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How To Track Unpaid Expenses

Keep a handle on the expenses that have been billed but not collected from your clients.

Steve Owings avatar
Written by Steve Owings
Updated over 2 weeks ago

How to View Unpaid Expenses in LeanLaw

LeanLaw's WIP, Billed, and Collected reports can help you see detailed information on unpaid expenses by user, client/matter, and by practice area. These reports are a valuable tool for tracking outstanding reimbursable expenses and can be easily accessed through the Reports page. In this article, we will guide you through the steps to view unpaid expenses in LeanLaw.

Step 1: Go to the Reports Page

To begin, navigate to the Reports page in LeanLaw. This can be done by clicking on the "Reports" tab in the main menu.

Step 2: Choose How You Want to Group the Unpaid Expenses

Once on the Reports page, you will see four options for grouping the unpaid expenses: by user, by client/matter, by responsible attorney, or by practice area. Choose the option that best suits your needs.

Step 3: Select the Date Time Frame

In the appropriate report box, click on the date time frame you want to see and click the button for it next to "WIP, Billed, Collected". This will launch the report to show expenses within the selected time frame.

Step 4: Review the data

You can now view the Billed Expenses column to see the balance of expenses and drill in to more details. You can also click on the column headers to sort the data table.


Congratulations! You have successfully viewed the unpaid expenses in LeanLaw. You can now use this information to better manage your expenses and ensure timely reimbursement from clients.

For more information, see our detailed guide on Reports: WIP, Billed, Collected


Troubleshooting Common Expense Issues in LeanLaw

Expense Visibility Issues

If a hard cost expense does not appear on the Expenses tab initially, it might be due to the filters applied on the expense page. Additionally, filters play a crucial role in determining expense visibility. Ensure the date range covers the intended period and verify that the "Show Billed" filter is set to include "WIP" or "ALL." This adjustment helps account for unbilled expenses that might otherwise be missing from the WIP section. Follow these steps to resolve this:

  1. Navigate to the "Expenses" page in LeanLaw.

  2. On the left-hand side, locate the filter menu labeled "Show Billed."

  3. By default, this is set to "WIP" (Work in Progress). Change this setting to "All" or "Billed."

  4. The expense should now appear on the Expenses page.

  5. If it doesn't, make sure that the expense has been assigned and is NOT in Unassigned Expenses.

  6. If it doesn’t, ensure the expense is correctly associated with the same account as your Expense settings.

  7. Extend the date range by a day at the start and end to account for time zone discrepancies when expenses are absent.

  8. If issues persist, consider resetting your browser by closing and reopening it or switching to a different browser.

If an expense still does not appear on the Expenses tab after completing all the steps above, a manual resync may be needed.

Reach out to the Solution Engineering team with the following:

  1. Client or Matter associated with the Expense

  2. A screenshot of the expense in QuickBooks

Tools and Best Practices

For specific billing requirements, such as contingency-based cases, make sure that you enable the "Show Only Contingency Matters" option on the Ready to Bill page. This ensures all time, fees, and expenses related to contingency cases are displayed correctly. Additional troubleshooting tips:

  • Use the Export feature on the Expenses page to download all expenses as a CSV file for thorough analysis.

  • Adjust the dropdown menu within the Expenses page to display more items per page, making it easier to spot the missing records.

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