Power BI, Proclaim and Actionstep: Moving Beyond Static Reports to a Full Legal Dashboard

Proclaim's report writer and Actionstep's native reporting both do a job. Neither was built to do what most firms actually need: one place that combines matter data with billing, time recording and accounts information, updated on its own rather than whenever someone remembers to run it. Power BI is what closes that gap, whichever of the two platforms the firm runs underneath it.

The limits built into native reporting

Proclaim's report writer and Actionstep's report builder are both designed to answer one question against one data set at a time. Neither combines matter data with billing, time recording and accounts information on a single page, and neither refreshes itself. Every export is a snapshot from the moment it was run, and it stays that way until someone remembers to run it again, usually once a month, usually after the numbers were needed.

What a connected Power BI layer does differently

Whether the firm runs Proclaim, Actionstep or both, Power BI sits above the case management system and pulls matter, time, billing and accounts data into one model that refreshes on a schedule rather than on request. Partners get the same live view on a Monday morning as a Friday afternoon, rather than whatever number happened to be true when someone last ran the report.

If a firm runs both platforms side by side, whether mid-migration, following a merger, or running separate offices on different systems, Power BI is also the only practical way to see both in a single view. Neither Proclaim nor Actionstep will ever report on the other's data.

Five dashboards worth building

• WIP and lock-up | live work in progress and debtor days by fee earner and department, instead of a month-end spreadsheet nobody trusts by the time it reaches partners.
• Partner and department profitability | matter-level profitability pulling time, billing and disbursement data together, so underperforming case types show up before they erode margin.
• Fee earner utilisation and capacity | chargeable hours against target by person and team, refreshed daily rather than compiled once a month by someone in finance.
• Matter pipeline and conversion | new enquiries through to matter opened, broken down by referral source and practice area, showing where the pipeline actually leaks.
• Cashflow and aged debtors | outstanding balances by age, client and fee earner, with the kind of drill-down neither platform's native report offers on its own.

A sixth is worth naming separately for firms running both platforms: one dashboard combining Proclaim and Actionstep data side by side, most useful during a migration between the two or where different offices run on different systems and leadership still needs one number for the whole firm.

A static report answers the question you asked last month. A connected dashboard answers the one you are asking right now.

Where this goes wrong

The dashboard is only as reliable as the data underneath it. Inconsistent case types, unposted time or a build that has never been audited will surface as broken or misleading numbers in Power BI before it fixes anything, which is why a structured audit of the underlying Proclaim or Actionstep build should come before the reporting layer goes in, not after.

Getting the balance right

• Start with a data audit across every system that should feed the dashboard, not just the case management platform.
• Agree the KPIs that actually matter to the partnership before building a single visual.
• Build a proper data model rather than one dashboard per report request.
• Set an automated refresh schedule so nobody is ever looking at a number that quietly went stale.
• Design role-specific views, since a partner, a department head and a fee earner all need a different dashboard from the same data.
• Train the team to self-serve, so insight does not depend on someone in IT running a report on request.

Done properly, Power BI turns Proclaim or Actionstep, or both at once, from a case management system into the source of live commercial intelligence for the firm. If your reporting still means someone exporting a spreadsheet once a month, get in touch for a strategy call.