Ideal Online Documentation

14168 T/B PROCESSING
TB2-03 Automatic Bill Processing

 

PURPOSE

 

The auto-billing program enables you to prepare printed invoices, ready to be sent to clients, and then automatically update the system without further posting of data. The program will print bills for matters and detail transactions that were previously flagged as "billable".

 

Running the auto-billing program is the last step in the process of generating client invoices. You should ensure that the following information/tasks are complete prior to generating auto-bills:

 

1. Set the matter to billable through either of the preliminary billing detail or matter selection programs. See 14179 PRELIMINARY BILLING DETAIL SELECTION and 14180 PRELIMINARY BILLING MATTER SELECTION.

 

2. Set the applicable detail transactions for the matter to billable through either of the preliminary billing detail or detail selection programs. See 14179 PRELIMINARY BILLING DETAIL SELECTION and 14180 PRELIMINARY BILLING MATTER SELECTION.

 

3. Post relevant adjustments, prorated adjustments, transfers or deletions.

 

Print a hardcopy of the preliminary billing detail report for your accounting department. This will display a matter's data immediately prior to billing. Therefore you should print a billing detail report after any of the above programs has been used to manipulate the details on the matter. See 14334 PRELIMINARY BILLING DETAIL REPORT.

 

 

4. Ensure that the appropriate fields in the matter maintenance screen for the matter are set up properly. Most of these fields will have been properly set up at the time of opening the matter. Fields included are:

 

CLIENT' REFERENCE NO.

 

If the operator enters a client's file number, claim number or other reference number in this field, it will appear on auto-bills below the matter description.

 

FEE TYPE

 

Hourly will generate an invoice made up entirely of the recorded time entries that have been selected for billing plus any adjustments that have been posted.

 

Flat Rate requires you to enter the value of total fees to be billed on the invoice. This value will appear on the total fees line of the invoice and overrides the value of all fee details selected as the amount being billed. This option enables you to generate an invoice at a specified amount regardless of the value of the time entries on the matter. Any variance between the value of the flat rate and the value of the selected time entries is automatically allocated on a prorated basis to all timekeepers with selected time entries on the matter.


Contingency will require you to enter the percentage of the settlement amount that the firm will be entitled to as well as the amount of the settlement. The fees total portion of the invoice will then specify, for example:

 

"To Our Fee (25% of $1,000,000) ...$250,000".

 

Similar to the Flat Rate option, any differences between the calculated fee billing amount and the value of all selected time entries will be allocated to all timekeepers on a prorated basis.

 

IdeaLaw calculates PST according to requirements set out in the Social Services Tax Act and uses the value and dates of the time entries to perform these calculations.

 

 

BILL FORMAT

 

Any one of 36 different bill formats can be chosen for the invoice by referencing the one digit code in this field. The bill format for any matter can be changed at any time or as often as required.  Bill formats are user-definable and can be created/revised through the bill format maintenance program. See 14274 FORMATS.

 

BILL PARAGRAPH

 

Any one of 108 different bill paragraphs can be attached to the invoice by referencing the two digit code in this field. You custom design these paragraphs (which can be up to 99 lines in length) to display information in the format desired. Up to 10 paragraphs can be attached to a matter.

 

If a paragraph is attached to a matter in field no. 11 - BILL PARAGRAPH, all paragraphs that are attached to the bill format used for the matter will not print. If any of the paragraphs attached to the bill format are wanted for the invoice, they can also be referenced in field no. 11.

 

 

TRUST ACCOUNT

 

Enter the five digit bank account code for the pooled trust account in which any/all retainer trust funds will be deposited for the matter. The auto-billing & trust transfer programs reference this information when trust transfers occur.

 

GST EXEMPT NO.

 

Ensure the proper information is entered in this field so that GST is properly calculated on the auto-bill. The field is a 3-way toggle switch that provides for:  GST Applies; GST Exempt; or GST Zero-Rated.

 

PST EXEMPT NO.

 

Ensure the proper information is entered in this field so that PST is properly calculated on the auto-bill. The field is a 2-way toggle switch that provides for:  PST Applies; or PST Exempt.

