Contractor Module

Contractor Module Glossary

Billing Transaction (BT): BTs are created on a work order by, or on behalf of, a contractor and are billed against a particular PSR on the WO. There are three types of transactions; product/service, timeslip, and expense reimbursement. Product/Service types are billed against a PSR with a non-time-based P/S lookup type. Generally, they are calculated by [units of work] * [rate]. Timeslip type transactions can be logged against PSRs with non-time-based P/S lookup types, but their amount will always be $0. We may remove this in a future release. Timeslip type transactions are billed against a PSR with a time-based P/S lookup type. They also create an associated service record so that contractor timeslips can be linked to other parts of LS in the same way a service record can. Billing transactions can be deleted when they are in the pending, invoiced, or disputed states.

Contractor Assignment Type: Derived from the normal Assignment Type lookup, these track what types of work a contractor can do. A new field was added to the Assignment Type lookup, "Is this a Contractor Assignment Type?". When set to yes, that assignment type will show up as an option in the Contractor Assignment Type block (see the Contractor Assignment Types section for more)

Contractor Invoice (CI): Data objects that are either created by or on behalf of a contractor. They have six possible system value statuses/states and the UI will vary depending on the invoice's state. See the Invoices section below for more info

Fee Structure: A data type that is created for contractor users or organizations. This allows contractors to set their rates on a P/S. When a PSR is added to a WO, this rate will be used instead of the P/S's default rate, _unless_ the "Override existing fee structures?" field is set on the P/S in question. In that case, it will always use the default rate from the lookup to set the PSR's rate.

Product or Service (P/S): A product or service type that can be added to WOs (where they become a PSR). These are added in the Contractor Product/Service Type lookup. When creating a new P/S, you will set a default rate and unit type on it. Additionally, you can set it to override any existing contractor fee structures for it or not (more on that below). There is a category that can be set (based on Contractor Product/Service Category). These values can also be linked to an Assignment Type. When a WO is linked to one or more cases, this will filter the options down when adding a PSR to a WO based on the WO's assigned contractor and any case assignments that contractor has on the associated cases. Lastly, these can either be time-based or not. If they are time-based, only timeslip type billing transactions can be logged against them (see Billing Transaction for more).

Product or Service Request (PSR): A product or service request added to a work order. These have an associated rate and unit type locked to it when created. The rate and unit type is determined based on the default value on the P/S or an existing fee structure for the P/S for the contractor on the WO. A PSR can be deleted from a request as long as no billing transactions have been logged against it.

Work Order (WO): A Contractor Work Order. These must be assigned to a contractor user (or eventually a contractor organization). They can optionally be linked to one or more cases.

Lookups

1. Contractor Billing Transaction Status: System values only. This lookup tracks the status of a BT throughout its lifecycle.
2. Contractor Billing Transaction Type: System values only. This lookup tracks the three types of BTs mentioned in the BT glossary section.
3. Contractor Expense Reimbursement Type: User supplied values only. This lookup tracks the types of items a contractor can claim an expense reimbursement on.
4. Contractor Fee Unit Type: A mix of user supplied and system values. This lookup tracks the unit types of a product or service type. These unit types can be marked as time-based or not. PSRs with a P/S type that has a time-based unit type, can only have timeslip type BTs logged against them. See Billing Transaction in the Glossary for more info.
5. Contractor Investigation Type: User supplied values only. These are the values for an Investigator contractor assignment type. See the Contractor Assignment Types section for more info.
6. Contractor Invoice Status: System values only. These are various states of a contractor invoice.
7. Contractor Payment Method: User supplied values only. When marking an invoice as paid, the user will be prompted to choose from this list.
8. Contractor Product/Service Category: User supplied values only. The product or service type lookup can be grouped based on these values. This is currently only used on an invoice profile to create a summary of transaction totals per category.
9. Contractor Product or Service Type: User supplied values only. See the Product/Service section of the Glossary for more info.
10. Contractor Subject Matter Expertise: User supplied values only. These are the values for an Expert contractor assignment type. See the Contractor Assignment Types section for more info.

Contractor Settings

/system/contractor/edit

A whole page the site admin can use to control various global settings related to contract attorneys and the module within LegalServer.

Contractor Assignment Types

User creation

• System User Role of Contractor (much like PBRA role) that the user needs to have to interact with the contractor module pieces and be assigned as a contractor to a case.
• Once a user is created, or during the create process, set the assignment types.
• Setting assignment type and the other information will also allow them to show appropriately when assigning to a case.
• A Contractor can have more than one assignment type if appropriate.
• A Contractor can also have a "Doing Business As" Name by updating this user system field. In the contractor settings, an admin can set a configuration to Replace the contractor name with their Contractor Doing Business As field on invoices.

