Split Billing in LeanLaw

Split billing lets your firm divide a single matter's invoiced fees and expenses across two or more clients — each receiving their own invoice for their share. Once configured, the split is automatic: you run your billing cycle as normal and LeanLaw handles the division.

📋 Pro and Elite only: Split billing is available on Pro and Elite LeanLaw subscriptions. If you open the Split Billing tab on a matter and see an upgrade prompt, your firm is on Core. Go to Settings → Subscription to upgrade.

When to Use Split Billing

Split billing is designed for matters where one body of legal work is shared between multiple paying parties:

Scenario	Example
Estate planning / family trusts	A parent passes away; legal fees for trust administration are divided among siblings.
Divorce and family law	Both parties share responsibility for certain legal costs.
Multi-defendant litigation	Co-defendants split the cost of a joint defense.
Corporate / partnership matters	Partners in a business each pay their share of shared legal work.

How Split Billing Works: The Core Concept

The key thing to understand about LeanLaw's split billing is the relationship between the primary matter and secondary matters:

Primary client/matter: All time entries and expenses are recorded here. Drafts are created here. This is the only place you track work — timekeepers cannot pick secondary matters when entering time or expenses.
Secondary clients/matters: Each secondary client is a full LeanLaw client with their own matter. However, rates, billing settings, and all WIP live on the primary. Secondary matters are locked — they cannot be edited for rates or billing independently.

The split only takes effect when the invoice is submitted to QuickBooks. Until then, everything operates on the primary matter as a single invoice. At submission, LeanLaw generates separate invoices — one per client — each reflecting that client's share.

💡 Best practice — use a shared primary client: For scenarios with multiple equal parties (e.g., siblings splitting an estate bill), consider creating a shared 'parent' entity as the primary client (e.g., 'Gelinas Family Trust') at 0% allocation, and making each paying party a secondary client at their respective share. This keeps all billables cleanly on the shared primary, makes it easy to add or remove parties later, and avoids any one party appearing to 'own' the matter.

Setting Up Split Billing on a Matter

Step 1: Create the Primary Client and Matter

Create the primary client and matter in LeanLaw as you normally would. This is where all time and expenses will be tracked. Once created, a Split Billing tab appears on the matter (Pro/Elite only).

📋 Existing matters can become primary: You can add split billing to a matter that already has time entries, WIP, or invoicing history — the existing matter becomes the primary. You cannot, however, link an existing secondary matter with its own history to the split relationship.

Step 2: Configure the Split and Add Secondary Clients

Open the primary matter and go to the Split Billing tab. The tab shows the current client at 100% allocation by default. From here you can add secondary clients in one of two ways:

Option	When to Use
Create a new client inline	Click Add Client, enter the client's name and email, set their percentage share, and click the green checkbox to confirm. LeanLaw creates the client and a linked matter in one step — you don't need to leave the matter to set them up.
Select an existing client	If the secondary client already exists in LeanLaw, click Add Client and select them from the dropdown. Set their percentage and confirm.

Open the primary matter and go to the Split Billing tab.
Click Add Client (or the + button).
Either select an existing client from the dropdown or enter a name and email to create a new one.
Enter their percentage share.
Click the green checkbox to confirm. LeanLaw automatically creates a linked matter for the secondary client with the same name as the primary matter.
Repeat for any additional parties. There is no limit on the number of split parties.

📋 Matters are created automatically: Whether you create a new client inline or select an existing one, LeanLaw creates a linked matter with the same name as the primary matter. You cannot link an existing matter that already has its own billing history to a split relationship — secondary matters must be created through the split billing configuration. Matter names are enforced to match across all parties.

💡 Changing the split later: You can adjust the split percentages at any time from the Split Billing tab on the primary matter. Changes apply to any existing draft and all future invoices. If you need to remove a party, remove them from the split configuration — their linked matter will be disconnected.

Step 3: Verify Rates Cascade

Rates are set on the primary matter only. When you update billing rates or rate groups on the primary, they automatically cascade to all secondary matters. Secondary matters show a note indicating they are linked to the primary for billing settings — you cannot edit rates on secondary matters independently.

The Billing Workflow with Split Billing

Tracking Time and Expenses

All time entries and expenses are recorded on the primary client's matter — exactly as you would for any other matter. Timekeepers cannot select secondary matters when creating entries; those matters are locked for data entry. If a timekeeper tries to pick a secondary matter, it will not be available in the matter selector.

