This article covers the following:
The panels and the links they contain appear based on the permissions assigned to your user type and your company's configuration. You may not see all of the options listed here.
- Matters Panel
- Legal Requests Panel
- Legal Holds Panel
- Fees & Discounts Panel
- Financials Panel
- Billing Panel
Matters Panel
The Matters panel displays quick links to common matter search filters based on your roles and system configuration. Click a link to open the Matters Search page with that filter applied.
The links available in your panel may look different depending on your assigned roles and organization's configuration.
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| My Matters | Matters that you have bookmarked as favorites. For example, if you are not the Matter Contact for a matter but are helping collaborate on it, you may want to bookmark the matter for quick access. |
| Assigned to Me | Matters where you are the Matter Contact. |
| Pending Resolution | Matters where you are removing a law firm from a matter. Until that process is complete, the matter will be listed as pending. |
| Incomplete Setup | Matters that are created but not yet activated. |
| Unassigned | Matters that have been created but do not have a law firm assigned. They also may be matters that were created to track an internal issue. |
| Awaiting Acceptance |
Matters that have yet to be accepted by the assigned law firm. Most organizations are not configured to require acceptance from law firms. |
| Budget Review Required | Matters that are awaiting a budget review. This link is only available if the Budget feature is configured for your organization. |
| Work Intake | Work intake for which you or a user group to which you belong are the Intake Owner. |
If you have the appropriate roles and feature configuration, the Matters Panel also contains quick links to create a matter, create a journal entry, or create an intake.
The +Create Matter button will not appear for organizations that do not manually create matters.
Legal Requests Panel
The Legal Requests panel allows you to access legal requests and related workflow tasks. You can also create a new legal request using the Create Legal Request button at the bottom of the panel.
Using Legal Requests Panel Links
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Draft | Legal requests that you have created that are not submitted into a workflow. |
| In Progress | Legal requests that you currently have. |
| Assigned to Me | Legal request workflow tasks assigned to you. |
| Unassigned | Legal request workflow tasks assigned to a group that you belong to that are available to be picked up. |
| Overdue | Legal request workflow tasks assigned to you that are past their assigned due date. |
Legal Holds Panel
The Legal Holds panel lists pending and active legal holds and provides quick access to legal hold records. You can also create a new legal hold by clicking the Create Legal Hold button at the bottom of the panel.
Using Legal Holds Panel Links
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Pending | Pending legal holds. A legal hold is pending until the first notification is sent. |
| Active | Legal holds currently in effect. |
Fees & Discounts Panel
The Fees & Discounts panel shows fee offers needing review or approval and provides access to Volume Discounts. Click the +Create Volume Discount button to create a new one.
Volume Discounts must be configured for your organization in order to see it here. You must have the Volume Discount Admin role in order to create and manage Volume Discounts.
Fees & Discounts Panel Links
The links in the Fees & Discounts panel will take you to the search page with that specific filter.
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Review Required |
The list of fee offers that are ready to be reviewed and approved. This list is divided into several, individual entries: |
| Volume Discounts |
Click the Review Required circle to view Volume Discounts that have been submitted. Click the +Create Volume Discount button to create a new Volume Discount. This feature must be configured for your organization in order to see it here. You must have the Volume Discount Admin role in order to create and manage Volume Discounts. |
Financials Panel
The Financials panel displays Budget, Multi-Matter Budget, and Reserves information (if configured). The numbers next to each link reflect the items that appear on that particular search item.
You can also click +Create Multi-Matter Budget to create a new one.
The Multi-Matter Budget option is only available for Advanced and Premier clients. You need the Advanced Budget Administrator role to create budgets.
Using Budget Links in the Financials Panel
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Pending Multi-Matter Budgets | Budgets that are still in a Pending state because they need to have Matters and Budget amounts added. |
| Active/Approved Budgets | Active or approved budgets that have Budget amounts added for Matters which you have access to. |
| Assigned to Me | Budgets where the user is the budget contact. |
| Budget Review Required | Budgets where a review is required. |
| My Budgets | Budgets that the user has starred as My Budget where the law firm has submitted the amounts but they need to be reviewed. |
Billing Panel
The Billing panel provides information related to invoices and accruals.
- Invoices are created by law firms after accepting a matter. CounselLink performs the guideline review of the invoices, then someone from your organization performs a manual review. The number of invoices is displayed along with their status.
- Accruals represent estimated amounts for expenses incurred but not yet invoiced by law firms or vendors. The accrual process is managed in one place within CounselLink. This feature simplifies the entry of accrual data for the law firms.
The quick information related to Accruals is displayed in the Billing panel only if:
- Your organization has it configured.
- You have the Financial Administrator role.
Legal Analytics Dashboard
The Legal Analytics contains key metrics on expenditures and savings for the offices that they're currently a member. It is accessible by clicking the link at the top of the Billing panel. By default, it displays information and data for a specific year, but you can drill down to a specific month or up to another year as necessary.
Invoice and Accrual Searches
You can perform Accrual and Invoice searches by clicking the Search link located at the top of the Billing panel. This takes you to the Invoice Search screen where additional actions may be performed.
Billing Panel Links
| Click this Link | To View |
|---|---|
| Review Required | A list of invoices assigned or available to you for review. The invoices in this list are in a workflow. You can see which workflow step the invoice is in by displaying the “Invoice Status column. The “Invoice Owner” column will display your name if it is assigned directly to you. If the column has no name, the invoice is likely assigned to a group of users. You can review it by taking the workflow action “Accept Review” to become the invoice owner. |
| Pending | A list of invoices that have been created but are currently pending (have not been activated) or incomplete (do not contain any charges). |
| Pending Law Firm Review | A list of invoices that have been returned to the law firm for their input during collaborative review. Collaborative review is an optional part of the workflow process. It gives the law firms the ability to Accept or Appeal adjusted charges directly through CounselLink. If the invoice does not contain adjustments, there is no need to send for collaborative review. Once the invoice has been sent to the law firm, the firm may not return the invoice until they have accepted or appealed all adjusted charges on the invoice. The client reviewer can then accept or decline the appealed adjustments. |
| Rejected | A list of invoices that have been rejected. |
| Open Law Firm Office Accruals | Accruals that are currently in an open status. Once an accrual cycle has been reviewed, is complete, has been exported, and sent to finance, it can be closed and removed from this list. |
| Action Required | Accruals submitted by a law firm and ready for your review. |