sa.global: The engagement letter sets the terms. What happens next?
Most law firms have the commercial terms of a matter documented before work begins. The challenge is keeping those terms visible and current once the matter is underway.
That is one of the findings to emerge from sa.global X Briefing CFO Research Program 2026, which surveyed law firm finance leaders on matter management, from engagement through to invoicing.
84% of finance leaders say their firm has an engagement letter in place for most or virtually all matters. On paper, that suggests the commercial position is well established before work begins.
Yet write-off exposure remains significant.
74% of respondents expect 3% or more of billable value to be written off because costs were not properly captured or agreed at the outset.
High engagement-letter coverage can therefore coexist with meaningful write-off exposure. Having the commercial terms documented at the outset does not ensure they remain visible and managed as the matter progresses.
Where commercial terms start to drift
An engagement letter records the commercial terms and scope agreed at the outset. But matters rarely remain exactly as they were on day one.
A client asks for additional work, the scope expands, or the assumptions behind the original estimate change. A fee earner may agree to the request as part of the ongoing client relationship. The question is whether that change also reaches the matter record.
The research points to a clear gap.
58% of finance leaders say commercial terms most commonly drift because scope changes are agreed verbally but never formally documented. Only 16% point to the engagement letter being poorly tailored at the outset.
For many firms, then, the issue emerges after the original terms have been agreed. The matter changes, but the commercial record finance relies on does not always change with it.
That creates a disconnect between the work being delivered and the terms against which the matter is being managed.
Keeping commercial terms current through delivery
Once work begins, the engagement letter becomes the commercial starting point for the matter.
Budget, scope, and changes to the original terms need to remain visible as the matter progresses. If additional work is agreed but not reflected in the matter record, finance may still be working from a commercial position that no longer represents the work being delivered.
That gap may not become visible until the matter reaches billing. By then, the work has already been done and there may be little opportunity to address the commercial impact.
This is where matter management becomes important. Changes to scope and budget need to become part of the way the matter is managed, rather than information that sits in conversations, emails, or individual knowledge.
The aim is straightforward: keep the commercial position current while the work is underway, when there is still time to act.
Engagement-letter coverage only tells part of the story
A high engagement-letter coverage rate tells a firm something useful: commercial terms are being documented consistently before work begins.
It does not tell finance whether those terms remain current once the work changes.
The research suggests these are two different measures. One looks at whether the starting position has been documented. The other looks at whether that position remains visible and is actively managed as the matter develops.
The engagement letter establishes the commercial starting point for a matter. Matter management needs to carry those agreed terms into delivery, keeping budget, scope, and subsequent changes visible as the work progresses. Commercial control comes from being able to see and manage those terms as the matter evolves, not simply from agreeing them at the outset.
How sa.global addresses this
sa.global connects the commercial terms agreed at intake with the operational and financial record used to manage the matter.
Within evergreen, engagement information flows into the matter record, where budgets and billing parameters can be carried forward and tracked throughout delivery. Matter management provides ongoing budget and matter-status visibility, giving authorized stakeholders a current view of how the matter is progressing against its commercial position.
This gives firms a more connected way to manage the point the research exposes: what happens after the engagement letter is signed and the matter begins to change.
