Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTBMS) codes are a series of codes used to classify legal services performed by law firms using electronic invoice submissions. Firms using Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) billing can enable UTBMS codes for time and expense entries in Clio Manage.
Tip: To learn more about LEDES billing, including downloading LEDES bills, adding your firm's ID or tax ID to bills, adding LEDES client ID to contacts, and managing timekeeper classification codes, refer to LEDES Bills.
Enable LEDES billing and select UTBMS code sets
LEDES billing and UTBMS code sets are configured in the General tab of your billing settings. Enabling LEDES billing at the firm level makes it available to enable on individual contacts and their matters.
- Go to Settings > Billing > General.
- Check the Enable LEDES billing box.
- Under code sets, select the sets you want to use. You can choose from the following options:
- ABA Litigation
- ABA Bankruptcy
- ABA Counselling
- ABA Project
- LOC Patent
- LOC Trademark
- LOC eDiscovery
- EW Civil Litigation
- Click Save changes.
Disable LEDES billing
- Go to Settings > Billing > General.
- Uncheck the Enable LEDES billing box.
- Click Save changes.
Use UTBMS codes in time and expense entries
When a matter has LEDES billing enabled, activity code and task code fields are required when creating or editing billable time entries. Similarly, when creating or editing expense entries, the expense code field is required. If an entry is marked as non-billable, UTBMS codes are not required.
The code options that appear are determined by the code sets selected in your firm's billing settings.
Show or hide UTBMS codes on bills
If you are using UTBMS codes for activities, you can choose to show or hide the code descriptions on bills by editing your bill themes. When working with bill themes, you can completely customise which information is shown and how across different types of templates to ensure clients understand their bill clearly. To find this setting:
- Go to Settings > Billing > Bill Themes.
- Select the bill theme you want to edit.
- Select Matter > Line items.
- Check the box for Include activity descriptions in line item descriptions if you want bill recipients to see code descriptions on bills in this particular theme. Uncheck the box if you do not want your bill recipients to see the code descriptions on bills.