Making a Fee Offer on CounselLink

The CounselLink^® user with the Admin or Partner role for private Corporate Clients typically enters rates and the client approves them. For Registry fee structures, rates are entered by the law firm and the fee offer is active when the law firm saves the fee offer.

Note: The highest level in a Stage Structure is Partner.

Note: The Fee Offer Overview page has a Documents tab that works the same was as it does for other document tabs throughout CounselLink.

Take the following steps to submit a fee offer:

1. Select the client from the list of clients in the upper left corner drop-down list on the Home tab.
   Note: When a different Client is selected while under any of the tabs on CounselLink, users will be directed back to the Home tab under the selected Client.
2. Click the Fees tab.
3. Enter Fee Structure ID in Search Fees box and click Search to find an existing item.
   NOTE: Leave blank to see all available for the office and group type
4. Click on the Fee Structure Id, if a list of fee structures is shown.
   • You can refine your search by selecting any combination of search filters.
   • You can customize your filter options both by determining which options appear and arranging the options in any order you desire
5. Click Fee Offers Tab or if editing a fee offer, click the Fee Offer ID, then click Plus Sign located in the upper right portion of the screen.
   Note: After clicking, the Fee Offer Tab, If you do not see a Fee Offer, click Filter Offers by Type and select All Offers. It is possible that the Fee offer ID's does not appear unless you select All Offers especially if the fee offer may have voided the original Fee Offer, after the first time a law firm created a fee offer.
6. Choose Fee Offer Currency if needed.
   Note: The currency chosen here does not have to be the invoice currency. To see how CounselLink addresses exchange rates when needed, see L30 - No Approved Rate: This timekeeper does not have an approved rate, Reviewing the Information Collected to Troubleshoot Rate errors L30, L37, L21 on CounselLink, and Information Needed to Troubleshoot L30, L37, L21 Rate error for assistance.
7. Enter Rates:
   • Enter rates for the firm if the law firm has a Stage Structure that has a Flat or Hourly fee type. Repeat this step for all hourly stages.
   • You can filter timekeepers based on their timekeeper level, sort by the order of timekeepers by timekeeper level and search for specific timekeepers by name and initials.
   • Enter the rate for each individual or download the template, replace the rates in the template, save, and upload the template if the law firm has a Timekeeper Rates section. They will see the names of the timekeepers assigned to the office.
     Note: The template is very easy to break. When uploading a broken template, the law firm can get multiple errors including string index out of range column minus 3. To fix a broken template, download a new template and re-enter the data before trying to upload again. If the law firm's billing software can produce a list of rates, that information can be pasted into the template and uploaded. View Notes section at the end of this article for additional Timekeeper Template troubleshooting.
   • Retainer Fees  - Enter retainer fee amount in the Stage Structure section of the fee offer.
   • Continuing entering the fee offer even if the timekeeper is listed with the incorrect level (e.g. associate, when they are a partner).
   • The display grouping on the fee offer changes when viewed after the law firm edits the timekeeper's profile (change level to Partner, etc.) and saves.
8. Enter the Effective Date or leave at the default of NOW.
   Note: If you are adding a fee offer for the first time (not editing a fee offer), the Effective Date you must use is NOW. When you are editing the Step 2 - Effective Date, you must use all capital letters (i.e. NOW). Some Clients do not allow Law Firms to back date the fee offer. They can only select NOW or a future date. For more information on back-dating a rate, see article Back Dating a Fee Offer for Law Firms on CounselLink. The system does not allow the CounselLink User to save with the effective date that is the same as the starting date of another fee offer (even one that has been voided).
9. After release 6.4, Private Clients and Firms no longer see the State and County on Fee Offers (no action needed for Private Clients). For registry clients, move state(s) and counties to Offered Counties that the rates apply to.
10. Click Save.
    Note: Once the customer clicks Save, they are given a confirmation box asking if they are sure they want to submit this to the client. All Law Firm Office Admins immediately receive an email when a fee offer is approved.

Depending how the fee structure is designed, the fee offer is automatically active or approved or it needs to be approved by the client. At this point, discounts can be added to the offer.

Statuses for Fee Offers

• Offered Fee Active - the fees have been accepted and the offer is active.
• Pending Approval - the client has been notified of the offer via email, and decides to accept or decline the fees.
  Note: Notice of acceptance or decline of the fee offer is made by return email back to the law firm.
• Declined - offer was declined by the Corporate Client. The law firm can see the reason why it was declined in the Fee Offer Overview screen.

Optional Discounts

There are 2 kinds of discounts in CounselLink: Review the Client Profile sheet to verify if the client uses this feature.

• Invoice discount (Add/Edit Discount Terms, a Percent % discount for all fees or expenses), the system does not compute this on the invoice when the invoice is created. Most clients have a rule to require the law firm have their invoice mirror the fee offer (e.g. fee offer has 10% discount, so the invoice needs to have a 10% invoice level discount). For more information, see How to do Invoice Level Discount on CounselLink.
• Prompt Approval discount, sometimes referred to as Prompt Pay Discount is a computed discount on an invoice based on dates invoice shows Sent and Approved on invoice history.
  For more information, see Add a Discount to a Fee Offer for Law Firm on CounselLink.

Notes: The instructions above cover the most common type of billing arrangements. Not all fee offers have all the sections shown below, as this is customized for each corporate customer. Law Firms with fee offers for Medical Protective need to be referred to the client since there isn't an option for the Law Firm to do this within CounselLink. Make sure all timekeepers are added to their office so Medical Protective can enter the fee offer.

If the timekeeper is listed under Office Staff in the profiles tab but is not listed in the Add Fee Offer or Edit Offered Fees in the Fees tab, enter a JIRA ticket.
Timekeeper (TK) Template: All rates and timekeepers must be listed on the Timekeeper Template. When updates are needed only TK rates affected are changed. If they only have TK in the Template that changed rates the system will upload that list excluding any TK not listed in the template uploaded. The template is a working document so basically all timekeepers and their rates need to remain in the template.

A fee offer does not need to be back dated if this is the first fee offer for the timekeeper. The system automatically back dates fee offers back to the mid 1990's on all original fee offers for a timekeeper. Only when a fee offer is changed for a timekeeper would there be a need to back date it. If the Law Firm needs a fee offer backdated check to make sure they have an active fee offer then refer them to the Client. Only the Client can request a fee offer to be back dated.