Feature Release: Late August 2025

At Lawcus, we understand that small improvements can make a significant difference in your daily workflow, particularly when it comes to billing, expenses, and time tracking. That’s why we’re rolling out a set of exciting enhancements across some of the most-used areas of our platform.

From smarter forms and AI-powered narrative assistance to better control over required fields and a sleek new UI, these updates are designed to make your legal practice more efficient, accurate, and client-ready.

Let’s dive into what’s new and why it matters.

Enforce Required Fields for Time, Expenses & Fees

Accurate billing starts with complete data. Our new firm-level configuration enables you to make the Matter and Description fields mandatory when logging fees, Costs, or Expenses. When time and cost entries are always tied to a Matter and clearly documented, your firm benefits from:

• Greater billing accuracy
• Fewer disputes or audit issues
• Cleaner internal records

Smarter Forms with AI-Powered Assistance

We’ve made key upgrades to Time Entry, Expenses, and Flat Fee forms to make them more intelligent, context-aware, and easier to fill, whether you’re billing on the go or wrapping up your day.

Here’s what’s new:

Client Field for Faster Matter Selection

You can now select a Client first, and the Matter dropdown will automatically filter to display only matters associated with that client. This enhancement reduces errors and eliminates confusion when multiple clients have matters with similar names.

Rate Type Override

A new Rate Type field allows you to manually select the billing rate you want to apply, bypassing the system default. Perfect for those special-case entries or unique billing agreements.

Enforce Required Fields for Time, Expenses & Fees

Accurate billing starts with complete data. Our new firm-level configuration enables you to make the Matter and Description fields mandatory when logging fees, Costs, or Expenses. When time and cost entries are always tied to a Matter and clearly documented, your firm benefits from:

• Cleaner internal records
• Greater billing accuracy
• Fewer disputes or audit issues

Nova AI for Time Narratives

No more struggling with what to write in your time entry description. Just jot down quick notes and let Nova AI transform them into polished, professional narratives, with spell check, grammar fixes, and tone adjustments. Think of it as your behind-the-scenes legal writing assistant.

Smarter Activity Categories with Type & Tax Controls

Billing is about more than numbers; it’s about structure, consistency, and compliance. That’s why we’ve upgraded Activity Categories to support more precise classifications and tax handling.

What’s improved:

• Activity Type Classification: Mark a category as:
  • Fee
  • Flat Fee
  • Expense (Hard or Soft Cost): Introducing the new Cost Type selector in your Expense Entry form. At the top of the form, simply choose whether this is a Hard Cost — like court filing fees or expert invoices, or a Soft Cost, such as mileage or in-house printing.
    
• Tax Settings by Category:
  • Define whether an activity is taxable
  • Set specific tax rates per category (if needed)

Why it’s useful:

• Automates correct tax application during invoicing
• Improves financial reporting accuracy
• Reduces the risk of misclassified entries or billing errors

Already using Activity Categories? No worries, your current setup remains unaffected until you’re ready to switch.

Read more about logging expenses.

A Sleeker UI for All Finance & Trust Forms

We’ve rolled out a redesigned, modern look across the most frequently used modules in Lawcus, making every form easier on the eyes and faster to complete.

Where you’ll see the new UI:

In Activities:

• Time Entry
• Flat Fee
• Expenses

In Trust & Finance:

• Trust/Credit Requests
• Trust Withdrawals & Deposits
• Account-to-Account Transfers
• Matter to Matter Transfers
• Create Trust Account

Your finance team will appreciate the smoother and cleaner experience, particularly during high-volume entry periods.

Read More about Activity Categories.

Smarter Report Export Filenames

Previously, when exporting reports to Excel or CSV, the file name defaulted to the generic “Lawcus Report,” making it difficult to identify the specific report, its purpose, or when it was generated, especially when saving multiple exports. To solve this, we’ve enhanced the export process so that generated file names now include the exact report name, the date of export, and the precise time of export. This improvement makes report identification effortless, prevents accidental file overwriting, and saves valuable time when organizing or sharing reports.

Override & Disable Client Reminders on Invoices

We’ve introduced a new option in invoicing that lets you override and disable client reminders on a per-invoice basis, giving you full control over how reminders are managed. This functionality is now available not only for manually created invoices but also for those generated through workflows, ensuring consistency across all billing processes. 

With this enhancement, firms gain greater flexibility in managing client communications, can easily accommodate special billing arrangements or sensitive client relationships, and avoid sending unnecessary reminders. For example, when creating or editing an invoice, whether manually or as part of a workflow you can simply toggle off “Disable reminders” to stop automated reminders for that specific invoice while keeping them active for others.

Skip Approvals in Invoice Workflow

With this enhancement, the Skip Approvals feature has been extended to invoices created through workflows. Firms can now configure workflow-generated invoices to bypass the approval step whenever appropriate, ensuring smoother and faster billing operations.

This update brings consistency between manual and automated invoice creation, enables quicker delivery of routine or low-risk invoices, and helps reduce unnecessary approval delays—all without compromising control where approvals are still needed. For example, when setting up an invoice creation step within a workflow, you can now enable Skip Approvals so that invoices move directly to the sending or finalization stage.

Elevating Your Experience, One Enhancement at a Time

These enhancements are part of our ongoing commitment to give legal professionals the smartest, most user-friendly tools to manage their time, finances, and clients.

From AI-powered time narratives to custom tax logic and a refreshed visual experience, every improvement helps you spend less time on admin and more time practicing law.

Stay tuned, we’re just getting started.

Want to See It in Action?

Log in to Lawcus now and try out the new forms, settings, and features.
Need help? Visit our Help Center or contact our Support team at any time.