Field note
Working from the export you already run
We do not ask a firm to change its practice-management product. We ask for a repeatable extract and a codebook for status and hour types.
Firms ask, reasonably, whether they must buy something new before we can draw a matter picture. The answer from Lammas Street is no. The work starts from the export the practice-management or time-recording product already allows a manager to run.
What we do need is a codebook. Status values such as 'open', 'bill', 'hold', and the local abbreviations that have accumulated over a decade must be written down. Hour types need the same treatment. Without that list, two drafts will disagree about what a bar means.
Client confidentiality sits with the firm. A coded matter identifier is enough for almost every chart we produce. We do not want statements of case, attendance notes, or anything that would make a receptionist uneasy if it were left on a train.
Repeatability matters more than richness. A slightly thin export that can be produced on the same weekday each month is more useful than a perfect extract that took a consultant three days and cannot be repeated.
If the export cannot answer a question the partners care about, we write that in the pack. Inventing a field to fill the gap would be a different, and dishonest, trade.