Unity's Invoice Validation Rules streamline the invoice review process and give customers full control over how to enforce their billing guidelines. By configuring and managing rules that address unique needs, customers can automate corrective action and/or flagging for invoices that violate billing guidelines. This can simplify invoice validation, save significant time for reviewers, and allow for cost savings. 

Rules can be set up to do any of the following depending on the specified criteria:

• Add task code
• Add expense code
• Add activity code
• Flag invoice
• Flag line item
• Adjust line item rate
• Adjust line item total
• Reject invoice

Examples of how customers can use rules include the following:

• Apply a one-time 10% discount when a law firm exceeds a specific threshold of annual spend.
• Set an expense code (if missing) based on a specific keyword in the line item description. 
• Adjust line item total for copy/fax/scanning charges that exceed a maximum amount.
• Reject invoices with line item rates that exceed a maximum amount for specific vendors.

To help customers address common scenarios, Unity includes multiple built-in rules that can be used as-is or customized to fit your invoicing needs. These rules can be viewed by switching to the Inactive tab under Invoice Validation Rules (unless they have already been activated by an admin from your organization). These rule names are prefixed with Standard: for easy reference.

Admins can take various actions from the Invoice Validation Rules page, such as:

1. Filtering the list of existing rules by various criteria, such as category and name.
2. Expanding active or inactive rules from the list to see a read-only view of the conditions/actions.
3. Downloading the list of rules for viewing, editing, or other updates.
4. Creating new rules from scratch.
5. Using the Actions column to open rules for editing or cloning existing rules instead of starting from scratch.

For detailed information on how to navigate the Invoice Validation Rules section, click here.

In addition to invoices being associated with specific matters, they can also be associated with a Practice Area, Legal Entity, and/or other relevant attributes in your environment. These attributes can be used to automatically assign reviewers via Invoice Review Rules. 

There are four built-in review rules that enable admins to assign reviewers based on their familiarity or involvement with one or more of the following attributes or components:

• Legal Entity: Reviewers added under a Legal Entity record would automatically be assigned to incoming invoices for any matters associated with that specific Legal Entity in Unity (i.e., if the Legal Entity is assigned under matter attributes).
• Practice Area: Reviewers added under a Practice Area record would automatically be assigned to incoming invoices for any matters associated with that specific Practice Area (i.e., if the Practice Area is assigned under matter attributes). 
• Vendor: Reviewers added to an individual vendor record will automatically be assigned to incoming invoices submitted by that vendor. 
• Matter: Reviewers added to an individual matter record will automatically be assigned to incoming invoices submitted against that matter. 

For details on how to assign reviewers from these record types (e.g., legal entity, vendor, etc.), click here.

Admins can do the following from the Invoice Review rules page:

1. Filter the list of existing rules by various criteria, such as rule actions and ladder priority.
2. Expanding active or inactive rules from the list to see a read-only view of the conditions/actions.
3. Downloading the list of rules for viewing, editing, or other updates.
4. Creating new rules from scratch.
5. Using the Actions column to edit, clone, or delete a review rule.

For detailed information about how to manage and apply Invoice Review Rules, click here.