What’s new in LeanLaw this month?
Step-down origination improvements
Step-down origination is a feature enabled in your firm's Reports Settings page. While enabled, you can set a firm-wide expiration duration for origination allocation. For example, if you set a step-down duration of 3 months, any payments collected within 3 months of a matter's Creation Date will allocate revenue to the matter's originating attorney(s). Then, any payment received after 3 months of the Creation Date will allocate $0 in origination.
Previously, this feature was limited to a firm-wide duration. This month, we've added the ability to customize the date, or disable it entirely, for individual matters. To use this feature, ensure that you have step-down enabled in your Reports Settings, and then open a matter's Info tab to customize step-down for that matter.
What's next?
Custom Fields in invoice memos
Custom Fields is an expansion of the QuickBooks feature by the same name. With this feature, rather than just being limited to 3 fields, you can create as many as you like by inserting them into your invoice memo.
Here's how it works: a field name can be in your Firm Settings, such as "Patent Number," with that field set to be either matter-specific or client-specific. Then, you can go into a client or matter's Info tab and attach a value to that field, such as "D000123." Then, whenever you create an invoice for that client or matter, the memo field will automatically include "Patent Number D000123." Any fields you leave blank will be considered not relevant to the invoice and left off entirely.
This feature is especially strong if you find yourself constantly applying the same information onto every invoice you send a client. Contact our team today if you'd like to try this beta feature!
Syncing distributions to QuickBooks as checks for attorneys
Our Distribution page has always been a useful tool for cutting checks, but we've taken it a step further with full redesign, including a "Sync to QuickBooks" button on the distribution page. When pressed, this button will automatically create either a check or a bill (determined by a setting in your Firm Settings) in QuickBooks for each user in your firm to the amount of their distribution. This payroll tool is available in beta now.
Public API
We’re always continuing to develop our 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. This feature is available upon request; please contact LeanLaw if you're interested in exploring our public API.
Update history
As always, we’ve also been hard at work to squash bugs and improve the user interface. Here are the patch notes for our development.
July 20, 2022
Added more step-down origination functionality. You can now customize step-down start dates and duration for each matter via the matter's Info tab.
Added the ability to download LEDES as .dat files. Currently, this must be enabled by contacting us.
Fixed an issue on the Expenses page where selecting a matter before a client would only select that matter's client, requiring the user to select the matter again.
Fixed an issue where users couldn't switch between 1, 2, and 3 year subscription plans of the same type.
July 19, 2022
Distribution v2 (Send to QuickBooks) is now ready for beta.
July 15, 2022
Fixed issue with multi-matter invoices not opening in some cases
Made the RE110 Real Estate LEDES code a Task code AND an Activity code per user request.
July 7, 2022
Finished the custom fields redesign, allowing users to create an unlimited number of custom fields, give values to those fields in the Info pages of clients and matters, and then automatically add custom fields to the memo field of all invoices for those clients and matters. This feature is currently in beta.
Created a settings page for customizing invoice delivery options within LeanLaw (currently in alpha). This currently includes a way to add logos, customize your email subject, body, and from address.
Added ascending and descending arrows to the new Expenses page so that users can once again easily tell in which direction they're sorting data.
Fixed an issue that caused the Deposit to Trust window to load without today's date preselected and removed the highlighting from today's date in the calendar.
Fixed a typo in the tutorial hyperlinks that caused users to navigate to a dead link if they clicked the guide on creating an invoice.
Fixed an issue where Expenses couldn't be searched by their amounts on the new Expenses page.
Fixed a rounding error that could cause payments to be off by one penny if users paid two or more invoices with one payment.
Fixed an issue on the Calendar page where write-downs would not be represented in the monthly totals. Now, any time that has been written down from a Billable hour will contribute to Non-billable time.
Fixed an issue where, when a user printed the new Expenses page, the column headers would appear slightly offset from their column values.
July 1, 2022
Fixed an issue which prevented use of the create draft button.
Looking for more changes? You can find last month's release notes here.