Invoices in LEDES format

Legalsense can optionally export invoices to the LEDES 1998B format, a widely used format for exchanging invoices electronically so a client can read them in detail into their own accounting system.

About the standard

LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard) is a standard in name only. In our experience, many clients interpret it differently, partly because of shortcomings in the original standard that later versions corrected or improved. Legalsense currently supports only the 1998B version, since later versions are still used far less, but Legalsense is flexible about setting up different variants of that standard.

Download an invoice in LEDES format

When your firm activates the LEDES function, each invoice gets an Export option where you can download it in different variants of the LEDES 1998B format. Contact Legalsense Support to request activation for your environment. By default, Legalsense provides one variant based on the standard used by Tymetrix, an e-billing platform provider. You can download a TXT version and an Excel version; LEDES itself is a TXT (text) format, but Legalsense also provides an Excel version to make the content easier to read. You can edit the Excel version if needed and export it back to a text file, using a pipe (|) as the separator.

Invoice Export menu, showing the LEDES 1998B download options in TXT and Excel format.

The options in the Export menu are named after their LEDES variant, such as Tymetrix TXT.

Codes

LEDES uses specific codes to record exactly what was done, for time entries, or billed, for disbursements. These codes are based on the ⧉ UTBMS (Uniform Task Based Management System). In Legalsense, you enter the correct codes per activity (type) and per expense type. For example, you can give the activity Study documents the LEDES task code C100 and the LEDES activity code A102 (Research). Legalsense doesn't enter these codes by default, so you must add them yourself.

Timekeeper classification

Besides the codes for activities and disbursements, the LEDES format also requires an abbreviation for each timekeeper's function. In Legalsense, you specify these abbreviations on functions, under Settings → Lists → Functions. Common abbreviations are PT for Partner and AS for Associate, though modern versions of the standard use longer codes again, for example ASSOC.

The edit function form showing the abbreviation for a specific function.

Note: This classification field will only be visible if the export to LEDES has been enabled for your environment.

Office expenses and VAT

LEDES is originally an American standard. In the United States, office expenses (a percentage surcharge on the fee) and VAT aren't common components of a legal services invoice, so LEDES 1998B doesn't support them well. Later LEDES standards support these components better. Legalsense lets you include office expenses as an Expense line, but VAT can't be included, so you can't export an invoice with VAT completely to LEDES. Fortunately, LEDES is mainly used by foreign organizations, where VAT typically doesn't apply.