Open item billing adjustments

Simplified menu - Click Daily Activities, Create Bills, Enter/Modify Bills

Standard menu - Click Billing, Enter Bills

Classic menu - Click Posting, Fee Billing

Open item billing is a method of entering billing adjustments in which you select the individual time and disbursement transactions to include on the bill.  Use this method if you want to bill the client/matter for specific transactions on the file.  When a client/matter is billed, two types of adjustments are made to the file: the work in progress on the file is reduced by the total of the time and disbursement transactions included on the bill, and the accounts receivable balance is increased.  

1. Ensure the Enter option is selected.

2. Select the Client/Matter or press F5 to display a list to choose from.

3. Enter the Date, click to select the date from the calendar, or press Enter to use the current date.  To use a prior year date enter the date and then enter the prior year adjustments password when prompted.

4. Enter a Bill number.  If you enter a bill number that has already been used for the client a warning message will display.  If you use automatic bill numbering the bill number will fill in automatically.

5. Click the Time tab to display the unbilled time entries.  Double-click or press Enter to select an entry or click Select All to select all entries.

6. Click the Disbursements tab to display the unbilled disbursement entries.  Double-click or press Enter to select an entry or click Select All to select all entries.

7. Click Ok to return to the Enter/Modify Bills screen.  The total of the selected transactions will display in the Fees Billed and Disbursements Billed fields at the bottom of the screen.  The client/matter accounts receivable will be updated by these amounts.  You can edit these amounts to bill for more or for less than the amount of the selected transactions, but the work in progress on the file will be reduced by the amount of the selected transactions.

8. Click Save .

9. Billed fees must be distributed to the correct lawyer.  Type A to distribute the fees to the responsible lawyer, type P to prorate the fees based on the time on the file or type M to allocate the fees manually.

10. Click Post .

Notes

• If you edit the Fees or Disbursements Billed amounts after selecting the transactions to include on the bill, the difference between the total of the selected transactions and the Billed amounts will update your general ledger Billing Variance account.

• You can enter a billing adjustment by manually entering Fees or Disbursements Billed amounts without selecting transactions but the work in progress on the file will not be reduced and the transactions on the file will remain unbilled.

• You can include anticipated disbursements on a billing adjustment.  Anticipated disbursements are used when you want to produce a final bill for the client/matter but have not entered all the disbursements for the file.  Read Open item billing - Anticipated disbursements for information.

Reversing billing adjustments

Tips for modifying bills