Billing

Last week was Pre-Bills; this week we look at Create Bill options. From the LSUC perspective, your invoice journal should be chronological by date and invoice number. If you have to undo a bill, to change something on an invoice, use the same invoice number and date on the replacement invoice. If for some reason too much time has lapsed between the original bill and the replacement, keep a copy of the original invoice, and note on it that this bill was undone and replaced by invoice # 123456.

System Settings – Billing – Options – can  be set to “Select Charges”. This allows you to pick and choose what will be shown on the invoice. This also allows you to write off charges during the billing process. When the selection window opens, place a checkmark beside an item you wish to write off – at bottom click the Write Off button – fees are simply written off as posted. For disbursements, you need to tell PCLaw which account you would like to have the expense entry posted to.

Information Window

The Contingency fees button will be next week’s topic. The Calculate button can be used to increase or decrease fees to the amount the client agreed to, or to offer a discount. Manually changing the amount in the Fees or Disbursements boxes will also cause an adjustment explanation box to open when you click OK. The Allocation button allows you to split the fees among lawyers.

Most law firms leave the default setting unchanged when billing. There is one nice feature for large, complicated matters, with multiple lawyers, and billings over an extended period of time. On the Fees tab, you can select the sorting to lawyer first, date 2nd. This way, all the work performed by each lawyer is grouped together on the invoice.

As always, I invite your comments and suggestions for future posting topics. Next week – Contingency Matters.

Clyde