CounselLink Answer Center for Clients

Billing Guidelines

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This article covers the following:

Billing Guidelines Administration

Billing Guidelines let you create documentation outlining your billing practices and publish it so law firms can review and acknowledge before submitting invoices. Once published, Billing Guidelines can be updated to set acceptance requirements and monitor acceptance status.

To manage Billing Guidelines, your organization must have the feature enabled, and the user must have the Corporate Admin or Invoice Admin role.

Click this link to take a free online course on creating and managing billing guidelines in CounselLink.

Your organization sends notification letters to law firms about guideline acceptance. After adding firms to the acceptance tracking list, they view the Billing Guidelines and complete acceptance if required. If the deadline passes without acceptance, law firms can be prevented from accepting new matters or submitting invoices.

The Billing Administration page is the central interface for managing Billing Guidelines.

Settings Area

This section displays your guideline settings, including the acceptance period. Click the pencil icon to edit settings.

Billing Guidelines Tab

This tab allows you to:

  • Create new guidelines
  • View, edit, publish, or delete current guidelines
  • See guideline details such as creation date, acceptance level, and current status

Law Firms Tab

This tab lists all law firms associated with Billing Guidelines and shows start/due dates, acceptance status, and when guidelines were accepted.

Accessing Billing Guidelines

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There are three places to find your billing guidelines:

  • All Pages link: This link is available to all users from the top toolbar. Depending on your permissions, this link will open the editor or viewer.

  • Administration Panel: This link is available on the Administration panel on the homepage. Visible only to Corporate Admins and opens the full Administration page.

  • Corporate Profile link: Visible only to Corporate Admins and opens the full Administration page.

Editing Billing Guidelines Administration Settings

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You must have the Corporate Admin or Invoice Admin role to change settings.

  1. Access your Billing Guidelines.
  2. Click the Edit Settings (pencil) icon in the Settings section.
  3.  Adjust the following as needed:
    • Acceptance Period. Choose the length of time that outside counsel has to accept the guidelines. During this period, a request message will appear on the law firm's invoice, matter, and fee offer overview pages.
    • Prevent Matter Acceptance. Select one of the following options:
      • Yes: Law firms that miss the deadline cannot accept new matters. You can still assign the matter, and the law firm user can still see it, but the user cannot accept.
      • No: Matter acceptance remains unchanged.
    • Prevent Invoice Submission. Select one of the following options:
      • Yes: Law firms that miss the deadline cannot upload or enter invoices manually.
      • No: Invoice submission remains unchanged.
  4. Click Save.

Creating Billing Guidelines

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You must have the Corporate Administrator role to create Billing Guidelines.

Click the +Create Guideline button on the Billing Guidelines tab of the Billing Guidelines/Administration page. The Create New Guideline window displays.

Then, perform one of the following:

Upload an Existing File

  1. Select a file from your directory. The Upload an Existing File window displays.

  2. Select Required or Optional.
  3. Choose to Publish to All Law Firms:
    • Yes: Guidelines will be sent to all law firms when published.
    • No: Use the Select Law Firms button to choose specific law firms.
  4. Click Publish to send the guidelines, or Save as Draft to publish later.

Create New File

  1. Click +Create New File. The New Guideline window displays.

  2. Enter a title.
  3. In the Content area, enter content as appropriate. This will comprise your Billing Guidelines details.
  4. Select Required or Optional.
  5. Choose to Publish to All Law Firms:
    • Yes: Guidelines will be sent to all law firms when published.
    • No: Use the Select Law Firms button to choose specific law firms.
  6. Click Publish to send the guidelines, or Save as Draft to publish later.

Deleting Billing Guidelines

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Deleting Multiple Guidelines

  1. In the Billing Guidelines tab, check the box next to the guidelines to delete. 
  2. Click the Delete Guidelines button.
  3. Click Yes, Delete to confirm the deletion.

Deleting a Single Guideline

  1. In the Billing Guidelines area tab, click the trash can icon. The Delete Billing Guidelines Confirmation window displays.

  2. Click Yes, Delete.

Publishing Drafts of Billing Guidelines

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Publishing makes the guidelines available to law firms for viewing and acceptance. Editing and re-publishing previously published guidelines triggers a new acceptance request for attached law firms.

Publishing one draft

  1. Click the check mark next to the guidelines.

    The 'Are you sure you want to publish these Billing Guidelines?' window displays.

  2. Click Yes, Publish. The guidelines are published.

Publishing multiple drafts

  1. Check the boxes of the guidelines in a Draft state that you want to publish. 
  2. Click the Publish Guidelines button. The 'Are you sure you want to publish these Billing Guidelines?' window displays.
  3. Click Yes, Publish.

Editing Billing Guidelines

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You can edit both published guidelines and drafts. Editing and re-publishing previously published guidelines triggers a new acceptance request for attached law firms.