The contractor assignment type block can be added to a dynamic form on the user module. This is used to track what types of assignments a contractor can do. There are 6 assignment types initially set as a "Contractor Assignment Type". They are Contract Attorney, Expert, Interpreter, Investigator, and Translator. When setting one of these assignment types on a contractor, there will be some additional data that can be set. For example, a Contract Attorney type will get the combined list of subjects. An Interpreter will get the Languages Spoken field,  while a Translator will get the Languages Written field. Experts will get the values of the Contractor Subject Matter Expertise lookup with the Investigator getting the values of the Contractor Investigation Type lookup.

All of this data will show up in the Recommended Contractor Users list view (see below)

Recommended Contractor Users List View

This list mimics the Recommended Pro Bono list view and serves as a way to filter and assign contractors to a case. It's configurable and can have custom default filters set up in similar ways to the Recommended Pro Bono list view. If no custom default filters are set up on it, it will inherit some default filters based on the case data. It can go either directly on a case profile or be added to a dynamic form. Admins can configure custom default filters on the list view to return appropriate results. Admins can also configure the “Assign” link to use their own dynamic assignment process.

Permissions

Found under Admin -> User Role (Permissions)

/user/roles/list

Admins can set the appropriate permissions on user roles to allow different sets of users to have access to different functionality.  As an example, a Contractor user would need to be able to create and edit an invoice, but they shouldn’t be able to verify or approve an invoice.

1. Contractor Invoice Verify: Can this user verify an invoice submitted from a contractor?
2. Contractor Invoice Approve: Can this user approve an invoice for payment? This also governs if a user can Un-approve an invoice.
3. Contractor Invoice Schedule: Can this user schedule an invoice to a pay period? Additionally, if the user lacks this perm, the pay period select will be omitted on an approved invoice.
4. Contractor Invoice Pay: Can this user mark an invoice as paid?
5. Contractor Invoice Create/Edit: Can this user access the invoice tools at all. This is currently a blanket permission that prevents the user from pretty much doing anything with an invoice.
6. Contractor Work Order Create/Edit: Like its invoice counterpart, this is currently a blanket permission that prevents the user from pretty much doing anything with a work order.
7. Contractor Work Order Service Request Edit: Can the user edit a PSR on a WO?
8. Contractor Delete Billing Transaction: Can this user delete a BT from a WO?
9. Contractor Delete Product or Service Request: Can this user delete a PSR from a WO?
10. Contractor Admin Functionality: Can a user access the contractor admin section? Probably not entirely useful until the Contractor Module becomes fully dynamic.

Creating a Work Order

Work Orders are the meat and potatoes of the module. All work is done under a work order. A contractor or contractor organization is assigned to a WO when it's created, and then one or more PSRs are added to the work order. Once work has been done, a contractor can log billing transactions against the PSRs on the WO. In general, work orders are "outgoing."

Work orders can be created in two ways. From the Contractor section front via Actions -> Create Work Order will allow the user to use the static form to create a new work order in the system. Site Administrators can create a Dynamic form on the cases module and use the Create Contractor Work Order Block to create a work order from a case.

A Work Order List View is available to add to a case profile or dynamic form. On a case this List View will only show Work Orders for that particular case. When viewed as a user with the Contractor user role, only Work Orders they are assigned to will be visible.

Bulk Complete Contractor Work Orders Block - Intended for a closing form on a case, the default configuration will display a listview of work orders linked to the case being closed. The user can then select work orders from the list which will be marked as complete when the form is submitted. This block has a silent mode config option. When set, the listview will not be displayed. Instead, the block will just automatically mark any work order linked to the case as complete. Additionally, when silent mode is set, a second config option is displayed, "Complete work orders that are also tied to other cases?". By default, silent mode will not mark a work order as complete if it is linked to another case besides the one being closed. With this second option set, it will mark all work orders as complete, regardless if they are linked to another case or not.  

Work Order Templates

Contractor/work_order_template/edit

Found underneath the Contractors section of the admin settings, these are used in unison with the Create Contractor Work Order block to pre-populate work orders with a template consisting of a set of PSRs, as well as Start and End dates.

Working the Case

A contractor or a LegalServer user on behalf of a contractor can add Time, Product Service (per unit), and Expense reimbursement, known as Billing Transactions (BT) to the work order that can then be used to create their invoice.  These BTs can be added from the Work Order in the contractor tab by using the static actions available on each work order profile.  Admins can also create dynamic processes on the cases module to allow BTs to be added to the Work Order from a case

Adding Time from a Case

Admins can create a Dynamic Contractor Timeslip form and add it to the Actions Menu of a case by creating a Dynamic process on the matter using the New Timeslip block which allows the selection of the dynamic timekeeping form and creation process.  On the dynamic timekeeping form the Admin will want to include the Contractor Timeslip Block which will display the fields for Contractor, Work Order, Product/Service, and Work Description. Admins can then choose what additional fields or blocks on the dynamic form may be necessary for data collection.

