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Creating a Bill for a Specific Matter

In Actionstep Practice Management, you can create a bill for a single matter. Once you create the bill, you can then access it in the Billing area where you can produce it and share it with the client.

 

Creating a Bill for a Single Matter

To do this:

  1. In Practice Management, click the global Create button and choose Bill from the Billing section. (You may need to click Show all to view all options.) The Create Bill window appears.
  2. If you weren't already viewing a matter when you clicked this option, click the Matter drop-down list and choose the matter you want to bill for.

  3. The Create Bill window is updated with billing information. In most cases, the unbilled charges will be tabulated, allowing you to review the charges and approve the bill.

    Note: If you instead see a window like the following, please see A Note About Estimates vs. WIPs (below) to understand how to choose.

  4. Review the information in the blue Charges panel, which shows a quick summary of what you can expect to see on the final bill that is sent to the client. You can override these balances by clicking on them. If you change any existing amounts, you will be asked you how you would like to process the changes, for example: 

    Note: Depending on whether you are increasing or decreasing an amount in the summary, you will see either a Fee increase behavior or Fee decrease behavior drop-down list. If you are creating an entirely new disbursement or fee, the creation window for the respective item will appear instead.

  5. Review and, if needed, update the billing information along the top of the window:
    • Invoice date (also known as the AR date) shows the current date. This date is also used to track the age of the invoice. If a fee or disbursement from the WIP falls outside of the selected invoice date, it will be excluded from the bill.
    • Invoice / Bill up to allows you to specify the cutoff date for including fee entries and disbursements.
    • Invoice / Bill template lets you choose which template you want to use to format the bill. (You can change this on a bill-by-bill basis.)
    • Payment terms lets you change the timeframe in which the client must pay the bill. (You can change this on a bill-by-bill basis.)
  6. Click the Fees or Disbursements tab (which contain the primary billable items) and review the information. You can edit, create, and confirm any of this information:
    • To edit an item's Type, Date, Description, or Bill Amount, click its link.
    • To create a new item, click Create time entry.
  7.  Click the Fee Allocation tab to determine the commission recipient for each billable item. You can adjust each recipient's contribution based on the Amount or the Split %, and the other field will be adjusted automatically to reflect your change.
  8. Click the Additional settings tab and provide the following information:
    • Invoice / bill reference: Enter the invoice number, which will be used for internal reference.
    • Invoice / bill title: Enter a title, which is used as an internal reference. Note that depending on the template being used, the title may also be displayed above the time entry/disbursement details.
    • Invoice / bill description: Enter a description for the invoice template. This usually works as as a replacement for time entries/expense details. Note that not all templates will use this information.
    • Additional notes: Enter any additional information associated with this invoice. This usually appears as a footnote on the bill.
  9. When your bill is ready, click one of the following options:
    • Save as Draft: Choose this option to save your progress but not generate the bill.
    • Save + Approve: Choose this to approve and generate the bill. Once the bill is generated, it will be saved to the Billing > Bill production list, which means the bill is moved to Finalized status. It also means the finalized invoice will be printed and/or emailed to the client (if those options are enabled in the matter's Billing Options.) See Producing Bills for Clients for help.
    • Preview PDF: Choose this option to preview a PDF copy of the bill.

If you have enabled the option to save invoices to matter's document list, you must first produce the invoice for it be saved to the folder. 

 

A Note About Estimates vs. WIPs

If a fee estimate has been made for the specified matter that does not match the WIP, when you first open the Create a Bill window, you will see a prompt similar to the one shown below. You can choose to bill the quoted amount, the WIP, the sum of both, or you can manually enter a new amount by selecting Other. The default selection on this window will depend on your Billing Settings.

 

How-To Video

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