Creating Invoices

Creating Draft Invoices,
Creating Fixed Fee Invoices,
Creating Split Billing Invoices,
Creating Retainer Invoices,
Consolidate Multiple Matters for Invoicing,
Creating an Invoice Without dates,
Translate an Invoice,
Hold Billing Until Next Invoice or Permanently,
Send an Invoice,

Creating Draft Invoices

This article will walk you through how to create, view, download, and send out draft invoices.

Create

Click on Invoices>Drafts.

Click on New Draft Invoices link to create a new invoice.

Create For - select the required client and matter from the list. Users can filter the list down from All Clients and All Matters to My Matters and Responsible Staff Member. Invoices will only get generated for Clients-Matters that don’t already have an invoice generated against them (i.e. un-billed entries).

Billing Category - generate invoices for a specific billing category. These categories are created under

Date Range - the dates entries were created. Leaving it blank will allow you to bill as far back as possible.

Invoice Date - date to generate invoice on. This will default to the current day.

Include -

Matter billing arrangement - whatever settings are at the Matter-level (Clients>Clients & Matters>Matter Name>Invoice Settings>Billing Arrangement) will determine how the draft invoice is created. For example, if the setting at the Matter-level specifies ‘Expenses only’, upon selecting ‘Matter Billing Arrangement’ here, you will only generate an invoice for Expense entries.

Time & Expense - generate invoices for both time and expense entries. This will override any Matter-level invoice settings.

Time only - generate invoices for only time entries. This will override any Matter-level invoice settings.

Expense - generate invoices for only expense entries. This will override any Matter-level invoice settings.

Split - if selected Client-Matters are the ‘Master Matter’, i.e part of a Split Billing Project, select the Split checkbox to split those entries.

Note: we generally recommend you do not split the entries/invoice in the first draft invoice (i.e. review the draft invoice first, make any edits if necessary to the time/expense entries, void the draft invoice and issue it again with the Split checkbox selected when you are confident the entry details are accurate). This is to make it easier for you to view the invoice and make any necessary changes easily. If you split the invoice and need to make edits, you will have to retrace your steps back and undo split entries first.

The newly created invoices are ready to view under Invoices>Drafts screen.

View

Status column -

means invoice review is complete

means the draft details have been viewed

means the draft has been edited

Split column -

+ sign - the draft invoice which is a part of a Split Billing Project, has been split.

- sign - the matter is a part of a Split Billing Project but has not yet been split.

Delivery method -

Printer - will download a PDF of the invoice

Email - will email a copy to the client and will CC the firm’s address

AutoMail - TimeSolv charges $1.49 per piece, and additional postage as required. No return mailer is included. Invoices on Automail will be sent out just before 17:00 Central Time

Note: Delivery method checkboxes are selected by default depending on your invoice settings at the Matter-level. Any changes made on this screen will only be effective for this single invoice. If you want to save these settings for all future invoices for a specific client-matter, visit Clients>Clients&Matters>[matter name]>Invoice Settings.

Document icon - to view a summary of the invoice. This icon will only appear for consolidated invoices.

Magnifying glass icon - to preview the invoice without downloading.

Download

There are multiple ways to download a single invoice:

1. Click on the download icon on the far right of the appropriate invoice row.

2. Select the checkbox against invoices and click on the Download button at the top right of the screen. Select download format as 'Zip' to download each invoice into a separate PDF file. This is useful when you need to email out invoices yourself, and to sort downloaded invoices into Client-Matter folders and sub-folders.

Send

Select the checkbox next to the invoice(s).

Click Send button from the top of the screen.

The sent invoice will now appear under Invoices>Sent.

Void

Select the checkbox next to the invoice(s) to void.

Click Void button from the top of the screen.

Creating Fixed Fee Invoices

There are several ways to generate Fixed Fee invoices:

1. Create a Fixed Fee bill under Time>Time Entry. This is useful for applying Fixed Fee bill to a single Time Entry. (The user must have the appropriate permissions in place to enter a fixed fee. This can be set under Account>Users>[user name]>Permissions>Can View and Override Rate?)

2. Use a Fixed Fee Billable Milestone in a Matter Plan

Click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[matter name]>Invoice Settings.

Under Billing Arrangement select Fixed Fee – Time and Expense.

The Billing Event will automatically be chosen as Milestone and cannot be changed when you have selected the billing arrangement as ‘fixed fee – time and expense’.

A checkbox appears under the 'Event' field after 'Milestone' is selected, and allows the user to ' A utomatically Complete Milestone and Generate Invoices'.

Click on Matter Plan tab to create a new milestone.

Select the Type as Billable Milestone.

Specify fixed fee amount in the Invoice Amount field.

Now click on Complete & Generate Invoice link next to the milestone.

Click on Invoices>Drafts to view and send this generated invoice.

Creating Split Billing Invoices

Click on Invoices>Drafts.

Click on New Draft Invoices link to create a new invoice.

Note: all the Master and Secondary Matters/Projects that will have draft invoices generated against them will include all other time/expense entries outside of this split billing project, i.e. this step will not only generate a draft invoice for the time/expense entries associated with this split billing project, it will also generate draft invoices for all other un-billed time/expense associated with the Master and Secondary Matters/Projects.

