Onit’s new Budget feature provides an efficient, collaborative way to request and review matter budgets – both internal and external – within the BillingPoint platform. In this how-to guide, you’ll get a step-by-step overview of how to work with the Budget feature within Onit’s ELM platform.  

NOTE: This feature requires an Onit services engagement; please contact your Account Manager if you are interested in setting up the new budget feature. 

You’ll begin with Onit’s Budget Collaboration feature in the implementation stage. Here, you will choose the default settings for all budget, forecasts and reforecast requests that will go out to vendors going forward.  

For these settings, select the values that correspond to your everyday, most common matter types. You can adjust budget cadences for exceptional individual matters on a separate screen. 

1. Navigate to the ELM Configuration settings panel and click on the “Budget Settings” tab. Click into the “Budget Settings” link on the page.  

2. Fill out the Submission Window details. This is the number of weekdays you’d like to give the vendor to submit their budget details.  

3. Fill out the Notification Reminder details. There are options for you to send three pre-set different reminders to vendors requesting their numbers. Fill in the days of that Submission Window on which you’d like to send the reminders. For example, if you set the window for five days, you might want to send the first notification on day 1, the second on day 3, and the third on day 5. 
 
NOTE: If you would like to send only two notifications or one notification to clients, fill in a “0” in the Third and/or Second submission window box. 

4. Select if you would like to Include Taxes in Actual Calculations. Select “Yes” if you would like the vendor to include tax amounts in their submitted budget figures.  

Next, move on to the Forecast Request section. A forecast is an annual option where companies can choose whether to have a scheduled time when all open matters subject to budget collection get automatically pushed to vendors to provide an update on the future year’s budget amount. 

5. First, select the Forecast Request Type for which automated forecast requests will be sent.. You can choose Internal, External, or Both. 

• Select Internal for your own client budget that you would like to update and maintain; the Matter Manager for each matter will get these budget notifications. The external vendor will have no input for this budget. 
• Select External for a vendor-provided budget. The designated vendor contact will be notified at the set time for the budget request.
• Select Both if you want both an internal and an external budgets to be included in the automated forecast. 

6. Next, select the Forecast Request Cadence. You have two choices here: None and Annual. 
 
If you click on Annual, you will see a screen asking for the Forecast Request Day and Forecast Request Month. Fill in the day and month of the year you would like to request the budget for the next annual period. For example, a request sent for 11/1/2024 would request the 2025 budget. 
 
NOTE: That budget request will go to the internal/external contact in the selected budget type (annual, monthly, period) specified on the VATM.  

7. Finally, edit the Forecast Submission Window. This is the number of weekdays you are going to give the vendor (or internal contact) to return the budget data.  

Finally, move on to the Budget Reforecast section. This is where an organization can choose to automatically request vendors to update their previously supplied budget amounts. 

8. Choose the Reforecast Request Cadence. You can select None, Annual, Period, or Monthly. Again, you’re choosing the default option here.  

9. Just as you did in the Budget Forecast section, choose your Reforecast Request Type. You can select Internal, External, or Both.

10. Customize the dates for your budget reforecast requests. An important note here: even if your default is for an annual, per period, or per month reforecast request, you still need to fill out dates for the other options. The reasoning for this? As stated before, you can tweak individual matters to change from the default settings and request a different cadence.
 

• For the annual option, select the day and the month of the year you would like to send the reforecast request.  

• For the period option, select the day and month of up to four separate times a year to request reforecasts.  

• For the monthly option, select what day of the month you would like to send the reforecast request: the options are the 1st, 15th, or the last day of the month. 

11. Finally, fill in the Reforecast Submission Window. This is the number of weekdays you’re going to give the vendor (or internal contact) to return the budget data. 

Requesting a budget from a vendor will occur during the Vendor Assignment to Matter (VATM) process. You can set up budget requests at any time – either during initial setup or by clicking into an individual VATM after creation.  

 1. Create a new matter or click on a pre-existing individual matter on the ELM screen.  

2. Once you are into the matter, click on Assign Vendor.

3. The Vendor Assignment to Matter (VATM) screen will appear. Fill out the Vendor information and then click “Save and Create Budget” on the bottom right of the screen.

