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With EBM we introduce the concept of “Responsible Lawyer. This is where you determine the “participant type” that is to be configured as the 'Responsible lawyer'. This role has special functionality in Actionstep for things like fee allocation and reporting. Every billable Matter type should have this participant type configured.
If you have more than one contact loaded against the participant type you choose (for example, three contacts loaded under the participant type "Lawyer") the first contact loaded will be the responsible lawyer.
Default description for increase in fees
This text will appear on the bill if the fees are manually increased or if you have set the matter to a quoted amount and choose to show the increase as a fee entry.
Examples include the creation of a bill for a fixed fee matter where no time has been entered or if you quote an hourly billing matter a certain amount and the WIP is less than the quote.
Default description for discount
This text will appear on the bill as the description for a discount if applicable.
If WIP is less than quote
The in this field let you choose the default behavior for billing. If WIP is less than the quoted amount, you can select if the WIP, the quoted amount or both will be billed.
When billing only one matter the bill will default to the selected option but you have the ability to change it. When mass billing the default will be used.
If WIP is greater than quote
Like the field above it, the 'If WIP is greater than quote' field let you choose the default behaviour for billing. If WIP is greater than the quoted amount, you can choose if the WIP, the quoted amount or both will be billed.
When billing only one matter, the bill will default to the selected option but you can change it. When mass billing the default will be used.
This option lets you decide by default how a fee reduction is treated on the bill. A fee reduction can occur from a reduction in the fee amount on the single bill screen which gives you the option of showing the reduction as a discount or as a simple change to the total.
You can also pre-set a discount on the matter which is automatically calculated on the screen or click the “Add a discount” on the single bill screen.
The discount can be applied manually at the time of billing (single bill or in draft mode) or can be pre-set at the matter level. Additionally, a discount can be a result of the difference between the fees recorded and the quoted amount.
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If you use the 'Appear as discount' option you can have the discount description show in your bill templates by using the merge field: SP_FeeDiscountDescription |
Include value of ‘Hide’ and ‘No charge’ time when calculating fee allocation
This option, when selected, includes any time entries that are marked as “no charge” or “hide” in the overall calculation for the fee allocation between users.
A good example where this might be used is in a fixed fee case where the bill is sent out to the client with a paragraph narrative of the work done, but the firm wishes to track the time and apportion the payment of fees to the attorney based on the dollar value of the work done.
Clicking this checkbox ensures that the dollar value of these entries is factored into the payment allocation.
This field chooses how adjustments the fees records on you matters will be allocated to users. Adjustments could be the changing of fee records during the billing process, increasing or decreasing the total fees or applying a discount.
Based on fees entered allocates fee adjustments according to the original fee calculation (%) before the adjustment. For example, if a user recorded 40% of the fees for a bill they will be allocated 40% of the adjustment.
Allocate to the responsible party allocates the full amount of the adjustment to the responsible lawyer.
This drop-down allows you to select a default bill template for fixed fee bills. A different template can be chosen in Matter Billing Options or overridden at the time of billing.
This drop-down allows you to select a default email template for sending fixed fee bills. This can also be overridden in the matter.
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The options for both the Hourly invoice section and the Fixed fee invoice section of the Billing Settings are the same. |
Custom bill templates
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This area displays current custom bill templates and allows the creation of new bill templates. Selecting a template name launches the Edit custom bill template screen.
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Create new custom bill template
Selecting the "Create new custom bill template" button launches the New custom bill template screen.
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Here, you can set the name, description and upload a new document to use for the template.You can also download a built-in template by clicking on its name to the left of the screen.
Timekeeper fee allocation
This option lets you indicate the default fee split when bills are created, and payments are made against fees. With timekeeper fee allocation you can now associate payments made against fees to go to attorney fee accounts. This flows to reports and the general ledger so your income statement reflects this. You can set up defaults on this screen and then change the options at the individual matter level.
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Set how the fees will be allocated for payments made to your bills.
Pro-rate will allow each attorney gets the % value of the dollar value of what is billed on the matter.
All to Responsible party will mean that the responsible party received the value of all timekeepers fees.
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You can also include time that is billed but does not show up on the bill (“hide” and “no charge” time”) |
Edit timekeeper fee income accounts
Each timekeeper can have their own fee income account set. By clicking on the button, you will be presented with a list of each of your users. Select the applicable income account from the drop-down beside. By default, all timekeepers fees are received into the main fee account.
This options will be applicable for firms that have General Ledger accounts for various teams or individual users to allow them to report financially on that criteria.
Taxes
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If you enable taxes in this section (the Enable switch is set to 'on') you can choose how to apply taxes to your bills produced from your matters. These settings can still be customized on a matter by matter basis.
Controls if sales taxes will be used in your system or not. change the switch to 'off' or 'on' as appropriate.
Even if sales taxes are switched on, you can choose if they are applied to your new matters or not. This field will set if a newly created matter will have taxes switched on by default or off by default.