 

CLIENT NAME & ADDRESS

 

If necessary, the information in the respective CLIENT NAME, CLIENT ADDRESS, CLIENT CONTACT and MATTER CONTACT fields can be double-checked for accuracy as the auto-billing program draws this information from these fields when generating an invoice.


5. Enter any desired trust transfer information in the Trust Transfer program.

 

The auto-billing program can now be started for the batch of invoices. When running this program, you will prompted whether invoices are to be printed by lawyer or by cycle code for particular lawyer(s)/cycle(s) or for all. You must also input the billing date and G/L date.

 

You are provided an opportunity to do a test print to print a sample bill before sending the entire print job to the printer. This feature is useful if you use pre-printed invoice paper and wish to ensure the paper is properly lined up before printing the entire batch of bills. The system also allows you to reprint a batch of bills if the first print job was not satisfactory (i.e. printer jam, no ribbon, etc.).

 

You have the option to send the print job to any designated printer attached to your network or print to disk. If the batch of bills is printed to disk, they can be accessed through any word processing program for further manipulation.

 

In order to take advantage of the "one-write" posting effect that the auto-billing program provides, it is highly recommended that you do not allow modifications to the values of bills once they are being modified through a word processing program. As the program allows for the system update to occur without any further reposting, to alter the value of the bills would cause the necessity of cancelling the invoice from the batch and posting the modified bill through the manual bill program.

 

 

Upon completion of the printing of invoices, a register/audit trail listing detailed information about the invoices being generated will be printed. You can then choose the End option for the batch and put it on hold. You can use this register as a record of the invoices contained in the batch until such time as the invoices have been signed and returned for delivery to the client(s). Upon receipt of the batch of invoices from the lawyer who is responsible for signing the bills, you have the following options:

 

Update the batch if all bills are okay to send to clients.

 

If certain invoices require further revisions, they can be individually cancelled from the batch and then you can update the remaining invoices in the batch.

 

The invoice numbers used on the cancelled invoices will not be reissued by the program.

 

 

If certain invoices require revisions to the client name, contact name, address, matter description, client reference number or if another bill format or different paragraphs are to be used, you must make these changes and reprint the invoice(s) from within the original batch.

 

The program automatically assigns sequential invoice numbers that are preceded with a single letter. The purpose of the preceding letter is to differentiate auto-bills from manually posted invoices. The company control parameter "Auto-Billing Invoice Prefix" will have been set to the letter of your firm's choice at the time of installing the software.

 

Automatic Bill Processing is accessed from:

  • Bill Processing menu.

PROCEDURE - BATCH CREATION/ACCESS

 

Select Automatic Bill Processing from the Bill Processing menu.

 

You are taken to the batch selection screen where you may create a new batch or select an existing batch for further processing. Batches are not terminal dependent. To select an existing batch for further processing see PROCEDURE - ACCESS AN EXISTING BATCH. Additional batches can be created whether or not previous batches have been updated. To update or abort a batch see PROCEDURE - REGISTER PRINTING AND UPDATE. If there are existing batches the first will be displayed and you have the options of processing the displayed batch, accessing another batch or creating a new batch.

 

If you are creating a new batch and there are existing batches, press [Enter] at the batch selection screen. This clears the display of any existing batches.

 

AUTO BILL PROCESSING SCREEN DISPLAY

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Jul23/07 TF6               ***** BILL PRINTING *****                     1TABF1 â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│          BATCH TYPE          _____                                             â”‚
│          COMPANY NUMBER                                                        â”‚
│          SOURCE CODE                                                           â”‚
│          BATCH NUMBER                                                          â”‚
│          USE REAL INV #'S                                                      â”‚
│          BY PROGMR/CYCLE                                                       â”‚
│          FOR PROGMR/CYCLE(S)                                                   â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│          BILLING DATE                                                          â”‚
│          G/L DATE                                                              â”‚
│          BATCH DESCRIPTION                                                     â”‚
│          EXPORT TO WP                                                          â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│ENTER 'D' FOR DRAFT INVOICES, 'R' FOR REAL INVOICES.                            â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
BATCH TYPE

 

"D" for draft invoices.

