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At Onit, we recognize that effective event management is a critical part of successful matter management, and more broadly for  the efficiency of your entire legal department. Our innovative solution seamlessly integrates event tracking and management into our comprehensive matter management platform, to ensure you stay on top of key dates and deadlines related to your matters.

Here’s what you can expect with event management:

• Centralized platform: A single place to see important events and dates in an easy list or calendar view for streamlined visibility with notifications to avoid missed deadlines.
• Seamless integrations: Our one-way integrations with popular calendars like Outlook, Google, and Apple enable you to track events from your preferred platform. Our CalendarRules integration provides real-time-insight into comprehensive legal calendaring events, ensuring accuracy and compliance with court rules and procedures.

Additionally, here are some common uses for the event management feature that your legal department can leverage:

1. Court Appearances: Schedule and track court dates, hearings, and other legal proceedings to ensure timely attendance and preparation.
2. Depositions: Coordinate dates and times for depositions, including arranging for court reporters and notifying all parties involved.
3. Mediation Sessions: Schedule mediation sessions and track their progress to facilitate dispute resolution.
4. Internal Team Meetings: Schedule meetings for case reviews, strategy discussions, and other internal coordination efforts.
5. Case Management Conferences: Schedule and manage case management conferences with the court to discuss case progress and timelines.
6. Trial Dates: Organize and track trial dates, including pre-trial conferences and jury selection, to ensure effective case management.

Check out our event management resources to the right 👉 for more information!

How to get started:

Event management is only available for Unity matter management customers:

• Event settings: For administration accounts, you can access Event settings under the tab Administration > Events to begin integration with CalendarRules and manage event types.
• Access Events: Add, edit, and view events within each of your specific matters under Matters > All Matters > [specific matter name] > Events (located on the top bar next to Tasks) to get a detailed list and calendar view of all events related to your matter.

Welcome to Unity’s Invoice Validation Rules Examples and Instructions! You’ll find important information regarding the process, setup, and possible configuration of Unity’s Invoice Validation Rules.

Introduction

Billing guidelines can be complex. Unity’s Invoice Validation Rules Examples and Instructions can provide an overview of the common configuration and rules. Whether you want to implement basic rules or explore advanced strategies to enhance your existing processes, we’ve provided a list of ideas that you can easily build upon.

Please note: Invoice Validation Rules are unique to each environment. The provided examples and configurations may need to be adjusted to adhere to your needs and/or billing guidelines.

What are Invoice Validation Rules?

Invoice Validation Rules provide the ability to take action on incoming vendor invoices based on set fields within your environment. In laymen’s terms, they are comprised of an if/then scenario, meaning, if a set of conditions are met then an action will occur. Your team will be able to select the set of conditions and the subsequent action using our Invoice Validation Rules. 

For example, if the practice area on an invoice is Litigation and the invoice is over $10,000, then we will flag an invoice for review.

Training Options

Prior to building your rules, Unity recommends the following training modules to better understand how to use and maintain your rules

• Introduction to Rule Management
• Introduction to Invoice Validation Rules

Invoice Validation Rules Basics

Basic maintenance of your rules to begin drafting and building your Invoice Validation Rules

Create a Rule

1. To get started, click Add Rule in the top-right corner of the rules list page. 

2. Title your rule. Enter information for the following fields:

1. Name (required): Up to 150 characters allowed (including spaces)
2. Category (required): Select an option from the dropdown list
3. Description (optional): Useful for providing more context or instructions for other admins

3. Add a Condition. Conditions are statements that set which criteria must be met for the action to trigger. A rule can have one or multiple conditions depending on how broad or narrow the criteria. For example, a simple rule can have a condition that looks for and flags line items with specific expense codes. A more complex rule, on the other hand, can have multiple conditions to look for and adjust line items with specific expense codes that exceed a threshold. 

4. Add an Action. Click + Add Actions from the right side of the Rule Editor.

Select the action type (e.g., Flag Invoice, Add Activity Code, etc.). For more detailed information on supported actions, including how they are applied when a rule is triggered, review Rule Actions. Complete the additional required/optional fields for the action, such as entering a default comment. 

5. Save rule. Click Save Rule in the bottom-right corner. By default, this will store the rule as inactive, which is recommended for all new rules.

