Non-billable/internal matters

Legalsense lets you create non-billable matters, mainly for internal time registration such as holidays and sick leave. You can maintain a single general matter for this, or set up an individual matter per user.

Creating the non-billable matter

Go to Matters → Matters → New matter to create a non-billable matter. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required and can't be left blank. Non-billable matters typically use a general client, often the firm itself.

The critical step is setting the Is billable field to No.

New matter form with the Is billable field set to No.

Numbering

To distinguish non-billable matters from regular billable ones, you can include a reference in the matter name or select a specific general client. Some firms prefer to use an alternative numbering system for non-billable matters.

Deviating from the configured numbering requires the override_matter_number permission. Contact Legalsense Support if this permission isn't available in your installation.

With that permission, select Exclude from numbering in the Number field to specify your own number:

New matter form with the Exclude from numbering checkbox selected in the Number field.

An additional validation field lets you confirm that you want to bypass the automatically configured numbering:

Number field showing the extra validation step for overriding the automatic matter number.

After you save the matter, the next standard matter you create resumes the configured automatic numbering.

Creating non-billable matters with CRM integration

If your Legalsense installation is integrated with a CRM system, you typically can't create matters directly in Legalsense. However, if you have the add_matter permission, you can still create non-billable matters directly in Legalsense. Legalsense automatically configures them as non-billable. Creating billable matters still requires the standard CRM workflow. See the article ↪ Matter management for more information.