This article explores the Invoice Module within GhostPractice, used for billing purposes.
| Vendor Disbursements should not be edited from the invoicing module. (step 4of7) Vendor disbursements are posted from an invoice received from a 3rd-party vendor and should always match back to that source document. |
The preferred process is to investigate the reason for the correction and then to correct it by reversing and re-posting the disbursement. |
| This should be done from the Disbursement module or the Vendor Invoices Module |
Producing an Invoice
Step 1: Enter the Matter ID and select filter options.
Fields and Descriptions
| Field | Description | |
| 1 | Invoice Totals (Fees/ Disbursements/ Tax/ Discount/ Total)
| Once Fees, disbursements and cost recoveries are selected in step 2, they will show on the Invoice Totals. This will auto-calculate depending on what you select to include or exclude in your invoice/pre-bill, and it will show you the potential outcome of your invoice/ pre-bill.
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| 2 | Invoice Totals (Credit Note Fees/ Credit Note Disbursements/ Tax/ Total) | If you are generating a credit note, your credited fees, disbursements and VAT totals will show here. The "Total" will show the total amount that will be credited. |
| 3 | Matter Details | Shows Matter Number and Name, Client Number and Name |
| 4 | Invoice Details | This is the Person or organization that will receive the Invoice - if your client is registered for Tax, their VAT number will show here. If they are registered for Tax, and the Tax number does not show, edit your client (Financial Tab) before generating the Invoice. |
| 5 | Balance | The current balances for Business, Trust, Investment and Reserve will show in this section. |
| 6 | Matter ID | Enter the matter ID of the client that needs to be invoiced. |
| 7 | Invoice Fees/ Disbursements | Select to include fees and/or disbursements on the invoice |
| 8 |
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| 9 | Filter: From Date
| Select the start and end dates of the transactions that must be included on the Pre-bill/ Invoice |
| 10 | Filter: To Date | Select the start and end dates of the transactions that must be included on the Pre-bill/ Invoice
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| 11 | Filter: Fee Earner | If you need to run invoices per Fee Earner - select the fee earner you are generating the invoice for, alternatively, leave this on "All", to generate an invoice for all fee earners who posted fees to this matter. |
| 12 | Invoice Format | If you leave the "toggle" (just check my wording) on "Current Date", your invoice/pre-bill document will show the date that the invoice was produced. If the toggle is set to, "To Date", the "To date" selected in the dates filter, will then display as the Invoice date on the invoice document. |
| 13 | Pre-Bill Instructions | If the firm's process requires the pre-bill to be signed off or Authorized by Department Heads before being converted to a Tax Invoice, this field allows the user generating the Pre-bill, to make notes or provide instructions regarding the pre-bill contents and sign off. |
| 14 | Addressee Details | The Addressee details will pull through from the client details that the matter is linked to. If Someone other than your client is responsible to settle this invoice, you can create a contact from this screen, without leaving the invoice module, after saving you can use the drop-down menu to choose between the client and the alternative contact details to select your addressee. |
| 15 | Invoice Address | The invoice address will pull through from the client address tab. Alternatively, if the address needs to be changed to a new address, the user can edit it here
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| 16 | Custom Message
| A Custom message to the client can be typed in this field. Alternatively, if the message needs to display in a specific format, capture the custom message in Microsoft word, format it and select all the text and copy and paste it into the “Invoice Custom Message” field on the matter’s billing tab or in the custom message block.
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| 17 | Next | At the bottom of each step, there will be a next button. This button will enable the user to move on to the next step to produce the invoice. There are 6 steps in order to complete the invoice.
