Invoicing is one of the most important processes in your firm's billing cycles. If you are planning to create an invoice for the first time, you should review the pre-invoice checklist below.
1. Review invoice settings and create invoice templates.
2. Review invoice-related matter settings.
3. Apply any outstanding interest or surcharge on a matter.
4. Review Firm Settings and edit your firm’s email template.
5. If applicable, set up your evergreen retainer.
6. Enable Smokeball Payments or LawPay (you only need to select one).
7. Enable the QuickBooks Online Integration.
8. Enable the printing of operating checks and trust checks.
9. Create and edit time, fee, or expense entries.
Once all steps in the checklist are complete, you will be ready to create an invoice.
Creating invoices from a matter
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Select the Create Invoice button under Invoices tab.
- On the new invoice page, enter the Issue Date, Due Date, and Debtor(s)/Client(s).
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Select Edit Invoice Options to choose your invoice template or modify the invoice title/sub-title.
- You can also use the checkboxes to choose which entries will appear on the invoice.
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Note: The pre-selected options are determined by your firm-wide settings.
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Review Time/Fees and Expenses.
- Add additional fees or expenses by selecting the Add Entry links.
- Review, Edit, or Remove Entries by using the checkboxes.
- You can select the checkbox in the W/O column to write off any entry.
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Select the circled arrow in the View column to open a pop-up Time/Fee Details window and edit the entry.
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Optional: Apply a discount or surcharge below the subtotal listed on the rightmost column.
- Discounts can be given with a specific dollar amount or percentage of Time and Fees.
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Use the buttons at the bottom of the column to preview the invoice or save it as a draft. Invoices remain as drafts until you are ready to send them to your clients.
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Select the Save Draft button to save a draft of the invoice.
- Select the three dots next to the Save Draft button to delete an invoice. If a draft invoice is deleted, all time, fees, and expenses are billable and available for a new invoice.
- Select the three dots next to the Save Draft button to delete an invoice. If a draft invoice is deleted, all time, fees, and expenses are billable and available for a new invoice.
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Select the Final tab on the rightmost column to review payment methods.
- Pay From Trust: make a payment from a trust account.
- Pay From Operating Retainer: make a payment from the operating retainer account.
- Pay From Credit: make a payment using credit.
- Toggle Auto-allocate payments to allow Smokeball Billing select which account to apply funds from first based on your firm's settings.
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Optional: Use the toggles to send the invoice to the client via Email.
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Select the Finalize Draft button if you are ready to send the invoice to the client.
- You can add payments, email the invoice to the client, or download a finalized invoice.
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If necessary, you can Void, Edit, or Waive the invoice.
- Note: If a payment is applied, you must delete it before you can edit or void the invoice.
- You can also choose Setup Payment Plan for this Debtor.
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The bottom right-hand corner will indicate if the invoice has been e-mailed, viewed online by the client, and when the invoice was finalized.
Next steps depend upon the specific needs and practices of your firms. Some possible next steps include:
- Combine invoices into PDFs if your firm practices bulk billing.
- Edit an invoice or waive/void/write-off entries if an invoice features a mistake which needs to be corrected.
- Apply payments to single invoices, multiple invoices, or bulk invoices.
- Send multiple invoices to your clients through email.
- Set up an invoice reminder.
- Learn how to record trust payments.
Unsure about what to do next? Schedule a Q&A session with a billing trainer.