Billing Matters

Forums Closing effective November 30, 2012

Thomas L. Rowe, Esq. (Tom) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:50:25 GMT

For the past decade, Time Matters Certified Independent Consultants (CICs) have administered and moderated this forum for providing solutions to Time Matters, Billing Matters, and PCLaw users' problems. It's been a great run, but even good things come to an end. Effective November 30th, we are no longer accepting posts to this community.

LexisNexis is now hosting a Law Firm Practice Management community that will serve the needs of Time Matters, Billing Matters, PCLaw and Juris users. To join, go to pmcommunity.lexisnexis.com. In the new community you can ask questions of the LexisNexis team, get answers from other users and CICs, submit your suggestions, access product help documentation and get the latest updates on product news and releases.

While the old forums will stay active as a "read-only" resource for a time, over 3,000 topics posted to the old forums have been copied to the new community. The old topics are all dated 10/1/2012 and are marked: Historical Forum Content. You can search using a single term or narrow your search using multiple words (not case-sensitive) in quotes, for example: “tm mobility”. There is a wealth of information in these posts.

Anyone can read and search the new Community without signing up, but we encourage you to sign up so that you, too, can post questions, ideas, and answers.

Wells and I want to thank all the CICs who have volunteered so much of their time to assist the end users, especially the CIC moderators. This has been an invaluable resource for many Time Matters, Billing Matters, and PCLaw users, and it would not have worked without their dedication to assisting our community of users.

We look forward to seeing you in the new LexisNexis Law Firm Practice Management Community. (pmcommunity.lexisnexis.com)

Wells Anderson and Tom Rowe
CICs and Forum Administrators

AR Aging

Jan Stout — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:23:42 GMT

We are on TM and BM 11.1, SP1. My invoices have stopped aging and by looking at where the invoices are currently aged, it would appear they stopped aging about 60 days ago. My accounting clerk works on collections, so I just noticed this.

I have checked all the settings and it appears everything is fine and are as they have always been set when the invoices actually aged. This includes the Disable Following and Aging features box being unchecked as well as the days for aging under the Rates and Aging options being set correctly.

My IT manager runs a database maintenance once a month and always has the Update Aging Index checked. He ran a database maintenance Friday night and the invoices are still not working.

When I log into TM I do see the progress bar with the message "updating following", but it happens so quickly I don't see the "update aging". So I don't know if that means aging is not updating or if I just don't see the message and progress bar because it happens to quickly.

Can anyone offer a suggestion as to why my invoices are not aging? Is there perhaps some other setting that may have been changed that is causing this to happen?

Thanks,

Jan Stout

Sponsler, Bennett, Jacobs & Adams, P.A.

jstout@sponslerbennett.com

Invoice List: Invoice Status shows as "Posted" instead of "Billed"

Jennifer Ahrens — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 16:33:23 GMT

We have some invoices that show the "Invoice Status" as "Posted" where as the vast majority of our invoices show the "Invoice Status" as "Billed".

How do we change the invoices that show as "Posted" to show as "Billed" instead ?

Thanks.

Invoice Line Item Numbering - possible?

Jwyatt — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:18:16 GMT

I'd like to have a layout or profile which will add line-numbers to each of the billing entries as they are printed on an invoice. Can that be done in TM7e Billing Matters Plus? To clarify, when an invoice prints I would like each line item prefaced with a number.

Jeff Wyatt
Abilene Texas

Layout for Statements

rtinsley — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:04:48 GMT

For some reason, the A/R aging is not printing when I send out client statements. I've playing around with the Statement layout and can't seem to fix it, so I'm waving the white flag with the hope someone here can help. Many thanks for your assistance.

Also, for some reason the statement always produces a second page that is blank. Any ideas how to fix this?

Is Billing Matters Approriate??

Roland A. Vierra — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:35:39 GMT

Hi All: All I want to do is keep track of invoices I've sent out and those that remain unpaid - simple AR function, maybe keep track of monthly deposits. No worries about retainers, trusts, I'm straight cash-basis.

Is Billing Matters the most appropriate for me - I'm frustrated with QB because some data that I need on the invoice side (like MAT:MAT_REF doesn't forward over to QB.

Thanks

Roland

Time/Expense Report wtih Phantom Staff

Koakes — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:37:05 GMT

Folks, have trainees generally enter time/billing items as RRR (receptionist revolving rotation)(I have high turnover, what can I say). So, during June, July, August, the receptionist enters time as RRR. She got hired in August and so I went back in and changed the RRR billing items to her official MMA designation (her name). On billing items, and on phone records, all show MMA.

