Invoice rules are the basic building blocks of Spend Management. An invoice (or billing) represents the fees or expenses billed by outside counsel. It is scanned for compliance with invoice rules that can be set up specifically for individual accounts or matters. As an outcome of this compliance check, the line items within the invoice are flagged with an appropriate reason as configured within these rules.
Create an Invoice Rule
To begin creating an invoice rule (if the invoice rules tab is not already on your navigation bar), go to the AppLauncher and search for invoice rules. Once the tab is visible, select the New button. A New Invoice Rule global action can also be created as a shortcut.
- Create an Invoice Rule Name to make it easy to recognize when searching.
- Provide a Description that will be helpful when the rule is displayed in a list.
- Enabling Active will make the rule available when applying to invoices for assigned matters.
- Choose the Budget the invoice rule will select when applying any budget-specific rule entries.
An Invoice Rule detail view has the following base blocks:
Invoice Rule Entries
Rule entries can be added or removed from the invoice rule entries list on the page (highlighted in green below). We can also manually create new rule entries, import and export rule entries, or set criteria and actions for individual rule entries from within this list.
How do I create a new invoice rule entry?
Use the New button (outlined in red above) from the Invoice Rule Entries list. Each of these rules can be configured with options that apply to various use cases for invoice compliance validation.
How do I set up and manage the invoice rule entries?
- Use the up-down arrows to order an invoice rule entry. (Invoice rule entries are executed on an invoice in the order it is set here)
- Toggle the radio button to make an invoice rule entry active or inactive.
- Click on the ā icon to reach the Rule Builder, where you can set up your criteria and actions for any invoice rule entry.
- Click the š icon to delete an invoice rule entry.
How do I edit the criteria with the rule builder?
The criteria within an invoice rule entry can be customized using the Rule Builder. The Rule Entry Criteria is comprised of the following building blocks:
The Existing Values symbolize the values that already exist within your organization, such as your account (vendor) details, matter details, budget and rates, and timekeepers.
- Select the Object against which we are comparing the provided section. Supported existing objects are - account, matter, rate, budget, budget detail, invoice, and invoice line item.
- Select the Field from the selected object to which the provided value will be compared.
The options available within the Operator drop-down are automatically controlled based on the field's data type selected from the existing values. The following is a list of operators available when the field data type is:
- Text - Allow selection of Equal, Contains, Does Not Contain, and Not Equal operators
- Date, Datetime, Numeric, or Currency - Allow the selection of Equal, Greater Than, Greater Than or Equal, Less Than, Less Than or Equal, and Not Equal operators
- Checkbox - Allow selection of Equal and Not Equal operators
The Provided Values symbolize the values the user or your outside counsel provides. For example, when the outside counsel uploads the invoice, your Provided Values are your invoice and invoice line items. The Provided Values section includes the following options:
- Enable Aggregate to allow aggregation of values. For more details, follow this link.
- Select an Evaluator to allow comparison with a specific Value or a value from a Field from the Provided Object.
Use the Advanced Rule Logic to apply the advanced custom logic to the list of rule entry criteria. For example, if there are four rule entry criteria within the rule entry, then we can provide an advanced custom logic value such as:
- 1 AND 2 AND 3 AND 4
- (1 AND 2) OR (3 AND 4)
- (1 AND 2 AND 3) OR 4)
The aggregate function is not available when the rule criteria use an existing object as a rate. Aggregate-based rule criteria are not numbered and thus cannot be part of the Advanced Rule Logic.
How do I manage the actions for the invoice rule entry?
The Actions within an Invoice Rule Entry comprises of following building blocks:
- Select a State that is applied when the Rule Entry Criteria are met. Possible values include Reject, Flag, or Pass.
- Provide a Reason that will be saved along with the state when the Rule Entry Criteria are met.
- Select the Object and the Field to be updated with a specific Value or a value from a Field from an Existing Object record.
- We can update any field on the Invoice or the Invoice Line Item record with a specific value or from any existing object record such as Account, Matter, Rate, Budget, Budget Detail, Invoice, or Invoice Line Item.
- For example, an Invoice Line Item's Rate or Cost can be adjusted to a threshold valid for your organization or vendor.
When an Invoice or Invoice Line Item is updated using the Fields to Update section, AdvoLogix adds an Invoice Adjustments related list record for the related Invoice or Invoice Line Item. The invoice is marked with auto-adjusted as checked so that it can be easily identified when it has been auto-updated due to an applied rule action.
Invoice Rule Guidelines
Each invoice rule automatically adds a default set of invoice rule guidelines. We can make each guideline active or inactive based on how we want to validate an invoice for compliance.
Before making an invoice rule guideline Active, select an expected state of either Flag or Reject and provide a Reason that would be applied when any of the guidelines is satisfied in the compliance check. AdvoLogix provides the following set of invoice rule guidelines for each invoice rule:
Block billing will be triggered if more than one UTBMS Code is provided for any invoice line item, i.e., if the invoice line item has a combination of activity code, task code, or expense code fields provided.
A timekeeper's daily hourly quota will be triggered if the aggregate number of hours exceeds the value provided in the guideline from the line items within the invoice.
This will enforce the requirement that each line item should include a description longer than the provided value.
Enable this to disallow duplicate line items based on timekeeper, date, quantity, unit price, and description of the line item.
Enable this to reject or flag any line items where the timekeeper does not have a matter rate.
For the invoices being uploaded, all the applicable fields (As per the standard LEDES specification of the format selected) must be supplied in the exact requirements as per the standard. When a variation is found within the uploaded invoice, the invoice will be rejected and will not be saved.
Enforcing LEDES Requirements is only applicable when uploading new invoices.
How do I relate the invoice rule entry to a matter?
Assigning invoice rules to matters can be managed from the Matter Invoice Rules related list. Use the New button from the Matter Invoice Rules related list.
- Provide a Matter and/or a Vendor for which this invoice applies to all invoices when uploaded.
- Enabling Active will allow the rule to be applied when new invoices are uploaded.
Clone an Invoice Rule
When Cloning an invoice rule, we will copy and clone all the existing invoice rule entries, along with the rule entry criteria list and the rule entry actions list.
An Invoice Rule can be set up while viewing the details of the rule.
Details, such as setting up custom criteria, custom actions to be taken when the criteria are matched, or assigning the Invoice Rule to matters, can be carried out when we're in the detail view of the rule.