Configuring Professional Fees

The Professional Fees tab is where the quote's professional fee build-up is configured. It is the detailed working area behind the headline fee range: workstreams, scope items, fee values, optionality, assumptions, practice areas, and resource allocation all come together here.

Use this page to answer four practical questions:

• What work is included in the quote?
• How much is each part expected to cost?
• Which parts are optional, hidden, or non-chargeable?
• Which fee earners or resource groups are carrying the work?

When to Use This Tab

Use Professional Fees when you need to:

• Review or edit the workstreams and scope items in a quote.
• Add missing scope items.
• Reorder workstreams or items.
• Change item-level fee amounts.
• Mark items or whole workstreams as optional.
• Review scope and assumptions at workstream or item level.
• Assign items to a practice area.
• Show and adjust resource allocation.
• Prepare client correspondence from the fee build-up.

For headline pricing decisions such as total fee range, pricing approach, discounts, or profitability analysis, use the pricing summary and fee configuration controls around the main quote page. Professional Fees is the detailed underlying build-up.

Core Concepts

Layout of the Professional Fees Tab

The tab can display fees in grouped workstream form or table form, depending on the user's pricing item view setting.

In the grouped view, items are organised like this:

1. Practice area section.
2. Workstream row.
3. Expandable scope item rows inside the workstream.

The workstream row shows a summary of the items inside it, including item count, scope, assumptions, practice area, optionality, subtotal fee range, and contribution to the total quote. Expanding the workstream shows the individual scope items.

If an item does not have a workstream, it appears under an Ungrouped section so it can be corrected.

Adding Workstreams and Scope Items

If the quote has no professional fee items yet, the tab shows an empty state with Add workstream.

When adding work, you may be able to:

• Add a blank workstream or scope item.
• Search for an existing workstream.
• Add a fixed fee scope item where configured.
• Choose the relevant practice area.
• Choose a discipline or work type model category when the quote uses discipline-based configuration.
• Confirm rates if required before the item can be added.

Within an existing workstream, use the add action on the workstream row to add another scope item directly to that workstream.

After adding an item, review its scope, assumptions, fees, optionality, and resource allocation before relying on the quote totals.

Editing Workstream-Level Details

In grouped view, workstream rows can carry shared information for the whole workstream.

You can usually review or edit:

• Workstream name.
• Workstream-level scope.
• Workstream-level assumptions.
• Practice area for items in the workstream.
• Whether all items in the workstream are optional.
• Workstream subtotal fee range.
• Workstream contribution to the total quote.

Marking a workstream as optional applies optionality to all items inside that workstream. Use this when a whole category of work should be treated as optional in the quote.

Deleting a workstream deletes all items in that workstream. If that would leave the quote with no professional fee items, Ayora Quote Builder asks for confirmation before clearing the final remaining items.

Editing Item-Level Details

Expand a workstream to edit the individual scope items.

Each item can include:

• Item name.
• Workstream assignment.
• Scope.
• Assumptions.
• Practice area.
• Optional status.
• Fee value.
• Resource allocation, when visible.
• GenAI impact badge, where a configured GenAI resourcing rule applies to the item.
• Delete action.

Item-level scope and assumptions are useful when a workstream contains several pieces of work that need separate explanation. Workstream-level notes are better for points that apply to the whole group.

The GenAI impact badge shows the estimated fee or hours effect of an applied GenAI resourcing rule. Select it to see the breakdown by fee earner grade.

Setting Fee Values

The fee cell reflects the type of pricing item.

Depending on the item, you may see:

• A percentage contribution to the total quote.
• Absolute minimum and maximum fees.
• A single fixed fee value.
• No value, if the item is non-chargeable.

For normal quote items, the fee range should make sense both individually and as part of the total quote. If the total quote fee has been manually changed, item-level values and contribution percentages may need review.

For template items, percentages can be especially important because they describe how a future quote should distribute value across items.

Optional, Non-Chargeable, and Hidden Items

These controls affect how the item is treated.

Use optionality carefully. Optional items can affect client correspondence and fee totals excluding optional elements.

Showing Resource Allocation

Use Show Resource Allocation to display fee earner allocation columns.

When resource allocation is visible, each item shows how the work is split across fee earners. Ayora Quote Builder also shows a total percentage for each item. A valid item allocation should total 100%.

At workstream level, the table summarises each fee earner's contribution across the items in that workstream. This can include percentage, approximate fee value, and approximate hours where available.

Use resource allocation to check:

• Whether the right fee earners are included.
• Whether each item totals 100%.
• Whether work is allocated at the right seniority level.
• Whether a workstream is over-weighted toward one fee earner.
• Whether changes to rates or allocations have affected profitability.

Adding or Removing Fee Earner Columns

When resource allocation is visible, fee earner columns can be managed for the relevant practice area.