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Step 2: Select Transactions to Include in Pre-bill Invoice/ Invoice / Credit Note (Invoice and Pre-bill)
Replace Pro-Forma with Pre-Bill and replace screenshot with one below. Add highlights and numbering
Fields and Descriptions
| Field | Description | |
| 1 | Quick Select | Enter the total amount to be invoiced (excluding Tax), and a quick selection will be made of fees and disbursements closest to the value entered. Please note that disbursements will be selected first, and then fees, as costs are recovered first. |
| 2 | Manual Selection | Manually select the items that need to be included in the invoice by clicking in the checkbox to select or deselect. By default, all items will be selected. (Note how the "Invoice Totals" will increase and decrease based on what you select.) |
| 3 | Select All/ Clear All Fees | If the user doesn’t want to manually select / unselect, then click on either select all or clear all to confirm selection of fees to be invoiced. |
| 4 | Select All/ Clear All Disbursements | If the user doesn’t want to manually select/unselect, then click on either select all or clear all to confirm the selection of disbursements to be invoiced. |
Step 3: Select Transactions to Restore / Consolidate (Invoice and Pre-bill)
Fields and Descriptions
| Field | Description | |
| 1 | Invoice Totals (Fees/ Disbursements/ Tax/Discount/ Total) | This section will display the total amount of fees and disbursements that will be included in the Pre-bill/Invoice to the client. |
| 2 | Unbilled: Consolidate/ Restore | Select consolidate to consolidate two or more transactions into one Fee. Select Restore consolidated transactions that need to be restored to the original itemized transactions. Please note that transactions with different Tax settings cannot be consolidated. |
| 3 | Unbilled: Select All / Clear All | By clicking on “Select All”, all transactions will be selected. “Clear all” will clear all the ticks next to the transactions. |
| 4 | Pending Disbursements: Consolidate / Restore | Select consolidate to consolidate two or more transactions into one line item. Select Restore if consolidated transactions need to be restored to the original itemized transactions. Please note that transactions with different Tax settings cannot be consolidated. Preferably, only Cost Recoveries should be consolidated, and Vendor Disbursements should be listed as individual items. |
| 5 | Pending Disbursements: Select All / Clear All | By clicking on “Select All”, all transactions will be selected. “Clear all” will clear all the ticks next to the transactions. |
Step 4: Edit Amount / Narration (Invoice and Pre-bill)
Fields and Descriptions
| Field | Description | |
| 1 | Produce | Select to produce a Pre-bill or an Invoice. |
| 2 | Edit Narration or Amount | Edit the narration or amount of line items, only for Fee and Cost recovery items, Vendor Disbursements should not be edited. Please note that if amounts are changed to zero, the transaction will be deleted from the matter. |
| 3 | Reserve Trust | A Reserve can be set on a matter, essentially keeping the trust funds on hold and excluding it from the next Trust Transfer. |
| 4 | Next or Finish | Select "Next" If you need to add a discount or reorder the items on the invoice/pre-bill, you can select "Finish" to produce your invoice or pre-bill. |
Step 5: Edit Discount (Invoice and Pre-bill)
Pre-Bill and replace screenshot with one below add numbering
Fields and Descriptions
| Field | Description | |
| 1 | Discount Applied as a Percentage | If this option is selected, enter the percentage of discount the client will receive. E.g. 20%. |
| 2 | Discount Applied as an Amount | If this option is selected, complete the discount amount in numeric form. |
| 3 | Description | A description will be added by default, e.g. ‘Less fee discount’. This can be edited or customized to show a different description on the invoice or proforma. |
| 4 | Show Discount As | Choose between the three options of where the discount will display on your invoice or proforma. Either as a Single Entry showing with Invoice Totals, A Single entry showing with Fee Subtotals or as One Line per Transaction. |
| 5 | Discount | This section will show the discounted amount per Fee Earner, when discount is applied as percentage these discounted totals cannot be changed. If discount is applied as a set amount discounts can be edited per fee earner, always take care to balance back to your Discount amount. |
Step 6: Split Fee (Invoice Only)
Fields and Descriptions
| Field | Description | |
| 1 | Split Options | Select if you want to split by Fee or Fee Earner. |
| 2 | Unbilled | Select the Unbilled Fee or Fee Earner Total you want to split and press Edit. |
| 3 | Edit Split Fee Amount | Once a Fee or Fee earner is selected, split it either by percentage between other users or by specific amounts |
Step 6/7: Re - Order Items
*Dependent on Selections on previous steps
Re-Order Items (Invoice and Pre-Bill)
| Transactions default to the order in which they were captured. |
By Date Ascending - (oldest to newest)
- Re-order items by selecting the item/items that need to be moved and click on the Move Up or Move Down option.
- This is convenient for ordering items of the same type together e.g. all telephone or copy charges listed in the order selected.
Once everything is correct, select the "Finish" button at the bottom of the screen to produce the Pre-bill/Invoice.