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Billing a matter as a fixed fee - but allocating time entered to an invoice

  • November 12, 2023
  • 4 replies
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V

 

We have a couple of matters where we bill pursuant to contracts as a fixed fee - however we always enter our time worked on the matter so we can track where we are sitting against the fee proposal. We never include the individual time entries on the invoice though. 

The usual process for billing on our old system was to invoice as a fixed fee, then mark the corresponding time entries as “non-billable” so that we could identify how much WIP had not yet been ‘billed’ and how we were tracking against certain stages of the project. 

I’m wondering if there is a way we can allocate time entries to an invoice - but not show the individual line items and bill as a fixed fee with a one line summary?  This would help for EOM WIP reports etc.

Best answer by Sam Stephens

Hi Victoria,

No worries at all, I’m happy to help!

Once those non-billable entries are added to the invoice, they’ll be shown as “Billed” in the fees and disbursements list.

Once any items, including ones marked as non-billable, are added to an invoice, the “Billed” column will go from being blank to showing their invoice number.
 

In that screenshot above you can see the $44 amount is marked as non-billable, but has been added to invoice #365, and is now considered “billed” in the system.

cheers

Sam

 

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Sam Stephens
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  • Sam StephensSmokeball Team
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  • November 13, 2023

Hi @VictoriaWLC ,

 

Yes, you sure can.

When you set up a matter’s Billing Type as “Fixed Fee” (this can be done when creating the matter, or from the Edit Matter page if the matter already exists), then by default your time entries will be automatically marked as non-billable. (This can also be done on a fee by fee basis, if you wish.)

Then when create your invoice, you can select the “Single line summary” option.

This can be selected either from the Invoice Template in the Firm Settings menu (and it will affect all matters that are using that template), or you could create a template just for this type of matter, or set on the Draft Invoice page for each invoice, but this might be a bit manual. Probably better to set it at invoice template level if this is common for your practice.

Then each of your timed fees will be marked as non-billable.

You can then add a line item for the total cost, as a fixed fee, and mark it as billable.

This will result in a single line summary for the total fixed fee, but in the background it will also allow you to track and “bill” the hourly items too, but without them appearing individually in any invoices.

On Draft Invoices page:


On the PDF Invoice:


Does this make sense?

And will this solve what you’re wanting to do?

cheers

Sam

 

V
  • VictoriaWLCContributor
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  • November 13, 2023

Hi Sam, 

Yes, that makes sense, thankyou for taking the time to set out that explanation for me. 

Can you tell me what happens to the entries that were ‘marked as non-billable’ - will they show as billed - or will they continue to appear in our fees and disbursements? 

Thanks 

Sam Stephens
Smokeball Team
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  • Sam StephensSmokeball Team
  • Smokeball Team
  • 74 replies
  • Answer
  • November 13, 2023

Hi Victoria,

No worries at all, I’m happy to help!

Once those non-billable entries are added to the invoice, they’ll be shown as “Billed” in the fees and disbursements list.

Once any items, including ones marked as non-billable, are added to an invoice, the “Billed” column will go from being blank to showing their invoice number.
 

In that screenshot above you can see the $44 amount is marked as non-billable, but has been added to invoice #365, and is now considered “billed” in the system.

cheers

Sam

 

V
  • VictoriaWLCContributor
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  • November 20, 2023

Thanks Sam, 

Worked as described - thanks for your advice! :)

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