Adding a Product/Service from a Case

Admins can create a Dynamic Product/Service (per unit) form to add non time-based Product or Service Billing Transaction to a case.  The Dynamic form should include the Contractor Billing Transaction Block with the configuration option of “Product/Service” selected. With this configuration the field for Product/Service will only show relevant per unit Products/Services that have previously been added to the Work Order.

Adding an Expense Reimbursement from a Case

Admins can create an Expense Reimbursement form to add non time-based Product or Service Billing Transaction to a case.  The Dynamic form should include the Contractor Billing Transaction Block with the configuration option of “Reimbursement” selected. With this configuration the field for Product/Service will only show relevant Expense Reimbursement types that have previously been added to the Work Order. Documents can be uploaded with Expense Reimbursement if copies of receipts or other documentation is needed.

Invoices

Created by, or on behalf of, a contractor, invoices track how/when a contractor is paid. They are created from the Contractor section front via Actions -> Create Invoice. If loaded by a LS staff user, the tool first loads with a select populated with all contractor users. Contractor users do not see this screen when creating an invoice. Once a contractor is selected, automatically in the case of a logged in contractor user, the tool is loaded with all of the contractor's pending BTs. Optional fields at this point include the Invoice and Due Dates, and a Note field. BTs are added by selecting their checkbox. Once at least one BT is added to the invoice, the Create Invoice button becomes active. Once an invoice is created it is moved into the first of 7 possible states during its lifecycle. Those states are:

1. Draft: A newly created invoice will be in the draft state. At this point, the contractor can add or remove BTs to the invoice at will by simply checking the green check mark or red X, respectively. An automated Totals By Product Category table will keep a running total of invoiced BTs based on their categories. Additional notes can also be added. Invoices can also be deleted in this state.
2. Submitted: Once a contractor is satisfied with their invoice, they click the *Submit Invoice* button that is available on a draft invoice. In this state, aside from entering a new note, a contractor can only return an invoice to a draft state. An LS staff user with the appropriate permissions will be able to update the statuses of each BT on the invoice and either verify or dispute the invoice. The *Dispute Invoice* button because active when one or more BTs on the invoice is either Disputed or Denied
3. Disputed: An invoice that is disputed is sent back to the contractor in a disputed state. The contractor at that point can update the disputed transaction, add a note, and resubmit the invoice. In the near future, they will also have the ability to delete the BT from the invoice, or delete the invoice all together. Once resubmitted, it goes back into the Submitted state where the process is repeated. An invoice can cycle between these two states indefinitely if the parties cannot reach a happy middle ground.
4. Verified: Yay! We found a happy middle ground! The invoice has been verified.
5. Approved: Once verified, an LS user with the appropriate permission will see the *Approve Invoice* button. Marking an invoice as approved is the final step before scheduling it for payment and then marking it as paid. At this point, if there are still any disputed or denied transactions on the invoice, they are removed once it has been approved for payment. When removed, disputed or denied BTs are cycled back into the pool of non-invoiced BTs, with their statuses remaining disputed/denied, where they can hopefully be resolved on the next billing cycle.
6. Payment Scheduled: Approved invoices need to be scheduled on a pay period. Once selected, an LS staff user with the appropriate permission will be able to schedule an invoice for payment.
7. Paid: The check has cleared and the contractor has been paid. An LS staff user with the appropriate permission can supply the Payment Method and Transaction or Check ID and mark an invoice as paid.

Bulk Invoice Actions available from the Invoices tab in the Contractor Section Front allow for LegalServer users to bulk update multiple invoices rather than updating each individually.

Admins have the ability to turn on Invoice Action Notifications in the Contractor Settings Page. This will email a specified list, along with the contractor as appropriate, when various actions are taken on an invoice. Those actions are submitting an invoice, returning one to a draft state, approving an invoice for payment, adding a note, and denying or disputing a transaction.

Admins can also turn on the ability to send Approved Invoice PDFs in the Contractor Settings Page. This will email a specified list, along with the contractor as appropriate, when an invoice is approved for payment. Admins can control the email subject and body, as well as upload their logo to embed in generated PDF invoices.

Pay Periods

Pay periods are similar to AGM's version. We need two pieces of data to set these up, the pay period interval and the pay period start date. For the interval, we support 4:

1. weekly: Once a week
2. bi_weekly: Every two weeks
3. twice_monthly_standard: On the 1st and 15th
4. monthly: Once a month

Fee Structure Setup

Admins can create a process available to update contractor users to override the default rate on the set of products/services that a contractor might be asked to do on a case.