Clone an Existing Rule

Making a copy of an existing invoice validation rule is useful if:

• You want to create a new rule by customizing an existing rule instead of starting from scratch.
• You need to redo and replace a rule without impacting or deactivating the current version.
• You want to save an existing rule as an inactive draft so it can be used as a template.

There are two ways to clone a rule:

Option 1: Click on the … (more) option from the rules list page and select Clone.

Option 2: Open the rule and select Clone from the … (more) menu in the top-right corner. 

This will take you to the cloned rule, which is automatically set to inactive. The Name field populates “(Clone)” followed by the original rule’s name. Make sure to customize the name and other fields. 

The remaining fields (i.e., Name, Description, and Category) and the conditions and actions are copied over from the original rule as-is.  Modify and/or add conditions and actions and then click Save rule in the bottom-right corner.

Edit an Existing Rule

Click on a rule name from the list page to open the Rule Editor. 

Alternatively, you can click on the … (more) option at the end of the row and select Edit.
From the Rule Editor, you can update the name, description, category, conditions, and/or actions. Click Save Rule in the bottom-right corner when finished.

Rule Actions
An overview of rule actions and their outcomes

Common IVR Rules

Please note: Invoice Validation Rules are unique to each environment. The provided examples and configurations may need to be adjusted to adhere to your needs and/or billing guidelines.

Keywords and Phrases
Search for a specific keyword or phrase within an invoice

Scenario: Flag line items for keywords related to copies.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add conditions for Line Item – Description – Contains input necessary keyword.
2. Using the “OR” parameter, add additional keywords Line Item Descriptions for keywords (e.g. copy, copies, scan, duplicate). 

—

Scenario: Flag invoice description for keywords related to resubmission.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add conditions for Invoice Subject – Contains input necessary keyword.
2. Using the “OR” parameter, add additional keywords to review Invoice Description for keywords (e.g. resubmission, resubmit, resend). 

—

Scenario: Adjust a line item to “0” for copy expense codes.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Line Item Expense Code – Is one of and input applicable codes.
2. Next, select the Adjust Line Item Total and set the threshold to the applicable value “0.”
3. Populate the Vendor and Internal Comments with the message for both Unity users and CounselGO contacts.

Fees and Expenses
Validate for or against line item type

Scenario: Flag litigation line items that are missing expense line item type.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Practice Area – Is to validate against the matter’s practice area.
2. Next, using the “AND” parameter, add condition for Line Item Type – Is not equal to for the applicable type “E.”

—

Scenario: Flag expense line items where the expense code is blank.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Line Item Type – Is for the applicable type “E.”
2. Next, using the “AND” parameter, add condition for Line Item Expense Code – Is empty.

Positive and Negative Amounts
Search for positive and/or negative amounts

Scenario: Flag line items that contain keywords for “copy” and are more than “0.”
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add conditions for Line Item – Description – Contains input necessary keyword.
2. Using the “OR” parameter, add additional keywords Line Item Descriptions for keywords (e.g. copy, copies, scan, duplicate).
3. Next, select “Add additional condition” of “AND” and add condition of Line Item Total – Is great than for the applicable value of “0.”

—

Scenario: Flag negative line items for a specific matter.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Matter id – Is to validate against a matter.
2. Next, using the “AND” parameter, add condition for Line Item Total – Is less than for the applicable value of “0.”

Scenario: Flag negative line items for a specific matter.
Configuration:

Spend Limits
Validate a spend amount against Unity values

Scenario: Flag a total spend limit for a matter.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Spend – Is greater than and input your spend amount.
2. Next, using the Add additional subparameters, add conditions for Matter.

—

Scenario: Flag an annual spend limit for a matter and vendor combination.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Annual Spend – Is greater than and input your spend amount.
2. Next, using the Add additional subparameters, add conditions for Matter and Vendor.

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Scenario: Flag a total spend limit for an activity code for a matter and vendor combination.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Spend – Is greater than and input your spend amount.
2. Next, using the Add additional subparameters, add conditions for Matter, Vendor, and Activity Code.

—

Scenario: Flag a total spend limit for a designated start and end date for a matter and vendor combination.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Spend – Is greater than and input your spend amount.
2. Next, using the Add additional subparameters, add conditions for Matter, Vendor, Start Date, and End Date.