 

"R" for real invoices.

 

COMPANY NUMBER

 

Displays the company you are working in.

 

SOURCE CODE

 

Displays the default source code setting.

 

BATCH NUMBER

 

Enter the number of the batch you wish to access.

 

See PROCEDURE - ACCESS AN EXISTING BATCH.

 

 

[Enter] to create a new batch.

 

[F4] to exit to menu.

 

[F5] to display list of open batches for selection.

 

BY LAWYER/CYCLE

 

[Enter] to accept the default "L".

 

"L" to print bills by lawyer.

 

"C" to print bills by cycle code.

 

Invoices for all matters that have been set to billable status will print for each lawyer or cycle selected. The cycle option will print bills for all billable matters for all lawyers that have been programmed to be included in the referenced cycle. This option can be useful for firms that want to bill all billable matters for all lawyers in a department at one specified time. The lawyer/timekeeper maintenance program enables you to attach a lawyer to a cycle. See 14279 LAWYER/TIMEKEEPER MAINTENANCE.

 

 

FOR LAWYER/CYCLE(S)

 

Enter the lawyer or cycle code(s) to include in the batch.

 

[Enter] for all lawyers or cycles.

 

[F5] to display list of codes for selection.

 

BILLING DATE

 

Enter the date to show on bills.

 

[Enter] for current system date.

 

G/L DATE

 

Enter the date to update general ledger.

 

This date should be within the same accounting period as the date referenced in the BILLING DATE field.

 

 

[Enter] for same date as selected for billing date.

 

BATCH DESCRIPTION

 

Enter a description to identify batch.

 

You can enter up to 30 characters.

 

 

EXPORT TO WP

 

[Enter] to accept the default "N".

 

"Y" to export output to a wordprocessing file.

 

"N" to not export output to a wordprocessing file.

 


PROCEDURE - ACCESS AN EXISTING BATCH

 

Select Automatic Bill Processing from the Bill Processing menu. If there are existing batches on hold the oldest on-hold batch will be displayed. You have the option to open the batch on the screen by pressing [F1] or to scroll through all open batches by pressing [F2].

 

Example Automatic Bill Processing Data Entry display:

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│01/06/07 Tm7               ***** BILL PRINTING *****                     3TABF1 â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│          BATCH TYPE          REAL                                              â”‚
│          COMPANY NUMBER      99  IdeaLaw Ltd.                                  â”‚
│          SOURCE CODE         TB                                                â”‚
│          BATCH NUMBER        0038                                              â”‚
│          BY LAWYER/CYCLE     L                                                 â”‚
│          FOR LAWYER/CYCLE(S) ALL                                               â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│          BILLING DATE        12/12/06                                          â”‚
│          G/L DATE            12/12/06                                          â”‚
│          BATCH DESCRIPTION   Dewdney Trunk Lien                                â”‚
│          EXPORT TO WP        N                                                 â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│** SPECIFY BATCH (CR=NEW BATCH; F1=START; F2=NEXT; F4=END):  ____               â”‚
│PRESS CR FOR NULL, F5 FOR INQUIRIES, F2 FOR NULL, F3 TO BACK UP.                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
** SPECIFY BATCH (CR=NEW BATCH; F1=START; F2=NEXT; F4=END):  ____
PRESS CR FOR NULL, F5 FOR INQUIRIES, F2 FOR NULL, F3 TO BACK UP.

 

Enter the number of the batch you wish to access.

 

[Enter] to create a new batch.

 

See PROCEDURE - BATCH CREATION/ACCESS.

 

 

[F1] to display batch options for processing batch.

 

See PROCEDURE - BATCH OPTIONS.

 

 

[F2] to display the next open batch, if any.

 

[F4] to exit to menu.

 

[F5] to display list of open batches for selection.

 

 

PROCEDURE - BATCH OPTIONS

 

Once a batch has been opened by pressing [F1], the following options are displayed.

 

(1) RE-PRINT INVOICES
(2) CANCEL INVOICE(S)
(3) PRINT REGISTER
** ENTER SELECTION (ENTER='1'):  1

 

[Enter] to reprint the invoices.

