Time and expenses¶

This page is for anyone who records work so it can be billed: attorneys, paralegals and office staff. It covers the three kinds of entry, how to record, find and change them, and what happens to an entry once it is on an invoice.

The three kinds of entry¶

Activity in the sidebar lists entries across matters on three tabs: Time, Expenses and Flat Fees. A matter's Activity tab (see Matters) lists that matter's entries under Time and Expenses and adds a Categories view. Flat fees are not listed there. Every entry is saved under the person who is signed in. There is no field for recording work on behalf of someone else.

Record time¶

1. Click Activity in the sidebar. The Time tab opens.
2. Click the plus button at the left of the toolbar. Add Time Entry opens.
3. Choose the Matter. The list holds hourly matters that are Pending, Open or Complete. Rate fills in when you choose.
4. Type what you did in Actions and enter the Hours. Check the Date, which starts as today.
5. Click Submit.

The form closes and the list refreshes. Every field is required except Comp and Entered, which start at No.

You can also click the clock button (Add time) in a matter's header. After Submit, Kosmos takes you to Activity → Time. Or press Space then n on any page and choose Time Entry.

Good to know:

• Kosmos does not round hours and sets no minimum. It accepts one decimal place only, so 0.25 is refused.
• The Time tab opens on your own entries for today. An entry with another date is saved but does not appear until you change the date.

How the rate is chosen¶

When you choose a matter, Kosmos fills in Rate, in whole dollars an hour. You can type over it. It uses, in this order:

1. The rate set for you on that matter's Rates tab, if there is one.
2. Otherwise, the Hourly Rate on your user account.

To set a matter rate, open the matter's Rates tab, click Add Rate, choose the User, enter the Matter rate and click Submit. You need the Financial permission to see the Rates tab. Your own Hourly Rate is set by an administrator under Settings → Users. The rate is saved on each entry, so a later change does not alter entries already saved.

Use abbreviations¶

Your firm can define short codes that expand into full phrases in the Actions box. Suppose the firm has the code tcw for "telephone conference with".

1. In Actions, type tcw Elena Rivera re deposition dates.
2. Read the Preview: line that appears under the box. It shows "telephone conference with Elena Rivera re deposition dates".
3. Leave the checkbox beside the preview ticked and click Submit. Untick it to save the text exactly as you typed it.

The list shows the expanded text. To see the codes, click View Abbreviation Codes at the bottom of the form, or the code button at the right of the Time toolbar, which opens the searchable Abbreviation Codes list. Administrators also get a plus button there to add a code (Abbreviation Code, Expansion Text, Submit), and can click a code for Edit or Delete.

Good to know:

• Codes are case-sensitive, and Kosmos replaces a code wherever those characters appear, including inside a longer word. Check the preview. An administrator can end a code with a space ("conf ") so that it only matches at the end of a word.

Record an expense¶

1. Click Activity → Expenses, then the plus button. Add Expense Entry opens.
2. Choose the Matter (any matter that is Pending, Open or Complete) and fill in Date, Description and Amount. All four are required.
3. Optionally choose a Category: Contract Services, Court Reporters, Filing Fee, Outside Counsel, Postage or Process Server. This fixed list is not the matter category described below.
4. Set Comp and Entered as for time, then click Submit.

The list shows the category in front of the description. Unlike time, an expense is one amount with no hours or rate, and abbreviation codes do not apply. The receipt button (Add expense) in a matter's header and Space then n → Expense open the same form.

Good to know:

• When you add an expense, Kosmos expands ff, fx and ml, typed as words of their own, into "Filing fee", "FedEx" and "Mail": "ff for complaint" is saved as "Filing fee for complaint".
• The largest amount an expense can hold is $9,999.99.

Record a flat fee¶

1. Click Activity → Flat Fees, then the plus button. Add Flat-Fee Entry opens.
2. Choose the Matter. Only flat-fee matters are listed. Amount fills in from the matter's Flat Fee Amount, if one is set.
3. Fill in Date and Description, check Amount, and click Submit.

A flat fee has no hours, rate, category or abbreviation codes, and there is no button for it in a matter's header.

File entries under categories¶

Categories belong to one matter. They sort its time and expenses into groups, and the groups marked Claimed become the sections of the matter's fee claim report. An entry has one category or none.

