LEDES Billing Format: Complete Guide for Law Firms

What LEDES is

LEDES stands for Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard. It is the file format most corporate legal departments and insurers require for electronic invoices from outside counsel. The standard is maintained by the LEDES Oversight Committee, a nonprofit made up of law firms, corporate legal departments, and e-billing vendors. When a client says "we need your invoices in LEDES," they almost always mean a specific version, and getting that version right is the difference between an invoice that posts and one that bounces.

The LEDES versions you will actually see

LEDES 1998B

Still the most widely used format. It is a plain-text file with pipe-delimited fields: the first line identifies the format (LEDES1998B[]), the second line lists the 24 field names, and every line after that is one fee or expense line item, terminated with []. Each line repeats the invoice-level information (invoice number, dates, totals, client and matter IDs) alongside the line-item detail. That repetition is deliberate; it makes each line self-describing for the receiving system.

LEDES 1998BI

The international variant of 1998B. It adds fields for taxes, currency, and other requirements outside the United States. Firms billing non-US clients or through global e-billing programs are usually asked for 1998BI.

LEDES 2000 and LEDES XML 2.0 and 2.1

The XML formats carry more structure than a flat file: multiple matters on one invoice, richer tax handling, timekeeper details, and adjustments. Larger corporate programs and some insurers require an XML version. If a client asks for "LEDES XML," confirm exactly which version and which optional segments they expect.

The 24 fields in a LEDES 1998B line

Every line in a 1998B file carries these fields, in this order:

1. INVOICE_DATE
2. INVOICE_NUMBER
3. CLIENT_ID
4. LAW_FIRM_MATTER_ID
5. INVOICE_TOTAL
6. BILLING_START_DATE
7. BILLING_END_DATE
8. INVOICE_DESCRIPTION
9. LINE_ITEM_NUMBER
10. EXP/FEE/INV_ADJ_TYPE (F for a fee, E for an expense, IF and IE for invoice-level adjustments)
11. LINE_ITEM_NUMBER_OF_UNITS (hours for fees, quantity for expenses)
12. LINE_ITEM_ADJUSTMENT_AMOUNT
13. LINE_ITEM_TOTAL
14. LINE_ITEM_DATE
15. LINE_ITEM_TASK_CODE
16. LINE_ITEM_EXPENSE_CODE
17. LINE_ITEM_ACTIVITY_CODE
18. TIMEKEEPER_ID
19. LINE_ITEM_DESCRIPTION
20. LAW_FIRM_ID
21. LINE_ITEM_UNIT_COST (the hourly rate for fees)
22. TIMEKEEPER_NAME
23. TIMEKEEPER_CLASSIFICATION (partner, associate, paralegal, and so on)
24. CLIENT_MATTER_ID

Dates are written as YYYYMMDD. Fee lines carry a task code and an activity code and leave the expense code blank; expense lines do the reverse. The task, activity, and expense codes come from UTBMS, which is covered in legal billing codes explained.

Why LEDES invoices get rejected

1. Identifier mismatches. The CLIENT_MATTER_ID or LAW_FIRM_ID does not match what the client's e-billing platform has on file. This is the single most common cause, and it has nothing to do with the work performed.
2. Invalid or missing codes. A fee line without an activity code, an expense line with a task code, or a code the client's guidelines prohibit.
3. Totals that do not reconcile. Units times unit cost, less adjustments, must equal the line total, and the line totals must sum to INVOICE_TOTAL.
4. Block billing. One line describing several tasks. Many platforms flag any line over a set number of hours, and reviewers reduce or reject block entries.
5. Format problems. A missing [] terminator, a pipe character inside a narrative, the wrong text encoding, or a version header that does not match the file.
6. Timekeeper not approved. Rates and timekeepers usually have to be loaded with the client before the first invoice that uses them.

Where LEDES files go

Corporate clients receive LEDES invoices through e-billing platforms. Commonly encountered ones include Thomson Reuters Legal Tracker, LexisNexis CounselLink, Wolters Kluwer's TyMetrix 360 and Passport, Onit, Brightflag, SimpleLegal, and Mitratech's Collaborati vendor portal. Each has its own validation rules and its own way of handling rejections, so the client's guidelines and the platform's help documentation are both worth reading before the first submission.

A practical workflow

1. Get the client's setup right first: matter IDs, approved timekeepers and rates, the required LEDES version, and any custom codes.
2. Enter time with the codes attached, so pre-bill review is checking codes rather than inventing them.
3. Run pre-bill review against the client's guidelines, not just your firm's, and fix block billing before export.
4. Export from your billing system, then validate the file. Most practice management and billing systems generate 1998B; XML support varies.
5. Keep the rejection reasons. A short log of why invoices bounced, by client, is the fastest way to stop it from happening again.

Where IntelliBill fits

IntelliBill's current Mac pilot works upstream of LEDES. It drafts time entries from Microsoft 365 email with UTBMS classification support, holds every draft for human review, and exports a reviewed CSV that you reconcile or import into the billing system that produces your invoices. It does not generate LEDES files itself today; your billing system still does that, with cleaner, better-coded entries going in.

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