Choose the sales tax rate that will be applied to items by default. Again, this can be changed on a matter by matter basis.
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Default income accounts
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In this section you choose what General Ledger accounts your fees and expenses will be applied to.
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If you are setting up a new system please ensure that both the accounts are set correctly before using billing in Actionstep. |
General Retainer
The general retainer functionality allows me to take in monies into my operating account and have them treated as retainers for use with billing.
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General retainers are not available in all regions. If you do not see a General Retainer section, please contact support@actionstep.com to have your system set to a setting that will allow general retainers. |
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Toggles General Retainer functionality on/off for the firm. You will not see the general retainer functionality at the matter level until you turn this on.
You must select GL account for general retainer which will serve as a holding account for any general retainer liability.
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A receipt will create a credit entry to this General Ledger Account, and a check or application of a General retainer to client charges will create a debit entry to the same account. The balance in this GL account will represent your General Retainers for the firm, assuming you do not use this account for any other transactions. Once set and a transaction is entered using the General Retainer this field cannot be altered. |
Dictates to what the Retainer balance can be applied. When a bill is created, you can have the retainer automatically be applied to new charges as well as past balances.
The default is New charges, which allows retainer funds to be applied to unbilled items that are to be included on a bill.
New charges and Accounts Receivables will mean that retainer funds, when receipted into the system will be applied to both new charges and past unpaid bills.
For example, a client owes $100, has unbilled fees of $300 and also a general retainer of $500. With New charges selected the retainer pays off the $300 but ends up with a $100 accounts receivable balance and a $200 general retainer balance.
With the New charges and accounts receivables option selected, the user ends up with $0 accounts receivables balance and $100 in the general retainer balance.
This option controls how General Retainer balances are applied at the time of billing.
Automatic is the default and means that funds will be applied from the general retainer balance to a new bill as that bill is created.
Manual will mean that the funds can be applied to the bill as it is created, but this is done by the user as they create the bill, not automatically.
Trust Accounting
Now you can have trust automatically apply at the time you create a bill. These options let you dictate how trust is handled at the time of billing.
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Similar to the general retainer, you can choose if funds will be applied to new bills or new bills and, if there is an existing unpaid invoice for that matter, to that invoice also.
The default is New charges, which allows retainer funds to be applied to unbilled items that are to be included in a bill.
New charges and Accounts Receivables will mean that retainer funds, when receipted into the system will be applied to both new charges and past unpaid bills.
For example, a client owes $100, has unbilled fees of $300 and also a general retainer of $500. With New charges selected the retainer pays off the $300 but ends up with a $100 accounts receivable balance and a $200 general retainer balance.
With the New charges and accounts receivables option selected, the user ends up with $0 accounts receivables balance and $100 in the general retainer balance.
This option controls how Trust funds balances are applied at the time of billing.
Automatic is the default and means that funds will be applied from the trust to a new bill as that bill is created.
Manual will mean that the funds can be applied to the bill as it is created, but this is done by the user as they create the bill, not automatically.
Combine multiple payments by
When I create a bill that results in trust transfers when I approve the bills, a trust check is created. This option lets you choose whether you print one cheque per bank account, per client and bank account or matter and bank account
Trust account
Client and bank account
Matter and bank account
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Not all options may be available depending on trust regulator requirements based on your databases region. |
Actionstep bills can show trust transactions in a dedicated section, effectively giving you a trust statement attached to your invoice. If your bill template is set to display trust transactions, within this section, you choose if the transactions included are all trust transactions completed on your matter or just those since the last bill was sent to the client.
Payment terms
In this section, you can set the default payment terms that are applied to your bills. You are also able to edit any existing payment term or create a new payment term.
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Editing a payment term
Click on the name of any of the payment terms to edit it. You can set the description, and if you know how to code in PHP, you can enter in a calculation that will determine the payment date. Your code should 'return' the date in YYYY-MM-DD format. You can access the invoice date via the $invoice_date variable.
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If you are not familiar with PHP, we recommend that you do not attempt to alter a payment term. |
Adding a payment term
Just click the Create new payment terms button and enter the details as per the editing a payment term section above.
Other settings
In this section, you can set at what stage of billing an invoice number will be applied to your invoices.
By switching Assign invoice no. to drafts to 'on" whenever you create a draft invoice in Actionstep it will be assigned an invoice number.
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If a draft invoice that has an invoice number is deleted from the system that number will not be allocated to any other invoices your system created. |
If you switch Assign invoice no. to drafts to 'off', then invoice numbers will only by assigned to invoices that are approved in your system. In this instance, draft invoices will be assigned the reference "Draft".
Historic data
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This section is to be used by users who have imported their historical time records into Actionstep.
For those users, the time imported will all be billable for the matters they have been imported against. To prevent this tick the box beside I have historic data (e.g. imported data) that I do not want to bill and set a date.
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