You can set an estimate of billable fees and expenses to budget your matters and provide your clients with insight into how much their case may cost. Follow these steps:
- Double-click the Info field under Matter Details.
- Select the Billing tab.
- Enter the amount you believe the matter will cost in the Fee/Estimate field.
- Select the OK button.
Send reminders for fees and expenses thresholds
Your firm may use estimates for matter management and budgeting purposes and to help your clients understand how much their case will cost. Use the Client Portal to notify the attorney, person responsible, and person assisting to receive a notification whenever their matter passes its estimated total billable fees and expenses (both billed and unbilled) thresholds.
Follow these steps:
- Select the gear icon to open Smokeball Settings.
- Select the Time & Billing tab.
- Tick the Send Client Portal notifications when matter approaches the estimate checkbox.
- Select Save.
Once you have enabled this option, Communicate will send a single message to the attorney or person responsible whenever a matter passes a threshold. The person assisting on the matter will also be notified.
The thresholds which trigger this message are 75%, 85%, and 100% of the estimate. Communicate will only send one message per threshold. Updating the estimate will cause a single notification to be sent again once the new estimate crosses the re-calculated thresholds.
Note: Thresholds are checked whenever fees or expenses change, such as when new entries are added manually or when AutoTime runs and adds new entries.