Raising bills

Use this procedure to produce a client bill for outstanding disbursements and costs (i.e. time) recorded on the system. Bills can be made up of all or any part of these outstanding elements. Bills are produced using the Bill Delivered (BD) posting slip. The posting slip consists of a series of tabs where the bill amount is entered and then allocated across the desired disbursements and costs.

The first tab of the posting slip defines the basic bill details (e.g. client/matter, bill number, etc.) and also the bill amounts. These are the amounts up to which can be billed for each disbursement and costs element. For example, if you know there is £500 of VATable disbursements and £200 of costs that need billing, then these values are entered against the appropriate category. On the remaining tabs the bill amounts are then allocated to the desired disbursements and costs, until all the values are used up.

To raise a bill:

From the Accounts button drop-down menu, select BD. The Bill Delivered posting slip opens prompting you to enter the posting details.

You can also open the posting slip from the Batch Posting screen, if this is your preferred method of working. In the top pane highlight the BD batch (or add it if it is not already open) and then click Add in the lower pane.

On the Summary tab, enter the bill details, plus the relevant disbursement and cost billable amounts. You can also enter an anticipated time amount to be included on the bill. For more information on this, refer to Anticipated time.

Click the Non-VATable Disbs tab or click Next. A list of outstanding Non-VATable disbursements for the selected matter is displayed. Highlight the relevant disbursement(s) and click Allocate (or double-click the disbursement) to apportion the value of the disbursement.

In certain circumstances the system will allocate the disbursements it is easily able to match against the value entered on the Summary tab, otherwise you must double-click the disbursements to be included in the bill, keeping an eye on the Amount allocated and the Amount to allocate fields as these advise how much has been allocated and how much is left to allocate.

Repeat this process for the Non-VATable Disbs, VATable NYPs and Non-VATable NYPs tabs, until all the values have been allocated.
(Optional) If billing expenses (i.e. charges), allocate the amount on the Charges tab.
On the Mark Time tab, select the time to be billed.
On the Profit Split tab, divide the costs between fee earners.
(Optional) On the Billing tab, add additional invoicees and apportion the bill. See Creating split bills.
(Optional) On the Bill Options tab, specify:

Generate e-bill. Specifies whether an electronic bill (i.e. XML file) is produced, as part of the bill merge process, for forward transmission. You can choose always, only when specified by the invoicee or never.
Final bill. Specifies that the bill is the final bill for this matter.
Notify originator. Specifies if the person creating this bill will receive a notification message when the bill is posted by a cashier. See Draft bill posted notifications.

Select Update Now to post the entry directly to the Accounts Ledger.

If you want to add the entry to a batch for checking, select Add to Batch.

(Optional) If you have the required permissions, you can merge the posting slip data into a pre-defined template. This allows a document to be easily produced when a time posting is made. Tick Merge posting slip, choose a template (if different to the default) and what happens after the merge has finished, e.g. opens for editing, closes or prints.
Click OK to post the bill. The disbursements included on the bill are updated on the Disbursements tab of the Accounts Ledger with a date in the Billed column, the bill is recorded on the Bill tab and any time entries on the bill appear on the Time Ledger with a date in the Billed column.

Double-clicking a bill opens the Bill Viewer. This displays details of the bill such as; the bill number, the date it was posted, the bill text, etc.

Note

Pending/part pending disbursements or charges can be cleared down by entering zero in the appropriate field on the Summary tab. The related posting slip tabs are then updated automatically. For example, if the non-VATable disbursements value is zeroed then the software zeros the allocation shown on the Non-VATable Disbs tab.