Legal practice Delivery Backlog
Backlog weeks = outstanding sales / weekly completion capacity
Gather time sheets, engagement scopes and invoice ageing. Include professional time, filing expenses, and admin support. The starting figures are examples. Replace them with your own records.
Formula and worked example
Backlog weeks = outstanding sales / weekly completion capacity
| Input | Example |
|---|---|
| Confirmed outstanding sales | 60 |
| Completed sales per week | 12 |
| Calculated result | 5 weeks |
Choose reliable inputs
Account for delivery time, review work and when you expect to be paid for each engagement. For this legal practice calculation, use time sheets, engagement scopes and invoice ageing and a consistent definition of one matter.
- Professional time: include the portion belonging to this matter or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Filing expenses: include the portion belonging to this matter or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Admin support: include the portion belonging to this matter or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
Use the same currency for every money input. Do not mix weekly costs with monthly revenue, or count the same expense in both an itemised cost and allocated overhead.
Is this an exact promise date?
No. It is an average workload ratio. Actual completion depends on sequencing, resources, and job duration.
Assumes comparable job sizes and no new bookings; priority and scheduling constraints are excluded.
What if this input changes?
If confirmed outstanding sales rises by 10%, this example changes by 0.5 weeks. This shows the effect of one change; it does not predict what will happen.
Open the calculator, save your baseline, then change the input supported by the least reliable estimate in your records. Compare both scenarios before committing to a price or capacity promise.