Working with Anticipated Disbursements

When creating disbursements in Actionstep, you can mark the disbursement as anticipated. 

An anticipated disbursement refers to a payment that is expected to be made in the future but is currently listed on a bill or financial statement. It essentially indicates that a cost will be incurred on behalf of a client even though the actual payment hasn't been made yet. For example, you might anticipate costs like court filing fees or other expenses related to a matter. You can use an anticipated disbursement to bill for these items even though they are yet to be paid out. 

Anticipated disbursement can then be converted into a supplier invoice or firm withdrawal. To avoid creating duplicate disbursements, when a supplier invoice is processed, Actionstep can check whether the invoice has the same matter and supplier as an existing anticipated invoice. You can then choose to convert the anticipated disbursement into a supplier invoice line item.  

There are three workflows when working with anticipated disbursements:

• Create an anticipated disbursement
• Create a supplier invoice
• Convert an anticipated disbursement to a firm withdrawal

To create an anticipated disbursement: 

1. In Actionstep, click the global Create button and choose Disbursement from the Timesheet section. (You may need to click Show all to view all the options.) The New Disbursement window appears. 
2. Toggle Anticipated to on.
    
3. Complete the rest of the information on the form. (See Entering Disbursements for a complete list of instructions.) 
4. Click Save to save the disbursement.

When you receive the supplier invoice, you can either convert the disbursement to a withdrawal or add it to a supplier invoice. This changes the disbursement from anticipated to a hard cost. 

To create a supplier invoice: 

1. In Actionstep, click Accounting in the main menu and choose Purchases > Supplier Invoice. The Supplier Invoice page appears. 
2. Click Quick Entry Wizard. The Quick Entry Wizard window appears. 
3. Complete the fields on the form. (See Creating a Supplier Invoice/Vendor Invoice for a complete list of instructions.) 
4. If the information you enter about the supplier and matter ID match an anticipated disbursement, a notification appears at the top of the window and an icon appears next to the line item in the itemized list.
   
5. Click the yellow anticipated disbursement icon for the line item. A list of potential matching disbursements is displayed. 
6. Select the anticipated disbursement you want to associate. The fields for the line item are filled in.  
7. Click the Save option you prefer: Save and Create New or Save and Close. The disbursement is converted to a hard cost.

To convert an anticipated disbursement to a firm withdrawal: 

1. In Actionstep, view the matter that has the anticipated disbursement pending. (See Editing a Matter for instructions.) 
2. Click the Billing menu icon. The Billing page appears. 
3. Click Disbursements from the list of options on the left side of the page.  
4. Click the link for the anticipated disbursement you want to convert. The Edit Disbursement window appears. 
5. Click Convert to Withdrawal.
   The New Firm Withdrawal window appears. The anticipated disbursement is listed in the itemized list. 
6. Enter any additional information that is needed to complete the conversion. 
7. Click Save. The disbursement is converted to a hard cost.