1. Create a dynamic process for fee structures, Admin -> Processes, Forms, and Profiles
2. Set the module to User
3. Primary Forms -> Click on the New User Auxiliary Form + icon
4. Give it a name, eg 'Contractor Fee Structure Profile'
5. Make it Active, give it a Continue button, and set the Process Type to User Aux
6. Add the Contractor Fee Structure block and save
7. Now go to Processes -> New User Aux Process
8. Give it a name, eg. 'Create/Edit Contractor Fee Structures'
9. Enable the form you just created and save
10. Edit the process you just created, expand the Permissions section, set Contractor Permission to Full, and save
11. Go back to the Aux Form, expand the config of the Contractor Fee Structure block, set the aux process to the one you just created, and save
12. Add the Contractor Fee Structure block to the user profile, making sure to set the auxiliary process in the block's config to the one you just created
13. Edit the User Profile, under the Permissions header, set Contractor Permissions to Full

Bulk Copy Contractor Fee Structure Block - Intended for a copying existing fee structures from one contractor user to others.

Once a fee structure exists on a contractor user admins can bulk copy that existing fee structure to additional contractor users.  Admins will need to create a dynamic process with the Bulk Copy Contractor Fee Structures Block on it and make it available from the Actions Menu on the User Profile. The form will then allow you to copy any existing fee structure on a single user to one or more additional contractor users.

Contractor API Endpoints

Contractor API Endpoints are currently under development in our Core API v2 Suite. We have created endpoints for most all lookups and information related to Work Orders. Ongoing effort is underway to add endpoints for Invoice information and data points.

For More information related to LegalServer APIs see our API Documentation. The primary documentation is at our API Documentation site.

Contractor Add Ons

There is a list of additional configurations that can be opted into.  Site administrators can request these be enabled by filing a support ticket from their site if not enabled (Help menu > Support Request). The list includes:

1. Contractor Organizations:

If enabled, a new Organization Type, Contractor, is created. Organizations with this type can have work orders assigned to them and invoices created for them. These actions are generally assumed to be taken on behalf of the contractor organization by a member of LS Client staff.

2. Contractor Allocations:

These are annual allocations set against a user or organization. They use the "Contractor Annual Allocation Settings" in the Contractor Settings to determine what allocations to apply. These global settings can be overridden on a per user or organization basis by the use of the Contractor Allocation Structure block, intended for a user or organization dynamic process. Once a user exceeds an allocation threshold (determined on a year-to-date basis), they will stop showing up as available options when creating a work order or an invoice.

3. Contractor Organization Allocations:

Same as above for Organizations

4. Contractor Matter Allocations:

These are allocations set on a matter that will be deducted from when an invoice (linked to the matter via the parent work order(s) for the BTs on the invoice) is marked as Approved for Payment. When this feature is enabled, the Legal Problem Code lookup receives a new field, Contractor Base Matter Allocation, which determines the default Contractor Matter Allocation. When a new case is created, its allocation is set based on the chosen problem code. Additionally, if an existing case has not had an allocation set, it will be set when the problem code is updated. The allocation will be adjusted with each update to the case's problem code until a manual adjustment is made either through a linked invoice being approved for payment or by use of the, aptly named, Contractor Matter Allocation block. Once a case's allocation has been updated manually, changes to the legal problem code will no longer impact the allocation.

There is a list view for this feature that acts as a log of allocation changes for a matter. This list view is also included at the top of the block, as well.

5. Contractor: Formula Rate Products and Services:

A special variant of a Product/Service that uses the formula editor, and the addition of two input parameters (affectionately called Primary Formula Transaction Input and Secondary Formula Transaction Input (these can be renamed on a record-by-record basis)), to determine a billing transaction's amount at the time the BT is created. These types of P/S lookups do not use the default rate and unit type fields.

In Development:

1. Contractor: Work Order Allocations:

These introduce the concept of Incoming/Outgoing Work Orders and Invoices. In the conventional contractor workflow, a work order is created and assigned to a contractor, the contractor does work against the PSRs on the work order, creates BTs for the work done, and then invoices those BTs to be paid by the LS agency. These can be thought of as Outgoing Work Orders (ie. outgoing work to an outside contractor) and Incoming Invoices (ie. incoming to the LS agency to pay the contractor). This feature is an inverse of that. Incoming Work Orders are intended for the LS agency to do work on, and then bill either a client on a case or another organization via an Outgoing Invoice. Outgoing Invoices have a new invoice status, called Payment Plan. When in this status, a case client or organization can make payments against the invoice. Work Order Allocations are a way to track the expected and earned revenue from these payment plans.

Not available currently for an LS4 site.