5. The Budget Setup Wizard will appear on the screen. From here, you have two paths to choose from:

Fill out any notes you might have for the vendor in the Notes from Client field. 

Select the Budget Type you would like to send to the vendor for their numbers. You have four different options here: Life of Matter, Annual, Period, or Monthly. 
 
Note that Life of Matter is defined as one estimated budget for the entirety of the matter. Details for the Annual, Period, and Monthly selections will come from the information defined on startup.  

If you select the Annual, Period, or Monthly options, you will also have to select the type of Budget Calendar to use. You have two options here: Fiscal (aligning to your organization’s fiscal calendar) and Calendar (aligning to the standard 12-month calendar).  

NOTE: You can only select Fiscal if you have your organization’s fiscal calendar integrated within Onit’s ELM solution. 

From there, select the Budget Detail Type. You have two options here, Fee / Expense and Total.  

If you select Fee / Expense, the vendor will enter Fee Budget and Expense Budget values, which will be summed for Total Budget.  

Select the Calendar Year you would like to request information for in the drop-down menu.  

Finally, select the Forecast Request Cadence and Reforecast Request Cadence. For the Forecast Request Cadence, you can select None or Annual. For the Reforecast Request Cadence, your options are None, Annual, Period, or Monthly.  

These fields will default to what was setup in the settings. When the requests are sent will come from the input at implementation. 

Once you have input all your information in, you’ll get a message at the bottom of the screen summarizing your request:  

From there, click Setup Budget and you are all set! 

For an INTERNAL budget, click NO on "Request Budget from Vendor." 

Select the Budget Type you would like to send to the internal contact for their numbers. You have four different options here: Life of Matter, Annual, Period, or Monthly.  

 
Note that Life of Matter is defined as one estimated sum for the entirety of the matter.  

If you select Life of Matter, you’ll next have to select the Budget Detail Type. You have two options here, Fee / Expense and Total.  

If you select Fee / Expense, you’ll be able to fill in the Fee Total and Expense Total at the bottom of the screen, which will be summed for a Total Budget. 

If you select Total, fill in the Budget Total at the bottom of the screen.  

If you select the Annual, Period, or Monthly options, you’ll also have to select the type of Budget Calendar to use. You have two options here: Fiscal (aligning to your organization’s fiscal calendar) and Calendar (aligning to the standard 12-month calendar).  

NOTE: You can only select Fiscal if you have your organization’s fiscal calendar integrated within Onit’s ELM solution. 

From there, select the Budget Detail Type. You have two options here, Fee / Expense and Total.  

For both Fee / Expense and Total, first select the Calendar Year you want to request the details for. Then, you will be able to fill in the Fee Total, Expense Total, or Budget Total at the bottom of the screen under Budget Details.  

Finally, select the Forecast Request Cadence and Reforecast Request Cadence. For the Forecast Request Cadence, you can select None or Annual. For the Reforecast Request Cadence, your options are None, Annual, Period, or Monthly.  

These fields will default to what was setup in the settings. When the requests are sent will come from the input at implementation. 

• The Forecast and Reforecast Request Cadence will default to the Corporation default set in the Budget Settings; however, it can be edited for the specific budget during the VATM budget setup. 

• If a budget is opted out of automated forecasting, client users can manually request a forecast. 

• Manual Reforecast requests are also available. 

Requesting a Budget: Notes to Remember / FAQs 

• The client can set up billing rules to block invoices from being submitted if the budget is reached or has not been entered.  

• Note that internal budgets do not have an out-of-the-box approval workflow.  

• The vendor will have the option to submit “no changes” to their previous budget values; if no changes are submitted the budgets will be automatically returned to their previous state prior to reforecasting. 

• If a vendor fails to submit a budget value within the submission window, the client user can provide a value on the vendor’s behalf. 

• If a historical year budget is entered it is automatically opted out of the automated forecast process until a budget exists for the current year. 

• Any budget value changed during the reforecast process will be re-routed through the approval workflow.