Detailed invoices let you record an outside counsel invoice line by line inside a matter, instead of capturing a single total. For every billed line you can state who did the work, how long it took, at what rate, and how the work should be classified. The result is precise cost attribution: you can finally answer "who worked on what, and at what cost".

⭐ What a detailed invoice is

A detailed invoice is a new invoice type in the Spend area of a matter. It is captured in a single window titled Submit detailed invoice – [matter name], organised into four sections you can move between freely:

• Invoice header — who sent the invoice, its number, its dates and a short description.
• Fees — billable work: date, timekeeper, hours, rate, an optional discount, and the classification codes of your choice.
• Expenses — out-of-pocket costs (disbursements), kept separate from fees, with their own expense code, unit quantity and unit cost.
• Extra information — additional details recorded alongside the invoice.

What are UTBMS codes? UTBMS (Uniform Task-Based Management System) is the industry-standard coding system used to classify legal work on invoices. A task code says which phase of the matter the work belongs to (for example L310 — Written Discovery), an activity code says what type of action was performed (for example A103 — Draft / Revise), and an expense code says what type of cost was incurred (for example E109 — Local Travel). These codes are purely descriptive labels: they never change an amount or a rate.

Important: a task code on an invoice line is a billing classification code. It is not the same thing as a Task in Matters, which is a to-do item on your matter. The two are unrelated.

✅ Before you start

• E-billing must be enabled for your organisation. Detailed invoices are controlled by an organisation-level (tenant) setting. It cannot be switched on for a single user or a single matter.
• If E-billing is off, nothing changes for you: creating a new spend opens the existing Summary Invoice form directly, and the Detailed Invoice option is not shown.
• If E-billing is on, creating a new spend first asks you to choose between Summary invoice and Detailed invoice.
• Keep the original invoice at hand. When you record a detailed invoice manually, rates, hours and amounts are typed in from the document you received. You can also let Lini prefill the invoice with AI autofill (see below).

✍ Step 1 — Open the invoice window and import the original file

1. Open the matter and go to its Spend list.
2. Start a new spend, then choose Detailed invoice.
3. The Import an invoice file (optional) dialog appears. It explains that the document is attached for reference and that "Your original file is always kept untouched". You can:
   • use Drag & drop or browse to attach the invoice you received, or
   • click Skip to record the invoice without attaching a document, or
   • click Cancel to close and come back later.
4. Once a file is imported, it is displayed in a preview pane on the left of the invoice window, with page navigation (for example Page 1 of 2), so you can read the original document while you type.

Prefer to let Lini do the typing? You can also create a detailed invoice with AI autofill. Provide your invoice document to Lini: Lini detects that it is a detailed invoice, extracts the line data and prefills this form, with the document displayed on the left. Timekeepers are matched against your timekeeper records, and the rate is the one written on the invoice. If a timekeeper is not found in your records, the invoice cannot be submitted. See Matters – Create a Summary Invoice with AI Autofill (Lini) for the full AI autofill flow.

⚖️ Step 2 — Complete the Invoice header

In the Invoice header section, complete the identification of the invoice. The window reminds you that required fields are marked with an asterisk.

• Vendor — select the firm or supplier that issued the invoice. The list shows the vendors associated with this matter.
• Invoice date — the accounting date of the invoice, in the DD-MM-YYYY format.
• Invoice number — the reference printed on the invoice (for example INV-2026-001), so it can be reconciled with the law firm's billing system.
• Invoice start date and Invoice end date — the period covered by this invoice. The start date must be earlier than or the same as the end date, otherwise an error is shown on the end date.
• Invoice description — a short description of the invoice, up to 255 characters. It is not transmitted to the vendor.

☝ Step 3 — Add your fee lines

Open the Fees section. Its heading shows how many lines you have already recorded, for example Fees (7 lines).

1. Click Add fee line. A new, immediately editable line is added at the bottom of the list.
2. Complete the line:
   • Date — the date the work was performed.
   • Timekeeper — the person who performed the work, shown as first name, last name and the firm's own reference, for example John Smith (JS). If no timekeeper is available, the list shows "No timekeepers available for this vendor".
   • Hours — positive numbers only, up to two decimal places.
   • Rate — positive numbers only, up to two decimal places. The rate is always typed in manually from the paper invoice and is never pre-filled when you pick a timekeeper.
   • Discount — a discount amount granted on this line, as stated on the invoice. Leave it empty if there is none; it then counts as zero.
   • Amount — calculated for you and read-only: Hours × Rate − Discount.
   • Task code — optional. Choose from the standard UTBMS task codes, displayed as code and description, for example L310 — Written Discovery.
   • Activity code — optional. Choose from the ten standard UTBMS activity codes (A101 to A110), displayed as code and description.
   • Description — free text, typically the narrative printed on the invoice.
3. Repeat for every billed line on the invoice.

According to the specification, all UTBMS codes are optional and are never enforced by the system: you decide which ones your team wants to track.

⏩ Step 4 — Add your expense lines

Open the Expenses section, whose heading also shows the number of lines recorded.

1. Click Add expense line to append a new line.
2. Complete the line:
   • Date — the date the expense was incurred.
   • Timekeeper — the person the expense relates to.
   • Unit and Unit cost — the quantity billed and the price per unit.
   • Discount — a discount granted by the vendor on this line.
   • Amount — calculated for you: quantity × unit cost − discount.
   • Expense code — optional. Choose from the UTBMS expense codes (E101 to E121), displayed as code and description, for example E109 — Local Travel. Expense codes are a separate list: they are not available on fee lines, and task or activity codes are not available on expense lines.
   • Description — free text, up to 255 characters.

