NOTE: Several years ago, Actionstep updated its billing functionality. During this changeover, the two systems were referred to as classic billing and enhanced billing mode. Enhanced billing is now the default billing workflow in Actionstep, so it is referred to as current billing throughout this article.
In this article:
- Switching from Classic to Current Billing (Admin)
- Features of Current Billing
- Discontinued Features
- Matter Billing Preferences
- Where to Find Features in Current Billing
- Billing Reporting
- Billing FAQ
If you are a classic billing user, you can migrate your billing system to the billing system currently supported in Actionstep, which has many features that simplify billing while giving more control over how you want to bill. (The current billing system may sometimes be referred to as enhanced billing.)
For classic users, the experience has been streamlined in an easy-to-understand interface at the matter and system levels. Many system areas and functions have been updated to provide ease-of-use and reveal the options that matter the most when customizing your billing process.
Switching from Classic to Current Billing (Admin)
An admin user can migrate from classic billing to current billing. To test current billing functionality prior to switching, submit a Actionstep Support request and Actionstep can provide you with a testing environment to try it out.
To migrate your billing:
- In Actionstep, go to Admin > Enhanced Billing. The Enhanced Billing page appears.
- Complete the information on the page. If you require assistance, please contact Actionstep Support.
Features of Current Billing
When migrating from classic billing to the current billing functionality, you will have access to the following features:
- Fixed fee matter billing
- Fixed fee time entries
- Time entry bill behaviors
- Streamlined billing process
- Billing options for each matter
- Fee allocation
- General retainer
- Matter / bill discounts
- Write-off functionality
- Credits
- Enhanced billing reports
Discontinued Features
When the current billing features were implemented in Actionstep, some functions, features, and menus from classic billing were discontinued. The following outlines those discontinued items and their counterparts in the current system:
- Menu Items: Some menu items have been discontinued, moved, or replaced. For more information, see Where to Find Features in Current Billing, below.
- Billing Admin: You now access the admin settings for billing by going to Admin > Billing. (The previous admin area was Admin > Classic Billing.) The current admin page still contains payment terms, rate labels, and disbursement / expense templates. However, billing preferences have been discontinued, and time record templates have been renamed.
- Billing Preferences: In classic billing, billing preferences determined the settings of what is to be billed and how the items were organized on the Sale/Purchase page. Due to the ways in which this page has been updated in current billing, many of these settings are no longer relevant. Fees (time entries) and disbursements / expenses now have their own tabs to organize the billable items.
Other settings from bill preferences have also changed:
- Income account designation: Default income accounts for fees and disbursements are now set in Admin > Billing.
- GST/Tax code: Tax is now set in Admin > Billing. Matter-level overrides are available in the individual matter’s Billing Options.
- Ignore before dates: A date can be set to ignore billable items in Admin > Billing in the Historic data section.
Matter Billing Preferences
- Billing preferences have been removed from the matter billing and Edit Matter Properties areas.
- Purchases have been removed from the matter billing areas of the system, as billing and purchases are their own separate functions.
- Billing Hold has been discontinued. On the new Bill page, items can simply be cleared so as to not appear on the bill.
- Actionstep no longer uses the Sale/Purchase page for matter billing.
However, the page is still available, it’s just not tied to matter billing.
Where to Find Features in Current Billing
When Actionstep updated its billing offering, many billing areas of Actionstep were updated or replaced. The following attempts to document these differences:
Main Billing Menu
| Location in Classic Billing | Location in Current Billing |
| Accounting > Billing | Billing |
| Matters > Billing > Unbilled Matters | Billing > Mass Billing |
| Matters > Billing > Invoices (Draft) | Billing >Draft Bills |
| Matters > Billing > Invoices (Open) | Billing >Bills List (apply filter) |
| Matter > Billing > Invoices (Closed | Billing >Bills List (apply filter) |
Admin Billing Menu
| Location in Classic Billing | Location in Current Billing |
| Admin > Classic Billing | Admin > Billing |
Admin > Classic Billing > Billing Preferences | Billing preferences have been discontinued. Current billing does not use Billing preferences/profiles. These settings would affect the Sale/Purchase page (where the bill was created) and the resulting invoice. A new billing page has been created to replace the Sale/Purchase page. See more about that page in Creating a Bill for a Specific Matter. The bill invoice output is now completely determined by the bill template. See more about bill templates in Working with Invoice Templates. |
| Admin > Classic Billing > Time record templates | Admin > General > Quick-codes (section) |
| Admin > Classic Billing > Payment terms | Admin > Billing > Payment terms (section) |
| Admin > Classic Billing > Rate labels | Admin > Billing > Rate labels (section) |
| Admin > Classic Billing > Disbursement templates | Admin > Billing > Disbursement templates (section) |
Matter Billing Menu
| Location in Classic Billing | Location in Current Billing |
| Accounting icon > Matter Billing | Select Billing icon |
| Accounting icon > Income Split | Income Split (Finder, Minder, Grinder) has been replaced by a fee allocation system. There are several options for how fees are allocated that are set in Admin > Billing and can be overridden on a matter-by- matter basis in Matter billing options. |
| Accounting icon > Budget | Budget has been largely discontinued for new systems. Matter Budgets have been removed, however, Budgets are still available at Accounting > Accounts > Budget in some systems. |
Accounting icon > Disbursements (This may be called "Expenses" in your region.) | Billing icon > Disbursements |
| Accounting icon > Sales Pipeline | Billing icon > Sales and marketing |
| Accounting icon > Sales | Billing icon > Bills |
| Accounting icon > Purchases | Purchases (supplier/vendor invoices) can be accessed via the main menu at Accounting > Purchases > Supplier/vendor Invoice |
| Accounting icon > Ledger | The Matter ledger has been discontinued in favor of new billing reports which can be accessed from the main menu at Reports > Billing Reports |
Matter Billing Page – Left-Side Panel
The Bill Now (or Invoice Now) button is still located on the matter’s Billing page accessed by selecting the Billing menu icon.
