Invoicing¶

This page is for the people who bill clients: attorneys and office managers. It covers how to turn recorded work into invoices, send them, and follow each one until it is paid, written off or voided. Read Time and expenses first: it explains entries, Comp and Entered.

Open Invoicing¶

Click Invoicing in the sidebar. You need the Financial permission for this. Ask your administrator. It opens on Invoices and has seven tabs.

Invoicing covers every matter in the firm. If you are limited to assigned matters, you still see the other matters' invoices and figures here.

See what is ready to bill¶

Work in Progress lists each billable matter that has unbilled work, 20 to a page, largest Activity first. Count shows how many match.

How the figures are arrived at:

• An entry counts when Entered is No and it is on no invoice. Once an invoice picks it up, even a draft, it leaves this tab.
• Comp entries are left out of every column, hours included.
• Matters that are not billable are not listed.
• The Totals row covers every matter that matches, not only the page.

To narrow the list, click the period button and choose All Activity, Current Month or Prior Month: the figures then count only entries dated in that period. Filter opens Filter Work in Progress, with Activity Period, Sort By and Last Invoice Before (matters whose latest invoice is dated on or before that day, or that have none). The sort buttons beside Matter, Activity and Last Inv. reorder the list.

Good to know:

• Work in Progress on a matter's Overview and Ledger is a larger figure. It adds the work sitting on that matter's Draft and Approved invoices, less any discount on them.
• Prior Month counts every entry dated before the first day of this month, not only last month's.
• Every matter of a client shows that client's whole Trust (Pending) balance. The Totals row counts each client once, so it can be less than the column added up.

Create an invoice¶

1. Click Invoicing → Work in Progress, then the plus button at the left of the toolbar. Add Invoice opens.
2. Choose the Matter. Each matter is followed by its unbilled amount.
3. Check Limit Date and Issue Date, fill in the other fields that apply, and click Submit.

The form closes, and the work the invoice took leaves the list. The new invoice is a draft: click Invoices, which now shows Draft.

A draft takes every time, expense and flat fee entry on the matter that is dated on or before Limit Date, has Entered at No and is on no invoice. Comp entries come too, at no charge. Hourly and flat-fee matters are invoiced the same way. A flat fee is billed only when a flat fee entry has been recorded: the matter's Flat Fee Amount alone bills nothing.

To invoice several matters at once, tick the box beside each matter on Work in Progress (the box in the heading selects the page), click Create Invoices, set Limit Date and Issue Date, and click Create Invoices. Each matter gets its own draft.

Good to know:

• A draft takes in new work only when it is saved again: open Edit Invoice and click Submit, or set its status to Draft again.
• Kosmos creates the invoice even when there is nothing to put on it.

Check and correct a draft¶

Click an invoice's ID in the Invoices list. The page is headed with the invoice number and matter, for example "Invoice 123 - Rivera v. Northside Logistics", and opens on Time.

The download button at the top of the page, and on each row of the Invoices list, offers Download PDF. It also offers Download Ledes, a LEDES 1998B file for clients that take electronic bills, once an administrator has set the firm's LEDES id (LAW_FIRM_ID). Until then that choice is not shown. A void invoice offers only the PDF.

While the invoice is a draft you can change what is on it:

• Click an entry's text to edit or delete it. A comp entry shows "comp" in place of its amount.
• On Time, tick entries, click Comp and choose Comp or Not Comp.
• Click the pencil button at the top right for Edit Invoice, which has Date limit, Date issued, Message, Comment, Show comp and Discount.

Total amount is time not marked comp (hours times rate), plus flat fees and expenses not marked comp, less Discount. The PDF calls it Total Due (Please Pay). In the Invoices list it is Total, and Amount Due is Total less the payments and credits applied to that invoice. Fees in the list is time only: a flat fee shows in Total. Under the list, Total Charges adds time, flat fees and expenses before discounts, for every invoice the list is showing.

If the client has confirmed money in trust, the PDF adds Funds in Trust with the client's Retainer Balance. Under it the PDF prints the Invoice Trust Note that an administrator has entered on Settings → Firm. Until a note is entered, the balance prints alone. See Settings.

Good to know:

• Nothing takes a single entry off a draft and leaves it unbilled, and an earlier Date limit does not drop entries. Delete the draft and create it again with the limit you want.

Move an invoice through its statuses¶

Click the status in the Invoices list or at the top of the invoice and choose Draft, Approved, Sent, Deferred or Uncollectible. The change is made at once. The list starts on Sent. Click Draft, Approved, Deferred, Paid or Void to see the others, or use Filter → Status for Uncollectible and All.

Kosmos makes the invoice's PDF again, and keeps that copy, when you choose Approved or Sent and when an invoice leaves Draft for any other status. So an invoice that leaves Draft loses the draft mark, whichever status it goes to. Sending an invoice straight from Draft or Approved does the same. Any other change, such as Sent to Deferred, leaves the kept copy as it is.

