OVERHEAD AUDIT

What is the Overhead Audit Service?

360 Legal have created the Overhead Audit Service to enable their member firms to benchmark their current overhead costs and compare them with the best prices currently being paid in the legal sector for goods and services.

Why should I undertake an Audit?

"Saving costs" is one of the three main principles that the 360 Legal Group promotes to the legal firms that it works with. If a firm does not benchmark their business costs then they do not know whether they are paying a fair price for the goods and services that are vital to the running of their business.

Any overpayment to your suppliers means a reduction in your profits and the financial stability of your business. Good cost management in any legal firm is fundamental to the long term success of that business, and reflects the management within that business.

10 reasons why you should use the 360 Legal Group Overhead Ausdit Service!

Over 60% of legal practices in the UK use the same office supplier. The pricing structure for every single firm is different, and it is not the largest firms that pay the best prices! Do you know how your prices compare?
A single telephone contract can have over 300 different pricing elements within it. Everyone concentrates on the main 3 – local, national, and mobile, but how do you know that the remaining 297 prices are competitive?
98% of all UK businesses do not know when their gas or electricity contracts renew. If you fail to deal with your renewal you could be paying prices up to 3 times your previous rates.
Some legal practices are paying 4 times as much for the same quality letterheads and business cards as their competitors. Is that you?
The Royal Mail has 67 different discount schemes in place which can save you up to 50% on your postal costs. Do you know what these are and which ones apply to your business?
The cost of a black and white photocopy can vary by 500% or more! Are your copy charges competitive against those paid by your nearest rivals?
Some legal firms pay over 4 times the value of their franking machine during the course of their contract. Do you get best value from your franking machine supplier?
An incorrectly structured archiving contract can cost a legal firm up to 50% of the annual cost just to move the contract to another supplier. Do you know what liability that your contract is building?
All the major UK banks have preferential banking rates for law firms, but not all law firms are on those rates. Which rates are you on?
Just renewing your firm’s mobile phone contract without the necessary analysis of usage can lead to an overpayment of 30% over the course of a 2 year contract. On what basis do you decide the structure of your contract?

What areas does the Audit cover?

The Audit has been set up to cover all areas of overhead costs within your business. From stationery, and print costs, through to IT and postage costs. For a more comprehensive list see overleaf.

How much of my time will the Audit take up?

The Audit has been designed to take up a minimal amount of yours and your staff’s time. After an initial discussion with you to set out how the process will work the Audit team will extract the information they require for your review from your paid invoice files. This information will then be taken away and used to provide your benchmark report, which details how much you actually pay in each area, where possible savings can be made, and recommendations for ways to improve your purchasing in the future.

How much will the Audit cost me?

The Audit is free to any current members of 360 Legal Group as part of your membership fee. For non-members there is a fee payable (details on application). Once the Audit is complete, should you wish to implement the savings shown this can be done so either, free of charge if it involves using one of our preferred supply partners, or for a 35% share of savings if you wish to retain your existing supplier.