| Location in Classic Billing | Location in Current Billing |
 | The Bill Now (or Invoice Now) button is still located on the matter’s Billing page accessed by selecting the Billing menu icon.
On the same page is a summary of fees, disbursements/expenses, bills/invoice, payments & write-offs, and Trust balance.
Rate sheet overrides can be set in Matter billing options. Billing preferences have been discontinued. |
Matter Billing Summary
| Location in Classic Billing | Location in Current Billing |
 | The summary on the matter billing page now displays information for:
 |
| Invoices | To see a list of invoices in a matter, select the Billing icon > Invoices/Bills. |
| Billing Hold | Items can now be removed from a bill by clearing their selection in the bill itself.
|
Edit Matter Properties
| Location in Classic Billing | Location in Current Billing |
 | Billing settings have been removed from the Edit Matter Properties page. The Billable toggle is still available in Matter billing options along with Price groups. Billing preferences have been discontinued. |
Billing Reporting
Actionstep’s current billing system offers a set of billing reports that were unavailable in classic billing:
- Fee Earner Productivity Report
- WIP Report
- Fee Allocation Report
- Client Transactions Report
- Time and Fee Entries Report
- Write-off Report
- Bill Journal Report
- Aged Receivables Report
- Matter Balances Report
- Client Profitability Report
Fee Earner Productivity Report
The Fee Earner Productivity Report provides two comparison date ranges to gauge the productivity of all timekeepers/fee earners in your system. For each timekeeper, a row of information is displayed that contains the value of the following:
- Billable items
- Billed items
- Unbilled items
- Payments collected
- Write-offs
- Percent of payments received against the total of what has and what can be billed
The data points are displayed in a table that, by default, displays these values for both month-to- date and year-to-date periods. Both date ranges can be changed to reflect the most useful comparison periods for your purposes.
WIP Report
The WIP report provides a breakdown and summary of options to view current work in progress. The report displays values for fees and expenses (disbursements) that have yet to be billed. This is useful to see the amounts that can or will be billed in the future.
The WIP report offers various filters and layout options to display the information that is most pertinent to your needs. This is the report to see the value of unbilled fees and expenses by client, matter, matter type, responsible lawyer, and/or bill type.
Fee Allocation Report
The Fee Allocation Report displays payments and their timekeeper allocations from a specified date range. This is useful to see the value of work completed by each fee earner. The report includes filters and summaries by various criteria to offer the best information for your reporting needs.
Client Transactions Report
The Client Transaction Report shows a complete chronological history of the billing transactions that have occurred on a matter. The report includes time, expenses, invoices, payments, write-offs and trust activity. This is useful to see a detailed history of transactions.
Time and Fee Entries Report
The Time and Fee Entries report provides a list of all fee entries per matter. It includes summaries, write-offs, and worked vs to bill settings. Each entry provides insight into whether it has been billed and which invoice contains the entry, or if the entry is unbilled.
Write-off Report
The Write-Off Report details all write-offs on invoices. Write-offs are displayed per invoice and as a summary for your entire firm. This is the ideal report for gleaning how much has been written off by matter, matter type, responsible lawyer, fee credit lawyer, invoice, client, or even your entire firm.
Bill Journal Report
The Bill journal provides a list of invoices by matter. It displays the most pertinent details with summary options to make it easy to glean your current standing across all bills in the system.
