The Estimation Accuracy Report

Good estimates are how a firm scopes work, sets a fee, and tells a client what to expect. The trouble is that nobody knows whether their estimates are any good until they look back. The Estimation Accuracy report does exactly that: it lines up the time you estimated each completed task would take against the time it actually took, and shows you, person by person, whether the firm’s estimates run high, low, or land close.

This isn’t about catching anyone out. Estimates that are consistently off, in either direction, cost you. Estimates that run low erode realization and surprise clients with overruns; estimates that run high cost you work you could have won. Knowing which way your firm leans is the first step to scoping the next matter with confidence.

What Counts as a Task Here

The report only includes completed tasks that have both an estimate and recorded actual time. A task with no estimate has nothing to compare, and a task with no logged time isn’t finished work, so neither shows up. That keeps the comparison honest: every row reflects a job that was both planned and done.

Reading the Numbers

Each row is one person, summarizing all of their qualifying tasks:

• Tasks is how many completed, estimated tasks they have in the period.
• Avg Estimate is the average time they estimated those tasks would take.
• Avg Actual is the average time those tasks actually took.
• Variance is the difference between the two, in hours. A positive variance means the work took longer than estimated; a negative variance means it finished faster.
• Error % expresses that same gap as a percentage of the estimate, so a small task and a large one can be compared fairly.

The report sorts by error size by default, so the people whose estimates are furthest off (in either direction) rise to the top. Four summary cards frame the firm overall: the total tasks compared, the firm’s average estimate, its average actual, and its average error.

Accurate, Over, or Under

Every task and every person is sorted into one of three buckets based on how far the actual time strayed from the estimate:

• Accurate means the actual time landed within 10% of the estimate, in either direction. This is the target. An estimate within ten percent is a good estimate.
• Over-estimate means the work finished faster than estimated. The time was budgeted, but the job came in under it. Persistent over-estimating can mean padded estimates that scare off price-sensitive clients.
• Under-estimate means the work took longer than estimated. This is the one to watch: under-estimating is where write-downs, blown budgets, and awkward client conversations come from.

Note the framing, because it’s easy to get backwards. “Over-estimate” describes the estimate, not the outcome: you estimated too much, so the task came in under. “Under- estimate” means you estimated too little, so it ran over.

The Estimate-vs-Actual Chart

Above the table, a scatter chart plots every individual task so you can see the pattern, not just the averages. Each dot is one task: its position along the bottom is when the task happened, and its height is that task’s error percentage.

Two reference lines make the chart readable at a glance:

• The Ideal line sits at zero percent error. A dot on this line is a perfect estimate.
• The Average line marks the average error across the tasks shown, so you can see at a glance whether the firm (or the person) tends to land above or below ideal.

The chart is labeled Over-Estimating toward the top and Under-Estimating toward the bottom, so the direction of a cluster tells the story immediately: a cloud of dots sitting below the ideal line means work is routinely running over the estimate. When you’re looking at everyone together, the chart shows a legend so you can tell people apart; focus on a single person and it gives that person’s tasks more room.

Using It

The practical payoff is in the next estimate you give. If a particular attorney’s work consistently runs 30% over, that’s a number you can build into the next scope or fee, instead of discovering it again at write-down time. If the firm as a whole over- estimates a certain kind of task, you may be leaving competitive work on the table.

Filtering and Exporting

You can filter the report by date range and by user to focus on a period or a person, and export the whole thing to Excel or PDF for a partner meeting, a review conversation, or a record of how estimating improved over time.

Who Can See It

Your Owner and Administrator always have access. Beyond that, the Estimation Accuracy report is available to your legal staff (attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries) and your office manager, the people who scope work, set fees, and manage how the firm’s time is spent. If it doesn’t appear for someone, it’s because their role isn’t on that list.