What You'll Learn
The Short Version
Four Steps
- Open the matter and click Create Invoice. Your unbilled entries are already selected.
- Leave the switch on Draft and read the preview. A draft changes nothing.
- To send it, check Email to.
- Flip the switch to Finalize and click Create Invoice.
To bill every matter at once, use One Click Billing.
Draft or Final
An invoice starts as a draft, which is only a preview, and becomes real when you finalize it. Until then, nothing in your books changes.
What finalizing does
The invoice gets its number, its entries become billed, and it joins Aged A/R. A draft does none of that: entries stay unbilled and no money moves.
Step by Step
Work through the window top to bottom. Nothing is permanent until step 8.
Step 1: Open the matter and click Create Invoice
In the matter window's toolbar, click Create Invoice. The window opens with every unbilled entry for this matter already selected.
Step 2: Leave the switch on Draft
At the top left, the switch reads Draft and Finalize. Start in Draft. The window title reads Create Draft and the line under the switch says Entries will remain unbilled, so you always know which mode you are in. A draft changes nothing.
Step 3: Check the entries
Click the Entries tab. It shows how many entries are selected, like Entries (5 Selected). Uncheck anything you want to hold for a later invoice; unchecked entries stay unbilled. Select Entries From narrows the list to a date range, and Selected Total updates as you check and uncheck.
Step 4: Set the invoice date and due date
Set Invoice and Due, or choose a term from Due In and the due date fills itself in.
Step 5: Choose what the client sees
Under Content and Options, turn on what belongs on this invoice: entry notes, payment history, retainer deposits, retainer balances, and balance forward.
Show Payments has two choices
New Since Last Billing lists only payments made since the last invoice. Full History lists every payment on the matter.
Step 6: Pick the look
Choose a theme from the menu at the top of the window. Each theme shows its colors beside its name. For which columns appear (rate, time, amount, timekeeper) and extras like matter number or aged A/R, use the Invoice Layout tab.
Step 7: Review the live preview
The preview comes back on its own if you left it open last time. Otherwise, click the round Invoice Live Preview button beside the theme menu, or choose it from the menu. The Invoice Sample window opens beside the form and updates as you work. Invoice Total, at the bottom left, shows the amount due.
Want a copy to review?
Click Create Draft. The copy is marked DRAFT and your entries stay unbilled.
Step 8: Finalize when it's right
Flip the switch to Finalize. The title and button change to Create Invoice, and the line under the switch reads Finalize this invoice and convert entries to billed. To send it now, check Email to (followed by your client's address). Then click Create Invoice.
If the invoice is paid the moment you finalize it
That is the Automatic Bookkeeper. When it is on, finalizing an invoice pays it right away from the client's credit, then trust, following your rules in Settings > Billing.
Fixing an Invoice
Finalized and found a problem? Choose the fix that keeps your records whole.
Something on the invoice is wrong
Edit the entry, then re-issue the invoice. Re-issuing rebuilds it with the current entries and payments and keeps its number. See Re-Issuing Invoices.
You edited a billed entry
TimeNet Law warns you that the change affects an invoice that already exists. Save the edit, then re-issue that invoice so the client's copy matches.
One entry shouldn't be on the invoice
Double-click the entry, change its status from Billed on to Unbilled, and click OK. Re-issue the invoice so the client's copy drops it. The entry goes on the next invoice.
You want the invoice gone
In the matter window, click Invoices, right-click the invoice, choose Cancel Invoice, and click OK. Its entries go back to unbilled, and payments from Trust, Escrow, or UAC return to that account. For other payments, click Deposit Funds to hold them in a retainer, or Delete Funds to remove them. This cannot be undone. Never cancel a paid invoice to tidy up: hide billed entries in the matter window instead.