On a Sent or Deferred invoice, + Card and + Trust at the top record a payment against it. See Payments.

Good to know:

• Once an invoice has been emailed from Kosmos it cannot go back to Draft or Approved. To correct it, void it and invoice again.

Send an invoice¶

1. Click Invoices → Approved and click the send button (a paper plane) at the right of the row. Send Invoice opens.
2. Check To, which starts as the client's email address. Separate several addresses with commas. Add Cc (optional) if you need it.
3. Edit Message (optional), up to 500 characters. It starts as the invoice's Message.
4. Tick Attach invoice PDF (always available at the pay link) to attach the PDF, and click Send.

A message confirms the address, and the invoice becomes Sent. If the email fails, the dialog says why and the status does not change.

The email comes from your firm's name followed by "Billing", for example "Example Law Billing", with the subject "Example Law - Invoice 123". It greets the client with "Dear Client," and carries your message, the client's name, the invoice number and the amount due. Its Pay now button opens a page where the client can download the PDF and pay. If your firm does not take online payments, the button reads View invoice and the page only offers the PDF. See Payments. Replies and blind copies go to the Billing Email and Invoice BCC addresses on Settings → Firm. See Settings.

After the first email, the send button offers Resend Invoice and Send Reminder. A reminder says how long ago the invoice went out. After that it carries the Payment Terms sentence that an administrator has entered on Settings → Firm. Until one is entered, the reminder states no terms. Your message goes above the reminder's own text. A reminder does not change the status. Every attempt is kept under History → Delivery History with its Date, Type, Sender, Recipients and Status (Sent or Failed). A Sent invoice emailed more than once shows the number of times beside its status.

Good to know:

• The link in the email stops working after 90 days unless your administrator has set another period. Resend the invoice for a new one.
• An invoice set to Sent by hand has no send button. Set it back to Approved to email it.

Void an invoice¶

Void an invoice that has been issued and should not stand. A Draft or Approved invoice has no void button: delete it instead.

1. Open the invoice and click the void button (a circle with a line through it) at the top right. Void Invoice opens.
2. Type VOID in the box and click Submit.

The invoice is now Void and stays in the list with its PDF, made again with a cancelled mark across it. Its entries are unbilled again, so they return to Work in Progress and can be edited. Payments and credits applied to it are taken off it and stay on the matter, unapplied. It no longer counts in Balance Due. Voiding cannot be undone, and a void invoice's status cannot be changed.

A client who opens the link from an earlier email is told "This invoice is no longer open for payment. Please contact us if you have a question about it."

Delete an invoice¶

Anyone with the Financial permission can delete a Draft or Approved invoice: open Edit Invoice, click Delete and confirm. Only an administrator can delete a Void invoice, with the trash button at the top of its page. An invoice with any other status cannot be deleted. Void it first.

Deleting is permanent. The entries are kept and become unbilled again. Payments and credits that were applied to the invoice are kept and become unapplied. The record of its emails is deleted with it.

Give a credit¶

A credit lowers what a client owes on a matter without a payment: a courtesy reduction or a write-off, for example.

1. Click Invoicing → Credits, then the plus button. Add Credits opens.
2. Fill in Date, Matter and Amount, say why in Detail, and click Submit.
3. In the list, click the credit's ID and choose Apply.
4. Beside an invoice, enter the Amount to Apply and click Submit.

The credit's Unapplied amount falls and the invoice's Amount Due falls with it. The dialog lists the matter's Sent and Deferred invoices that still have something due, and under Current Applications you can remove an application. A second amount from the same credit to the same invoice is added to the first application. The ID menu also has Edit and Delete. Removing an application, or deleting the credit, sets an invoice it had paid off back to Sent (or Deferred, if it was deferred when it was paid).

Once a credit is applied, Edit will not make it smaller than the amount applied or move it to another matter. Remove the application first. The amount must be more than zero.

A credit lowers the matter's Balance Due from the day it is added. It lowers an invoice's Amount Due only once it is applied. On the matter's Ledger the credit is listed under its Detail, or as "Credit" if you left Detail empty. Click it there for Edit and Delete.

See who owes money¶

Collection lists each billable matter with something to collect, largest first, ten to a page. Click a matter to open its Ledger tab.

A matter is listed when Due is more than zero, and Total Due After Deferments adds every listed matter. The tab has no ages or due dates: use AR Aging in Reports for those. You need the Reports permission for it. Matters running low on trust are not here either. Administrators see them under Collections on the dashboard. See Getting started.

The matter's Ledger¶

A matter's Ledger tab lists its issued invoices, payments and credits by date with a running balance. Balance Due is the totals of its Sent, Deferred and Paid invoices, less every payment and credit on the matter, applied or not. Draft and Approved invoices appear under Work in Progress instead. See Matters.