Overview
Before you begin creating budgets, you will need to configure your account settings. By setting up your firm's job titles, default hourly rates, cost rates, and team members, you'll create more consistent budgets across your firm.
Most firms only need to complete this setup once, with occasional updates as personnel or rates change.
Step 1: Create Your Job Titles
Job Titles allow you to define the positions used throughout your firm, such as:
- Partner
- Associate
- Senior Associate
- Paralegal
- Legal Assistant
You can create, rename, edit, or remove job titles at any time. Job titles are completely customizable and should reflect how your firm is structured.
Tip: Keep your list of job titles consistent. Most firms only need a small number of roles to create meaningful budgets.
Step 2: Configure Default Rates
Each job title can have:
- A default Hourly Rate
- A default Cost Rate
These values act as starting points whenever a team member is assigned that job title.
For example:
Job Title | Hourly Rate | Cost Rate |
Partner | $550/hr | $200/hr |
Associate | $350/hr | $150/hr |
Paralegal | $190/hr | $120/hr |
Using default rates helps create consistency while reducing the amount of information that needs to be entered for each individual.
Step 3: Add Your Team Members
Next, add the people who may work on your firm's matters. For each team member you can specify:
- Name
- Job Title
- Hourly Rate
- Cost Rate
- User Role
When a job title is assigned, AltFee will automatically assign the default hourly rate and cost rate associated with that role. If needed, those values can be customized for individual team members.
For example, two associates may share the same job title while having different hourly rates or cost rates.
Step 4: Add Non-Users to Your Budgets
Not everyone who contributes to a matter needs access to AltFee. When adding this type of team member, simply select the No Login role.
This allows assistants, paralegals, articling students, finance staff, contract lawyers, or any other contributors to be included in your budgets without requiring a paid AltFee licence.
These team members:
- Can be selected when building budgets
- Can have their own hourly and cost rates
- Do not have access to AltFee
- Do not count toward your paid user licences (if applicable)
This makes it possible to build realistic staffing models that reflect everyone involved in delivering legal work.
Step 5: Update as Your Firm Evolves
Your account settings are designed to evolve alongside your firm. As your team grows or your pricing changes, you can:
- Add new team members
- Update rates
- Modify job titles
- Change default values
Any updates you make will be available for future budgets.
Best Practices
- Configure your job titles before adding team members.
- Use default rates wherever possible to maintain consistency.
- Add all contributors to your budgets—even if they don't require AltFee access.
- Review rates periodically to ensure your budgets continue to be up-to-date.