Invoicing: Reviewing Invoices

Invoicing: Reviewing Invoices

Overview

Monthly invoicing review is an opportunity for all attorneys to review the month's time cards for each of their client's matters. On the first business day of each month, the accounting team will generate invoices for all unbilled time entries in CleverCase. Attorney's MUST review their invoices by the invoice review deadline, typically end of day on the second business day of each month. All clients with time tracked against their matters will receive an invoice, but it is up to the attorney to approve the time card entries and the amounts. Invoices are generated from matters, not clients, so a client with multiple matters with billable time may receive multiple invoices from a single or multiple attorneys. 

Preparing for Invoicing

During the last few days of the month, it's important to check your time cards to ensure you have no extra timers running and time has been tracked to the correct matter. To prepare for invoicing: 
  1. Review your Accounts Receivable and Trust Balances on your Power BI Dashboard. If you have clients who may be able to pay in full or can make a partial payment, be sure to let the Accounts Receivable team know as soon as possible. If you have the bandwidth, feel free to reach out to your clients directly! 
    1. Interest: Clients who have a past due balance and do not have a "No Interest" tag next to their name will receive an interest charge of 1% of their current outstanding balance. If your client is not in this group and should not receive interest, notify Accounting.
  2. Close Trust Accounts. If your client's matter is closed and there is still a trust balance listed in Power BI, please request a refund by using the steps here: Trust: Client Refunds 
  3. Finish adding & review Your Time: Review your uninvoiced  time card entries to ensure there are descriptions on each entry and that each is tied to the correct matter. 
  4. Submit Bills & Receipts: Make sure all client cost invoices and receipts have been submitted to the Finance Request Hub.

Review & Approve Your Invoices

Once the invoices are live in the system for attorneys to review there will be an announcement email from Accounting. Please do not begin reviewing your invoices immediately after receiving the automatic email from Clever Case - there are additional checks the invoice team performs to ensure information is accurate.

Make Changes and Approve

Once invoices are ready to review, there may be additional changes you'd like to make to the invoice. Your invoices will be stored and reviewed within Clever Case. Open Clever Case and navigate to “Pending Invoices” on the left side of the screen. Common changes include rate adjustments, hours adjustments, fixing typos, discounting time entries, or writing off costs. To open your invoice, click on the invoice number near the left side of the screen. You can ctrl+click to open in a new tab if you prefer. Your invoice will open in ‘Edit’ mode so you can make changes as needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How do I change the text in my description? 
    1. Click into the description box and make any changes you need to. This will NOT update the time card, only how the information is displayed on the invoice. 
  2. How do I change a billing user? 
    1. Click the ‘x’ next to the billing user name. Enter the new person you’d like to receive credit for that line item. Like above, this will not change the time card, only revenue allocation. 
  3. Can I change my rate? 
    1. If you’d like to offer a discount, please do so by using the discount field. It’s not recommended to use the ‘Rate’ field to offer a discount. If you do need to change the hourly rate, click into the hourly rate field and enter the new number. 
  4. Can I adjust my quantity? 
    1. To do so, into the quantity box and enter a new amount. The total for the line is Rate x Quantity – Discounts + any fees and taxes. 
  5. How do I add a discount? 
    1. It is not possible It is not possible to add a line item discount (known as a credit) through Clever Case. You can, however, discount each line item. If you’d like to leave a credit, see ‘Add Note’ below. 
  6. Click Here for video on steps 1-5
  7. How do I delete a line? 
    1. To delete a line click on the three dots next to the line on your invoice, then select “Delete.” This will not delete the time card, only the line on the invoice. 
  8. I forgot to log some of my time. Can I add a new time card? 
    1. Yes! Click “Add New Time Card” at the bottom of the screen. From here you will be able to add a new time card, which will appear both on the matter page and on the invoice. Fill this in how you’d fill in a typical time card. 
  9. Can I add time from before/after the invoiced dates? 
    1. Yes! If you’d like to add a time card that hasn’t been invoiced yet (for example, time logged on the first or second of the current month), you can do so by clicking “Add Existing Time Card.” You will be brought to a new window. Select the date range your time card is in, select the box by the time card, and click “Add Selected” at the bottom of the screen. 
  10. Click Here for video on steps 6 -8
  11. An invoice appeared for a matter I am not yet ready to invoice. Can I move the time to next month? 
    1. Yes, to do so, click the three dots on the top right of the invoice edit window and select ‘Delete and Bill Later.’ The time cards will remain, but the invoice will be deleted. When an invoice is deleted this way, the time cards will display as uninvoiced, allowing you to invoice them at a later date.
  12. An invoice appeared for a matter I want to bill much later. Can I stop invoices from being created until I'm ready to invoice?
    1. Yes, to do so, click the three dots on the top right of the invoice edit window and select ‘Delete and mark matter don't invoice." Doing this will leave the time cards on the matter, but monthly invoices won't appear. 
  13. I have an invoice and I never want this time to be billed.
    1. You can also reject an invoice. To do so, click “Save and Preview” below the invoice total, then click “Reject” on the next screen. The timecards will remain, but invoice will not be sent to the client. The timecards will display as invoiced, NOT allowing you to invoice them later.
  14. Can I leave you a note? 
    1. Yes! If you need accounting to take additional steps, like add a credit or request more funds in trust, click “Edit” under notes at the bottom of the invoice. The accounting team will see this information and take any action. 
    2. Click Here for a Video
  15. The billing recipient name or address is incorrect. 
    1. You will need to update the matter settings to show the correct invoice recipient and client name. This is done under the "Billing Information" section of a matter. Once the change is made on the billing recipient page, the invoice will update automatically. More information can be found in this Clever Case Help Page.

    • Related Articles

    • Invoicing: Overview

      Invoicing Cycle This page contains an overview of how the invoicing cycle works. More detailed information may be found in additional help pages.  An invoicing cycle is an interval of time between billing statements. Gravis Law’s invoicing cycle is ...

    • Include Primary Attorney in invoices sent to client using Carbon Copy (CC)

      Are you an attorney that wants to be included in emails of invoices when they go out to clients? You can now enable a Clever Case notification, which will put you as a CC of all invoices sent to clients when you're the primary attorney on the matter! ...

    • Insurance: Metlife

      Below are your MetLife resources. These resources include the MetLife Workflow, Cheat Sheet and the Law Firm Manual and training videos. If you have any questions, please reach out to Bergen Finch or submit a ticket. All invoice requests must go ...

    • Off Cycle Invoices

      What is an off-cycle invoice? When you need an invoice created outside of our standard invoicing cycle. You can request an off-cycle invoice by submitting a ticket through the Request Hub Portal. Department: Finance Subject: Client Name: Off Cycle ...

    • Reviewing Reports in Power BI

      We rely on the feedback of our attorneys and paralegals to ensure the Collections and Trust team has the information they need to reach out to your clients. As such, we provide a copy of the Accounts Receivable Report and Client Trust balances as ...