Task guide
A matter's financials
What a matter has in progress, billed, collected and holds, its budget and realisation, and each fee earner's part, for the period chosen.
Open the matter, then Financials. Choose the period beside the sentence: To date, This financial year, Last financial year or Custom dates. The financial year begins in the month the firm sets under Financial year starts in its ledger settings. Every figure is in the matter's currency.
The tiles lead with the Work in progress, what was Billed, what was Collected and what is Outstanding. Each section's figures open the tab they count, such as Time, Bills or Client account.
Work in progress
Unbilled time, with its hours, and Unbilled disbursements: chargeable work recorded in the period that no bill has taken yet.
Bills
Billed is the bills dated in the period, less the credit notes dated in it; Of which fees is the fees on them. Collected is the cash and tax withheld applied to the matter's bills in the period. Outstanding is what the period's bills still owe today, split into Not yet due and how many days late. Written off is bad debt approved in the period; Written down at billing and Written up at billing are the difference between the time's standard value and what the bills charged for it.
Realisation
Billed against standard value compares what the bills charged for the time with its value at the standard rates. Collected against billed compares what was collected with what was billed.
Client money and budget
Client money is what is held for the client on the matter today, in each currency, with what of it is earmarked. Budget shows the matter's budget and how much the work has used over the matter's life, phase by phase where the budget has phases. Set and revise a matter budget explains the budget itself.
By fee earner
Each person's hours in the period, their value, what their time billed for and its realisation.
Cost and profit
People who may see the firm's cost rates also see Cost and profit: what the period's time cost the firm on each person's cost rate, the Profit on the fees billed, and the Margin. Time worked on a day its fee earner had no cost rate is counted as uncosted and named. Everyone else does not see these figures at all. The cost rates are kept under Settings, Time & billing, Rates.
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Read next
- Set and revise a matter budgetA budget per matter, in its own currency, with optional phases, every revision kept, and the partner told as the spend approaches it.
- Record timeRun a timer, use quick entry or fill the week grid, with each entry rounded, valued at once and checked against the rules the firm sets.
- Prepare and post a billGather a matter's unbilled time and disbursements on a pre-bill, adjust each line with a reason, have it approved and post it as a numbered bill.
- The client account and its ledgersWhat the firm holds for each matter in each currency, the statement a client reads, the funds held with the control figures, dormant money, quarantine and refused overdraws.
- Rates and how an hour is valuedThe firm's rate cards, the order the system looks for a rate in, discounts and rates below the standard, work charged per unit, cost rates and the yearly rate review.