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Practice operations agent

Prebill review

Every prebill checked against each client’s billing guidelines before it goes out: block billing, rate caps, excluded task codes and vague entries. The billing partner approves every edit.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Prebill review: four items, three done, and one (6 entries) waiting for the billing partner, who is asked: Six block-billed entries on Tessaly Bio. Approve the suggested splits?
How it works

118 entries on one prebill, read against the client’s rules.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Prebill review, in 5 steps. It starts with “September prebills run” and ends with “A bill that gets paid”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Prebill reviewA typical run
Starts withSeptember prebills runThe billing system produces the Tessaly Bio prebill for the Series B financing: 118 entries, $64,915.
Automation: Pulls Tessaly Bio’s outside counsel guidelines and rate caps from the client file and attaches them to the September prebill.
~4h/mo

Step 1 of 5Load the guidelines

  • Automation

    Pulls Tessaly Bio’s outside counsel guidelines and rate caps from the client file and attaches them to the September prebill.

    Each client’s guidelines sit on its file, so the right set is one click away.

Reads
  • Billing system
  • Client files
Writes
  • Prebill

~4 hours a month back

Automation: Compares every timekeeper’s rate with the client’s cap, and every task code with the list the client won’t pay for.
~8h/mo

Step 2 of 5Check caps and codes

  • Automation

    Compares every timekeeper’s rate with the client’s cap, and every task code with the list the client won’t pay for.

    A rate is over its cap or it isn’t, and excluded codes are a list. Both are exact checks.

Reads
  • Prebill
  • Client files
Writes
  • Prebill

~8 hours a month back

Where teams differRate caps come by timekeeper, by seniority, or as one blended rate for the whole matter.

The agent: Reads all 118 narratives and marks six that bundle several tasks under one time figure, plus any too vague to say what was done.
~18h/mo

Step 3 of 5Read every entry

  • The agent

    Reads all 118 narratives and marks six that bundle several tasks under one time figure, plus any too vague to say what was done.

    An entry like “review docs, call with client, revise SPA” is three tasks. The time code only shows one.

Reads
  • Prebill
Writes
  • Prebill

~18 hours a month back

Where teams differBlock billing is a flat no for many clients. Others accept it on short entries.

The agent: Proposes how each block-billed entry splits into its tasks, citing the guideline, with the same total time for the timekeeper to share out.
~10h/mo

Step 4 of 5Suggest the edits

  • The agent

    Proposes how each block-billed entry splits into its tasks, citing the guideline, with the same total time for the timekeeper to share out.

    A good split keeps the timekeeper’s own words, so it still reads true when the client’s billing team checks it.

Reads
  • Prebill
Writes
  • Prebill

~10 hours a month back

IfYour team: Approves, changes or rejects each suggested split on Tessaly Bio, with the original entry and the guideline side by side.
Automation: Applies just the edits the partner approved, and leaves a note on each changed entry for its timekeeper.
~6h/mo

Step 5 of 5Approve and release

  • Your teamIf any edits are suggested

    Approves, changes or rejects each suggested split on Tessaly Bio, with the original entry and the guideline side by side.

    Changing how time reads on a client’s bill is a partner’s call, and it’s their name on the invoice.

  • Automation

    Applies just the edits the partner approved, and leaves a note on each changed entry for its timekeeper.

    The partner has ruled on each edit. Applying exactly those, and no others, is mechanical.

Reads
  • Prebill
Writes
  • Billing system

~6 hours a month back

Ends withA bill that gets paidThe prebill goes out with the partner’s approved edits, and fewer entries come back rejected.
Total~46h/mo

What changes

Partners open a prebill with the problems already marked, each suggested fix beside the guideline behind it, instead of reading 118 entries cold.

  • 3steps automated
  • 2steps for the agent
  • 1call kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~46 hours a month back

$49,700 a year in time

For a firm sending about 120 prebills a month, many under outside counsel guidelines, at $90 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Never writes down or changes time on its own

  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentPrebills from your billing system, guidelines from each client’s outside counsel terms.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentEach client’s rate caps, excluded task codes and how detailed an entry must be.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe billing partner for every edit, the relationship partner for write-downs.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentEmail to the billing partner, a note on each entry for the timekeeper.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentA marked-up prebill with each suggested edit and the guideline behind it.

Opening new matters and docketing deadlines are their own agents in this catalog. Write-offs and fee conversations with clients stay with your partners.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your billing team and billing partners.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past prebills, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real prebills.
The number we agree

Hours a month your partners spend reviewing prebills. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, three months of prebills with the edits your partners made, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and three months of prebills with the edits your partners made.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past prebills.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

Does it change anyone’s time?
No. It suggests each edit with the guideline behind it, and the billing partner approves, changes or rejects it.
What about clients who require an e-billing portal?
It checks against the same rules the portal applies, like task codes and rate caps, so fewer entries come back rejected.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the hours a month your partners spend reviewing prebills. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

Want prebills reviewed before the partner opens them?

Tell us how your team handles prebills today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

Let’s build your agentBack to Legal
New to Switchboard Agents? How it works, what’s included, and what it costs.
  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
See the service
Switchboard Agents$12,500 fixed · live in 3 to 6 weeks How it works Let’s build your agent