Expense, Task, and/or Activity Codes
Search for or validate against expense, task, and/or activity codes

Scenario: Flag an expense code for a specific vendor.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition Line Item Expense Code – Is and input your expense code.
2. Next, using the “AND” parameter, add condition for Vendor id – Is for the applicable vendor.

—

Scenario: Flag multiple expense codes.
Configuration: After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Line Item Expense Code – Is one of and input applicable codes (e.g. E107, E108, X112, X113).

—

Scenario: Flag for a specific code set.
Configuration: After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Line Item Activity Code – Contains and input either the first letter of the code set (e.g. “L” or “A”) or the letter and number combination (e.g. “L3” or “B2”).

—

Scenario: Flag expense line items where the expense code is blank.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Line Item Type – Is for the applicable type “E.”
2. Next, using the “AND” parameter, add condition for Line Item Expense Code – Is empty.

Validating Against Custom Attributes
Search for or validate against your Unity custom attributes

Scenario: Validate an invoice against a vendor Yes/No custom attribute.
Configuration: After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Vendor – [Custom Attribute] and input applicable value (e.g. Yes/No, list value). Note: Any custom attribute type may be used (e.g. Yes/No, text, list, currency)

—

Scenario: Validate an invoice against a selected vendor currency.

Configuration Step 1: Create a vendor currency custom attribute.

1. Create a custom attribute labeled “Vendor Currency” or similar.
2. Set the custom attribute as a “list” attribute and not allocatable
3. Load any applicable currencies for your vendors in their 3-letter currency code (e.g. USD, CAD)

Configuration Step 2: Assign vendor currencies to vendors. Locate the vendors’ profile and assign the currency using the newly created custom attribute. Note: Unity’s bulk functionality can also be utilized. 

Configuration Step 3: 

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Vendor – [Vendor Currency Custom Attribute – Is and input your first currency. Note: The currency must be the 3-letter currency code and match your custom attribute list value.
2. Next, using the Add additional subparameters, add conditions for Invoice Currency – Is not equal to, and the 3-letter code from the step above.

Configuration Step 4: Clone your rule from Step 3 and update the values to the next currency value until all currencies are covered.

—

Scenario: Flag an invoice associated with multiple custom attribute list values.
Configuration: After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Matter – [Customer Attribute] id – Is one of of and input applicable custom attribute values (e.g. Product A, Product B). Note: Any custom attribute type may be used (e.g. Yes/No, text, list, currency)

Flat Vendor Discounts
Validate against a set (1) vendor discount

Scenario: Validate a vendor discount.
Configuration:

1. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Vendor id – Is and select your vendor.
2. Next, using the “AND” parameter, add condition for Invoice Discount total – Is less than and input your vendor discount.

—

Scenario: Validate a vendor discount against a custom attribute. Note: This is typically reserved for Unity environment’s with a large volume of vendors with flat discounts. 10+ vendors with discounts is the threshold we typically encounter but is variable based on how your team decides to manage your discounts.
Configuration Step 1: Create a custom list attribute for the vendor discount rate (e.g. Vendor Flat Discount Rate) scoped to Vendors and create a list value for each discount rate to be applied to all vendors.

Configuration Step 2: Assign a discount rate to applicable vendors. 
Note: Unity bulk functionality can also be utilized.

Configuration Step 3:

1. For each custom setting list value, create an IVR rule. After creating and labeling your rule, add condition for Vendor [Custom Attribute Name] id – Is and select the first list value.
2. Next, using the “AND” parameter, add condition for Invoice Discount total – Is less than and input the rate associated with the selected list value discount.

Configuration Step 4: Clone your rule from Step 3

Configuration Step 5: Update the following rule values to the new discount rule.

• Name
• Description (if applicable)
• Vendor [Custom Attribute Name] id
• Invoice Discount total
• Action Comment

Tiered Vendor Discounts
Validate against a set of (2+) discounts for a vendor

Scenario: Vendor ABC has three tiers of discounts with the following structure

• Tier 1: 5% up to $10,000 annual spend
• Tier 2: 10% up to $50,000 annual spend
• Tier 3: 15% up to $100,000 annual spend

Configuration Step 1: Build your tier 1 threshold rule. Note: Multiple vendors can be assigned to tier rules if they share the same tier thresholds and rates.

