Create non-billable/internal matter

Legalsense offers the possibility to create a non-billable matter. A non-billable matter is mostly used internally to register time, like holidays and sick leave. These hours can be written in a general matter, but some offices opt to create a matter per user.

Creating the non-billable matter

The non-billable matter can be created via 'Clients'-'Matters' -'New matter'. After you have clicked 'New matter', several fields need to be filled in. Fields with a '*' are required and can't be kept blank. A non-billable matter is mostly created with a general client (often the firm itself). 

It is important to set the field 'Is billable' to 'No':

Different numbering 

To make a non-billable matter stand out from the regular (billable) matters, a certain reference can be used in the matter name and/or a specific (general) client can be selected. Some firms also prefer to use a different numbering for non-billable matters. To deviate from the configured numbering a user needs the permission 'override_matter_number'. If this permission is not active within your installation, please contact Legalsense Support.

With this permission, it's possible to provide different numbering in the field 'Number' by checking the 'Exclude from numbering' box:

Deviating from the regular numbering should only be used as an exception. An extra validation has been set under the field 'Number', which makes it possible to ignore the automatically configured numbering: 

After saving the matter, the next (normal/billable) matter will continue with the configured automatic numbering.

Creating non-billable matters with a CRM integration

If your Legalsense installation is integrated with a CRM system, you usually can't create matters directly in Legalsense. The permission 'add_matter' can allow you to still create non-billable matters in Legalsense. The matters you can create in this way are configured as non-billable automatically. For creating billable matters, the normal workflow in the CRM application needs to be used. Please refer to our knowledge base article about creating matters: Adding a new matter.