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Financial setup

Invoicing Setup | Approval Routes

Every matter that is created in Tracker is assigned an approval route. The approval route is the chain of individuals who will be responsible for any invoices that are posted for approval to the matter. Small law departments may only have one approval route set up. Large law departments may have as many as 50 or more.
You can identify up to 10 levels of invoice review, plus reviews by a billing guideline reviewer and an accounting code reviewer with respect to the accounting codes. You can set up an approval route so that it uses all, some, or none of these approval levels. For example, if you only wanted the lead company person to review and approve invoices, do not select a user for any of the other levels of review. If you would like the lead company person to review and approve the invoice and then have it routed to your General Counsel, you would fill in the General Counsel as the Level 2 reviewer, but leave the Billing Guideline Reviewer and the Level 3 approver blank.
note
In some situations, a company may need additional approvers of the invoice other than just the approvers specified in the approval route.
An approver only has to review the invoice once. If the same person ends up in the invoice approval route more than once, such as if the user is the lead company person (the LEVEL 1 approver)—and also a LEVEL 4 approver, Tracker requires the user to approve the invoice only once. The person listed as the "final reviewer" in the AP Extract, however, will always be the highest level approver to approve the invoice, rather than the last user who actually approves the invoice. Accounting code reviewers are not included, because they are reviewers, not approvers.
An exception to the rule occurs if a user is an accounting code reviewer and an approver in the approval route. In this case the user will receive the invoice both as an approver and as a reviewer.
About accounting code reviewers
Tracker lets you identify an accounting code reviewer (ACR) for each invoice approval route. Typically, ACRs are used by medium to large law departments.
If an ACR is identified for a route, they have the following responsibilities for the approval route:
  • The ACR will be notified each time a matter is created that is assigned to the ACR's approval route. The ACR can then review and approve or modify the accounting codes assigned to the matter.
  • The ACR will be notified each time a new invoice has been approved for the approval route if either of the following two conditions have been satisfied:
    1. The matter profile default accounting codes have not been approved.
    2. The approvers of the invoice changed the accounting codes for the invoice, so that the invoice accounting codes are different from the matter profile default accounting codes.

