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File specifications

LEDES file formats

LEDES, pronounced Leeds, stands for Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard. It's a standardized invoice file format in the legal industry and was created for the electronic exchange of billing and other information between corporations and law firms.
You can post invoices in any of these formats.

Types of billing formats

  • LEDES 1998B: A pipe delimited format containing 24 fields. It's the most-widely used e-billing standard in the US legal industry.
  • LEDES 1998BI: Builds on from the 1998B version to allow for international billing. It includes 51 fields to allow more information such as timekeeper classifications, tax rate, and law firm and client addresses.
  • LEDES XML: Contains more than LEDES 1998B and is made more robust to accommodate the complexity of fee arrangements between corporations and law firms. 

Using UTBMS codes with LEDES invoices

The LEDES standard was designed to accept UTBMS codes if requested by a client. To determine whether your client requires UTBMS codes, click
Users
, then
Company profile
 in the left navigation.
Getting support for LEDES invoices
If you need help with generating UTBMS codes in your LEDES invoices, or correcting UTBMS code formatting errors, work with your time and billing software vendor. Tracker provides detailed LEDES error messages, which you can provide to your software vendor.

Submitting multiple invoices

You can post multiple LEDES invoices in one file. Tracker automatically posts each invoice to the appropriate matter, based on your firm's client and matter number in each of the invoices. Contact your time and billing software vendor for more information about how to generate multiple LEDES invoices in a single file.
You cannot submit a single invoice to multiple matters (for example, you cannot submit invoice 123 to matter X, matter Y and matter Z).

LEDES 1998B file specifications

File format documentation for LEDES 1998B can be downloaded in spreadsheet format from LEDES.org, along with a sample file.

Notes specific to Legal Tracker and the 1998B format

  • INVOICE_NUMBER - Multiple invoice numbers may be included in the same bulk invoice if SpeedPost is used.
  • CLIENT_ID - This is the client number for your time and billing system.
  • LAW_FIRM_MATTER_ID - This is the matter number for your time and billing system.
  • LINE_ITEM_TASK_CODE - Unless your client requires task codes for a trademark or patent matter, you can leave this field blank.
  • LINE_ITEM_EXPENSE_CODE - See list of UTBMS codes for this expense line item. The expense code for any expense or any invoice-level adjustment to expenses must be included in your invoice that you submit.
  • LAW_FIRM_ID - If your firm doesn't have a federal ID, enter None.

LEDES 1998BI file specifications

File format documentation for LEDES 1998BI can be downloaded in spreadsheet format from LEDES.org, along with a sample file.

Notes specific to Legal Tracker and the 1998BI format

  • If your client is enforcing EU VAT compliance rules or the matter has the Billed To Entity configured, then the following information is required.
    • CLIENT_NAME
    • CLIENT_ADDRESS_1
    • CLIENT_ADDRESS_2
    • CLIENT_CITY
    • CLIENT_STATE or REGION
    • CLIENT_POSTCODE
    • CLIENT_COUNTRY
  • LINE_ITEM_TAX_RATE - This field is optional, but if you select a tax type you must also select a tax rate.
  • LINE_ITEM_TAX_TOTAL - This field can be equal to 0.

LEDES XML file specifications

File format documentation for LEDES XML can be downloaded in spreadsheet format from LEDES.org, along with a sample file.

This article applies to:

  • Product: Legal Tracker
  • Subject: Billing, Invoices
  • Audiences: Firm