Matter Billing Options

In this article, you will learn about the 'Matter Billing Options', that are available within the billing menu in a matter.

You can access the matter billing options in two locations from within your matter. Go to your Matter > Click on the calculator in the menu bar within your matter. You can then either click on Edit located in the top bar or Matter billing options located in the left menu. 

Matter Billing

First of all, you'll want to determine whether or not billing is enabled for the matter at all. You can do so using the toggle under 'Enable' pictured in the screenshot above. If the matter is billable, you'll then want to select the Billing status. 'Use matter status for billing' will mean that the billing status mimics the state of the actual matter (open, closed). Otherwise, you can also set a static option of 'Open' or 'Closed' by default.

Basics

Here you can set the default bill template under 'Invoice template' - note that you can still override the default by selecting a different template at the time of generating the bill. You can also determine which email address the bill will be sent to - by default, the primary participant's email address will be available beneath this field. If you check the box next to their name, it will auto-populate the field with their email address. This email address will also be used for Mass Billing. You can also select an 'Email Template' for the email that is sent out along with the bill. Lastly, you can determine the number of copies that will be printed at the time of billing (1, 2 or Do Not Print).

Billing Arrangement

In this section, you can indicate whether a matter is to be billed on an Hourly or Fixed-Fee basis. You can nominate a pricing group. You can also create provisions to accommodate for situations where the WIP either exceeds or falls short of the quoted amount. Through the 'Fee Reductions' field, you can determine the behavior of discounts within the bill, in terms of whether or not they are visible as discounts to your client. Lastly, you can utilize the toggle pictured underneath the rest of the fields in the screenshot below to ensure that only disbursements will be billed out. This option can be disabled at any point to re-enable fees to be added to bills.

Estimate

You can outline a fee estimate here in terms of fees, fees and disbursements or disbursements only. 

Discount

You can nominate a matter discount here. This will apply a discount to every invoice in this matter (in relation to fees only, not expenses or disbursements). 

Rates

In this section, you can assign a default rate label to the matter, or create custom rate overrides. You can also click on the blue text under the 'CLIENT RATE' column to open the client's contact record and set a specific rate for the specified client.

General Retainers

Retainers are made available globally via the 'Billing Settings' but you are also able to determine whether they are enabled at a matter level. The 'To pay' field determines what activities the retainer balance can be applied against, and the 'Payment automation' field determines how balances are applied at the time of billing: manually or automatically.

Retainer Replenishment

When Retainer replenishment is enabled, you can enter a minimum balance and top-up trigger amount. At the time of billing, the system looks at the retainer balance and triggers. If the balance has reached the trigger amount, a minimum retainer balance request is added to the bill.

Trust Accounting

 This section allows you to control how the trust funds for the specified matter are used. With the 'To pay' field you can determine whether funds are only applied to unbilled items included on bills, or to both new charges and past receivables. 'Payment automation' will determine whether the funds are applied automatically or manually by the user.

Mass Billing Settings

Use this checkbox to determine whether or not the specified matter will be included/excluded as part of Mass Billing.

Fee Allocation

This setting inherits the default value set within Admin -> Billing Settings, but can also be changed for one specific client. 

More here: Fee Allocation Setttings

Tax

You can change your tax settings here. They are based on your setting in Admin-Billing however you can customize this on a matter-by-matter basis here. 

E-Billing

If enabled, you can use this section to determine which UTBMS codes will be used on the specified matter.

• Billing - Overview
• Mass Billing