How do I use the LEDES interface in timeSensor LEGAL?

How do I use the LEDES interface in timeSensor LEGAL?

This article has been machine translated. If you find any errors, we would be grateful if you could report them to translation@timesensor.com.

General

The LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange) Standard is a set of file format specifications designed to facilitate electronic data transmission in the legal industry. The LEDES specifications are maintained by the LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC), which was established by the Law Firm and Law Department Services Group within PricewaterhouseCoopers. Committee members include law firms, corporate legal departments, universities and software vendors.

With the LEDES module, timeSensor LEGAL supports the LEDES standard 98bi. This format was developed for international use and is the most commonly used format today. Before you start using the module, you must first prepare your data in timeSensor LEGAL.

Services

The first step is to assign a suitable LEDES code to the services recorded in timeSensor LEGAL. A service can either be a fee-based service or an expense. LEDES provides a detailed coding here:
  1. The table with the codes for fee services (activities) can be found here
  2. The table with the codes for Expenses can be found here
Perhaps the service codes you have already entered in timeSensor LEGAL are too coarse for LEDES and you may need to create additional services in timeSensor LEGAL. It is important that an LEDES code is entered for all services that you want to use for LEDES. The LEDES code begins either with an "A" for a fee-based service (activity) or an "X" for an expense. For fee services, in addition to the activity code, a task code may also need to be entered.


User

Another feature of LEDES is the fact that a clearly defined code must be transmitted for each service provider. It is therefore not sufficient to know that a service was provided by Michael Muster, but the corresponding "timekeeper" code must also be transmitted. Such codes can be "PARTNR" for a partner or "ASSOC" for an associate.
  1. The table with the codes for the service providers can be found here
Based on this table, enter the corresponding code for all service providers who will work on LEDES mandates. You will find a suitable field in the timeSensor LEGAL user administration on the Settings page.


Mandates

If you would like to transmit your invoice via LEDES within the scope of a mandate, you must enter the following information in the relevant mandate. You will find the corresponding fields in the "LEDES" tab in the mandate settings:

  1. Client Matter ID
    This is one of the most important fields: here you enter the client number that your client gives you. This allows the invoiced services to be assigned in the client's system.
  2. Client Matter Name
    This field is optional. If you fill it in, this name will be transmitted as the mandate name. Otherwise, the normal mandate name of timeSensor LEGAL is transmitted.
  3. PO Number
    This is also an optional field and only needs to be filled in if your client wishes to do so.

More settings

The generated LEDES document contains further information, which timeSensor LEGAL takes from various places in the programme:
  1. Law Firm ID
    This unique number identifies your law firm. By convention, the tax number of the law firm is used here. This is the VAT number, which can be found in the Settings area under Admin/Special:
  2. Client Name, Address 1, Address 2, City, State, Postcode, Country
    The address details of the law firm are taken from the parameters:
  3. Client Name, Address 1, Address 2, City, State, Postcode, Country
    The address details of the client are taken from the master data sheet. Please note that the field "Addition" cannot be transferred, as a corresponding field is missing in LEDES.
  4. Client Tax ID
    The tax number of the client is also taken from the relevant field in the master sheet:


Templates

Once you have prepared the database by entering the necessary codes and information, you still need a suitable template. You can create a new template or add the LEDES part as another follow-up document to an existing invoice template, as shown below:

To do this, create an empty 4D Write Pro document and insert an INV_INSERT expression. The first argument specifies the desired LEDES format and the second the desired invoice text:

 


Since you do not want to print the LEDES document, you should have it converted to a TEXT file. To do this, click on Output Options and set the 4D Write Pro conversion to .txt in the Advanced Settings:


Draft bill

If you display an invoice as a draft in timeSensor LEGAL, an additional tab appears with the name you have chosen (i.e. "LEDES" in our example):



Click on the tab and examine the generated format. Also check whether any errors may have occurred during the generation of the LEDES data. If an error is detected during the generation of the file, the output is aborted and the error is displayed:



If no error has occurred, the document is displayed completely and without error message:


When archiving, the LEDES document does not become a PDF but a text file, which can be taken from the archive and sent on by e-mail or uploaded to the desired platform. Alternatively, you can of course send the invoice directly from timeSensor LEGAL by email, whereby the LEDES file is also attached to the email as a .txt file.

Rounding of service times

According to the conventions of the LEDES format, times are calculated in 6-minute units (i.e. always 1/10 of an hour). Since in timeSensor LEGAL times are normally recorded to the minute, this leads to deviations. For example, if you record 10 minutes of working time in timeSensor LEGAL, this will be 0.1667 hours. In this situation, however, LEDES requires that 0.2 hours are accounted for. Assuming your hourly rate is EUR 300.00, the price of your service increases from EUR 50 to EUR 60. Fortunately, LEDES has a surcharge/discount field per service. The calculated difference (in our case -10 euros) is transferred to this field by timeSensor LEGAL, so that the invoice amount is correct in the end.

Rounding differences

The LEDES format calculates all gross, net and VAT amounts at the level of the individual service lines. For this reason, minor rounding differences may occur, as with timeSensor LEGAL the VAT is calculated at invoice level. The LEDES specifications state that the receiving system should tolerate rounding errors:
The receiving application should check whether INVOICE_TOTAL is equal to the sum of the LINE_ITEM_TOTALs of this invoice, within a reasonable deviation, to account for rounding errors that may have occurred in the calculation of the individual LINE_ITEM_TOTALs by the sending application.

Additions or deductions

LEDES does not support surcharges or discounts on the invoice level. If there are surcharges or discounts in the timeSensor LEGAL invoice, an error is output.

Payments

No payment data can be transmitted via LEDES. Therefore, if you enter advance or partial payments in timeSensor LEGAL, these data are not transmitted in the LEDES file.








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