Most Effective Ways to Track & Report on Matter Management KPIs

For legal departments, proving impact, demonstrating efficiency, and making data-driven decisions all depend on one critical capability: tracking and reporting on the right KPIs.

But, if your legal work is spread across emails, spreadsheets, and disconnected tools, it’s nearly impossible to get an accurate and complete picture of workload, progress, or performance.

So, what are the most effective ways for legal departments to track and report on key performance metrics for matter management?

Let’s explore the most impactful strategies to answer that question.

1. Centralize Matter Intake to Capture Data from the Start

When legal requests come in through scattered channels like emails, chats, or shared spreadsheets, it’s hard to measure volume, priorities, or performance.

Centralizing intake ensures every legal matter is consistently logged in one collaborative space with all the necessary details upfront. This creates a clean and reliable data source for reporting.

With matter management software like Checkbox, legal teams can use smart forms or AI-powered workflows to standardize intake, auto-tag matters, and reduce manual follow-ups This sets the stage for easier KPI tracking down the road.

2. Use Real-Time Dashboards for Ongoing Visibility

Static spreadsheets quickly become outdated and fail to give you an accurate picture of the state of ongoing and completed tasks. To stay on top of performance, legal teams need real-time visibility into their legal requests and matters.

Live dashboards let you track key metrics like open vs. closed matters, time to resolution, and workload by team member or matter type, all from one place.

With up-to-date dashboards and analytics, legal teams can easily view performance trends, generate reports, and make data-driven decisions.

3. Customize KPIs Based on Stakeholder Needs

Not everyone cares about the same metrics. What matters to Legal Ops may not matter to your CFO or business partners. Tailoring KPIs by audience helps you deliver more relevant, impactful reporting. For example:

• Leadership wants to see risk reduction and cost savings.

• Legal Ops needs visibility into efficiency and SLA compliance.

• Business teams care about responsiveness and resolution times.

Legal reporting tools such as Checkbox make it easy to create role-specific dashboards, so each stakeholder sees the metrics that matter most to them.

4. Automate KPI Reporting to Save Time

Manual reporting is time-consuming and error-prone. And by the time it’s done, the data’s often out of date.

By linking your matter data to real-time dashboards, you can automate reporting and ensure stakeholders always get timely, accurate updates. For example, you can choose to generate reports on-demand or schedule them to go out weekly, monthly, or quarterly, complete with charts and key trends powered by up-to-date data.

Automating KPI reporting allows in-house teams to generate and share legal insights with just a few clicks.

5. Track Workload and Performance by Matter Type

Tracking performance by matter type (i.e. contracts, compliance, or litigation) helps you understand where time is being spent and where improvements are needed.

This level of detail reveals which areas are creating bottlenecks, which require more assistance, and which are running efficiently.

With in-house matter management software solutions like Checkbox, you can tag matters by category and easily filter dashboards to uncover deeper insights and make more strategic decisions.

6. Benchmark and Set Goals Using Historical Data

To improve performance, you need to know where you’ve been. Tracking KPIs over time helps you identify trends, set realistic goals, and measure progress.

For example, you might spot seasonal spikes in contract volume or see that certain matter types consistently take longer to resolve.

AI-powered matter management platforms store and analyze historical matter data, so you can benchmark performance, forecast demand, and continuously refine your legal operations strategy with ease.

7. Use a Single Source of Truth to Eliminate Data Fragmentation

When matter data lives in multiple tools like email, spreadsheets, shared drives, it’s nearly impossible to get accurate, consistent KPIs. Legal ends up wasting time chasing information and risk reporting the wrong numbers.

A single source of truth created through matter management software brings all your intake, workflow, and reporting data into one place. It keeps your team aligned and your reporting reliable.

With a matter management platform like Checkbox, everything is centralized so legal teams can track, manage, and report on matters with confidence and clarity.

Key Takeaways

Tracking and reporting on matter management KPIs doesn’t have to be complicated and most definitely shouldn’t be manual. With centralized systems in place, legal teams can easily show impact and make smarter decisions.

A platform like Checkbox that combines real-time dashboards, analytics features, customizable metrics, and automated reports, gives legal departments a single source of truth to manage work, track performance, and scale value across the business.

Ready to make KPI tracking effortless? Book a demo to see how Checkbox can help.