AI System for Reconciling Case Costs and Advance Records

The problem

In day-to-day operations, a cost may be posted to the wrong matter or entered twice. When receipts, bank transactions, matter numbers, cost types and advances are spread across different screens, documents or team records, the issue may not be noticed in time.

This fragmented data delays preparation of the reconciliation difference list and forces staff to search for supporting records again by hand. Before deciding, the finance officer and matter lawyer must complete missing fields and verify each inconsistency individually.

A common exception is that a bulk payment may cover more than one matter. If this context is not checked, an incomplete or incorrect automation could remove a valid cost or show the wrong balance, so the output cannot be acted on directly.

What we set out to improve

• Number of verified reconciliation differences
• Share of outputs corrected or rejected by the finance officer and matter lawyer
• Time between the source record and the review output

How the system works

1. 01 Define the review scope and the authorised roles of finance officer and matter lawyer
2. 02 Collect the inputs: receipt, bank transaction, matter number, cost type and advance
3. 03 Check the source identifier, date, version and data freshness
4. 04 Match the amount, date and matter
5. 05 Separate duplicates from balance differences
6. 06 Check the exception: a bulk payment may cover more than one matter
7. 07 Place low-confidence or conflicting records in a separate human review queue
8. 08 Write the source identifier, rule, output and timestamp to the audit trail
9. 09 Have the finance officer and matter lawyer approve, correct, defer or reject the output

Methods we used

• Tolerance-based record matching
• Source, format, version and required-field checks for receipts, bank transactions, matter numbers, cost types and advances
• A missing-data alert instead of an estimate when inputs are absent or conflicting
• Separate handling of exceptions and the main rule
• Joint retention of the source identifier, rule result, reconciliation difference list and human decision

Where people stay involved

Data and security

Access to receipts, bank transactions, matter numbers, cost types and advances is limited to the minimum permissions needed for the task. Identifiers and sensitive fields are masked where possible, and only the necessary section is sent to the model rather than the full raw file. Access, output and the decisions of the finance officer and matter lawyer are logged; production use does not begin until the organisation approves the retention period and data location.

Who this suits

Frequently asked questions