Generating an Income Allocation Report in Smokeball

Income Allocation reports are versatile tools which help your firm track invoiced and collected amounts for originating attorneys and timekeepers. Use these reports to assist with compensation plan and billable time calculations.

Generate an Income Allocation Report

1. Select the Reports View.
2. Select Income Allocation - Details or Income Allocation - Summary from the left-hand column.  
3. Review the options at the top of the screen.
   • Set the payment date range for the report. You must enter a payment date range for the report to run.
   • Choose Run By, Subtotal By, and Show Percentage options if you are generating an Income Allocation - Summary report. 
   • Choose Run By, Subtotal By, Attorney Responsible, Originating Attorney, Timekeeper, and Level of Detail options if you are generating an Income Allocation - Details report. 
4. After choosing your settings, select the View Report button. 

Understanding Income Allocation Reports

Income Allocation – Summary

The Income Allocation – Summary report shows your firm's income through a variety of sources and identify strengths and weaknesses in your business. 

By default, the report is filtered to timekeeper in the Run By dropdown menu. You can manually choose to run it by matter type, area of law, originating attorney, attorney responsible, client, or referrer. These filters also can also be applied to the Subtotal By dropdown menu. 

The Show Percentage option is set to false by default. Change this option to True to ensure the Run By selection totals 100%. If you chose an option under Subtotal By, then the subtotals will also equal 100%. 

These options can be adjusted to suit your firm’s needs. For example, if you set Run By to Attorney Responsible, Subtotal By to timekeeper, and Show Percentage to true, then you will receive an overview of your timekeepers by attorney responsible.

Alternatively, you can set Run By to referrer and the Subtotal By to matter type for insight into which types of business your referrers bring in the most money. 

Note:

• Partial payments for an invoice are applied pro-rata across fees and expenses.
• Waived amounts leave invoices partially paid.
• Discounts are only applied to fees.
• Interest, surcharges, and credits are not included.
• Subtotal By options, except for <None>, reflect the percentage of the group selected, not the total of the report.

Income Allocation – Details

The Income Allocation – Details report breaks down information from the Income Allocation – Summary report to show payments on the matter and invoice levels. Use this report when you need to verify that payments are correctly applied. 

By default, the report is set to <None> in the Run By dropdown menu. You can choose matter type, area of law, originating attorney, attorney responsible, timekeeper, client, or referrer in the Run By dropdown menu. These options are also available in the Subtotal By dropdown menu.

If you choose Run By attorney responsible, originating attorney, or timekeeper, the report will include all staff by default. Use the multi-select filters for these options to select individuals.

The Level of Detail dropdown menu affects how the information is displayed in the report. You can use Matter in this menu to total all payments on the matter by timekeeper allocation. Mater & Invoice totals all payments by individual payment by timekeeper allocation. Matter, Invoice, & Payment is the most comprehensive option, since many matters have multiple invoices, and invoices can have multiple payments. 

Note:

• Partial payments for an invoice are applied pro-rata across fees and expenses.
• Waived amounts simply leave invoices partially paid.
• Discounts are only applied to fees.
• Interest, surcharges, and credits are not included.

Save Filter Preferences for Income Allocation Reports

You can also save your filter preferences on the Income Allocation - Details and Income Allocation - Summary reports. After selecting your filters, select Yes from the Save Filters as Firm Default dropdown menu.

Note: No is the default option for this filter. You can also reset the filters by choosing Restore System Defaults. 

FAQ

Q: Are there other types of billing reports that might be useful to me?

A: Yes. Learn more about the other billing reports offered in Smokeball.

Q: Can these reports help me with gross receipts?

A: Yes. We recommend using Income Allocation reports if you need to generate a report of your gross receipts. Note: If your gross receipts report needs to include trust amounts, then the Money Received Report will cover all received amounts in the time period you designate.