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Expense Attachments in LeanLaw

How to sync expense receipts and attachments from QuickBooks into LeanLaw — and deliver them to clients with LEDES files or invoice emails.

LeanLaw's expense attachment feature lets you attach receipts and supporting documents to hard cost expenses in QuickBooks, sync them into LeanLaw, and automatically include them when you bill clients — either as part of a LEDES package or as a zip file in the invoice email.

📋 Pro and Elite only: Expense attachments are available on Pro and Elite LeanLaw subscriptions. Core subscribers cannot use this feature. To upgrade, go to Settings → Subscription.

 

Step 1: Enable Attachment Sync in LeanLaw

Before attachments can flow from QuickBooks Online into LeanLaw, you need to enable the sync toggle in your expense settings:

  1. Click the gear icon ⚙️ → Settings.
  2. Under Integrations, click QuickBooks.
  3. Click Edit Expense Settings.
  4. On the Expense Configuration section, check Sync attachments from QuickBooks to LeanLaw.
  5. Click Done and refresh your page to save.

💡 What this does: With this toggle on, any attachment added to a QuickBooks Online expense in the Advanced Client Costs (or similar name) account will automatically sync into LeanLaw alongside the expense itself. Attachments added before enabling the toggle will not retroactively sync — only new and future attachments will come through.

 

Step 2: Enable Attachment Delivery on Invoice Emails (Optional)

You can also control whether expense attachments are automatically included in invoice emails sent to clients. There are two delivery settings — firm-wide and per-client:

Option a: Send Attachments to All Clients
  1. In the Email Settings page (Settings → Invoice Email → Email Settings), find the Expense Attachments for All Clients option.
  2. Enable the setting to include expense attachment links on all invoice emails.

With this on, every client who receives an invoice email will get a link to download any expense attachments on that invoice.

Option B: Send Attachments to Specific Clients Only

If you want to track attachments in LeanLaw for all expenses but only email them to certain clients:

  1. Go to the Clients tab and open the client's record.
  2. Under Lean Align Settings, select Attach expense receitps to invoice emails for this client.
  3. Click Save Changes.

📋 Note: Per-client settings override the firm-wide setting for that specific client. Use this when most clients don't need attachments emailed but a handful of corporate clients or LEDES clients do.

 

⚠️ Lean Align required for email delivery: Sending expense attachments via invoice email is only supported through Lean Align. If your firm is not set up with Lean Align, attachments can still be downloaded from Manage Invoices but will not be emailed automatically.

 

Step 3: Attach Receipts to Expenses in QuickBooks

Attachments are added in QuickBooks Online, not in LeanLaw directly for hard cost expenses:

  1. In QuickBooks Online, open the expense or bill you want to attach a receipt to.
  2. Use QuickBooks Online attachment feature (typically a paperclip icon or Attachments section at the bottom of the transaction) to upload the receipt file — PDF, JPG, or PNG.
  3. Save the QuickBooks Online transaction.
  4. Return to LeanLaw and go to the Expenses tab. The expense with its attachment syncs to LeanLaw — the attachment is accessible from the expense record.

 

💡 Adding attachments directly in LeanLaw: You can also add or remove attachments from an expense in LeanLaw's Expenses tab after it syncs. This is useful for adding additional documents or correcting an attachment without going back to QuickBooks Online.
Note: Changes made to attachments in LeanLaw do not affect the expense in QuickBooks — QuickBooks Online remains the source of truth for the expense record itself.

 

Managing Attachments from the Mobile App

Expense attachments can also be managed from the LeanLaw mobile app — useful for capturing receipts on the go:

  • Add from gallery: Select an existing photo from your phone's photo library.
  • Add from file manager: Select a document file (PDF, etc.) stored on your device.
  • Take a photo: Open the camera directly from the app and photograph the receipt.

Attachments added via mobile sync to LeanLaw and are available for billing just like attachments added via the web or synced from QuickBooks Online.

 

How Attachments Are Delivered to Clients

Billing Method

How Attachments Are Delivered

LEDES billing

Use the LEDES & Expenses button in Manage Invoices (instead of the standard LEDES button). This downloads a zip file containing both the LEDES text file and all expense attachments for that invoice together in one action.

Invoice email 

Clients receive a link in the invoice email to download their expense attachments as a zip file. This requires the email attachment setting to be enabled firm-wide or per-client (see Step 2 above).

Manual download

From Manage Invoices, click the three-dot menu on any invoice and download the LEDES & Expenses zip file or view attachments directly.

 

Limitations

  • Multi-line QBO expenses: Attachments on multi-line QuickBooks Online bills (bills with more than one line item) do not sync to LeanLaw. If you have a multi-line bill with a receipt, add the attachment directly in LeanLaw after the expense syncs rather than attaching it in QuickBooks Online.
  • QuickBooks Online is the source of truth: Deleting or modifying an attachment in LeanLaw does not change the attachment in QuickBooks Online. The QuickBooks Online record remains unchanged.
  • Hard costs only via QuickBooks Online sync: The auto-sync flow (QuickBooks Online → LeanLaw) applies to hard costs entered in QuickBooks Online. Soft costs created directly in LeanLaw can still have attachments added manually in LeanLaw, but they do not sync from QuickBooks Online.
  • Lean Align required for email delivery: Automated attachment delivery via invoice email requires the Lean Align.