Hi Carsen,

Thanks for using Community! Another way you could show these items on your invoice is to mark them as ‘non-billable’, and then include those items on the invoice.

In your Invoice Settings in Smokeball Billing, you are able to select a box which will show non-billable items on the invoice:

Thank you!

Thank you.  That is probably a good solution for most people. 
 

I want to show the client the actual cost that I’m NOT charging them. These items are traditionally billable work that we choose not to charge for (transmittal emails, file admin, time spent on prepping a pleading for filing, etc). I need to know how much I have waived as (1) we have a fee contract provision that essentially means that in the event of a fee dispute, the waived charges are no longer waived, and (2) for attorney fee requests, we want to show how reasonable we’re being (total billed of X, paid Y, waived Z…) 

yes, I appear to be wanting cake & to eat it too…

Hi Carsen!

When you create a Time entry (also accessible by clicking on a line item on the Draft invoice page), there is an option next to the Billable switch called “Write Off”.

If you ensure the item is Billable, and the also select write off, on your invoice your client will see the line item, with the price, and with a strikethrough showing you’ve written that line off, thus allowing you eat that cake after all.

@Sam Stephens - yes, that’s what I am already doing. However, then in the fee insights, I believe that it is treating those entries as billable but not collected and my “collection rate” is artificially low. 

@CarsenTazi Ah, I see what you’re saying - yes, this is a tough one as the report is actually designed to show these types of items as not collected.

What types of entries would you want to see in firm insights around collection rate? What would you categorise as not collected? Would it be when you waive full invoices, for example?

There isn’t currently a way to show amounts on the invoice but not bill them and not have it tracked as uncollected, unfortunately.

I wonder if anyone else in the community has a similar thing they do, I’d be interested to hear how they handle it!

I don’t know that there is an easy “fix” around this - just trade offs and I’m fine with that! 
 

The only thing I can think of from a “reports” stand point would be to have a report available on the total fees invoiced (not waived prior to invoicing) that are collected - perhaps like an aging A/R report. However, I don’t know how that would work as I believe all “waived” fees are treated the same. 
 

I believe a “no charge” option on fees for invoices would be helpful (or somehow distinguishing no charge line items from fees that are written off from collections).