 

This is the default selection. You have the option of reprinting the invoices from the beginning of the batch or entering the invoice number from which to start. This enables you to print from the last correctly printed bill in situations where printing was interrupted by a paper jam or faint ribbon, etc.

 


** DO YOU WANT TO RESTART FROM THE BEGINNING ? (Y/N): Y

 

[Enter] to accept the default "Y".

 

"Y" to print all of the invoices.

 

"N" to print only some of the invoices.

 

When you select "N" the following prompt displays.

 

 

** ENTER THE BILL NUMBER FROM THE LAST CORRECT BILL:  A######

 

Enter the number of last bill that printed correctly.

 

** PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE; F3 TO RE-ENTER; F4 TO END:

 

[Enter] to continue to print selection menu.

 

[F3] to return to the previous field.

 

"2" to cancel bills that were printed but not yet updated.

 

Upon entering the invoice number, the bill information is displayed. Once a bill has been cancelled, it cannot be reversed and a new bill will have to be produced.

 

 

BILL CANCELLATION SCREEN DISPLAY

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1/06/97                       IdeaLawLtd.                                  TABF│
│                               BILL CANCELLATION                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│   BILL NUMBER                ______                                            â”‚
│   RESP LAWYER                                                                  â”‚
│   CLIENT CODE                                                                  â”‚
│   MATTER NUMBER                                                                â”‚
│   AMOUNT                                                                       â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│PRESS F3 TO BACK UP, F4 TO END.                                                 â”‚
│PRESS CR FOR NULL, F5 FOR INQUIRIES.                                            â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
PRESS F3 TO BACK UP, F4 TO END.

 

Enter the bill number to cancel.

 

The program displays the lawyer code, client and matter code, amount of the bill and prompts for confirmation. Press [Enter] to cancel the bill. You are then returned to the BILL NUMBER field where you may enter another bill to cancel or press [F3] to complete cancellations.

 

 

[Enter] to clear the displayed bill.

 

[F3] to return to main prompt.

 

[F4] to exit to menu.

 

[F5] to display list of bills for selection.


"3" to reprint the register for any specified batch.

 

This feature is particularly important when bills have been cancelled so that you have an up-to-date copy of the registers. The original registers, printed at the time of printing the bills, would not include details of any bill cancellations and would therefore be out of date.

 

 

** CONFIRM ? (ENTER=START PROGRAM, F4=RETURN TO MENU):

 

[Enter] to continue to print selection menu.

 

[F4] to exit to menu.

 

 

PROCEDURE - REGISTER PRINTING AND UPDATE

 

After you have completed data entry in a new batch or existing batch, press [F4] to exit. You are taken to the print selection menu where you may print the batch registers.

 

PRINTER SELECTION & CONFIGURATION

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│08/14/07                *****  PRINTER SELECTION  *****                         │
│                                                                                â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│** MAKE SURE PRINTER IS READY BEFORE PRESSING CR .....                          â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│1. PRINTER NAME ................................. P1  OKIDATA 390               â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│2. CHARACTERS PER INCH ? (10,12,17) ............. 10                            â”‚
│   SINGLE OR DOUBLE DENSITY ? (S,D) ............. S   SINGLE DENSITY            â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
│** PRESS CR TO SET PRINTER, OPTION# TO CHANGE, F4 TO END (BYPASS): _            â”‚
│                                                                                â”‚
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
** PRESS CR TO SET PRINTER, OPTION# TO CHANGE, F4 TO END (BYPASS):

 

"1" to change printers.

 

"2" to change the CPI and/or print density.

 

[Enter] to print.

 

[F4] to not print and exit to the menu.

 

[F5] to display a list of printers for selection.

 

After printing the registers you have the following options. If you do not print the registers, the batch options are not available.

 

** ENTER OPTION.....   REPRINT; MORE INPUT; UPDATE; ABORT; END:

 

"R" to reprint the register.

 

"M" to enter additional data into the batch.

 

"U" to update the batch.

 

"A" to abort the batch, all data in the batch is lost.

 

"E" to exit, batch remains open, no data is lost.