  1. Locate the guideline in the Billing Guidelines tab on the Billing Guidelines/Administration page.

    To edit the contents of billing guidelines created from external files, you'll need to edit the original file and upload it again.

  1. Edit the guidelines by one of two ways:
    • Click the guideline's Edit (pencil) icon at the far right of the row.

    • Click the name of the billing guidelines from the Document name column.

      The Edit Guidelines page displays.

  2. Edit the content as needed. 
  3. Perform one of the following actions:
    • Click Publish, and based on the selection under Publish to All Law Firms, the guideline(s) will or will not be sent to law firms.
    • Click Save as Draft to publish the guideline at a later time.

The guidelines are saved and sent to the law firms associated with them.

Assigning or Unassigning Law Firms to Billing Guidelines

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The Assign and Unassign Law Firms buttons only become available if the guideline you have selected has the setting Publish to All Law Firms selected as No.

  1. Check the box next to the guideline(s).
  2. Select Assign Law Firms or Unassign Law Firms.
    • Assign Law Firms

      • The Law Firm Search page displays.

      • Use the search features to find the law firm(s) you wish to add.
      • Check the box(es) next to the law firm(s) you wish to add.
      • Click Publish to Selected Law Firms. The selected law firms will receive the Billing Guidelines.
    • Unassign Law Firms

      • The Unassign Law Firms window displays.

      • Check the box(es) next to the law firm(s) you wish to unassign.

      • Click Unassign Selected Law Firms.

        The selected law firms are removed from the Billing Guidelines.

Adding or Removing Law Firms to Your Billing Guidelines

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Although law firms are automatically added to the list on the Law Firms tab, you can remove them if needed. You can also add them back if they have been deleted.

Firms that were removed from the Law Firm list can no longer receive Billing Guidelines.

Removing a Law Firm from the Law Firms tab

  1. Navigate to the Law Firms tab on the Billing Guidelines/Administration page.
  2. Check the box(es) next to the firm(s).

  3. Click the Remove Firms button. The Remove Law Firm from Billing Guidelines window displays.

  4. Click Yes, Remove.

The firm(s) are removed from viewing or receiving Billing Guidelines.

Adding a Law Firm from the Law Firms tab

  1. Navigate to the Law Firms tab on the Billing Guidelines/Administration page.
  2. Click the +Add Firm button. The Add Law Firm window displays.
  3. In the Filter Results area, enter terms to search for as needed.
  4. Check the box(es) for the law firms you wish to add under the Law Firm Name column.
  5. Click the Add Law Firms button.

The selected law firm(s) have been added. Any Billing Guidelines that have Publish to All Law Firms set to Yes will be applied.

Editing an Acceptance Period

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Editing an acceptance date automatically updates its corresponding acceptance period. You can also reset a law firm's acceptance status if you wish for them to re-accept their assigned guidelines.

  1. Click the Law Firms tab from the Billing Guidelines / Administration page.
  2. Check the box(es) of the law firm(s) for the Acceptance Period to be edited.

  3. Click Edit Acceptance Period. The Edit Acceptance Period window displays.

  4. Select the new Due Date by entering a date or clicking the calendar icon.
  5. Click Save.

The acceptance period has been changed for the selected law firms.

Resetting a Law Firm's Acceptance

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  1. Click the Law Firms tab from the Billing Guidelines / Administration page.
  2. You can reset one or multiple law firm's acceptance:
    • To reset one law firm's acceptance:

      • Click the reset icon in the far-right column. The Reset Acceptance window displays.

    • Click Yes, Reset. The acceptance status for the selected law firm has been reset.
    • To reset multiple law firms' acceptance:
      • Check the box(es) of the law firm(s) for which you wish to reset acceptance status.
      • Click Reset Acceptance. The Reset Acceptance window displays
      • Click Yes, Reset. The acceptance status for the selected law firms has been reset.

Viewing a Law Firm's Acceptance History

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You can view a law firm's acceptance of Billing Guidelines over time by clicking on their history.

  1. Click the Law Firms tab on the Billing Guidelines/Administration page.

  2. Click the History (book) icon for the law firm whose history is to be viewed.

    The Billing Guidelines Acceptance Log window displays. Click the name of a guideline to view its details.

  3. Click Close to exit.

Exporting an Acceptance Report

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  1. Click the Law Firms tab on the Billing Guidelines/Administration page.

  2. Click the Acceptance Report button. The Acceptance Report window displays.

  3. Optional: Group the results by the different columns before exporting the data.

    • Hover your cursor over the column you wish to group by.

    • Drag the column into the area above the columns. The icon will show as a plus sign when it is ready to be dropped.

    • The data updates to reflect the grouping choice. You can drag additional columns to change the data grouping as well.

  4. Click Export to Excel.

The report is downloaded to your downloads folder.