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Financial setup

Create UTBMS Audit Sets

UTBMS audit sets are guidelines that you define to control how Tracker handles expenses in LEDES invoices that do not conform to your billing guidelines. Tracker can flag, reduce, or reject the LEDES invoices that violate your guidelines. Tracker can find LEDES invoices with expenses that do not match your billing guidelines and take action according to audit rules you set up. Tracker uses the Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTBMS) expense codes.
You can create as many audit sets as necessary and apply them to matters as desired. A new required field is created in the matter, and users will be required select an audit set when creating a matter. The audit sets will also be available for reporting in the Matter and Invoices report type.

Create expense code audit rules

Tracker can flag, reduce, or reject any LEDES invoices that contain expenses that violate your guidelines. When you set up audit sets, you can:
  • Flag the invoice by showing a warning.
  • Automatically reduce the invoice to the approved rate. With this option you have the choice of unit limits or total limits to address different forms that expenses take.
  • Automatically reject the rate (auto-reduce to zero).
  • Reject the invoice outright.
Once you create a new audit set, it will be displayed in the list of audit sets on the UTBMS Expense Guidelines Audit Sets page.
  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation.
  2. In the
    eBilling & Financial Setup
     section, select
    Invoice rejection & adjustment reasons, audits & guidelines
    .
  3. Click
    LEDES Audits & Guidelines
    .
  4. Select
    UTBMS Expense Guideline Audits
    . A list appears, showing any existing guidelines. If you already had one active audit set, it is called Primary and you can change this name.
    • To edit an existing guideline, select its name in the list.
    • To add a new guideline, click
      Add
      on the toolbar.
  5. By default, the
    Active
     checkbox is checked for each new set you create. You can check or clear this box to activate or reactivate an audit set.
  6. In the
    Name
    field, enter a descriptive name for the audit set.
  7. For each expense that you want to include in the audit, enter a limit in either the
    Unit amount
     or the
    Total amount (per line)
    field. This limit is applied to the respective line in an invoice, not to the invoice total. Specify one or the other, but not both.
  8. For each expense that you include in the audit, specify the type of audit.
    Types of Audits
    Treatment in the System
    None/Disabled
    This audit is not turned on for the respective rule. This is the default for each UTBMS code.
    Red Flag/Warning
    A red flag is displayed for the respective audit. The billing guideline reviewer or the Level 1 approver must resolve the audit, and cannot proceed along the invoice approval route until resolved.
    Auto-reduce to currently approved rate
    Tracker will automatically adjust the unit amount or total amount for the expense code to the respective limit that you defined in the
    Unit amount
     or
    Total amount
    field. A
    Description
    field will appear. The description you enter here will appear on the invoice audit for the respective invoice.
    Auto-reject rate (auto-reduce to zero)
    Tracker will automatically adjust the unit amount or total amount for the expense code to zero. A
    Description
    field will appear. The description you enter here will appear on the invoice audit for the respective invoice.
    Auto-reject invoice
    Tracker will reject the invoice.
    Description
    field will appear. The description you enter here will appear in the rejection comment for the respective invoice.
  9. On the toolbar, select
    Save & close
    .
Examples
Copying expenses (Code E101) could have either a per-unit limit, such as $0.10/copy, or a total limit, such as $25 per line.
Example 1
In the following example, Tracker will automatically reduce any invoice with a per-unit copying charge that exceeds ten cents per unit back to ten cents.
  • Code
    : E101
  • Title
    : Copying
  • Unit Amount
    : 0.10
  • Total Amount (per line)
    : blank
  • Type of Audit
    : Auto-reduce to currently approved rate
  • Description
    : Please refer to our billing guidelines.
Example 2
In the following example, the limit for outside printing would be $25, so Tracker will automatically reduce any invoice with a line item total for outside printing that is more than $25.
  • Code
    : E102
  • Title
    : Outside Printing
  • Unit Amount
    : blank
  • Total Amount (per line)
    : 25.00
  • Type of Audit
    : Auto-reduce to currently approved rate
  • Description
    : Printing beyond $25 is not covered.
Example 3
In the following example, word processing is not an approved expense and Tracker changes the rate for any word processing charges to zero.
  • Code
    : E103
  • Title
    : Word Processing
  • Unit Amount
    : blank
  • Total Amount (per line)
    : 0.00
  • Type of Audit
    : Auto-reject rate (auto-reduce to zero)
  • Description
    : Per Acme Airline's billing guidelines, word processing is considered a law firm overhead and is not a permitted billing expense.

Cloning a UTBMS Audit Set

  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation.
  2. In the
    eBilling & Financial Setup
     section, select
    Invoice rejection & adjustment reasons, audits & guidelines
    .
  3. Click
    LEDES Audits & Guidelines
    .
  4. Select
    UTBMS Expense Guideline Audit Sets
    .
  5. Select
    Clone
    to the far right of audit set you want to clone.
  6. Make the necessary adjustments to the audit set.
  7. On the toolbar, select
    Save & close
    .

This article applies to:

  • PRODUCT: Legal Tracker
  • Audiences: Company