A quick bill gathers the unbilled time entries, expenses and flat fees of a matter into an invoice for the client. This article shows how to create, edit and delete a bill.
Table of contents
Create a bill
You can create a bill from several places:
- Billing > Add Bill.
- The actions menu of a matter in the Matters list > Add Bill.
- The UnBilled Balances card of a matter dashboard > Add Bill.
- The Bills tab of a matter or contact > Add Bill in the toolbar.
Note. You can’t create a bill for a closed matter.
Select the matter and the recipient
The New Quick Bill panel opens. From shows your firm information.
- Select the Matter (required). When you open the panel from a matter, it’s already selected.
- Under To, check the Matter Participant who receives the bill and the address: Address Line 1, Address Line 2, City, State, Zip Code and Country. Maatdesk fills them in from the contact; you can change them for this bill.
- Select Include all billable activities (ignore participant filter) to list the activities of all the participants of the matter.
- Use Date to filter the activities by date.
Choose the activities
The panel lists the unbilled activities of the matter in Time entries, Expense entries and Flat fee entries.
- Select the activities to include. Clear the checkbox of an activity to leave it out of this bill; it stays unbilled.
- Click + to add a new time entry to the bill. The panel opens with the matter and its rate already filled in. To change an activity, click its edit button (pencil), or open its actions arrow and select Edit or Delete.
- Expense entries, with its own + button.
- Flat fee entries, with its own + button.
- Bill Total shows the amount of the selected activities and updates as you add or change them.
Set the details and payment options
- Check the Issue Date (today by default) and the Due Date.
- Under Details Level, choose All Details or Summary for the invoice.
- Under Tax Options, select Apply tax and/or Apply secondary tax. The rates come from your firm settings.
- Skip Approval Process is selected by default, so the bill is approved and ready to be paid when you generate it. Clear it to save the bill as a Draft; the balance options below are then hidden.
- To pay the bill with money the client already has, use Use Operating Account Balance To Pay This Invoice (on by default) and Use Trust Account Balance To Pay This Invoice (off by default).
- When the operating balance option is on, select the Operating Payment Method (required). If you turn the option off, this field and Destination are hidden.
- Check the Destination account (required; Default operating account by default). Click + to add another destination.
- Click Generate Bill.
When balances are used, Maatdesk takes the money in this order: matter operating, client operating, matter trust, client trust.
Edit a bill
You can edit a bill only when it’s in Draft or Pending Approval and its matter isn’t closed. For other statuses, Edit is disabled in the actions menu.
- Click the edit button of the bill in the Billing tab or in the Bills tab of a matter or contact, or select Edit in its actions menu. You can also click Edit in the Billing Details window.
- The Edit Bill panel opens. Make your changes. You can’t change the matter.
- Click Save Bill.
Activities you remove from the bill go back to Billing > Billable Clients.
Note. To send a draft bill for approval, change its status to submit it for approval, select the user who approves it and click Submit. The message “The Bill status has been updated.” confirms the change. A bill in Pending Approval can still be edited but not deleted.
Delete a bill
You can delete a bill only when it’s in Draft and its matter isn’t closed. For other statuses, Delete is disabled in the actions menu.
- In the actions menu of the bill, select Delete.
- Click Yes to confirm.
The activities of the bill go back to Billing > Billable Clients.