Send a bill to the client for review

A fee note is the bill as it would issue, marked as a draft and numbered FN-0001 and on, sent to the client to agree or comment on before the firm issues it. Nobody changes the pre-bill while it is with the client.

Send a pre-bill for review

1. Prepare the pre-bill and, where the firm approves bills, have it approved.
2. On the pre-bill, choose Send for review. Where the client reviews every bill, it is the main button; otherwise it is in the pre-bill's menu.
3. For each payer, choose where its fee note goes. The addresses the firm holds for the client and the people at it can be ticked.
4. Choose the day an answer is asked by, or leave it blank for the firm's usual days, and add a message if you want one.
5. Choose Send for review.

The fee note is filed on the matter and emailed. A client with portal access also finds it in the portal, under Billing, To review. Where the matter's bills are shared among payers, each payer gets its own fee note showing only its share.

What the client can say

• Agree it. The fee note is agreed with who agreed and when.
• Comment. On the fee note as a whole, or on any line: a time entry, a disbursement or a fee. Each comment is kept in the client's words.

The client answers in the portal. When the answer comes by email, phone, letter or in person, open the fee note under Billing, Fee notes and choose Record an answer, saying how it came. The matter's responsible partner and whoever prepared the pre-bill are told of every answer.

Answer each comment from its menu with what the firm did about it. The client reads your answer in the portal.

Revise and send again

1. On the pre-bill, choose Take back to revise. It returns to draft and its lines can be changed, written down or left off as on any pre-bill.
2. Have it approved again where the firm approves bills.
3. Choose Send again for review. Each payer's fee note keeps its number and takes its next revision; every version sent, with its figures, its comments and the answers, stays readable on the fee note.

To stop the review altogether, choose Withdraw the fee notes and give the reason. The pre-bill returns to draft.

Issue the bill

Choose Issue the bill on the pre-bill. When every payer has agreed, the bill posts at once. Before that, or while a comment is unanswered, you give the reason for issuing now. The bill prints the fee note's number.

The firm's settings under Settings, Time & billing, Billing settings, General decide what happens without you:

• Fee notes: when the client agrees: issue the bill at once (the default), or wait for a partner.
• Fee notes: at the date without an answer: wait for a partner (the default), who is told once the date passes, or issue the bill by itself.
• Fee notes: reminder before the date: remind the client once, this many days before (two by default).
• Fee notes: days to answer: the days the client has when no date is chosen (seven by default).

Clients who review every bill

On a client's page, Review before billing says whether every pre-bill for the client goes for review first: the firm's default (Fee notes: every client reviews its bills, off unless the firm turns it on), or the client's own choice. Posting such a client's pre-bill without a review is a partner's decision: choose Post without the client's review and give the reason, which is kept in the audit trail.

The register

Billing, Fee notes lists every fee note: with the client, commented, agreed, overdue for an answer, withdrawn and issued. Search by number, payer or matter, filter by where it stands, the day an answer is due and the responsible lawyer, and export what the filters reach. A fee note's number is also found by the search at the top of every screen.