1. Create a rule for Tier 1, populate rule Name, Category, and Description. Recommended to name the rule with the Vendor Name and Tier 1 Discount and use the Discount category.
2. Next, add a condition for Annual Spend – Is less than or equal to the tier 1 threshold (10000 USD)
3. Then, using the Add additional subparameter select the vendor (Vendor ABC).
4. Finally, using the “AND” parameter, add a condition for Invoice Discount total – Is less than and input the tier 1 discount rate (5%). It is recommended to input the tier and rate in the action comment.

Configuration Step 2: Clone your rule from Step 1.

Configuration Step 3: Update the following rule values to the new discount rule tier and rates.

1. Name: Update to Tier 2 values (e.g. Vendor ABC Tier 2 Discount)
2. Description (if applicable)
3. Action Comment: Update to Tier 2 comment (e.g. Vendor ABC Tier 2 Discount of 10% is not met.)

Configuration Step 4: Build your tier 2 threshold rule.

1. Create your lower tier and higher tier thresholds. Update condition Annual Spend – Is less than or equal to and input your tier 2 threshold (50000 USD).
2. Using the “AND” parameter, add condition Annual Spend – Is greater than and input the tier 1 threshold (10000USD), this creates the tier 1 and tier 2 parameters.
3. Lastly, adjust the Invoice Discount total – Is less than to the tier 2 discount rate (10%).

Configuration Step 5: Clone your rule from Step 4.

Configuration Step 6: Update the following rule values to the new discount rule tier and rates.

1. Name: Update to Tier 3 values (e.g. Vendor ABC Tier 3 Discount)
2. Description (if applicable)
3. Action Comment: Update to Tier 3 comment (e.g. Vendor ABC Tier 3 Discount of 10% is not met.)

Configuration Step 7: Build your tier 3 threshold rule.

1. Create your lower tier and higher tier thresholds. Update condition Annual Spend – Is less than or equal to and input your tier 3 threshold (100000 USD).
2. Using the “AND” parameter, add condition Annual Spend – Is greater than and input the tier 2 threshold (50000 USD), this creates the tier 1 and tier 2 parameters.
3. Lastly, adjust the Invoice Discount total – Is less than to the tier 3 discount rate (15%).

Configuration Step 8: Create additional Tiers by replicating Step 7 until all tier rules are created for the vendor.

Unity Invoice Validation Rules (IVR) reduces your legal spend by enforcing your billing guidelines with vendors. IVR lets you set your own configurable rules to programmatically enforce complex alternative fee arrangements (AFAs), billing guidelines, vendor discounts, invoice approval routing, and more. It’s simple – validation rules automatically catch invoice violations according to the billing guidelines you set, saving you time in manual invoice reviews.

Implementing Invoice Validation Rules into your invoice review and approval process lets you take control of your e-Billing and spend management. Read on to learn how to start using IVR, or reference our additional resources on the right.

How to get started:

• First, start by compiling your billing guidelines. Our recommended categories to place invoice guidelines on include: administrative, communication, copies, deliveries, overhead, research, subscription, and travel costs.
  • Check out our Legal Billing Guidelines Best Practices white paper for detailed guidance on best practices and our IVR Idea sheet for what rules to implement!
• Create and implement your compiled invoice validation rules with any conditional values (under Administration > Rule Management). If you need help setting up rules, read through our linked Help Center articles for guidance.
  • Note: We have now added a new Category field. This will be used for our upcoming reporting around Adjustment Reasons. We suggest reviewing our default categories in the Invoice Settings area of Administration. You can deactivate existing values or add new ones that make the most sense for your business!
• Check out our other available resources on the right – we recommend looking at the Best Practices whitepaper mentioned above and our list of standard default rules.
• If you need further help configuring a rule, sign up for our Invoice Validation Rules office hour sessions! Our team is dedicated to supporting and guiding you through this process, so IVR can start working for you faster.

Need more help?

We hope this success kit helps guide you on how to use Invoice Validation Rules, maximizing efficiency in your invoice review process. If you have any further questions, please reference our other resources on the right-hand side of this page.  

Feel free to contact your CSM for any additional questions.

