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In ContactsLaw, billing is usually conducted in arrears, with bills being rendered from the recorded time, fixed charges and disbursements on a file. If a quote is issued, the amount billed for these items can be adjusted up/down to match the quoted price. Sometimes, however, it may be desirable to issue a bill in advance of these services. ContactsLaw therefore provides upfront billing to allow an immediate debit to the debtors ledger, making it possible to receipt funds before any work has been completed on the file.
 
While the traditional approach to billing can be summarised as follows...
  1. Open the file, optionally issuing a cost estimate
  2. Record time, fixed charges and disbursements
  3. Render a bill
  4. Receipt funds and allocate to the bill
...the upfront billing approach operates in the following manner:
  1. Open the file and build a quote
  2. Bill the quote by generating an upfront bill
  3. Optionally receipt funds and allocate to the upfront bill
  4. Record time, fixed charges and disbursements
  5. Close the billing period by finalising the upfront bill
  6. Optionally bill any items exclusive of the quote
Upfront billing cycle

Upfront bills

Upfront bills differ from ordinary bills in that they do not contain any items recorded on the file. Instead, they contain items from the quote and, optionally, a discount incentive for early payment. (This means that you must complete the quote section of the file's billing options screen in order to post an upfront bill.) When rendered, they debit the debtors controlled account and credit the fixed price services controlled account. They would normally include a GST component.

Fixed price products - upfront vs. normal billing

Fixed price products can be billed upfront or normally regardless of whether the work has been done. An upfront bill is not needed to bill in excess of the time recorded. Instead, the upfront bill allows you to bill the product without immediately allocating the income to members.
 
If you create a file for a $500 fixed price product and immediately bill it:
  • A normal bill will increase debtors by $500 and immediately allocate the $500 in proportion to the time recorded on the file, subject to manual reallocation using the ‘…’ button.
    • This means if the only journal is a registry file creation journal, 100% will be allocated to the registry member, unless the allocations are adjusted.
  • An upfront bill will increase debtors by $500 and temporarily allocate the $500 to the fixed price services account, not to any individual member.
    • It is not until the bill is finalised that the money will be reallocated to the members who did the work.
    • By default the reallocation will be in proportion to the time recorded on the file at the date of finalisation, but again, this is subject to manual reallocation using the ‘…’ button.
An upfront bill is useful for more complex matters because you don’t know at the billing stage whose and how much time will be recorded (eg. a senior practitioner might record some time when settling documents). Once all the activities are recorded (ie. the work is done) the bill can be finalised and the money will be allocated in proportion to the activities.

Finalising upfront bills

The billing period (which begins from the date of the upfront bill) must be closed at the conclusion of all quote-inclusive work on the file. This must be performed before any ex-quote items can be billed. To finalise the upfront bill, a new bill is rendered; this bill is not subject to GST and may only contain items included in the quote. Even if the upfront bill was subject to a discount, the finalisation will not be (as it is simply used to describe the actual value of the services provided). When rendered, the bill will have no debtor effect; instead, it will debit the fixed price services controlled account and credit the same accounts used for ordinary (arrears) bills. Although they have no effect on the debtor balance of their file, finalisations are displayed on the debtors ledger as blank amounts. If desired, you can post multiple finalising bills for a given billing period; products which have not yet been included in a finalising bill will continue to appear on subsequent finalising bills. (This is useful on files with a lengthy lifespan where products are completed sequentially.)
 
Both upfront bills and bills which finalise them are printable. Upfront bills show that they represent the start of the billing period, while finalising bills clearly indicate that no new charges are payable as a result of finalisation.
 
Upfront bills can be automatically generated during file creation. Both upfront bills and debtor receipts may be specified in files imported into ContactsLaw. 

Effect on performance statistics

Upfront billing alters the sequence and division of performance figures over the members involved in the file:
  • Members receive no credit under sales for merely rendering an upfront bill. Upfront bills are included once finalised.
  • Discounts on upfront bills are considered once finalised.
  • Work in progress includes the value of any unfinalised upfront bills.
  • Only the file manager receives credit for recovery on upfront bills, which are reported separately.