Aged Receivables Report
The Aged Receivables report details all outstanding invoice balances and aging information on those receivable balances. This provides insight into how much money can be received for your organization and how long the balances have been outstanding.
Matter Balances Report
At a basic level, the report provides a snapshot of any or every matter at a given date and for that matter show:
- The accounts receivables (the unpaid bills and unallocated credits) The WIP (unbilled time and disbursements
- The balance of trust funds
- The balance of the general retainer
This is useful for any user to get an understanding of the potential income that a firm could generate at any given point in time.
Client Profitability Report
The Client Profitability Report provides a wealth of information that provides real insight into KPI's for your firm. You can see how your firm is performing on work billing and collections. You can glean performance on staff, clients, and practice areas.
The report summarizes the work performed, what has been billed, and what has been collected. These totals are calculated to provide both a billing and collection realization rate.
Billing FAQ
The following questions may provide answers you're looking for as you migrate to current Actionstep billing:
Q. Does upgrading affect current tax codes?
Q. Does current billing have a billing hold feature?
Q. Does current billing cost more?
Q. How do you resend invoices?
Q. How do you add fees from another matter?
Q. How can I bill a fixed fee?
Q. Is it possible to bill two matters in one bill?
Q. How can I dictate how my line items are displayed on my invoice?
Q. Can I link a rate label to a quick-code?
Q. How can I make bill templates?
Q. Does current billing support eBilling?
Q. What is the difference between Approved and Finalized status on the Bills list?
Q. Where can I see bills in my system?
Q. What reports are available for billing data?
Q. How can I set up fee earner income accounts?
Q. Will Xero work the same with current billing?
Q. How are rate labels handled in current billing?
Q. Can I bill in multiple currencies in current billing?
Q. Will switching to current billing affect my trust accounting?
Q. Will I need to change my invoice templates for current billing?
Q. Does upgrading affect current tax codes?
No. Tax codes are unchanged and still available in Admin > Accounting > Tax codes & rates.
Q. Does current billing have a billing hold feature?
Not explicitly. Fees and disbursements/expenses can be removed from a specific bill to be billed at a later date by unchecking the entries on the bill.
Q. Does current billing cost more?
No. Enhanced Billing Mode is Actionstep's standard billing module.
Q. How do you resend invoices?
Once a bill has been produced, it is removed from the Bill Production page. To resend the bill, select the link in the email column on the Bills List (Billing > Bills List) page.
Q. How do you add fees from another matter?
Open the time entry and reassign the matter.
Q. How can I bill a fixed fee?
"Fixed fee" can refer to a fee entry set at a fixed amount or a bill set at a fixed amount.
To set up and create a fixed fee (time) entry, see Creating a Rate Label (Admin). To create one, select the Fixed fee rate when creating a time entry:
To bill on a fixed fee basis, see Using Fixed Fee Billing.
Q. Is it possible to bill two matters in one bill?
It is possible to combine multiple matter's billable items into a single invoice using Consolidated Billing.
Q. How can I dictate how my line items are displayed on my invoice?
The way items are displayed on an invoice is determined by the invoice template.
Q. Can I link a rate label to a quick-code?
Yes. A rate label can be associated with a quick-code. When the quick-code is selected, the time entry will use that rate. For more information, see About Rate Labels.
Q. How can I make bill templates?
Bill templates are created by inserting Actionstep merge fields into a Word document.
For more information, see Working with Invoice Templates.
Q. Does current billing support eBilling?
Yes. For more information, see Setting Up E-Billing / LEDES Billing.
Q. What is the difference between Approved and Finalized status on the Bills list?
Approved bills have not been produced. Producing a bill prints the bill and emails the invoice (depending on settings in Matter Billing Options). If a bill is marked with Finalized status, it has been produced.
Q. Where can I see bills in my system?
Billing > Bills List displays all bills in your system. Bills for matters can be accessed within that matter's Bills page by selecting the Billing menu icon and choosing Bills/Invoices.
Q. What reports are available for billing data?
See Billing Reports.
Q. How can I set up fee earner income accounts?
In Admin > Billing.
Q. Will Xero work the same with current billing?
Yes.
Q. How are rate labels handled in current billing?
See About Rate Labels.
Q. Can I bill in multiple currencies in current billing?
Yes. See Setting Up E-Billing / LEDES Billing.
Q. Will switching to current billing affect my trust accounting?
Current billing does not affect classic functionality of trust accounting. There are new settings for automation when paying bills in Matter Billing Options.
Q. Will I need to change my invoice templates for current billing?
Some classic billing invoice templates may not function identically in current billing.
Q. Other questions?
Contact Actionstep Support for any other questions or concerns you may have.
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