What your pipeline says about next year
This year’s revenue was decided by cases that signed last year. Your intake today is next year’s settlements.
Personal injury revenue lags. A case signed today may not settle for many months, which means a strong year can hide a weak pipeline until it is too late to fix.
Read the pipeline by phase
Count active cases in each phase and compare the shape over time. A healthy pipeline has cases spread across every stage. A pipeline that is heavy in negotiation and thin in intake looks great now and difficult later.
Watch intake as a leading indicator
New signed cases per month is the earliest signal you have. A drop in intake will not show up in revenue for a long time, but it will show up. Tracking it monthly gives you time to respond with marketing, referrals, or relationships before the gap reaches your bank account.
A thin intake month is quiet today and loud a year from now
Questions to ask every month
- How many new cases signed this month, and how does that compare to the last six?
- Where are cases concentrated by phase?
- Which phase is filling faster than it is emptying?
- What is likely to settle in the next 90 days?
None of these questions requires new software. They require a report you trust and the habit of looking at it.
See where your firm stands
Eight quick questions place your firm on the path from practice to enterprise and name the moves that would make the biggest difference.
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