Reviewing Proforma Invoices
Proforma invoices are routed through the existing invoice approval route that is assigned to the matter. If you are an invoice reviewer, you can approve, adjust, reject, or dispute invoices. The workflow for reviewing proforma invoices is similar to reviewing tax invoices.
Proforma invoices may be approved, rejected, or disputed, even if matter profile information is incomplete. While the matter profile must be complete for a tax invoice to be approved, this requirement does not prevent company approvers from being able to process proforma invoices.
E-mail notifications are sent to law firms advising of rejected or disputed proforma invoices.
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The email notification can be customized.
Approve Proforma invoices
The proforma invoice must be approved by the company before a law firm can submit a tax invoice. Approval of a proforma invoices cannot be reversed, but the approval can be undone if the tax invoice has not been posted/approved for the invoice.
- In the left navigation, selectFinancial > Proforma invoice review.
- Under theInvoicecolumn, scroll through the list to find the invoice you want to work with and click to open it. A green square next to the invoice indicates it is ready to be approved.
- Click theApprovebutton at the right of the invoice.
Audit Flags
Indicator | Explanation |
|---|---|
Red dot | Audit exceptions must be addressed before the invoice can be finally approved. |
Yellow triangle | Audit exceptions were addressed by a previous reviewer or by the system, which allows for auto-reductions and auto-rejections to rates. You can accept or reject them. Keywords indicate that fee or expense line items may need review for possible adjustment. |
Gray diamond | An invoice is not auditable because it is not in LEDES format or because the matter is not set up for over-budget audits (either no budget is required, or no audit is required). |
Green square | The invoice passed all audits and is ready to be approved. |
Dispute a Proforma Invoice
Disputing an invoice follows the same process as rejecting an invoice, except that the law firm is required to respond to the reviewer comments when resubmitting the invoice. The dispute process is an important option if your company wants to comply with EU VAT recovery rules, which state that an invoice must be unaltered by the recipient in order for tax to be recovered.
The law firm can then respond to the comments and resubmit the invoice, with corrections if necessary.
- In the left navigation, selectFinancial > Proforma invoice review.
- Under theInvoicecolumn, click to open the invoice you wan to dispute.
- On the toolbar, clickDispute.
- On the window that opens, type an explanation in theFirm Commentbox (Required). The law firm will be able to see this comment after the invoice is finally approved, rejected, or disputed. You can also add an optional comment in theInternal commentsection.
- ClickSave.
Reduce a Proforma Invoice
If you reduce an invoice, the law firm receives an email notification. Once your company approves the reduced, the law firm can submit a tax invoice for the reduced amount.
- In the left navigation, selectFinancial > Proforma invoice review.
- Under theInvoicecolumn, click to open the invoice you wan to dispute.
- On the toolbar, clickReduce.
- On the window that opens, type an explanation in theFirm Commentbox (Required). The law firm will be able to see this comment after the invoice is finally approved, rejected, or disputed. You can also add an optional comment in theInternal commentsection.
- ClickSave.
Reject a Proforma invoice
Rejection of a proforma invoice puts the proforma invoice into a terminal state. The law firm user can review the comments that accompany the rejection, but they cannot resubmit the proforma. Instead, they must submit a new proforma invoice.
- In the left navigation, selectFinancial > Proforma invoice review.
- Under theInvoicecolumn, click to open the invoice you wan to dispute.
- On the toolbar, clickReject.
- In the drop-down on the window that opens, select a reason from the list. You can also add an optional comment in theInternal commentsection.
- ClickSave.