Unbilled amounts file specifications
If the Accruals module is enabled for your company, law firms and vendors can post unbilled amounts to Legal Tracker electronically. This feature replaces a difficult manual process with an automated, electronic process. It is comparable to transitioning from paper invoicing to electronic invoicing, except that this data involves unbilled amounts rather than physical invoices.
You are not required to use this feature. Firms can enter unbilled amounts manually. For most firms, however, it is more efficient to generate and upload a file.
When enabled, the option to Bulk Update unbilled amounts on behalf of a law firm is available during the company review period. Users must have an accrual to review in order for the Bulk Update option to appear. The option does not appear outside of the Accruals review period or if the user has no unbilled amounts to review. The functionality is similar to the law firm bulk update, except the date is based on the company cutoff date instead of the law firm due date. The default currency will be defined according to the user preferences, if allowed, or the company base currency.
For companies working with accruals who receive amendments to unbilled amounts from law firms, these instructions provide the ability for company users to bulk upload unbilled amounts on behalf of their law firms.
Required fields
Depending on your Tracker configuration, your file must contain four required fields. The required fields are explained below. Required fields can be in any order in your file.
FIRM_ID
The law firm’s assigned system Tracker ID. This ID appears in reports in the field Firm: Tracker ID.
MATTER_ID
The system-assigned matter ID. This ID appears in reports in the field Matter Tracker ID.
PRIOR_MONTHS_UNBILLED
The amount of services rendered by the firm from the beginning of your fiscal year through the end of the last full calendar month that have not been uploaded.
Format: Currency, Maximum length: 12.2
- This field must include unbilled amounts only for services rendered in the company’s current fiscal year. Example: The firm is posting unbilled amounts on October 20 and the company’s fiscal year starts on July 1. The PRIOR_MONTHS_UNBIILED will be the amount of services rendered by the firm from July 1 – September 30 that have not been invoiced to the company in Legal Tracker.
- This amount should not include Delivery on Hold Invoices (invoices that the firm has uploaded into Tracker but have not yet been delivered because of incomplete tasks in the matter.) You do not have to include these invoices because Legal Tracker automatically includes the amount in the company’s final accrual.
- This amount should include any rejected invoices that the firm intends to repost.
- This field is not relevant when posting unbilled amounts in the first month of the fiscal year. If the company requires the firm to post unbilled amounts monthly, when the firm posts unbilled amounts for the first month of the fiscal year, the PRIOR_MONTHS_UNBILLED amount is not applicable (only the CURRENT_MONTH_ESTIMATE field is applicable), because the unbilled amounts can only include services rendered in the current fiscal year. You can leave this field in the file because Tracker automatically ignores it if you are posting unbilled amounts for the first month in the fiscal year.
CURRENT_MONTH_ESTIMATE
This field is required if the company requires unbilled amounts before the end of the month. CURRENT_MONTH_ ESTIMATE shows whether unbilled amounts are posted before the end of the month (the field is required) or after the end of the month (the field is not required and if it is included in the file will be ignored). If you include this field and require unbilled amounts posted after the end of the month, it will be ignored.
Format: Currency, Maximum length: 12.2
File types and field delimiters
Tracker lets you upload the following types of files:
- CSV (comma separated value) - A .csv file is an industry-standard data export file format. This is the recommended format. If your data is in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel®, you can easily convert it to a .csv format. You can upload data from a .csv file directly into Tracker without further modification, or send the file to attorneys, who can open it in Microsoft Excel.
- Fields are separated with commas.
- The file has an extension of .csv.
- Any embedded commas in a field must be set off with double-quote characters (",").
- A comma must not appear after the last field in a row.
- Tab-delimited text file - This is a common file format that can be saved using Microsoft Excel.
- Fields are separated with tabs.
- The file has a file extension of .txt.
- A tab character must not appear after the last field in a row.
- Pipe-delimited text file - This is the delimiter used in the LEDES 1998B format, so Tracker supports this format for the unbilled amounts file as well. Fields are delimited by the “|” character (ASCII hex 7C or Alt key + 124), also known as the pipe.
- Fields are separated with a pipe.
- The file has a file extension of .txt.
- The pipe cannot be used for any purpose other than as field delimiter. In other words, it cannot appear in a text field.
- The pipe must not appear after the last field in a row.
File requirements
FILE NAME
There are no requirements about the file name, other than a CSV file must end with “.csv”, and the text file formats must end with .txt.
ROWS
Each row of data is a separate record. Tracker does not use a delimited between rows. Blank rows are ignored. Extra lines between rows are ignored.
HEADER
The first row is the header row and designates the field order for your file. The fields can be in any order, but must include CLIENT_ID, LAW_FIRM_MATTER_ID, PRIOR_MONTHS_UNBILLED, and if unbilled amounts are required before the end of the month, CURRENT_MONTH_ESTIMATE. Additional fields can also be included, although Tracker does not save the data from these extra fields.
Example: The following is an acceptable header row that contains an extra field for LAW_FIRM_ MATTER_NAME in a pipe-delimited file.
CLIENT_ID|LAW_FIRM_MATTER_ID|LAW_FIRM_MATTER_NAME|PRIOR_MONTHS_ UNBILLED|CURRENT_MONTH_ESTIMATE
CURRENCY
All currency amounts in the file must be in the same currency. The currency of the amounts is not specified in the file. The user posting the file in Tracker selects the currency when uploading the file.
- Currency fields may contain only digits 0 to 9, decimal point (“.”), or dash (“–”). In other words, no spaces, commas, or other characters (except those mentioned above) are allowed in currency fields.
- Negative numbers must be indicated with a leading dash. When used, the dash character must be the first character in the field.
- Field lengths for currency fields represent the number of digits allowed in the field, to the left and the right of the decimal point. For example, 12.2 indicates a number in the range from -999999999999.99 to 999999999999.99.
- Leading zeros are acceptable. However, in negative numbers they must follow the dash.
Upload the file
- Select Financial > Accrual Review.
- Select Currency of Unbilled Amounts.
- Select the file type.
- Next to Unbilled Amounts File, click Browse and follow the instructions for attaching the file.
- Select the box to certify that the data in the spreadsheet does not include unbilled amounts for services rendered prior to the start of the company’s fiscal year.
- Select Save or Save & Approve to bulk update the unbilled amounts. Save updates the record but does not clear it from the page. It can still be reviewed and edited. Save & Approve removes the record from the page.