This article covers the handling of posted invoices, including approval, decline, voiding, and deletion. It assumes you understand the process of posting invoices. If you need a refresher, check the following article: Uploading invoices from your legal service providers

In this article:

Invoices can be a sensitive thing, so the person uploading the invoices will need to have the appropriate permissions. These permissions must be set by the Organization Administrator.

To upload invoices, your Organization Administrator must enable this specific permission for your profile:

Any user with a LawVu license, including Business Users and Contributors, is eligible to approve invoices. However, Business Users will only be able to view the invoice preview and will not have access to the matter itself.

Once an invoice is posted, the matter owner, delegate, or assigned approver can review and either approve or decline it directly in LawVu.

Go to Inbox → Actions → Invoices.
This view shows all invoices that are waiting for your approval.

Invoices are grouped into batches, which are collections of invoices submitted together by a legal service provider. A batch typically contains between 1 and 10 invoices.

Each batch displays a combined total, allowing you to quickly understand the overall value. This includes fees, disbursements, and tax.

You can take action on the entire batch at once:

You can do this from here:

Or by opening up the batch and using the buttons under the Total for payment panel:

Each row in the list represents a single invoice within the batch. From this view, you can quickly see key details, including:

You can approve or decline individual invoices directly from this list:

If you need a closer look, click on an invoice row to open the original invoice file.

After you approve or decline an invoice:

The invoice status, as well as the reason for declining, is sent to the person who uploaded the invoice, and to the Matter Manager and Organization Administrator on the law firm side in an email/in-app notification. The reason for declining will also be recorded as the last field in the invoice.

You can also mark the invoice as paid from the preview modal, and the option to download the invoice if needed.

If the invoice is from a LEDES file, the workflow is similar. The in-line editing modal will open, and you'll select Review to approve or decline the invoice.

A copy of the original uploaded LEDES file will also be available for download in the Original Invoice column found in the Invoices grid.

To learn how to mark an invoice as paid, click here.

When Legal Service Proveders submit LEDES invoices, they are converted into a PDF preview for easier review by invoice approvers.

To improve clarity and transparency, we’re now displaying UTBMS task and expense codes in the PDF preview. These standardized codes help categorize legal work and expenses, making it easier for approvers to quickly understand and verify the billed items during invoice review.

See the screenshot below for an example of how the codes now appear in the PDF preview.

Once the last invoice in a batch has been uploaded, the preview window will close, and a grid view will display a breakdown of the invoices in the batch.

Go to Invoice batches > select the appropriate batch and click the Delete icon.

You can also delete individual invoices once you open them in preview:

Once a batch has been posted, invoices cannot be deleted anymore, but they can be voided from the Spend grid. This can be done before or after the invoice is approved.

Click on Spend > Invoices. Having selected the appropriate invoice from a legal service provider, click the Void button.

A pop-up box will appear requiring confirmation:

If you are working on a large invoice batch, you can make use of the date range option from the grid and filter the invoices weekly, monthly, yearly, or a specific date range. With the desired invoices highlighted, click Void.

Voiding posted invoices will leave a record in the batch view, highlighted in red with a strike-through.

Note: Approved invoices can only be voided within a matter by the assigned matter owner or their delegate. If you are not the delegated owner, you may receive the message: "Error: cannot void invoice." Alternatively, users with "Manage invoices" permission can void approved invoices from the Spend > Invoices section.

To filter voided invoices, you can add the "Void status" column in the Spend > Invoices grid:

To check whether invoices are approved, rejected, or pending, follow these steps:

2. Look for the 'Approval Status' column.

Once visible, you can use filters on the 'Approval Status' column to view invoices by status, for example: Approved, Declined, or Pending.

Here is an animation to exemplify this process: