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New in LeanLaw: August 2021
New in LeanLaw: August 2021

August's release notes: short codes, Receivables improvements, quality of life changes, and more

Doug Schmierer avatar
Written by Doug Schmierer
Updated over a week ago

What's new in LeanLaw this month?

Short Codes

You probably have a predictive text feature on your phone that allows you to automatically complete the word you’re typing after a few letters. A short code is similar.

How it works in LeanLaw is first you’ll set up a text snippet, like “Case conference with” and set that snippet to a short code, like “cc”. Then, whenever you type the letters “cc” and press your space bar in certain areas of the product, LeanLaw will automatically replace “cc” with “Case conference with.” You can use short codes to eliminate the time you used to spend using the Snippet dropdown menu, and make snippets of all of your most commonly used phrases for quicker entries!

Short codes are currently not case-sensitive and are supported in the descriptions of time entries, expenses, and fixed fees. For more information on setting and using short codes, read our article here!

My WIP, Billed, Collected Report

The WIP, Billed, Collected report is designed to provide a balanced breakdown of labor, from before it’s invoiced to after it’s collected. We figured this report is so valuable; why not personalize it? Starting this month, all users have access to their very own My WIP, Billed, Collected report to view their data. This report will be visible to any users with the “My Revenue” permission enabled.

Improved Receivables

You may be familiar with our Receivables report, which allows users to see their clients’ account balances as well as their aging amounts. Now, if you click on any rows in this report, you’ll be taken to a second level which provides even more details for the selected client. In this new level, each overdue invoice is listed with the date the invoice was made and its due date, an aging column, the invoice number (with a link to open the invoice), an amount column with the full amount of the invoice, a balance column with the remainder of the invoice (these amounts differ if your client made a partial payment).

Quality of Life Changes

We’ve made various quality of life changes that we want everyone to be aware of.

  • More Initials. You can now have more than two initials on the clients to better differentiate between users who share the same first and last initial. As a reminder, initials can be set personally on the user’s My Info page, or be set for others by anyone with administrative access at the Users page.

  • Client Info tab. We received a lot of feedback from people who missed the dedicated Info tab that our old layout had, so we added one to our new layout. You can once again change and add notes to your clients without needing to edit your client information, and you can cleanly print the details for individual clients!

What’s next?

We have some exciting features being beta tested right now. Some firms are already trying out these features, but they’ll be available for all once we know they’re bug free. Contact our support team if you’re interested in trying any of these beta features.

QuickBooks Status Dots

Something our users have missed in our new and improved client and matter layout is a column on the Matters page that showed whether a matter was connected, had a broken connection, or hadn’t yet been connected to QuickBooks. Early next month, we’ll be bringing this feature back with an added filter so you can view just the Matters that need attention!

Public API

We’re developing a public API that allows the retrieval of bulk information from firms, such as client contact information, client and matter lists, and more. Developers can use this to securely integrate LeanLaw with other programs, like Sharepoint. The API is in closed beta; please contact LeanLaw if you're interested in exploring it.


Update history


As always, we’ve been hard at work to squash bugs and improve our product's style. Here are the patch notes for last month’s development.

August 31, 2021

  • Added a short code feature that allows users to replace a few characters of text with the snippets they've saved.

  • Renamed the "Text Snippet" setting to "Snippets and Short Codes" to reflect the new short codes feature.

  • Added tooltips next to all report links on the Reports page that summarize what each report does.

August 30, 2021

  • Added a second level to the receivables report, which shows users their clients' exactly which invoices haven't been paid and how long they're overdue.

  • Added new rows to the Compensation report to clarify taxes collected and collected amount including tax.

  • If a user's rates have changed since an invoice was created, all time entries in that invoice will now retain their original rate if the invoice is sent back to Ready to Bill.

  • Fixed an issue where the Matter ID custom field added the matter's name to the invoice as well as the matter ID.

  • If you change the amount of a fixed fee inside of a draft invoice, the amount will now be accurately reflected on the matter's Fixed Fees tab.

  • Fixed a bug where some error messages were being covered by the Save and Cancel buttons on the matter creation window.

  • Fixed a bug where increasing a time entry in drafts sometimes appeared as a negative write-down in the write-down columns of the productivity report.

  • Fixed a bug where WIP, Billed, Collected reports weren't printing with the correct date at the top of the page.

  • Refactored the Expense Templates page and the Practice Area pages in Settings.

August 24, 2021

  • Fixed an issue preventing new text snippets from being created.

August 22, 2021

  • Fixed a bug preventing users from updating the Display Name field on the client information page.

  • Removed the Allocate expenses setting, which changed whether expenses allocated to the users they're assigned for Compensation (Revenue by Attorney) and other reports. This setting is now always on.

  • Added a "My WIP, Billed, Collected" report. After removing Billed columns from the My Revenue report, attorneys without access to all firm reports had no way of seeing billed information. This new report gives attorneys more personalized reporting.

  • Fixed a bug preventing multiple email addresses from being added to a client's email information.

  • Fixed a bug that caused billed information to not appear in WIP, Billed, Collected by responsible.

  • Fixed a bug when clicking on a client in WIP, Billed, Collected by Client that showed all WIP, Billed, Collected for that client's attorneys, instead of focusing on their labor for that client.

  • It's now possible to set individual origination values within matters without needing to set a firm-wide origination value.

  • It's now possible to list more than 2 initials for your attorneys on the Clients and Matters pages. The initials on these pages are based on initials set in the Users page or the My Info page of firm settings.

  • Fixed a bug where users couldn't use the Invoice Builder button on the row of a client's name.

  • Added an Info tab to the Client page with the ability to print individual client contact information.

  • Changed Receivables reports to list columns for 1-30, 31-60, and 61-90, instead of < 30, > 30, and > 60.

  • Fixed an issue when viewing a matter's fixed fees where the Open Invoice function wouldn't work if the invoice hadn't been sent to QuickBooks yet.

August 20, 2021

  • The Duplicate Time Entry tool is now less strict. Users are now able to duplicate a time entry unless the user and the matter and the date match originating time entry.

August 10, 2021

  • Fixed an interaction that occurred when using “Save for later” in an invoice with multiple time entries combined on a line item.

August 3, 2021

  • Cleaned up the appearance of the "Please enter your standard rate" field for users new to LeanLaw.

  • Fixed a write-down error that blocked time entries in Drafts from being increased more than once.

  • Fixed an issue where the Productivity by User report, at the user level, would not export some columns.

  • Fixed an issue where a Show Billed filter would appear on the Collected by Responsible.

  • Removed Rate from the Add Credit window on draft invoices.

  • Refactored the Fixed Fee Templates page in Settings.

Looking for more? You can find last month's release notes here.

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