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Billing

Use recurring bills

Use recurring bills if you bill a client for the same amount on a regular basis. Recurring bills are often used for billing retainers.
note
For former users of Creative Solutions Practice (CSP): Recurring bills were referred to as
fixed fee bills
 in CSP.
The recurring bill process removes the need to go into the
Billing
 screen and manually enter the billing amount against Work-in-Process (WIP) entries. Otherwise, billing and invoice printing works the same as when using the regular billing process. The following are some considerations when choosing which method to use.
  • The recurring bill process doesn't give you a chance to do certain things that are available during the regular billing process. For example, you can't write the text of the invoice during billing. Also, billing amounts are automatically spread proportionally across all WIP in the specified engagement, and this breakdown can't be edited.
  • Recurring billing doesn't change the behavior of the invoice printing process. In other words, the detail region of the invoice will appear as usual. The descriptions are based on the invoice format (such as By Activity) and the WIP billed by the recurring bill. The recurring bill doesn't automatically create an invoice with a single, simple description unless you have specifically created a custom invoice format for that purpose.
  • Unless specifically setup to do so, a recurring bill doesn't eliminate the need to actually enter WIP before you can bill in a month. If there are occasions when no WIP is entered for a client in a given period, only the progress bill method would let a recurring bill be created. You would then need to perform some more steps at some point in the future to close out the accumulated progress bills against any accumulated WIP (as the billing amounts don't directly relieve these transactions).
  • If the approval or posting process is enabled for billing, using a recurring bill doesn't eliminate the requirement to go to the
    Review
     tab and approve or post the invoice.
If any of these considerations is an issue for your firm, a better option may be to use the regular billing process and enter the amount you want to bill manually.

Set up recurring billing

Before you can generate a recurring bill for a client, you'll need to complete the setup steps.

Generate a recurring bill

  1. Select
    Actions
    , then select
    Billing
    .
  2. Select the
    Generate Recurring Bills
     tab.
  3. You can filter the list by various criteria, including any recurring bill descriptions you have set up.
  4. In the
    Generate using invoice date
     field, select the date you want to use as the invoice date.
  5. Mark the checkboxes for the clients or engagements you want to bill.
    note
    If you want to override the default invoice format for the selected engagements, select the format from the
    Format override
     field.
  6. Select
    Generate Selected
    . Practice CS automatically creates and saves a bill for the recurring amount.
  7. If your firm uses the approval/posting process for billing, select the
    Review
     tab to approve and post the invoice. You can print the invoice from either the
    Review
     tab or by selecting
    File
    ,
    Print Invoices
    , then
    Statements
    .
note
  • There isn't a limit to the number of times you can use recurring bills in a month.
  • If you choose a recurring bill client using the
    Detail Bill Selected
     option, you'll receive a prompt asking if you want to include the recurring bills on the current invoice. If you select
    Yes
    , Practice CS will spread the recurring bill amount proportionally across the existing WIP for that engagement whether or not you've already done a recurring bill that month.
  • To add an additional charge to a recurring bill, select the client, then
    Detail Bill Selected
    . Select
    Yes
     to include the recurring bill on this invoice and bill the additional time or expenses.
  • The format used for any invoice created as a recurring bill is the default format selected for the client in
    Setup
    ,
    Client
    , then the
    Billing & A/R
     tab. You can't modify the text on the bill as you would for a bill created in
    Detail Billing
    . If you use an invoice format grouped by engagement, then you can specify a default invoice description on the recurring engagement on each client. If you use an invoice format grouped by activity, the same description can be set on the setup screen for each activity. Specifying a default description will ensure that your invoices contain descriptions for the engagement or activities billed.

This article applies to:

  • Product: Practice CS
  • Subject: Billing

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