- Sign in at plans.meetplani.com/login with your mobile number. Plani texts you a code.
- Open the New Hampshire case from Clients. Set the date range first, then click LegalServer sheet.
- In LegalServer, open that case's work order under the Contractor tab.
- Add an expense reimbursement, type Attorney Billing / GAL Billing - Counsel Fees. Enter the Counsel Fees total from the top of the sheet and attach the sheet.
- If the case has travel, add a second one, type Attorney Billing / GAL Billing - Travel Time, with the sheet's Travel Time total.
- Contractor tab, Actions, Create Invoice. Tick that case's entries and submit.
The one that bites: one case per invoice. Don't tick entries from two work orders onto the same one.
What this is
LegalServer gives you two ways to bill. Option 1, "Bill Against a Product or Service," is one entry per line: product, service date, description, funding code, category and time spent. Option 2, "Create an Expense Reimbursement," is for attorneys who, in the Council's words, "prefer to use your own invoicing software and attach that invoice, instead of entering each line item individually." You attach the invoice and type the dollar totals by type.
The LegalServer sheet Plani makes is that invoice. It lists every entry on the case with its date, product, category, description and hours, and puts the totals LegalServer asks for at the top, so you copy two numbers instead of forty lines.
Before you start: the work order
There is nothing to bill against until the case is in LegalServer. After you accept an appointment, email the appointment of counsel PDF to workorders@jc.nh.gov, one PDF per assignment. The work order shows up in your account in about a business day.
Plani will log time on the case before then. You just can't upload it yet.
Step 1: sign in
Go to plans.meetplani.com/login and type your mobile number. Plani texts back a six-digit code. There is no password and nothing to install, and the session lasts a month and keeps renewing while you use it.
Step 2: open the case and set the range
You land on your list of clients. Click the case you are billing.
Set the date filter before you download. Across the top are This week, Last week, This month, All time and Custom, and whatever is selected decides what goes on the sheet. Pick the stretch you haven't billed yet. A sheet that overlaps an invoice you already submitted bills that time twice, and LegalServer has no way to know.
No LegalServer sheet button on the page means Plani doesn't know the case is in New Hampshire. Text it something like "Smith is a New Hampshire case" and the button shows up.
Step 3: download the sheet
Click LegalServer sheet, next to Download Excel. You get an Excel file for that one case.
The top shows the case, your name, the period and the hourly rate. Under that are three lines, Counsel Fees, Travel Time and Total, each with hours and dollars. Every entry follows, one per row.
Check the rate before you upload. The standard rate is $125 an hour. Major crime cases and Rule 47 Supreme Court appeals pay $150. If a case should be at $150, text Plani "Smith is a major crime case" and download the sheet again.
Step 4: enter Counsel Fees
In the case's work order, create an expense reimbursement. For Expense Type, pick Attorney Billing / GAL Billing - Counsel Fees. For the amount, enter the Counsel Fees dollar figure from the top of the sheet. Attach the sheet here. Drag and drop works.
Step 5: enter Travel Time
If the sheet shows travel, add a second reimbursement, type Attorney Billing / GAL Billing - Travel Time, with the Travel Time dollar figure. Travel pays the same hourly rate as the rest of the case, but New Hampshire wants it on its own line. If the sheet shows no travel, skip this step.
There is also a Mileage type. Plani bills New Hampshire travel by the hour and doesn't track miles, so if you claim mileage, that amount is yours to enter.
Step 6: create the invoice
Click the Contractor tab, then Actions, then Create Invoice. Every time and reimbursement entry across all your cases appears. Tick only the ones for this case and click Create Invoice.
It lands in Draft Invoices. Read it, then submit. The Council approves it, sends it back to draft, or disputes it with a note.
Fixing a submitted invoice
Return it to draft and use Remove Transaction to take off the line that is wrong. Fix the time in Plani, download a fresh sheet, update the reimbursement on the work order with the new total and the new attachment, then Add Transaction back to the draft and resubmit.
Watch the cap
Every work order has a budget. A misdemeanor in district court caps at $3,000. Going over takes a motion to the court to bill in excess, and then an updated work order, which you get by emailing the granted motion in. The Total line on the sheet is your running number for the case, so a look at it before each invoice tells you how close you are.
Why Plani doesn't file this for you
Plani files Massachusetts CPCS time into eBill on its own, overnight. LegalServer is different. We haven't been given a sanctioned way for a contractor's software to get into it, and we're not going to sign in to a court system with your password just because we could. So Plani gets the sheet right and puts it in your hand. The upload and the submit are yours.