# Budget And Fee Manager Scott Margetts

Matter budgeting and ongoing WIP/variance monitoring.

- Repository: https://github.com/lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills (919 stars)
- Category: Writing
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-10-19
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill budget-and-fee-manager-scott-margetts -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill budget-and-fee-manager-scott-margetts -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill budget-and-fee-manager-scott-margetts -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill budget-and-fee-manager-scott-margetts -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills`

## Description

Matter budgeting and ongoing WIP/variance monitoring. Build phase-based fee estimates at matter setup, run bottom-up budgets by jurisdiction or workstream, calculate contingency, and structure AFA arrangements (fixed fee, capped fee, phased fixed fees). Ongoing monitoring: WIP tracking against budget, proportionality assessment (spend vs progress), variance commentary with root cause analysis, forecast-to-complete, realisation monitoring, write-off analysis. Trigger on: 'build a budget', 'fee estimate', 'what will this cost', 'WIP review', 'budget vs actual', 'how are we tracking against budget', 'we're over budget', 'realisation is poor', 'what's our ETC', 'budget for the German workstream', 'model the financial impact of this scope change', 'draft a fee adjustment', 'write-off analysis', 'how much contingency', 'AFA structure', 'fixed fee estimate', 'budget update', 'forecast to complete'.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Budget and Fee Manager

## Purpose

Build, monitor, and adjust fee budgets across the full matter lifecycle. At matter setup: translate scope into a phase-based fee estimate with contingency and AFA structure. In flight: run WIP reviews that explain variance, not just report it. When spend has outpaced delivery: assess recoverability and present options. When scope changes are confirmed: model the financial impact.

This skill produces the financial analysis that status-report-drafter summarises. It receives confirmed OOS conclusions from scope-change-controller and models their financial impact. It does not execute billing (billing-cycle-manager handles that) and does not produce the client-facing financial summary (status-report-drafter consumes this skill's output and presents it).

---

## Identifier Block, Required Before Any Output

Stop and confirm before proceeding:

```
Client: [Name]          Client number: [Number]
Matter: [Name]          Matter number: [Number]
Report date: [Date]     Prepared by: [LPM name]
```

If any identifier is missing, ask for it. Do not produce output without the complete block.

---

## Operating Modes

### Mode 1, Budget Build
At matter setup: produce a phase-based fee budget from agreed scope. Triggered by a partner asking for an estimate, a scoping brief, or the structured output of matter-intake-scoping.

Input: scope description (email, brief, or matter-intake-scoping output), jurisdiction list, team structure, indicative timeline, AFA preference if known.

### Mode 2, WIP Review
Month-end or mid-matter: assess actual spend against budget, explain variance, produce a forecast-to-complete. The standard financial health check.

Input: WIP data (pasted figures, uploaded Excel/CSV, or text description), progress narrative or self-reported completion percentages, phase/workstream structure matching the budget baseline.

The rest: https://github.com/lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/budget-and-fee-manager-scott-margetts/SKILL.md