Release 26.09 (September)

Thomas van Gemert
  • Updated
Follow

Verbal time entry and time for other timekeepers in the mobile app

Verbal time entry reaches the Legalsense mobile app for iOS and Android. Dictate a time entry on your phone between appointments and it arrives as a draft for review, the same way it does on the web. The app also carries the Other timekeepers field, a long-standing request from firms whose fee earners sit in the same meeting: one entry covers you and the colleagues you select. Update the app from the App Store or Google Play to pick this up. Verbal time entry runs on an AI provider your firm configures, and can be enabled by your administrator or by Legalsense support. See also Mobile apps and Using verbal time entry.

Two screens from the Legalsense mobile app, side by side. On the left, the Verbal time entry screen with a large microphone button, a recording timer, Submit and Reset buttons, and a tip to mention the matter name or number. On the right, the New time entry screen with fields for date, time, billable time, matter, activity and description, and the Other timekeepers section expanded to show a Choose timekeepers field.
Dictating a time entry in the app, and the Other timekeepers field on the time entry form.

Matters, clients, and contacts

Supervisors can be set in bulk, with the Change supervisor action on the matter list. Select the matters to reassign, pick a name in New matter supervisor or New billing supervisor, and apply the change to the whole selection at once; Clear matter supervisor and Clear billing supervisor empty either field instead. When a supervisor leaves the firm or a portfolio changes hands, the reassignment stays inside the matter list.

The matter list with several matters selected and the Change supervisor dialog open over it. The dialog holds a New matter supervisor field with a Clear matter supervisor checkbox below it, a New billing supervisor field with a Clear billing supervisor checkbox, and a Change supervisor button. An arrow points at the supervisor icon in the bulk actions bar above the list.
Select the matters, then open Change supervisor from the bulk actions above the list.

A missing contact can be created on the spot. When you add a contact to a matter and the person or organization is not in Legalsense yet, use the New contact dropdown in the Add contact dialog: choose Organization or Natural person, fill in the contact, and save. You return to the matter with a confirmation, ready to add the contact as a party.

The Add contact dialog on a matter, with fields for contact, kind, their reference and address. At the bottom left the New contact dropdown is open, showing the options Organization and Natural person.
The New contact dropdown in the Add contact dialog, offering Organization and Natural person.

Matters and clients can be filtered on billable status, with the Is billable filter under More filters on the matter list and the client list. Use it to pull up all non-billable work at once, for instance to review pro bono matters before month-end close. See also Matter search and Client search.

Invoices

The invoice template can be chosen per debtor, where a debtor's UBL e-invoice carries a PDF copy of the invoice. Set it on the debtor under Debtor information: PDF template for embedded invoice picks the layout, and UBL output content decides whether a copy is included at all. Each field has a Use system default checkbox that names the firm-wide value, so debtors you leave alone keep following the setting under Settings → General → System → UBL, and a change applies to invoices sent from that point on. Debtors differ in what they need to see, and this keeps the decision with the debtor rather than the firm. See also Invoices in UBL.

The UBL output content and PDF template for embedded invoice fields on a debtor. Each field has a Use system default checkbox naming the firm-wide value, above a dropdown. Here the output content is set to UBL XML with embedded PDF and the template to First page only.
Setting the embedded invoice template for one debtor. Clear the Use system default checkbox to choose a value.

The invoice edit page has an updated layout, in the styling of the rest of the application, and the difference you feel is in the controls. The action bar stays in view at the bottom of the page while you scroll, so a correction near the top of a long invoice is saved from where you are. When you open several invoices from the invoice list, Previous and Next in that bar move you through the selection, and the save actions read Save as draft and next and Save as final and next until the last invoice: you edit, save, and move on without going back to the list each time. The same layout covers the pages reached from the invoice, including editing time entries and disbursements, moving them to another matter or product, write-off options, settling advances and trust accounts, manual fee specification, and adding a matter.

The invoice edit page in its updated styling, showing the invoice details card with tags, address, number, dates, language and invoice template, and the header text editor below it. The action bar at the bottom of the page holds Next on the left and Save as draft and next and Save as final and next on the right.
The action bar stays in view at the bottom of the invoice edit page, with the batch navigation on the left and the save actions on the right.

Other changes

Users are easier to tell apart at a glance, because a user without a profile picture is shown as their initials in a colored circle, wherever avatars appear. Everyone can pick their own color on their own user page, and admin users can set it for someone else. At firms where users may not upload a picture, an admin picks the color too.

A list of users in Legalsense. Each row shows a circular avatar beside the name and role. Most are initials on a colored background, in dark blue, olive, purple, magenta, dark red, navy and teal, and one user has an uploaded photo.
Initials in distinct colors make a list of people easier to scan.
The top of a user's page, with the breadcrumb Home, Users, Jan 't Hart, General. The user's initials avatar sits beside their name and role, with an edit icon over the avatar and a tooltip reading Change profile image.
Select the avatar on your own user page to upload a picture or pick a background color.

Improvements and reliability

Alongside the changes above, release 26.09 includes more than 50 fixes and reliability improvements across time entry, invoicing, matters, and integrations. A few you may notice:

  • On a phone or a narrow window, the timesheet search results scroll sideways, so you can read every column.
  • The timekeeper and supervisor fields on the timesheet search page search as you type, which loads faster at firms with hundreds of users.
  • Invoice pages are held up less often while draft amounts are recalculated in the background.
  • A debtor number you type yourself is kept when you save an organization contact.
  • Choosing a different contact on a matter or debtor form updates the contact person list to match it.
  • The matter list filter for blocked billables also finds matters blocked through their matter status.
  • Improved NetDocuments sync reliability when a repository listing comes back incomplete.

The changes in the API can be viewed here: API changelog release 26.09 (September).

For more information about Legalsense features, visit our knowledge base.

Related articles

Comments

0 comments

Article is closed for comments.