Settings

In the 'Settings'  tab it is possible to adjust several settings of Legalsense ( if you have the specific access rights ). The settings are divided into sections. We will describe the sections below:

Firm settings

In the firm settings you can enter or adjust the settings regarding the office: 

Some fields we highlight briefly:

Default rounding unit time entries: The default time unit for billable time entries is standard set at 6 minutes. If you would like to change this, you can adjust the value that is entered here or enter a 0 for no rounding. 

Standard office expenses rate: Specifies what percentage you want to use for office expenses. Leave empty if this is not applicable to your office. It is also possible to vary per matter.

Total time target: You can enter the total yearly amount of working hours that a lawyer needs to write. 

Total billable time: You can enter the yearly billable amount of time that a lawyer

Invoice amount change threshold: This is the threshold to which al lawyer is allowed to alter an invoice. Is the alteration of the invoice higher than the set threshold, then the supervising user will need to approve this.

VAT number:  You enter the VAT number of your office here. This number is used in LEDES files. 

Section Twinfield

Twinfield is a Dutch leading online bookkeeping provider. For offices outside Holland, this section is most of the time not applicable so we will not discuss this further.

Section Billing

In this section you can set the options regarding the Billing process:

Invoice texts: In the invoice texts you define the header text and the footer text for the invoice:

You can enter multiple Headers and Footers by clicking on ' New '. By placing a checkbox in the D, C, A or S column, you can set where the Header or Footer should be used.

D = Default (normal invoice)

C= Credit invoice

A= Advance Invoice

S= Settlement

R = Legal Aid (dutch)

CC = client contribution in Dutch legal aid matters

Also, it's possible to use a header and footer in 2 languages (this can be setup by Legalsense)

Emails

You can find the settings here to set up invoicing by email. You can find more information on this subject here XXX

Email templates

If you have setup ' Invoicing by email ' you can set up the accompanying text here. 

Dunning

In dunning, you can set up the dunning templates which can be used in ' Debtor management'. You can find more information on this subject here

Section Finalized periods

It is possible in Legalsense to finalize the periods. When you do this, it is not possible to record time in that period anymore. You can add some exemptions to closed periods (not possible for permanently closed periods). 

Section Lists

This is the most comprehensive section of settings:

Address kinds: you can define different address types here, like Main address, mailing address or visiting address. These addres types can then be used in ' Contacts '.

Disbursement types: This list contains all the available disbursement types. You can edit them to your liking or create new ones by clicking on ' New Disbursement Type'. It is important to look at the marking at ' One-on-one VAT': If you make a wrong choice the VAT calculation on the invoice is not correct.

Matter types: In the matter types you define the which kind of matters there are in Legalsense. The default is general. Matter types can be useful for reporting purposes, like " What kind of matter type are we doing a lot ."

Branches/Sectors/Practice Areas: All these options are for reporting purposes. These are not mandatory to set up, but if you want to have a good view of the performance of your office, these options will help you with it.

Contact types: In the contact types, you can define the contact types that are available when you add or edit contacts. These contact types could be counterparty, lawyer counterparty, etc.

Contact detail types: The contact detail types are ' telephone ', ' email ' etc. Legalsense offers some default contact detail types when your environment is setup but you can edit them or create new ones.

Referrers: If you get a lot of your clients or matters via different parties (like auditing firms) you can set this firms as a referrer. Referrers will then be available in reports so you can see how many of your clients are coming from that referrer.

Mailing options: You can define the mailing options here. A mailing option can be by mail, by email, etc.

Price templates: By default Legalsense offers standard price templates like hourly rate, fixed fee, etc. In the Price template, you can setup new (alternative) templates.

Functions: Here you can create functions within Legalsense. It is also possible to specify a rate for these functions and it is possible to do this for a certain period. This period can also be in the future which can be useful if you already want to enter the pricing for next year.