Creating an approval route

  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation.
  2. Under
    eBilling and Financial Setup
    , click
    Invoice Approval Routes
    .
  3. On the toolbar, click
    New Approval Route
    .
  4. Fill in or edit the approval route information.
    Field Reference
    Invoice reviewer and approver roles
    The following roles can be assigned for each invoice approval route. For each role and level, you can assign a primary approver and, an optional backup approver.
    To select the Primary and Backup reviewers, click
    Select
    in the applicable role. The Select User page opens. You can scroll through the list of names on this page to find a particular user. To help find a specific user, use the search boxes at the top to narrow the list. For example, you can search by a user's email to locate a specific user, or narrow your criteria to display only those users whose administrative profiles contain a particular participant tag.
    Role
    Notes
    Required
    Primary Approvers
    Backup Approvers
    Billing Guideline Reviewer (Level 0)
    This is usually a staff person who reviews the invoice for compliance with your company's billing guidelines before the lead company person receives the invoice. The billing guideline reviewer can edit and provide accounting codes for the invoice or reject the invoice back to the firm. The billing guideline reviewer is also known as the Level 0 reviewer.
    No
    1
    2
    Approver
    The Lead Company Person is the only required approver and is assigned to level 1 by default, but you can move the Lead Company Person to a higher level. No backup is allowed for the Lead Company Person.
    Yes
    10
    9
    Accounting Code Reviewer
    This is an individual who is responsible for providing or confirming accounting code information, such as cost center, GL account, and a third custom number, for new matters and invoices.
    If an accounting code reviewer is not specified, the Lead Company Person is responsible for ensuring that the accounting code allocations for the matter have been set up properly and are correct for each invoice.
    No
    1
    2
    Primary and backup approvers
    There is no functional difference between the primary and backup roles. Each approver receives pending alert notifications at the same time. The first person to review the invoice moves it to the next level. For example, if a backup approver reviews the invoice before the primary approver, the invoice is removed from the pending list of the primary approver and the primary will not review the invoice.
    Only backup reviewers and approvers can be completely removed from the invoice approval route because they are not required on the route. Primary reviewers and approvers cannot be removed, but you can delete a level or replace a primary reviewer or approver for that level.
    Threshold amounts
    You must enter a threshold amount. Invoices with billed amounts equal to or greater than the threshold amount will be routed to the approver. For example, if the threshold amount is set to $150 for an approver, invoices with a billed amount of $150 or greater will be routed to that approver (invoices below $149.99 and below will skip the approver). Zero is an allowed threshold amount and indicates that the person must review all invoices.
    If you do not want the Lead Company Person to review invoices on a regular basis, set a very high threshold amount for that person, such as $1,000,000, and specify other approvers on the route.
    Regardless of the threshold amounts, invoices are always routed to the level 1 approver or the lead company person under certain conditions:
    Type
    Description
    Level 1 Approver
    • A LEDES invoice contains audits such as timekeeper rate change or an expense guideline violation.
    • The invoice contains a budget audit flag.
    Lead Company Person
    • The company profile is incomplete.
    • The invoice contains incomplete accounting codes and the route does not include an ACR.
    • The office vendor numbers are missing and the route does not include an ACR (if the office vendor numbers are required by your AP department).
    • An Outside Counsel Evaluation must be completed during the invoice approval process.
    Credit Invoices
    Credit invoices will be reviewed if the invoice approval route specifies $0 for the approval threshold, but the invoices are never routed beyond level 1 (i.e., credit invoices are never routed to level 2-10 approvers).
  5. Do the following:
    • To add a primary or backup billing guideline approver, approver, or accounting code reviewer, in the appropriate row, click
      Add
      , then click
      Select
      .
    • To replace a reviewer or approver, in the appropriate row, click
      Select
      .
  6. In the
    User
     list, click
    Go,
     and then click the name of the person.
  7. Enter the threshold, or minimum amount, of invoices that the reviewer or approver must review. This is the minimum invoice total that triggers a review by the approver. Set the threshold to 0 (zero) if you want an approver to review every invoice for that matter. Accounting code reviewers do not have a threshold amount.
  8. In the
    Approvers
     section, to move an approver to a different level, click the handle and drag the row to the level that you want.
  9. On the toolbar, select
    Save & close
    .
Creating a Dedicated Proforma Approval Route
Proforma invoices can either be routed through dedicated proforma approval routes, or if a proforma approval route has not been specified on the matter, proforma invoices are routed through the existing invoice approval route that is assigned to the matter. Proforma invoice approval routes are configured in the same way as Invoice approval routes.
If a proforma invoice route has not been assigned to a matter, proforma invoices will be routed through the Invoice Approval Route.

Modify an approval route

Modifying approval routes can cause approvals to start over, or reset, for pending invoices, depending on what changed.
  • If your company has enabled invoice approval route resets (default setting):
     When you add or remove a level from the approval route or change the threshold amount for any level, the approval process will be restarted for all pending invoices on that route to ensure that the invoices are fully reviewed.
  • If your company has disabled invoice approval route resets:
    Adding or changing approvers and thresholds does not trigger a reset of the approval workflow unless the change would cause an invoice to be approved.
  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation.
  2. Under
    eBilling and Financial Setup
    , click
    Invoice Approval Routes
    .
  3. Under the
    Route Name
     column, click the name of the route you want to edit.
  4. Make changes as necessary:
    Option
    Action
    To add a reviewer or approver
    1. In the appropriate section, click
      Add
      . A blank line is added to the section.
    2. Click
      Select
      in the new blank line. A list of users opens.
    3. Click
      Select
      next to the name of the new person you want to add
    To change a reviewer or approver
    1. In the appropriate section, click
      Select
      next to the name that you want to change. A list of users opens.
    2. Click
      Select
      next to the name of the new person you want to add.
    To remove a reviewer or approver
    In the appropriate section, select
    Remove line item
    next to the name you want to remove.
  5. In the Threshold field, enter the minimum total for invoices that the reviewer or approver must review.
  6. On the toolbar, select
    Save & close
    .

