Balancing the Books

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Chartered patent attorney firm Boult Wade Tennant was hesitant about replacing its 20-year-old software with a new management system. However, the change to CPA Inprotech has brought many benefits and added value to the firm, not least by enhancing its current financial accounting system. Tessa Bucks, deputy managing partner, explains how.

Leading UK-based attorney firm Boult Wade Tennant (BWT) has been assisting businesses and individuals in establishing, protecting, exploiting and enforcing their IP Rights worldwide for over 100 years. Comprising 160 staff split over four offices in London, Cambridge, Oxford and Reading, the firm is aware of the importance of good communication between the teams – a requirement that can be eased with the right software in place, as Tessa Bucks knows only too well.

Embracing the future
For 20 years, BWT had been using a locally produced software product to manage its portfolios until deciding to find a new solution. ‘As a growing business, we realised that we needed to update our software in order to deal with the ensuing workload and meet future requirements,’ Tessa explains. ‘We wanted a system that could enable the smooth and more efficient handling of over 65,000 live cases from our main office in London including inter alia, patent, trademark, design, domain name and plant variety cases.’

Not only a qualified patent and trademark attorney, Tessa was previously responsible for BWT’s records and renewals departments. This dual qualification made her the best candidate to review the commercial systems available: ‘CPA Inprotech was selected after an exhaustive review of available products and several modules implemented including Case and Name, Timesheet, Billing and Accounts Receivable,’ she says. ‘Following the data migration procedure, the attorneys at BWT now use CPA Inprotech daily without disruption and with access to all the information previously available.’

An accountable solution
It was important to BWT that the system they selected could integrate seamlessly with CMS, BWT’s existing accounting system. ‘The CMS system was implemented in 1999 and, although a good system generally, it did not integrate with our old records system PARS,’ says Tessa. ‘This led to a significant amount of time wasting as a result of the need for double entry of data; it also did not handle docket (fixed scale) fees very well.’

The benefit of this integrated approach is that IP financial information is now visible for all applicable users, rather than being locked away in the back office

Implementing CPA Inprotech provided a tailored solution to the problems experienced previously. ‘We now use the Timesheet Module and the Billing Module to collect all IP-related costs, the Accounts Receivable Module to monitor debtors and the Financial Interface Module to export the information to CMS,’ explains Tessa. ‘The benefit of this integrated approach is that IP financial information is now visible for all applicable users, rather than being locked away in the back office.’

A flexible approach
‘The most significant improvement comes from the ability to generate official fees and docket fees automatically into the work in Progress ledger (WIP),’ says Tessa. ‘This happens when our Records clerks update a case to say that a certain form has been filed or an event has taken place. Pre-CPA Inprotech, our records clerks had to update our old records system from one set of instructions, and our accounts clerks had to update CMS to enter the WIP manually.

‘CPA Inprotech has also given us the means to set up different billing arrangements for different clients; for example, we have just gone live with a convenient e-billing system for one of our major US clients, which we could not have done with CMS. More and more of our clients are calling for special bill formats or monthly bills, and we are now well placed to deliver the different arrangements they require, with little impact on our clerks.’ This allows elements of BWT’s service delivery to be more flexible without generating extra administrative work.

BWT is confident that CPA Inprotech will provide them with the support they need to move forward. As Tessa concludes: ‘If we decide to move away from centralised to fee earner billing, CPA Inprotech will enable us to do just that. If we wish to account for work done by our four offices separately, CPA Inprotech can make that happen. It is a good, user-friendly, flexible system that enables us to configure it to our way of working both now and as we develop into the future.’

To find out how CPA inprotech can help your business, please visit www.cpaglobal.com/software or e-mail ebrice@cpaglobal.com.

This article first appeared in IP Review, issue 15
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