Choosing the Bill Behavior for Billable Time Entries

When you create billable time or fee entries, you can choose the Bill behavior for the time entry, including how the entry appears on a bill—whether it is charged and whether it's visible to the client.

This article covers the different Bill Behavior options, where you can set default Bill Behavior, and how to report on it.

Adjusting Bill Behavior When Recording Time

To review and change the bill behavior for a time entry:

In Actionstep Practice Management, create or edit a time entry. (See Creating a Time or Fee Entry or Editing Time Entries From Your Timesheet for help.)
Complete the time entry form or review an existing time entry and make sure Billable is selected.
Click the Bill behavior drop-down list.
Choose from the following options:
- Bill: Select this option if you want the time entry to appear on the bill with the value added to the bill's total.
- Hide: Select this option if you don't want the time entry to be displayed on the bill or affect the bill's total. On the invoice window, it is marked with (Hide/NC) in the invoice amount column.
- No Charge: Select this option if you want the time entry to appear on the bill, but not affect the bill's total.
Click Save to save your changes.

Setting Bill Behavior Defaults

You can set the default time entry bill behavior at the system level, which means that the default selection will be suggested. It can be adjusted, however, on a matter-by-matter basis and overridden on the time entry.

To do this:

Go to Admin > Billing. The Billing page appears.
In the Hourly invoices/bills section, click the Default time entry behavior drop-down list and choose how you want the billable time entries to appear by default.
Click Save to save your changes.

You can also override this system default at the matter level.

To do this:

Edit the matter you want to change. (See Editing a Matter for help.)
Click the Billing menu icon. The Billing page appears.
In the menu on the left side, click Matter billing options. The Matter billing options fields appear in the main area of the page.
In the Billing arrangement section, click the Default time entry behavior drop-down list and choose the option you prefer for this particular matter.
Click Save to save your changes.