Welcome to our first release notes of 2025, where we present our new features and improvements for EBilling.Space.
We are pleased to introduce our new, valuable features with this release. Here’s a list of the highlights:
· A new simplified hourly rates approval workflow
· Data clean-up with automatic archiving of line items that will not be invoiced
· Clearer visualisation of credit and reimbursement notes considered with negative amounts
We hope you like the changes to our new version as much as we do.
- Your eBilling.Space team
Did you know? Smart Invoice Converter provides law firms with a simple, quick LEDES conversion of PDF and EU e-invoices and other formats.
Do you need more information? Contact your Customer Success Manager!
Hourly rates approval workflow
Please note: This new feature is optional. There are settings necessary to activate this new workflow. If you are interested, please contact your Customer Success manager.
The new hourly rates approval workflow provides a straightforward concept for uploading timekeepers and approving their rates. EB.S allows users to assign timekeepers (TKs) with approved rates for the current or future validation periods to Matters.
Currently, across EB.S, there are several touchpoints where you can add an hourly rate for a TK, e.g., in the Matter settings by TK classification, on the law firm settings page, and others. With the activation of this new workflow, it’s not possible to add further TK hourly rates anymore. Invoices uploaded with a rate other than the approved one will be automatically rejected or flagged, depending on your workflow settings.
Finally, only invoices and time entries based on the approved rates and time periods can be uploaded or created as valid.
In short:
· Activate the hourly rates approval workflow
- Establish an hourly rates approval workflow as the single source of truth, so only approved rates are valid and centrally managed
- Timekeepers must have an approved hourly rate and allocated duration; otherwise, they cannot record time or upload invoices
- As a result, rate and time period are part of the guideline check when it comes to invoice/time entries creation or upload, so invalid rates and time periods are rejected automatically
- Improvement of visualization of messaging and workflow steps
- Only future invoices and line items are managed with this new approach
If you are not currently using this hourly rate approval workflow, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager to learn more about the benefits of this valuable functionality!
Law Firm Side
TK upload on Law firm side
Please inform your Law Firm about these changes!
Please note: If this new approval workflow is active, it will no longer be possible to add an hourly rate manually for a TK. Exception: Matter-based special rates are still possible.
Timekeepers can be uploaded quickly and easily using the existing Excel file upload feature. However, the TK data must contain the TK ID, hourly rate, and validation period; otherwise, the upload will be rejected.
Additionally, a validation check is performed against the TK and its corresponding hourly rate and validation period. In the event of overlaps, the upload will be rejected if there are discrepancies in the hourly rates.
Changes in Matter settings
On the Matter settings page, assigned staff members are now displayed with their valid hourly rate.
Client Side
Changes on hourly rates approval page
This page displays all lawyers, including their hourly rates and applicable time periods. You can filter by ‘submitted’ records, so only the new records will be shown. Additionally, the info popup view displays details about the uploaded user and confirms the approval of each record.
Changes in Matter settings
In the "Lawyers" section, the record will now show:
- TK ID
- Approved hourly rate
- Validation period
If a lawyer has an approved hourly rate, they:
- can be added to a Matter
- will be shown as active.
If the hourly rate of a certain lawyer expires, the lawyer will remain in the Matter but will be automatically blocked, preventing further time from being recorded for them. The block will not be removed until the Law Firm uploads a new hourly rate for the current period and the Client approves.
Exception: law firm users set as Billing Managers are an exception, as they can be added to a Matter even when they do not have a valid hourly rate.
In the 'Special Matter settings’ section, matter-related exceptional hourly rates for certain TKs can be added.
Lawyer settings page
The lawyer settings are extended by TK ID and hourly rate. There are three statuses for the hourly rate fields:
- Rate in green: valid rate
- Rate in red: rate is expired
- No rate: a rate has never been uploaded
The "i" icon next to the rate displays the hourly rate history and corresponding time periods.
Hidden hourly rates sections
The following sections are hidden, so no other hourly rates can be defined for a TK:
- Law Firm settings:
- Section Framework agreement
- Section Standard hourly rates per lawyer
- Matters pages and Matter creation for
- Section Law Firms: per lawyer (LF and Matter hourly rate)
- Section Billing information: "Blended rate," "fixed fee" and "contingency fee"
Automatic archiving of non-invoiced line items
Line items that are not set to be invoiced can now be archived. EB.S provides an automatic feature to set line items to archive automatically after a specified duration.
Automatic archive setting
On the Client side, open the Settings section in the left menu bar and then open the Company details. Go to the new Company-wide settings section.
In Archiving non-invoiced line items, you can select the duration after which the line items should be automatically set to archived. This is based on the last modified date of the line item record
Archive on Client side: Time entries and expenses pages
Open the Time entries section in ‘Financials’ of the left menu bar. The right filter panel now allows you to display all line item records with the Archived status.
Please note: In the background, a weekly archiving job will automatically set the line items to archive. When line items are successfully archived, the Law Firm will receive an email directing them to the archived line items in EB.S. The Law Firm can choose to bulk delete all archived line items.
Credit and reimbursement notes are shown as negative
In accounting, invoices show a positive amount coming into EB.S, while credit and reimbursement notes show a negative amount of money going out. This way, you have a positive and a negative transaction that will cancel each other out. We have decided to display credit and reimbursement notes as negative amounts in EB.S as well.
Additionally, the total amounts in the status section of the Matter details page now consider credit and reimbursement notes.
Tab "Invoices" in project
Tab "Details" in project – status
Report wizard: New filter "Jurisdiction"
The report wizard provides a new filter: Jurisdiction. Next to the countries, you can select a region for your report. Example: The EU region comprises countries such as Germany, France, and Poland. As a result, the report contains all Matters from France, Germany, or Poland.
Please note: Regions can be created in the "Settings" section of the left menu bar.
Flagging of hourly rates lower than approved
When a lawyer uploads time entries or invoices with an hourly rate that exceeds the approved hourly rate or uploads time entries or invoices with an hourly rate that is lower than the approved hourly rate, then EB.S flags and visualizes this properly.
Example:
Additionally, this information is also presented in related reports.
Change for filter "invoice with line items" on invoice page
On the invoice page, the right filter panel displays the Only invoices with line items filter. This filter is connected to the Invoice No. filter, meaning that only invoices filtered by invoice number could be additionally filtered by Only invoices with line items.
This connection is now removed, so that all invoices of the invoice list table can now be filtered by ‘only invoices with line items’.
