There are many different types of e-billing software available to law firms, and these different programs export invoices in a variety of formats. To ensure interoperability, the ABA, ACCA, and a large group of law firms got together in the late 1990s and wrote a specification for a common electronic invoice format: LEDES 1998B. LEDES-formatted invoices (using UTBMS L-, A-, and E-codes for individual line items) can be read and generated by many different billing programs.

MerusCase's billing module has full support for logging time and expenses with UTBMS codes and exporting invoices with UTBMS line items to LEDES-spec invoices. These LEDES invoices are delivered as plain .txt files and are readable by any billing software which is compatible with LEDES. 

In addition to UTBMS information for specific line items, MerusCase also supports client/carrier-specific matter and client codes: many billing programs used by carriers assign their own codes for particular cases and particular billing parties, and this information may be recorded in the corresponding MerusCase cases and parties. After this information is entered, it'll automatically be included in the appropriate fields on a LEDES invoice exported from that case.

These client/carrier-specific codes are considered optional in the LEDES specification ("include if available"), but many carriers require these codes for their own billing departments' use. If the carriers don't tell their law firms about these required fields, however, problems can arise when the law firm logs in to the carrier's billing software to upload an invoice that's missing this information.

We received just such a call from one of our defense firms earlier this week, with the complaint being that their invoices were getting rejected over and over. The carrier hadn't made any support literature available to the accounting department at this law firm, so the accountant trying to upload these invoices was, basically, "flying blind." I advised the client that MerusCase Support probably wouldn't have any information about the operation of another company's software, but the accountant had already tried calling technical support for the carrier's billing software, to no avail.

As a courtesy, and with the accountant's permission, I logged in to their carrier's billing software to see if I could figure out why the invoice was being rejected. This software had no online self-help, but after a few minutes of digging, I was able to find their invoices section and view details on submitted invoices. I called their support armed with this new information, and when given the specific invoice error message, they were able to tell me what information was missing from the uploaded LEDES invoice (client and matter codes) and where to find this information in their system.

I called the accountant back, showing them where in their carrier's software to find error messages, where to find client and matter codes in the carrier's software, the rows and columns in the LEDES invoice where these codes were missing, and where in MerusCase to enter these codes for inclusion in future invoices. I stayed on the line with the accountant while they entered this new information, exported a fresh LEDES invoice, and uploaded it to their carrier's billing software. After a few tense moments, they confirmed the invoice's successful submission, and we both breathed a sigh of relief.