Creating a Draft Invoice

On the Ready to Bill page, only the primary client appears with WIP — secondary clients show nothing. Create the draft from the primary matter as normal.

When you open the draft, the bill-to section reflects that this is a multi-party invoice. You can see a preview of how the split will be applied — the full invoice total and each party's share. Edit time entries and expenses as you normally would; you are editing the total invoice that will then be divided.

📋 Adjusting the split from within a draft: You cannot change the split percentages from inside the draft editor. To adjust percentages, go back to the Split Billing tab on the primary matter, make the change, then return to the draft — it will reflect the updated split.

Submitting to QuickBooks

When you submit the invoice to QuickBooks Online, this is where the split takes effect. LeanLaw generates separate invoices — one per client — each with its own invoice number. In Manage Invoices, you will see one row per party.

Each invoice in QuickBooks Online contains the full line items (all hours, fees, expenses) plus adjustment line items that subtract the share not owed by that client. For example, if Tim pays 40%: the invoice shows the full $900 total, then a negative adjustment line labeled '60% paid by other parties' bringing his amount due to $360.

📋 Why full amounts plus adjustments? This approach keeps the accounting correct in QuickBooks Online — each client's invoice maps to the right income account and (if applicable) class. Each adjustment item corresponds to a product/service on the invoice. If there are both hourly services and expenses, there will be a separate adjustment line for each. If class tracking is enabled, there may be additional adjustment lines per class/product combination.

⚠️ LeanLaw PDF preferred: The QuickBooks Online-native invoice print view can look confusing with the adjustment line items. The LeanLaw invoice PDF presents the split clearly — it shows the full work performed, a 'share of invoice' section showing each party's share, and the amount due for that client.

Note: for setups using a 0% shared primary entity, the 0% line was flagged for removal from the split summary display — verify whether this has been cleaned up in the current product. For split billing clients, strongly recommend using the LeanLaw invoice PDF rather than QuickBooks Online's print view.

After Submission: Independent Client Management

Once invoices are submitted to QuickBooks Online, each client is handled entirely independently:

Separate invoice numbers: Each party receives their own QuickBooks Onlineinvoice number.
Separate AR: Each client has their own accounts receivable balance.
Separate payments: Each client pays independently. One client paying does not affect another's balance.
Separate trust: Each client can have their own trust/retainer account. Confido Legal payment links are generated per client.
Separate email delivery: You can email each client's invoice independently from Manage Invoices.

Undoing a Split Invoice

If you need to bring a split invoice back to draft (e.g., to make corrections), LeanLaw always undoes all parties together — you cannot undo one party's invoice independently. All invoices in the split group return to a single combined draft on the primary matter.

⚠️ Payment blocks undo: If any party in the split group has made a payment (full or partial) against their invoice, that invoice cannot be undone. This follows the same rule as standard invoices — you must remove the payment in QBO before undoing. Because the group moves together, a payment on any one party's invoice blocks the entire group from being undone.

Reporting Behavior

Split billing has specific reporting behavior to be aware of:

Report	Behavior
Billables (WIP, Billed, Collected by Client/Matter)	Billable totals appear on the primary client only. Secondary clients show zero in billables reports — all hours and WIP are attributed to the primary matter.
Billed and Collected	Once invoiced, billed and collected amounts are split across each client according to their share. Each client's AR and collections are tracked independently.
Productivity reports	Hours and productivity are reported on the primary client/matter. Secondary matters contribute nothing to productivity data.

💡 Expectation-setting for clients: Firms setting up split billing should be aware that billable reporting will not show a per-party breakdown of hours worked — only the primary client carries that data. If parties request individual billing reports showing their proportional share of hours, this is not currently available in standard reports.

Known Limitations (Beta)

No existing matter linking: You cannot link an existing secondary matter (with its own billing history) into a split billing relationship. Secondary matters must be newly created through the split billing configuration.
Invoice number conflicts on undo/redo: When a split invoice is undone and re-submitted, there is potential for invoice number conflicts (per the same issue that affects standard invoices with duplicate numbers). Monitor for this during beta.

Enabling Split Billing (Beta)

To request beta access or enable split billing for a client account, contact product@myleanlaw.com.