Setting Up backup ACRs

As a best practice, accounting code reviewers should not delegate invoice approval authority. Instead, a backup reviewer should be created for the accounting code review (ACR) level. You can designate two backup ACRs.
The backup reviewer will see the view selector for the ACR's pending invoices and will know there are invoices to review.
  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation.
  2. Under
    eBilling & Financial Setup
    , click
    Invoice Approval Routes.
  3. Select an invoice approval route.
  4. Under
    Accounting Code Reviewer
    , in the
    Backup
    column, click
    Select
    .
  5. Click
    Select
    next to the name of the backup ACR.
  6. On the toolbar, select
    Save & close
    .
Use financial approval limits to customize invoice review
Tracker lets you customize your Approval Routes with dollar amount thresholds. For example, in many law departments, the General Counsel will review invoices only if they have a billed amount greater than $5,000. If the General Counsel is a Level 2 reviewer, you can identify the minimum billed for invoices to be sent to the General Counsel.
This feature lets you customize your routing in many ways. For example, if you want to always auto-approve invoices less than $100, you can set this as a threshold amount for every user in the approval chain. If you always want a user to review every invoice, regardless of the amount billed, make sure that the threshold amount is $0.
Note that Tracker references only the billed amount when analyzing the threshold. For example, if the threshold amount is set to $5,000 for the Level 2 reviewer, and a Level 1 reviewer reduces the invoice from $5,000 to $4,999, the invoice will still be routed to the Level 2 approver because the billed amount is at the threshold.
More About Approval Limits
If you always want a user to review every invoice, make sure that the threshold amount is $0. If you want to auto-approve all invoices for a route, do not specify any review other than by the lead company person, and set the threshold for review to be $999,999,999.
If the invoice approval route specifies $0 for the approved threshold, this will include credit invoices; provided, however, that credit invoices are never routed to approvers higher than the level 1 (i.e. credit invoices are never routed to level 2-10 approvers).
Level 1 approver threshold amount overrides
Be aware that even if a LEDES invoice is below the threshold amount for the level 1 approver, it will always be routed to the level 1 approver if:
  • The invoice contains audits such as a timekeeper rate change or an expense guideline violation.
  • The invoice contains a budget audit flag or a billing period audit.
Lead company person threshold amount overrides
Even if the threshold for review for the lead company person is $999,999,999, an invoice will always be routed to the lead company person in the following instances.
  • The company profile is incomplete.
  • The invoice contains incomplete accounting codes and there is no accounting code reviewer on the route.
  • The office vendor numbers are missing and there is no ACR on the invoice approval route, and office vendor numbers are required by your AP department.
  • An Outside Counsel Evaluation must be completed during the invoice approval process.

Deactivating an invoice approval route

  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation..
  2. Under
    eBilling & Financial Setup
    , click
    Invoice Approval Routes
    .
  3. Click the name of the approval route that you want to deactivate.
  4. Clear the
    Active
    check box.
  5. On the toolbar, select
    Save & close
    .

View deactivated invoice approval routes

  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation.
  2. Under
    eBilling and Financial Setup
    , click
    Invoice Approval Routes
    .
  3. Use the view selector at the top of the page to select
    Inactive Only
    , and then click
    Change View
    .

Reactivate an invoice approval route

  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation.
  2. Under
    eBilling and Financial Setup
    , click
    Invoice Approval Routes
    .
  3. Use the view selector at the top of the page to select
    Inactive Only
     and click
    Change View
    .
  4. Click the name of the approval route that you want to reactivate.
  5. Select the
    Active
    check box.
  6. On the toolbar, select
    Save & close
    .

Review approval route audit history

  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation.
  2. Under
    eBilling & Financial Setup
    , click
    Invoice Approval Routes
    .
  3. Click the name of the approval route that you want to view.
  4. Click the three small dots icon on the toolbar and select
    View history
    .

Clone an approval route

  1. Select
    Settings
    in the left navigation.
  2. Under
    eBilling & Financial Setup
    , click
    Invoice Approval Routes
    .
  3. Click the name of the approval route that you want to clone.
  4. Click the three small dots icon on the toolbar and select
    Clone
    .
  5. Enter a new name for the approval route.
  6. Make any other changes to the route.
  7. On the toolbar, select
    Save & close
    .

This article applies to:

  • PRODUCT: Legal Tracker
  • Subject: Invoices
  • Audiences: Company