To facilitate a smooth, timely and consistent billing and collections process each month, the firm has established the below invoicing procedures and deadlines.
If you have any questions about the invoicing procedure after reviewing this document or need to request emergency extension of deadlines, contact accounting@cm.law.
DEADLINE
TASK TO BE COMPLETED
Before the Close of the Billing Cycle
Originating Attorney must make sure that the Billing Rate for each of his/her clients has been correctly reflected in Bill4Time (note: this only has to be done once for each client, not monthly). Otherwise, the billable rate will default to the Working Attorney’s standard rate. To do this, you log into Bill4Time and click on the Clients tab and then select your client. Then you will click on the Billing Rates tab and will see everyone’s default rates and will be able to override a default rate and select the correct rate for your client. Then hit the Save Billing Rates button to finish.
2nd Business Day of each month
(by 5:00 p.m. CST)
Partners close out their billing entries by (1) entering all of their time/expenses into Bill4Time from the previous month, (2) running their Pre-Bill Report, and (3) revising their time/description/expenses to correct any entries that had errors as revealed in their Pre-Bill Report.
More detailed instructions: Closing Out Time and
Creating the Pre-Bill Report
Please proof and correct your time/descriptions/expenses in Bill4Time one last time before this deadline to permit more efficient processing of bills. By clicking on the date next to each entry in the Pre-Bill Report, a pop-up window will open where you can make corrections.
3rd Business Day of each month
(by Noon CST)
Accounting emails the Pre-Bill (i.e., the draft invoices all combined on one PDF) to the Originating Attorney based on the assumption that all Partners (including both the Originating Attorneys and Working Attorneys) have completed the review of their Pre-Bill Reports and made necessary corrections.
Please note that if you add any time entries to your client matters for the previous month in Bill4Time after Pre-Bills have been generated, you must send Accounting an email indicating that they need to update the Pre-Bills or else your newly entered time will not be shown in the final invoice.
Here is a Sample Pre-Bill for reference. Please note that the time entries shown in this sample are not considered good time entries but were used for ease of reference. Clients will expect (as will the firm expect) much more robust time entries.
4th Business Day of each month
(by 5:00 p.m. CST)
Originating Attorney has (1) reviewed his/her Pre-Bill received from Accounting and (2) made all changes/corrections to time/expense entries directly in Bill4Time (or OA has coordinated with all Working Attorneys to make the changes). Originating attorney must then send notice to Accounting that bills are ready to be finalized.
Other changes on the Pre-Bill that the OA cannot make on his/her own should be explained via email to accounting@cm.law.
5th through 6thBusiness Days of each month
Traditional Invoices are Generated
Accounting generates invoices and emails the URL links to OA for distribution to clients. At this point, the OA will have two choices on how to send the invoice to your client. Either (a) email the client the same link that will pull up the invoice and also provide them with the “History” tab so that the client can see all previous invoices and balances; or (b) save the invoice as a PDF to your hard drive and then email the actual PDF to your client (previous invoices and balances not available if you use this method).
Reminder: Partners must BCC invoices@cm.law and must also CC the Working Attorneys to help everyone track when each invoice is sent to the client. Failure to take this step can affect Partners getting timely paid by the client.
E-Billing Invoices are Submitted
Accounting submits invoices via the client’s designated e-billing system and notifies OA via email when each invoice has been accepted. If an e-bill submission is rejected, Accounting will communicate with OA to resolve errors and then re-submit.
Reminder: Partners are responsible for providing the information needed by Accounting to set up the firm/client relationship in the e-billing system designated by the client. After Accounting has completed the initial client set up, the OA is responsible for setting up each billing matter (including budget entries or other data required by the client) by using the OA’s individual login credentials for the client’s e-billing system.
After the Close of the Billing Cycle
Even after invoices are sent out, all of the billing and payment details will continue to be available for Partners to review in Bill4Time, including the balances for all invoices.
* NOTE: After Accounting changes the status of an invoice to “Finalized” in Bill4Time when the Pre-Bill window has elapsed, the invoice is automatically locked to prevent further changes. If a Partner requests additional changes to time/expense entries that the Partner could/should have made during the Pre-Bill window, such changes generally will not be accommodated until after Accounting has finished its other responsibilities for generating traditional invoices and submitting e-billing invoices. Such delay will likely cause a bill to go out later than it would have had the Partner ensured all time was correctly entered during the Pre-Bill window. This delay may cause a delay in the client paying (and, as a result, a delay in distribution to the Partner). To prevent payment/draw delays, it is imperative that Partners use the Pre-Bill window to review and correct the time/description/expense entries before our back office changes the invoice status to “Finalized” in Bill4Time.