Release 22.03 - March 2022

The March 2022 Legalsense update has version number 22.03 and includes the following changes:

Clients, matters, and contacts

• Matters are only displayed on the contact detail page if you are allowed to see those matters.
• When exporting clients to Excel, the 'Description' and 'Client status' fields are added.
• When exporting matters to Excel, the 'Matter status', 'Chinese wall kind', and 'Parent client' fields are added. The 'Chinese wall kind' field will only be exported if at least one matter (from the matter list that is being exported) has this field set.
• 'Tags' are added as a column in the client, matter, and contact Excel exports. Multiple tags are separated by a comma.
• Time entries and disbursements on an archived matter can no longer be edited. To edit them, the matter must first be unarchived.
• The suffix title, e.g. "Msc.", is supported by the address template.
• It is possible to archive submatters, similar to the option we already have with products.
• To the matter list 'Advanced search' a filter 'Has WIP' is added. Searching on this field will return only matters with work in progress.

AML

• The UBO contact field is split into separate fields for 'first name', 'last name', and 'last name prefix'.
• When 'AML required' is set to 'Yes', a comment field has been made available on the AML matter page.
• All the columns in the 'AML overview list', have been made sortable.
• An additional search field 'UBO country' has been added under 'Advanced search' to filter on AML matters on the country of the UBO contact.

Invoices

• A field for 'Client' is added to the 'advanced search' of the invoice list. This field allows you to search on invoices related to the client.
• The filter 'AML High risk' is available in the 'advanced search of the debtor overview. This search field is only available if the AML module of your environment is enabled. Depending on your choice, this search filter will show all invoices of matters for which an 'AML high risk' has been indicated. 
• A new field 'invoice accounting period' is available on an invoice. This field can be used when sending the period for sales invoices to accounting software like Twinfield, Exact Online, Exact Financials, or Fortnox.
• The fields 'Applicable VAT', 'VAT number', and 'Debtor Country' are added to the Excel export of the invoice list.
• A field for 'Parent client' is added to the 'advanced search' of the invoice list. This returns all invoices that belong to clients linked to the parent client.
• When a credit invoice is created, the individual lines of the credit invoice can be shown instead of a single line with the total amount. However, this only applies to the first page of the invoice and not to the details and specification. If you would like to enable this option, please contact Legalsense support.
• New invoices can be created based on a client. Invoices will be created for all matters of that client (that have billable items).

Billing workflow

• The name of the responsible user is added behind the described task/step in the dialogs of the billing workflow.
• The threshold safety limits that are used in the billing workflow to trigger the extra approval step of a practice group head or specific manager user, can be based on a percentage value in addition to the existing amount field. When both fields have a value, then the trigger is activated when both conditions are met. For example, a threshold amount of 2.500 and a percentage of 10% would mean the extra step is triggered when the fee amount is lowered by 2.500 and that that amount constitutes 10% of the total fees.
• A field for 'billing assistant' is added to a user. When creating or editing a user, you can indicate who is the billing assistant (e.g. a secretary that does the billing for a fee earner) of a user. The billing assistant can be configured in the billing workflow for one of the 'approve by responsible user' steps. The billing assistant can relate to either the matter supervisor or the billing supervisor of a matter. Please contact Legalsense support if you want to configure the billing assistant as one of the steps in the workflow.
• In the workflow, it is possible to set up a check by a third responsible user. The responsible user can be the matter supervisor, the billing supervisor, the account manager, or the billing assistant. When you would like to (re)configure your billing workflow settings, please contact Legalsense support.

Reports

• If one or more client or matter statuses are configured in your Legalsense environment, those fields can be used for filtering and grouping in reports.
• 'Expected billable hours' can be configured as a column in performance reports.

User permissions

• Users with the permission 'view_matter' have access to 'Billing groups'. This does not require the permission 'manage_matter' anymore. The ability to edit the 'Billing groups' still requires the 'manage_matter' permission.
• A new permission has been added called 'view_matter_financials'. This is automatically added to all groups that have the permission 'view_client_financials'. The new permission 'view_matter_financials' serves as a replacement for the 'view_client_financials' permission. The 'view_client_financials' permission is only used on the client detail page to determine whether someone is allowed to see the financial info there.

Other

• When editing price templates for users or functions, the setting that determines whether the rows for users or functions are hidden by default is applied.
• An extra field "Invoice scope" is added when closing a period. When this field is active, the closed period also applies to invoices. Draft invoices with a date that falls in the closed period, can no longer be finalized.
• Email addresses for matching Single Sign-on users are no longer case sensitive.
• A new email notification is available that allows a matter or billing supervisor to be notified when a new transaction for a matter has been received on a trust account.
• Trust accounting transaction amounts can be entered with 8 digits instead of 5 digits before the decimal point.

API

• APIv2 supports a 'PUT' on the Payment endpoint in addition to a 'POST'.
• The Chinese wall kind of matters is available in the Matter endpoint (create/read-only) in APIv1 and APIv2. If the Chinese wall kind is not present in the request when creating a matter through APIv1 the Chinese wall kind of its practice group is used.

New update process

Currently, there is a new release of Legalsense about six times a year. This is going to change!

At Legalsense we take "Time is precious" seriously, and therefore we want to follow up on your wishes and request more quickly so that our software meets your needs as much as possible. Starting in April, we plan to release a new version every two weeks. This means that you will be up to date with the new functionality that Legalsense has to offer more often and faster. We will provide more information on what these changes mean in terms of communicating with you in the near future.