Help Center

About Actionstep Billing

TIP:  Actionstep Practice Management uses some common billing terms interchangeably. To learn more, see Understanding Billing Terminology in Actionstep.

Billing within a law firm ensures that you are fairly compensated for the services you provide. Billing serves as a formal record of the time, effort, and resources dedicated to a client's case or matter. It ensures transparency between the firm and the client, helping to build trust and accountability. Billing also plays a critical role in financial management since it allows firms to track revenue, forecast budgets, and maintain cash flow, ensuring the sustainability and growth of the business.

In Practice Management, bills are created and associated with specific matters. The process for creating a bill can be be customized based on your system-wide billing settings as well as your billing settings for individual matters.

 

Billing Setup

Admin users can define system-wide settings by going to Admin > Billing. To learn more, see Configuring Your Billing Settings (Admin).

You can then further customize the billing process on a per-matter basis. To learn more, see Setting Up Billing for a Specific Matter.

 

Billable Entries 

Bills are typically created from billable time entries. These include time entries (fee entries) and disbursements/expenses.

NOTE:  Matters can be billed at a fixed fee, regardless of the value of billable entries. For more information, see Setting Up a Fixed Fee Billing Arrangement for a Matter.

 

Billing Process

The sequence for how a bill is processed can be configured to suit your firm's needs. Specifically, you can set up a workflow that moves your invoices through each billing stage. (These stages can be visualized on the Billing menu.)

 

Mass Billing 

Bills can be created on a matter-by-matter basis with single-matter billing. However, bills can also be created in bulk using the Mass billing option.

NOTE:  The Mass Billing page shows your work in progress that can be invoiced at any time, depending on various settings. However, this is not a WIP report since some matters may be excluded from mass billing depending on settings in the matter's billing setup. As such, those bills may be excluded from this list view.

 

Draft Bills

Bills listed under Billing > Draft bills are awaiting approval. These bills can still be edited before being approved. Once approved, the bills move to the Bill Production page.

 

Bill Production

The Bill Production page contains all approved bills that have not been produced (i.e., printed and/or emailed to the recipient). Once a bill has been produced, it will be moved from the Bill Production list.

 

Bills List

Regardless of status, all bills in the system can be accessed by going to Billing > Bills List.

Bills can also be accessed on the matter where they were created. To do this, view the specific matter and click the Billing menu icon. Then choose Invoices / Bills.

 

Aged Receivables

Aged receivables refer to outstanding invoices or payments that have not yet been collected. Monitoring aged receivables helps you prioritize collection efforts, identify problematic accounts, and take necessary actions such as sending reminders or pursuing debt collection options. The Aged Receivables page in Practice Management can help you review outstanding balances your clients may hold. It also provides options for sending account statements individually or in bulk to some or all of these clients.

See About Account Statements to learn more.

 

Bill Payments

You can review all payments (including credit notes and write-offs) by going to Billing > Payments.

To review payments associated with a specific matter, view the matter, click the Billing menu icon, and choose Payments & write-offs from the list of options on the left. 

 

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