Billables and pre-bills
Review unbilled time and expenses, generate pre-bills, and check each one on its worksheet before you create the invoice.
Billables shows, case by case, the work your firm hasn't billed yet. A pre-bill gathers a case's unbilled time for a billing period into a draft that you check and correct on its worksheet, then turn into an invoice. Billables and Prebills, the list of pre-bills waiting to be invoiced, are under Billing in the sidebar.
Review unbilled work
Each row is a case and its billing entity. Start Date and End Date are the dates of its first and last unbilled entries, Timers and Hours count its time entries and their hours, and Services, Expenses, Fixed Fee, and Total show the amounts. A case is listed when it has any of these:
- time dated from From to To that isn't on a pre-bill or an invoice and isn't on hold;
- billable expenses dated in that period that aren't on an invoice, unless a pre-bill waiting to be invoiced already covers their dates;
- fixed fee left to bill on a fixed-fee case, whatever the dates, unless a pre-bill for the case is already waiting.
Cases without a billing entity aren't listed. If nothing matches, widen the dates or clear the search and filters.
Whether time must be approved first depends on the Bypass time entry submission and approval setting (open Billing, then Settings). With it on, the default, unbilled time counts whatever its approval stage. With it off, Billables lists and pre-bills only Approved time.
Generate a pre-bill for one case
CaseWizard creates the pre-bill, moves the case's eligible time onto it, and shows "Prebill generated." The row leaves Billables, and the pre-bill appears on Prebills. Expenses aren't moved: the worksheet shows the case's unbilled expenses dated in the pre-bill's period, and its invoice bills the billable ones. If the case has nothing to bill in the period, a message says so and no pre-bill is created.
Generate pre-bills in a batch
CaseWizard creates a pre-bill for each matching case that has something to bill in the period, skips the others, and reports how many pre-bills it generated. A batch doesn't create invoices. Generate Prebill and Batch Prebills need both From and To, and Batch Prebills needs at least one row on the list.
Find a pre-bill
Open Billing, then Prebills. It lists the pre-bills that haven't been invoiced yet, newest first, with each one's period, time entries, hours, and amounts.
- Search for part of a case or billing entity name, or for a pre-bill's Worksheet Id, and press Enter.
- Set both From and To to list only the pre-bills whose period falls between them.
- Select a Worksheet Id to open the pre-bill worksheet, or a case to open the case.
- Select Download Prebills for one PDF of every pre-bill that matches your search and dates, one worksheet per page. When it's ready, it opens in a new tab or downloads.
Review the pre-bill worksheet
The worksheet's title bar reads Prebill Worksheet and the pre-bill's number, with the worksheet's actions beside it. Below it are:
- Client: the billing entity, with a link to it, and its contact, address, phone, fax, and contact notes.
- Details: the case, with a link to it, and its case detail fields marked Visible to client.
- Notes: notes for this pre-bill, which print on the worksheet PDF. They save when you click outside the box.
- Prebill Period: the dates the pre-bill covers.
- Professional Services: each time entry's date, timekeeper, task, rate, hours, billing status, and amount. DNB is Do Not Bill and NC is No Charge; only Billable time shows an amount.
- Expenses: the case's unbilled expenses dated in the period, marked Billable or DNB.
- Fixed Fee (on a fixed-fee case, the fee its invoice will bill) and Grand Total.
Correct the time on a pre-bill
- Select a time entry's date to open it in Edit Time Entry, make your changes, and select Save. If you change its Case, the entry leaves this pre-bill and returns to unbilled time on the other case, as Approved.
- Select Add Timer to record time for the pre-bill's case. The entry you save joins this pre-bill.
- Select Update Rates, then OK, to recalculate every entry on the pre-bill with the billing entity's current rates. Changing a billing entity's rates updates only time that isn't on a pre-bill or an invoice, so use this after a rate change.
Time can't be added to a closed case, or to a case that has a final invoice.
Create the invoice
The invoice gets the next invoice number, today's date, and the pre-bill's period. It starts at the Open stage, with terms and a due date from your billing settings. The pre-bill's time moves to the invoice, with the case's billable expenses that are dated in the period and not on an invoice yet. On a fixed-fee case, the invoice also bills all of the fee left. The pre-bill then leaves Prebills. A pre-bill with no time, no billable expenses in its period, and no fixed fee left can't be invoiced.
Print or delete a pre-bill
- Prebill Worksheet makes a PDF of the worksheet. When it's ready, it opens in a new tab or downloads.
- Delete Prebill on the worksheet (confirm with OK), or Delete on Prebills (confirm with Yes), removes the pre-bill. Every time entry on it returns to Approved, ready to pre-bill again.
A pre-bill that has been invoiced can't be deleted. Delete its invoice first: the time goes back to the pre-bill, which returns to Prebills.
Permissions
| Action | Permission |
|---|---|
| Open Billables, Prebills, and pre-bill worksheets | Billing.View |
| Generate Prebill, Batch Prebills, Add Timer, Generate Invoice | Billing.Create |
| Worksheet Notes, editing time entries, Update Rates | Billing.Update |
| Delete, Delete Prebill | Billing.Delete |
| Download Prebills, Prebill Worksheet | Reports.Generate, and Reports.View to download the PDF |
Actions your role doesn't include are hidden, and without Billing.Update the worksheet's notes and time entries can't be changed. The Case Type list and the worksheet's case details also need Cases.View. A firm administrator grants these under Administration, Roles and Permissions.