Recording a flat fee: set the quantity to 1 and enter the flat price as the Unit cost. For example, court fees billed at 500 USD are entered as quantity 1 and unit cost 500 USD.

Removing a line. Click the bin icon on the line you want to remove. A confirmation message asks "Are you sure you want to delete this spend line?"; choose Yes to delete it, or No to keep it. The totals are recalculated straight away.

⌛ Totals, custom fields and saving

• Running totals. A footer stays visible at the bottom of the window while you scroll and shows Fees, Expenses, Discounts and the invoice Total. All four values are refreshed in real time as you add, edit or delete lines.
• Custom fields. Any custom spend fields configured by your administrator are available on the detailed invoice exactly as they are on the summary invoice, and behave the same way as everywhere else in the platform. A custom field made mandatory by your administrator must be completed before you can save.
• At least one line is required. If you try to save with no fee line and no expense line, saving is blocked and the message "Please add at least one invoice line before saving." is displayed.
• Save as draft. Click Save as draft to keep your work and come back to the invoice later, with the original file and the change history kept.
• Submit invoice. Click Submit invoice when the invoice is complete. A confirmation message tells you that "The invoice was successfully added to your spends.", the window closes and the invoice appears in the Spend list.
• Leaving before submitting. If you close the window with unsaved changes, the message "Leave without submitting?" warns you that your corrections are not saved yet. You can then choose Keep working, Save as draft, or Discard.
• Editing later. If you edit an invoice that is no longer in Draft, a message warns you that "Editing this invoice will reset its status to Draft." You confirm before continuing.

✨ Exporting and customising your spend view

Export. Detailed invoices are exported from the Spend table like summary invoices: one row per invoice, not one row per line. The export contains the spend number, matter name and matter number, invoice type, invoice number and invoice date, billing period start and end, currency, total fees, total expenses, total amount, status, and one column for each custom spend field. Individual line details, such as each timekeeper, task code or number of hours, are not included in the export.

New spend columns. New columns such as Timekeeper, Task code, Activity code and Expense code are available in the Spend table. They are empty for spend records created before this feature was introduced.

Edit columns. The Edit columns button in the Spend table lets you show, hide and reorder your columns, and is available whether or not E-billing is enabled. The Spend Number column always stays first and cannot be hidden or moved, and the action column is not part of column management.

Date format (administrators). An administrator can choose how dates are displayed for the whole organisation in General Settings > Data Customization > Date format management. The chosen format applies to every user, in lists, in form date fields including the invoice dates above, and in exports. This changes only the way dates are displayed, never the dates themselves, and exports generated before the change are not affected.

⭕ Tips and best practices

• Import the original invoice at the start: the preview pane then lets you copy the figures without switching windows, and the document stays attached to the spend record for audit purposes.
• Use task and activity codes consistently across matters and firms: the value of the codes comes from being able to compare spend by phase and by activity later on.
• Copy the narrative from the paper invoice into the Description field, so a reviewer can understand a line without opening the original document.
• Enter fee lines timekeeper by timekeeper to make cost attribution by resource easier to read.
• Check the running totals in the footer against the total printed on the invoice before you submit.
• Use Save as draft for long invoices: you can come back to them without losing the file or the changes already made.

❗ Limitations and things to know

• Detailed invoices are only available to organisations with E-billing enabled. Summary invoices are completely unchanged for everyone else.
• When you record an invoice manually, invoice lines are typed in by hand. Whether you enter lines manually or use AI autofill, the rate is never pre-filled from a reference list: it is the rate written on the invoice.
• Only the standard UTBMS code lists are available, and only their common codes.
• UTBMS codes are descriptive labels only: they never affect a rate, an amount or a total.
• The invoice description is internal: it is not transmitted to the vendor.
• The export is invoice-level only: line-level detail is not exported.
• Across the platform, "Legal Service Provider" is now called Vendor. This wording change applies to all clients, including those who do not use E-billing.

❓ Frequently asked questions

Do I have to fill in task and activity codes?
No. All UTBMS codes are optional on every type of line. The system never forces you to enter them, so you can record only the codes your team actually wants to track.

My invoice has no UTBMS codes at all. Can I still use a detailed invoice?
Yes. Leave the code fields empty and record the date, timekeeper, hours, rate and description. Many smaller firms do not use UTBMS coding.

Do I have to attach the original invoice file?
No. The import dialog is optional: click Skip to record the invoice without a document. If you do attach one, your original file is kept untouched.

Is a task code the same as a Task in Matters?
No. A task code is a billing classification code that describes the phase of legal work on an invoice line. A Task in Matters is a to-do item on your matter. They are two different things.

Why isn't the rate filled in automatically when I select a timekeeper?
Because the rate recorded must be the rate actually charged on the invoice you received. It is always typed in manually, so what you store matches the document.

How do I record an expense billed as a flat fee?
Set the quantity to 1 and enter the flat price as the unit cost.

I have to stop halfway through a long invoice. Will I lose my work?
No. Click Save as draft, or choose Save as draft in the "Leave without submitting?" message. The original file and the change history are kept.

Will my existing summary invoices change?
No. Summary invoices keep working exactly as before, and existing spend records are not modified.

Why can't I see the Detailed invoice option?
Detailed invoices depend on the E-billing setting, which is managed at organisation level. If you do not see the option, ask your administrator whether E-billing is enabled for your organisation.