entries repeat an earlier entry exactly: $1,360.
Days over 12 hours for one timekeeper: 1 (J. Park (associate)). Questioned, not counted as disputed.
Whether the work was needed or well done is not in the data.
Billed by timekeeper
- J. Park (associate)55%
- A. Moreno (partner)24%
- K. Ito (associate)14%
- L. Chen (paralegal)7%
Disputed by reason
- Above cap$245
- Repeated$1,360
Entries to dispute
| Date | Timekeeper | Entry | Reason | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-05 | J. Park (associate) | Draft memo on liability caps | Repeated | $1,360 |
| 2026-05-04 | A. Moreno (partner) | Review draft supply agreement | Above cap | $175 |
| 2026-05-05 | A. Moreno (partner) | Call with client on negotiation points | Above cap | $70 |
By timekeeper
| Timekeeper | Hours | Billed | Avg rate | Disputed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. Park (associate) | 31.5 | $10.7K | $340 | $1,360 |
| A. Moreno (partner) | 10 | $4,745 | $475 | $245 |
| K. Ito (associate) | 7 | $2,660 | $380 | $0 |
| L. Chen (paralegal) | 9 | $1,350 | $150 | $0 |
What to do this week
- Ask for a credit of $1,605: 2 entries above the cap and 1 repeated.
- Ask J. Park (associate) to explain 13.5 hours on 2026-05-07: more than 12 in one day.
- Ask the firm to confirm the rate for A. Moreno (partner): average $475 an hour against a $450 cap.
Do
- Send the disputed entries with the cap and the dates, and ask for a corrected invoice.
Don't
- Don't dispute the whole bill on these checks: they cover rate, repeats and long days only.
How to improve
- Add task codes so the next report can check clerical work billed at lawyer rates.
- Add the budget or estimate so the next report can compare the bill with what was agreed.
Demo
Overview
In-house legal teams negotiate billing guidelines carefully — who may work on a matter, what rates apply, what is billable, what needs approval — and then receive invoices nobody has time to read against them. A general counsel with a live dispute is not going to spend an afternoon checking whether a partner billed 0.3 hours for reading an email.
So the same overruns recur, and they are almost never dishonest. They are the predictable output of a billing model where time is captured by many people under pressure.
Block billing — several tasks collapsed into one long entry — makes every other check impossible, because you cannot judge whether four hours were reasonable when you cannot see what they were. Timekeepers who are not on the agreed rate card. Partner time on work the guidelines assign to an associate. Several attendees where the guidelines allow one. Administrative time billed as legal time. Rate increases applied without the notice the engagement letter requires.
This agent reads each invoice against the guidelines you already agreed and reports what does not match, with the clause behind it. It is not a judgement about whether work was worth doing — that is legal judgement and it stays with your lawyer. It disputes nothing and pays nothing.
Benefits
Spend controlled without a fight
The guidelines were agreed; this just reads against them.
A pattern to take to the relationship
One recurring overrun is a conversation, not a line query.
Budgets that hold
Because the drift is visible in month one.
What it does
Flags block billing first
Several tasks in one long entry defeats every other check. You cannot judge four hours you cannot see inside.
Checks every timekeeper against the rate card
People appear on matters who were never agreed, at rates that were never agreed.
Finds seniority mismatches
Partner time on work the guidelines assign to an associate, priced at the difference.
Catches duplicate attendance
Three timekeepers at a hearing the guidelines allow one to attend.
Tests rate rises against the engagement letter
Increases applied without the notice the letter requires, often unnoticed for a year.
Judges no legal work
Whether work was worth doing is legal judgement. It checks the bill against what you agreed.
What this changes
What this changes about your week
- It takes over
- Reading counsel invoices line by line against the billing guidelines you negotiated.
- Done today by
- Nobody. A GC with a live dispute has no afternoon for it.
- How often
- Every invoice, in theory.
- Typical manual effort
- Each line needs the guidelines, the rate card and the engagement letter held together.
Why Legal in particular. Block billing collapses several tasks into one entry and defeats every other check — you cannot judge four hours you cannot see inside. And rate rises pass unnoticed for a year.
Runs unattended
Started by you or by an event, and it finishes on its own. Nothing waits for someone to be at a desk.
The same standard every time
The two-hundredth item is held to the bar the first one was. Consistency is the part people cannot sustain.
It cannot act on its own
Legal Bill Auditor has no path to sending, spending or committing. That limit is why its output is safe to act on.
How it runs
This agent runs server-side through the PROMIVO runtime. Each run is logged step by step and every tool call is permission-checked before it executes.
- 1InputValidated against the agent input schema
- 2Modelclaude-opus-5 with automatic fallback
- 3Toolssearch_knowledge, extract_structured_data
- 4PermissionsRuns READ actions automatically; anything higher waits for approval
- 5OutputStructured result matching the output schema
- 6LoggingTokens, duration and every step recorded
Requirements
Integrations
No integrations required.
Before you start
- External counsel invoices with line-level narrative, timekeeper, hours and rate
- Your billing guidelines and the engagement letter, in a knowledge base
- The agreed rate card
- Requires the All-Access plan or higher
Use cases
Every invoice, before approval
Where a query still costs nothing.
A matter running over budget
What is driving it, by timekeeper and task.
Panel review
Which firms actually bill to the guidelines.
After a rate negotiation
Whether the agreed rates are the ones being charged.
Pricing
All-Access
Billed monthly through your PROMIVO subscription. Cancel at any time.
Runs consume your plan allowance for agent executions and tokens. See plan limits
FAQ
Does it judge whether the legal work was necessary?
Never. That is legal judgement requiring the full matter context, and it belongs to your lawyer. It checks the bill against the guidelines you agreed.
Does it dispute or reduce invoices?
No. It produces findings and the clause each rests on. Querying a firm's invoice is a relationship conversation, and often the answer is a good one.
Does it read privileged matter content?
It reads narrative lines on invoices, which can describe privileged work. It reports on billing structure and never reproduces the substance of legal advice.
What if we have no written guidelines?
It checks arithmetic, rate consistency, block billing and duplicate attendance, and says the guideline check was not performed. Most of the value needs the guidelines, and that gap is worth knowing.
Reviews
Reviews open once customers have run this agent.
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