Invoice

Invoices are at the core of ContactsLaw's billing features. You create an invoice whenever you need to bill a client¹ matter.

¹ Invoices cannot be created on administration or prospect matters.

Properties

Invoices have the following properties:

• Invoice date (as well as the due date and date from which interest begins to accrue, if different)
• Bill-to contact to whom the invoice is addressed
• Scale (along with the date that determines which rates to charge)
• Cut-off date for the inclusion of invoice items (e.g. time records, disbursements)
• Whether to charge sales tax (GST/VAT/etc)

Invoice Items

An invoice consists of one or more line items, which can be any of the following:

• Product - Represents a legal service or key deliverable (e.g. Affidavit), charged according to either an "as recorded" or fixed amount basis.
• Disbursement previously recorded on the matter.
• Discount, expressed as either a fixed amount or percentage of the total.
• Interest on other, overdue invoices.
• Other items of an arbitrary nature, e.g. material goods.

If the invoice is created from a quote, some items will be pre-filled.

Each item has a separate date that can be shown in an itemisation. This is typically the earliest date on which charges were incurred.

If desired, the amount charged can be overridden. The markup (which may be negative) is shown for informational purposes only.

Discounts

Discounts do not apply to disbursements or interest on overdue invoices, and therefore cannot exceed the total less these items.

The sales tax component of a discount is calculated pro-rata (such that a 100% discount would have a sales tax component equal to the sum of tax charged on all other eligible items).

Surcharges

Invoices can include surcharges, by changing the options for an "other" item from a fixed amount to a percentage of the total. As with discounts, surcharges do not apply to disbursements or interest, however surcharges can be subsequently discounted.

Surcharges do not compound; therefore, adding multiple surcharges is equivalent to adding a single surcharge equal to the sum of their percentages.

Trust Transfers

Invoices may include a transfer of funds from trust to debtors for the purpose of paying (wholly or in part) the invoice. The corresponding transaction is created when the invoice is finalised.

Finalising

Invoices a created in a draft state, such that they do not yet have an effect the debtors ledger for the matter. Before they are considered payable, they must be finalised.

When an invoice is finalised, the following occurs:

1. A debtor journal transaction is created, which credits debtors and debits one or more general accounts associated with billing.
2. If applicable, a trust-to-debtors transaction is created. The transfer may be future-dated.
3. A document is generated from the invoice template which can then be distributed to the bill-to contact.

An invoice which was finalised in error can be re-drafted. Doing so will result in the creation of a separate document.