Adding a fee earner may require:

• A selected client on the quote.
• A practice area.
• An available organisation, client-specific, matter-specific, or named fee earner rate.
• An exception charge-out rate, if needed.

If the quote does not have a client, Ayora Quote Builder may warn that a client is required before fee earner rates can be managed correctly.

Deleting a fee earner removes that fee earner from the pricing items. Ayora Quote Builder prevents deleting the only fee earner for a practice area, because the remaining work would have no resource allocation.

Spreadsheet View

When resource allocation is visible, Spreadsheet View provides a dense editing mode for professional fees.

Use it when you need to review or edit many rows at once. The spreadsheet-style view can show workstreams, item names, percentage contribution, fee values, and fee earner allocation columns together.

After using spreadsheet-style editing, review the main table again to confirm:

• Rows are assigned to the right workstreams.
• Fee values are correct.
• Allocation percentages still make sense.
• Practice area grouping is still correct.

Bulk Selection and Bulk Actions

Rows can be selected individually, by workstream, or across the whole table.

When items are selected, the bulk action bar can be used to:

• Delete selected items.
• Assign selected items to a practice area.
• Set the display colour for a practice area group.

Bulk actions are useful when imported or generated items need cleanup. Review the selected rows before applying a bulk action, especially when deleting.

Reordering Workstreams and Items

Use drag handles to reorder workstreams or individual scope items.

In grouped view:

• Dragging a workstream moves the workstream as a block.
• Dragging an item moves that individual row.
• Some rows may require press-and-hold before dragging starts, especially in larger tables.

Use ordering to match the intended client-facing sequence. The order in Professional Fees may influence the way fee information is displayed or copied into correspondence.

Undoing a Change

If an edit needs to be reversed, use the Undo control (or Ctrl+Z / ⌘+Z) to revert the quote to its previous saved version. Undo is available to users with edit rights and is disabled when there is no previous version to return to.

Using Advisor Warnings

The Professional Fees area can show advisor guidance for quote issues that need attention. The advisor reviews the current quote and surfaces one prompt at a time — such as a fee range mismatch, unbalanced resourcing, or a profitability concern — so you always know the single most useful thing to check next.

Advisor actions may help with:

• Restoring original item contributions.
• Rebalancing fee earners.
• Updating rates or FX rates.
• Opening rates or rates inflation settings.
• Applying configured resourcing adjustment rules.
• Flagging when workstreams fall short of, or exceed, the quote's total fee range.
• Flagging missing or unbalanced resource allocation on an item.
• Recommending Maximise Profitability when the profit score falls below the target threshold.

Treat advisor messages as prompts to review the quote. When an advisor action changes fees or allocations, check the affected workstreams and item rows afterwards.

An approvals strip can appear alongside the advisor guidance when approval policies apply to the quote. It shows matching policies and lets you submit the quote for approval when one applies.

Updating Charge-Out Rates

The tools menu can include Update all charge out rates.

Use this when rates have changed and the quote needs to be brought in line with current charge-out assumptions. After updating rates, check:

• Item fee values.
• Total fee range.
• Resource allocation.
• Profitability and billing realisation.
• Rates inflation status.

Client Correspondence from Professional Fees

The Professional Fees area can provide access to Client Correspondence.

Generated or copied correspondence may use:

• Professional fee totals.
• Workstream-level fee breakdowns.
• Scope item fee breakdowns.
• Optional item indicators.
• Assumptions.
• Hidden item settings.

Client Correspondence can be temporarily unavailable while an approval request is in progress, or until the quote has been approved under the applicable approval rules. Where this applies, the button explains why it is disabled.

Before sending correspondence, review both the quote and the generated content. Make sure optional and hidden items behave as intended.

Recommended Workflow

For a typical quote, configure Professional Fees in this order:

1. Confirm the practice area and workstream structure.
2. Add any missing workstreams or scope items.
3. Move items into the right order.
4. Complete workstream-level scope and assumptions.
5. Complete item-level scope and assumptions where more detail is needed.
6. Set optional, hidden, or non-chargeable status.
7. Review or edit item fee values.
8. Turn on resource allocation and check fee earner splits.
9. Use advisor prompts to resolve warnings.
10. Review totals, profitability, and client correspondence output.

Quality Checklist

Before finalising the quote, check:

• Every item belongs to the correct workstream or has been intentionally left ungrouped.
• Workstreams appear in a sensible order.
• Scope and assumptions are clear.
• Optional work is marked consistently.
• Non-chargeable work has zero fees by design.
• Hidden items are not needed in client-facing content.
• Fee values are commercially sensible.
• Resource allocation totals are valid.
• The total professional fee aligns with the pricing summary.
• Client correspondence looks right before it is copied or sent.

Troubleshooting