The programs in the time billing module enable you to handle the full cycle of bill processing, from analyzing unbilled time and disbursements for client/matters, preparing and posting client invoices and trust transfers to printing reports and forms. The following paragraphs provide an overview of the main programs in this module.
Preliminary Billing Summary Report
The preliminary billing summary report lists details of all clients with matters that have outstanding unbilled time and disbursement entries. The report provides a list of all matters that presently have amounts of unbilled and/or prebilled time and disbursements that should be billed or otherwise dealt with. This report will not display matters unless they have a balance outstanding in either or both of the unbilled and prebilled category columns. Additionally, the report displays trust and A/R balances for each matter displayed.
This report is intended to provide the reader with a summarized view of all requested client/matters and to determine which of them should be invoiced. The report is also useful for identifying client/matters that have unbilled time and disbursements that should be deleted or allocated against existing prebilled data. This exception report has the capability of printing only those matters that meet selected criteria such as: only client/matters that have unbilled values exceeding $5,000.
Preliminary Billing Detail Report
The preliminary billing detail report (also known as the "prebill" or "draft bill") displays all unbilled time and disbursement details for all client/matters selected. This report provides the details of the accumulated unbilled time and disbursement data with a view to generating an invoice to the client or dealing with the unbilled detail in another fashion (eg - deletions or transfers).
Matter Selection
The matter selection program can be used to select matters for the purpose of generating automatic invoices. Once the preliminary billing summary report has been analyzed, and matters to be billed have been identified, the matter selection program is used to set the status flag on the matters to either billable or selected.
If preferred, you can bypass the use of this program by setting the status flag of the matters to be billed directly in the preliminary billing detail report program's selection process. Alternatively, you can use the matter selection program to select the matters to be billed and thus avoid keying the applicable client/matter numbers into the preliminary billing detail report program.
Detail Selection
The detail selection program is used to select or deselect unbilled time and/or disbursement items. The detail transactions will display the term flagged to the left of the detail descriptions once they are selected.
The purpose of flagging the details is to include them in an action that is to be performed on the matter (eg: auto-bill, transfer, deletion, adjustment, etc.).
Time & Disbursement Adjustments
The adjustments program is used to make adjustments to either time or disbursement entries or to a matter total. Additionally, changes can be made to the billing status, transaction date, lawyer code, work code, G/L recoverable expense, bank account or reference number.
Prorated Adjustments
The pro-rated adjustments program allows you to make prorated adjustments to the time entries for any specified matter. Prior to using this program, the matter and the time details must be selected by using the matter selection and time/disbursement selection programs.
The pro-rated adjustments program eliminates the necessity to calculate manually the prorated share of increases or decreases to the billable amount of a matter on a timekeeper by timekeeper basis.
Time & Disbursement Transfers
The time & disbursement transfers program is used to transfer unbilled time or disbursement entries from one client/matter to another client/matter. The matter and the details within the matter do not have to have been previously selected as this program provides access to the detail transactions for flagging purposes.
Time & Disbursement Deletions
The time & disbursement deletions program is used to delete any unbilled time or disbursement entries that will not be billed to a client.
You must give careful consideration to ensure that the transactions cannot be billed from their original client/matter or if they can be transferred to another matter and billed from it. Many law firms choose to implement an in-house procedure that has a lawyer or administrator approve any deletions prior to their completion.
You should also ensure that the details on the matter are not to be allocated to a previously posted pre-bill.
Manual Billing - Assign Next Invoice No.
The assign next invoice number program automatically assigns the next available sequential invoice number to be used on manually prepared invoices. You have the option of using or not using this program to suit your needs.
Manual Billing - Bill Processing
The manual bill processing program is used to update client/matters, system statistics and the general ledger with billing information for bills that were not generated by the system through the auto-billing program. It is not used to generate bills.
The manual bill processing program requires that an invoice number be posted for each bill entered. Therefore staff members who prepare client invoices through means other than the auto-billing program should use the assign next invoice number program to obtain their invoice numbers.
The manual bill processing program can also be used to post invoice reversals and subsequent reposting of invoices for internal purposes where the client will not receive copies of reversed and reposted invoices. The primary purpose of this procedure is to make posting corrections to firm statistics when incorrect billing allocations have occurred during the original bill posting. The invoice number used on the original invoice can be reused on the reversal and reposted entries.
Manual Billing - Retainer-Bill Allocations
The retainer-bill allocations program is used to allocate pre-billed amounts to unbilled time and/or disbursement entries that have been selected for allocation. The pre-billed amounts have been previously billed in a manual bill entry.
You can determine if estimated time and/or disbursement billings were over- or under-estimated by comparing the pre-billed values that appear as credits against subsequently posted time and disbursement transactions that appear as debits on the matter. The resulting variance between the two is automatically posted to statistical reports and the general ledger.
Automatic Billing - Trust Transfer Entry
The transfer trust program allows you to make automatic trust transfers as part of the auto-billing process. Invoices that include trust transfers will indicate the value of trust being transferred and the net amount owing. The program also handles the posting of trust transfers, eliminating the need to rekey this information.
Automatic Billing - Bill Processing
The auto-billing program enables you to prepare printed invoices that are ready to send to clients and automatically update the system without further posting of data. This program prints bills for those matters and detail transactions selected (or flagged) as billable.
Automatic Billing - Paragraph Maintenance
The bill paragraph maintenance program enables you to define up to 108 separate paragraphs of text as boiler-plate clauses. These can be attached to bill formats or to specific matters, giving you great flexibility in the preparation of customized invoice formats.
Automatic Billing - Format Maintenance
The bill format maintenance program enables you to define customized invoice formats to dtermine the appearance of auto-bills. You can create and uniquely name up to 36 different formats using a one-digit code of any letter or number. A bill format code of your choice is referenced for each matter in the matter maintenance program.