Create For - Choose the ‘Master Matter’ (i.e the ‘primary Matter’, or the ‘parent Matter’) that you created the split billing project for. All the secondary Matters are under this ‘Master Matter’ in the system..

Billing Category - generate invoices for a specific billing category. These categories are created under

Date Range - the dates entries were created. Leaving it blank will allow you to bill as far back as possible.

Invoice Date - date to generate invoice on. This will default to the current day.

Include -

Matter billing arrangement - whatever settings are at the Matter-level (Clients>Clients & Matters>Matter Name>Invoice Settings>Billing Arrangement) will determine how the draft invoice is created. For example, if the setting at the Matter-level specifies ‘Expenses only’, upon selecting ‘Matter Billing Arrangement’ here, you will only generate an invoice for Expense entries.
Time & Expense - generate invoices for both time and expense entries. This will override any Matter-level invoice settings.

Time only - generate invoices for only time entries. This will override any Matter-level invoice settings.

Expense - generate invoices for only expense entries. This will override any Matter-level invoice settings.

Split - if selected Client-Matters are the ‘Master Matter’, i.e part of a Split Billing Project, select the Split checkbox to split those entries.

Once created:

Split column -

+ sign - the draft invoice which is a part of a Split Billing Project, has been split.

- sign - the matter is a part of a Split Billing Project but has not yet been split.

Creating Retainer Invoices

Click on Invoices>Retainers.

Click on New Retainer Invoice.

Title -

Client - Matter - type or double-click to pull a list to choose from. If you select a Client-Matter for which invoice and payment settings are 'Email' and 'Client Portal' related, two new checkboxes will appear towards the bottom after having selected the Client-Matter. For your Retainer Invoice to not be sent out directly to the client after hitting Create on this page, you will have to unselect the 'Send By Email' checkbox first.

Date -

Retainer Number

Retainer Amount -

Message Text - refers to a line placed on the Retainer. This is NOT the text shown on the email message.

Include From Address - the firm’s address will show on the retainer invoice.

Output Format -

Note: Clicking on Create will send the Retainer Invoice directly to the client if ‘Send By Email‘ checkbox is selected. It will NOT download for you to review first, unless you have it selected for Print.

Consolidate Multiple Matters for Invoicing

To consolidate/combine multiple matters for a client onto one invoice:

Click on Client>Clients & Matters>[client name]>Matters tab.

Select Consolidated? checkbox against the desired matters.

Note: If you created any drafts for the client before these changes were made, you will need to postpone and recreate the draft in order to update the client invoice to consolidated.

Creating an Invoice Without dates

Users can create invoices in TimeSolv without a date appearing on them. But it is important to note the ‘Invoice Period‘ dates must still be defined under the 'General' tab of the draft invoice. The 'Invoice Period' can be unchecked under the 'Cover Page' and 'Main Page' tabs of the flexible billing template.

Click on Invoices>Drafts screen.

Click on the invoice amount to edit.

Click ‘ edit‘ next to the Template field.

Under the Cover Page tab, ensure the Date and Invoice Period is unchecked.

Under the Main Page tab, ensure the Date and Invoice Period is unchecked.

Under the Time tab, ensure the Date is unchecked.

Under the Expense tab, ensure the Date is unchecked.

Translate an Invoice

For firms that want to translate their invoices:

If your firm wants their invoice in another language they can download the invoice in Word format. To do this, after creating the draft invoice, select the download icon against the invoice. A pop-up will appear asking the user to specify which format to download the invoice in. Select Word format.

Next, click to open the downloaded Word document.

Click on the ' Review' tab from the top menu, and the Translate button. Click on ' Translate Document' from the dropdown.

Select English as the language translating from, and your desired language to translate to.

Hold Billing Until Next Invoice or Permanently

To completely hold invoicing for a Matter:

Click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[matter name]>General.

Ensure Hold Billing checkbox is enabled.

Note: Expense or Time entries can be held until the next invoice or permanently.

To hold entries until the next Invoice:

Click on Invoices>Drafts>[amount]>Time tab.

Click Edit next to each entry you wish to hold.

Click Hold.

To hold entries permanently:

In order to hold entries permanently, they cannot be on a draft invoice.

First void any draft invoices with the entries in them by clicking on Invoices>Drafts>[select invoice]>Void.

This will pave the way for the entries to be made available for editing on the Time/Expense>Search screen.

Search entry you want to hold permanently and click on Edit.

Note: The ‘Edit’ link will only show if the entry is not part of a Split Billing Project that has been split. In that case, you would have to first undo split entries before you can edit the entry.

Change the Billable Type field to Non-Billable. Non-Billable entries will not show on invoices.

Send an Invoice

Click on Invoices>Drafts and create a new draft invoice.

Select the checkbox next to the invoice(s) to send, and click the Send button from the top of the screen.

The sent invoice will now appear under the Invoices>Sent screen.

Note: In case of missing details required to send the invoice(s), an error message may appear. Hover over the yellow error triangle symbol to receive an explanation for why the error occurred. As an example, the user may not have selected an invoice delivery method. Click on the invoice amount to edit and resolve the issue.