Implementing Legal Requests into your matter intake process standardizes the way you accept legal work requests and streamlines matter creation. Legal Requests allows legal and business users to request legal service through configurable forms, and gives admins the ability to choose which requests a matter should be opened for. Read on to learn how to start using Legal Requests, or reference additional resources on the right.

How to Activate and Implement

1. First, you’ll need to reach out to our Customer Success team to get Legal Requests turned on in your environment.
2. After activation, you will need to set up users with their own Unity login. If you have many Legal Requests users to create, there is also the option to leverage Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality.
   • Assigning a user the Legal Requests role only allows access to Unity to view and submit Legal Requests forms, nothing else.
3. Legal Request forms need to be created. You can learn how to set up forms, manage requests, and more here.
   • Still need help? Reach out to our Customer Success team to walk you through recommendations and set up some basic forms.

Before you get started, check out some of our recommended best practices to use Legal Requests below!

Best Practices

Hold a training session with your team or organization

• Make sure to cover what your requirements are to get a matter created. For example, specific date requirements, additional information to provide, or necessary attachments to include.
• For new hires, be sure to include training on Legal Requests as well.

Enforce the usage of Legal Requests by only allowing matter intake through Legal Requests. Make it clear that no other methods will be accepted.

Encourage other team members to utilize Legal Requests by recognizing individuals who are doing a good job with submitting forms.

Keep all forms up-to-date with necessary questions. Also be open to taking suggestions and feedback from users on how the forms and process can be improved!

Welcome to Unity’s next evolution of powerful reporting. Our enhanced customizable reports deliver compelling visualizations needed to effectively analyze your data and uncover hidden insights. You’ll be able to quickly view key metrics, identify trends, drill into complex data, create custom dashboards, easily share reports, and more!  

Robust datasets and capabilities allow reporting across various types of legal data. You can build reports from scratch or clone an existing report and customize. We empower you to create and customize your own reports because you know your business best. 

Reference our additional resources on the right for more information on how to get started.

Best Practices

Successfully utilize our enhanced Reports and check out some of our recommended best practices!

• Make a copy of our existing out-of-the-box prescriptive reports as a starting point to make adjustments and create your customized advanced report.
• Keep your end goal in mind for what fields you need before you begin building out your report.
• Consider the target audience for the dashboard. Do they want to see more detail or is it best to focus on high level KPIs?
• Think about what business questions the report should answer to help drive what data needs to be included and how it might be best presented.
• Try not to put too much on one view or page. Enhanced Reporting allows for tabs in dashboards so your data can be logically presented.
• Include context, when possible, with conditional formatting to help your audience understand if a KPI is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

FAQs

Here are some of our top FAQ’s to answer your question:

Why is this field not populating the data I thought it would?

One of the main differences is that Enhanced Reporting data is refreshed every 24 hours, whereas other reports are refreshed in real time. Enhanced Reporting also offers more robust functionality and visualization options to help users explore data and share insights.

 Can reports be shared with others who do not have a Unity login?

Yes, if you need to share a report with someone who does not have Unity access, click on the more (…) option in the top-right corner of the report dashboard and select Download as image. This downloads the report to your computer so that you can share it as needed.

To share the report with a Unity user who has access to Enhanced Reporting, choose the Copy dashboard URL or Share dashboard by email options.

How can specific charts in a report be copied or edited?

You can clone an individual chart in a report by clicking the more (…) option in the top-right corner of the chart and selecting View chart in Explore.

Please check out our short tutorial videos for additional information.

Can I choose what time report data is refreshed?

No, all Enhanced Reporting data is refreshed between 12:30am to 2:30am Pacific Time each day. At this time, there is no option to adjust or customize the refresh time.

Why is this field not populating the data I thought it would?

Please check the dataset descriptions and definitions in the resource center to determine what the correct field selection should be and adjust appropriately.

Why is this filter not working?

First try to remove all filters selected and add them back 1 by 1. If it is a date filter, try selecting different dates.

We hope this success kit guides you on how to use Unity’s enhanced Reporting to its maximum potential. If you have any further questions, please take a look at our other resources on the right-hand side of this page.  As always, your Customer Success team is here to help! Contact your CSM or Support team for more information on how to get started with Enhanced Reporting.