1. Open the matter, click the Activity tab, then Categories.
2. Click the plus button beside the Category heading. Enter a Name, set Claimed, and click Submit. Drag rows to reorder them. Click a name for Edit or Delete.
3. Click Time or Expenses. In the Category column, click the entry's category (or the icon, when it has none) and choose one. None clears it.

The entry now shows the category, and the Categories view adds it to that category's totals. To list one category's entries, use the All Categories button on the Time or Expenses view. Deleting a category leaves its entries uncategorized. Categories cannot be set in the entry forms or in the sidebar's Activity lists, and flat fees have none.

Find and review entries¶

Time opens on your own entries for today. Expenses and Flat Fees open on everyone's entries that are not Entered and not on an invoice, which the date button shows as Work in Progress. Each list shows ten entries a page, newest first.

Time has the columns Date, User, Matter, Actions, Hours, Rate and Fee. Expenses and Flat Fees have Date, User, Matter, Description and Amount. User shows initials, and a matter name opens that matter's Activity tab. To narrow or reorder a list:

• Date button. Choose All Dates, Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, Last Month or Work in Progress. Weeks start on Monday. Work in Progress shows unbilled entries of any date.
• User chips. Click All or a person's initials. In a firm of more than five people, a three-dot button lists everyone and lets you pin up to five as chips. Press [ or ] to step through users.
• Filter. Set Date (a range), User, Matter, Client (not on Expenses), Keyword, Comp, Entered, Invoice and Ordering, then click Apply. Restore Defaults returns the list to how it opens.
• Sort arrows. Click the arrows beside Date, Matter, or Actions or Description. Click again to reverse.

Totals under the list cover every entry that matches, not only the page you are on: Total Hours, Comp Hours and Net Hours and the same three for fees on Time, and total, comp and net amounts on the other tabs. An extra row, such as Admin Hours, appears when entries sit on a non-billable matter. Net leaves out comp and admin.

To export, click the download button at the right of the toolbar, choose Standard or Clio (Flat Fees has one format), and confirm with Download. You get a spreadsheet (CSV) file of every entry that matches the current filters.

• Standard for time holds Date, Matter, User, Actions, Hours, Rate, Fee, Comp, Discounted Fee, Entered and Invoice. For expenses and flat fees it holds Date, Matter, User, Description, Amount, Comp, Discounted Amount, Entered and Invoice.
• Clio is laid out for import into Clio. It leaves out entries on matters that have no Clio Matter set.

For a PDF, open the matter's Activity tab and click Activity Report. All Activity downloads the matter's timekeepers, time, flat fees, expenses and total. Fee Claim opens Fee and Expense Report: set its options and click Download PDF.

Edit, delete or change several entries¶

1. Click the entry's text in the Actions or Description column.
2. Change the fields and click Submit. To remove the entry, click Delete and confirm.

The list refreshes with the change. To change several entries at once:

1. Tick the box at the left of each entry. The box in the heading selects the whole page.
2. In the toolbar, click Matter and choose a matter to move the entries to, or click Comp and choose Comp or Not Comp.

The selection clears and the list refreshes. To cancel instead, click the count at the left of the toolbar. Matter and Comp need the Financial permission. Ask your administrator. Without it, the sidebar's Activity lists have no tick boxes, and a matter's Time list has them for Category only.

Good to know:

• Moving an entry to another matter, singly or in bulk, takes it off any draft invoice.
• In bulk changes, entries on an invoice that is past Draft are skipped, and a message says how many.

What happens once an entry is billed¶

An entry is unbilled when Entered is No and it is on no invoice. That is what Work in Progress lists. On Time, it also leaves out non-billable matters.

• When an invoice is created for a matter, Kosmos puts the matter's unbilled entries dated up to the invoice's Limit Date on it.
• While the invoice is a draft, the entry is gone from Work in Progress but you can still edit or delete it.
• Once the invoice is approved, the entry's text in the list is no longer a link, so you cannot open it to edit or delete it. That plain text is the only sign in the list that an entry is billed.
• If the invoice is voided, its entries become unbilled again.

Good to know:

• You can still change the category of a billed entry.

Who sees what¶

• If you are limited to assigned matters, the lists, their totals and their exports hold only those matters' entries, and the Matter list in each form offers only those matters.
• Rate, Fee and Amount, and the totals, are shown to everyone who can see an entry. The Financial permission does not hide them.
• Without the Financial permission, you do not get the tick boxes or the Matter and Comp menus in the sidebar's Activity lists, or a matter's Rates tab.
• Only administrators can add, edit or delete abbreviation codes. See Users and permissions.