Bill Generation Profiles

What is a billing settings definition

Billing settings definitions are a way to limit or specify what matters are returned by the generate bills page.  By default, all matters that are active and all of those matters unbilled fees and expenses will be returned.  A billing settings definition starts first with a query to determine what matters to return, and will show all unbilled fees and expenses for those matters. (The default query 'ActiveBillable' is actually a system query that cannot be edited or changed, it returns ALL matters that have not been set inactive.)  The dialog then allows you to add additional matters to show based on the settings defined below.

Before generating bills for the first time, users should define the billing profile(s) needed to properly bill their clients. To edit or create new profiles, choose the Edit Setting button from the Generate Bills page.

Note: Columns available in the Bill Generation, Pre-Bills and Posted Bills pages are configurable by Centerbase. Any field that is available on the matter or through a lookup on the matter (i.e. the matter’s client’s billing type) may be added as a column in the grid.

The pop-up dialogue gives the following options:

Setting Selection (1)

If multiple profiles are available, select the desired profile from the settings drop-down. New profiles may be created and existing ones may be deleted (just make sure you have selected the right profile from the drop-down before deleting!!)

Billing Date Range (2)

This is the default date range that will be applied when the Generate Bills page is loaded or a new profile is loaded. Only unbilled time or expense that has an Entry Date that lies within the date range will be eligible for billing. However, this may be changed on and ad-hoc basis from the main generate bills page without editing the default setting. It is recommended that you use the smart date ranges when possible.

Query (3)

This drop-down allows users to select a pre-defined matter query. The default query 'ActiveBillable' is actually a system query that cannot be edited or changed, it returns ALL matters that have not been set inactive. A new query may be created on matters to filter a profile. One specific example would be creating a billing profile for a single Billing Attorney so that users can run that attorney’s bills in a single batch.

Statements (4)

There are four major settings that determine whether a statement is generated. In Centerbase, we define a statement as a bill without any current time/expense activity.

1. A/R Activity: A statement will be generated for a matter if a payment(s), credit(s) or refund(s) has been processed since the previous bill, regardless of A/R balance. One example would be a final bill showing that the matter has been paid off. Selecting the nested Limit activity to date range option ensure only activity from the set date range creates a statement.
2. Trust Activity: Like A/R activity, but only generates a statement if a deposit(s), disbursement(s) or bill payment(s) from trust have occurred regardless of current trust balance. Selecting the nested Limit activity to date range option ensure only activity from the set date range creates a statement.
3. A/R Balance but no activity: Generates a statement if the matter currently has a non-zero A/R balance regardless of whether there has been any activity in the date range.
4. Trust Balance but no activity: Generates a statement if any trust accounts (marked as show on bill) currently have a balance regardless of recent trust activity.

Mix and match these settings to get generate the desired statements.

Note: There is not currently a way to generate ONLY statements from this page. The current best practice is to set the billing entry date range to a date in the future to filter out all billing entries.

Sorting (5)

Allows for 3 levels of sorting for bill generation. The bills will be created in this order and if Generate Printable PDF is selected on generation, it will use this sorting preference (Users may still sort by individual columns from the grid by clicking the column header without editing the default).

When a billing profile is selected, it is important note that the grid will use the profile settings to filter and re-order the results. Users should review the results to ensure that the matters in the grid should, in fact, receive a bill.