HOWEVER, when I print the time/expense history report, I get some line items that are MMA and some line items that still have RRR on them. I have done manual entry on the forms, I have done search, tag, process a change on the billing items from RRR to MMA as Staff.....all looks good...until I run the report and there's the pesky RRR again.

So far this is just one case as I prepared to file an itemized billing statement in bky court today and got stuck trying to figure out WHY.

Anyone know? TM/BM 10 Enterprise. Reindexed weekly....

Considering using QB for more accounting functions

Joseph Nierenberg — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:44:25 GMT

I see that, while BM will be continued, the accounting link with QB will not. This raised a question for my practice.

Currently, I do not link BM and QB, although I use them both. I do not use the accounting functions in BM. What would I gain from beginning to use them and linking them to QB?

Deleted billing collection

Gary — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:20:38 GMT

My bookkeeper is MIA and I am having the task of learning this billing program.

Are there any books that are available for Billing Matters?

1. Here's one problem I have. I deleted a collection that had two clients in it. How can I unattach those two clients from that deleted collection so I can add them to the monthly collection?

2. Also, I have printed several bills during the month but no pdf was created.

Thank you.

Billing Matters is "Sunrised"

Thomas L. Rowe, Esq. (Tom) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:04:03 GMT

Great news ... LexisNexis sunrises Billing Matters.

Several years ago, a previous management team made the decision to "sunset" Billing Matters. This meant that it would be supported for several years before the ending its life cycle. While the decision might have made some business sense at the time for LexisNexis - they had just purchased Time Matters/Billing Matters and PCLaw, both of which provide legal time, billing and accounting functionality - it left a lot of Time Matters and Billing Matters users disappointed to say the least. While the time and billing functionality of Billing Matters had its warts, the fact is that for a majority of users it was a solid billing system with the key advantage of being integrated directly into Time Matters.

For several years Time Matters certified consultancies like those who volunteer on this list, as well as many Billing Matters users, lobbied hard for the Billing Matters sunset decision to be reversed. For our Billing Matters clients, we are glad to announce that Billing Matters has been "sunrised" and will continue to be sold, maintained and improved by Lexis. We look forward to continuing to work with the development team at Lexis to improve Billing Matters' functionality.

For additional information:

FAQS:
http://www.lexisnexis.com/law-firms/pdf/tm-bm-faq-2011.pdf

General Information:
http://www.lexisnexis.com/law-firms/practice-management/specialized-law/time-matters.aspx?content=for-customers

Project/Phase Billing

Charles D Esquibel — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:59:22 GMT

I am looking for the manner in which one would bill by phases. For example, if I charge a certain amount (flat) until a certain point in the proceedings (i.e. to pre-trial), another flat amount for the next phase (after pre-trial and up to trial), and another flat amount (trial) for the next phase, is there a way to bill and track this? I have set up phases with a budgeted amount but I am not able to create a bill which would show this.

Charles Esquibel

Attorney at Law

locesquibel@qwestoffice.net

TM 9: Assistant can't add vendor due to security restriction

Gary — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:49:50 GMT

I would like my assistant to enter bills and add vendors' names in the process as necessary for use in Billing Matters. Which specific item must be checked "Y" to allow access to do this?

TM 9: Thunderbird

Gary — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:53:39 GMT

Can we use the TM email function if we use Mozilla Thunderbird?

reprinting bill with a pdf of 11 x 8.5 instead of 8.5 x 11

cfhuntley — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:23:15 GMT

When we reprint our bills, a significant number of them come out 11 x 8.5 instead of 8.5 x 11. This seems to happen every few years. Is there a setting somewhere that causes this change?

Subtotal by day?

Joseph Nierenberg — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:03:12 GMT

I've tried in vain to find a way to do this, but perhaps some other users or a CIC has discovered a way....

Under TM/BM 10, is there a way to print an invoice that shows a subtotal for each day? There would be, in other words, a long listing of billing records with a total for the entire billing period, but there would also be totals shown for each day (not cumulative, but each day separately). I have a client that is looking for this type of invoice, but the closest I've come is to generate an invoice and then do a painstaking parallel document in Excel that shows the daily tabs.

Close Prior Year?

Scott CHJW — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:09:11 GMT

Is there a way to close the prior year in Billing Matters so that entries I make this year are do not affect last year's data? We're finding that if we have an overpayment in 2010 that is sitting on the account as a credit, then have additional time on the file that we bill in 2011, an entry is posted to the GL to the date we received the overpayment in 2010. This is causing my accountant some heartburn.

I've talked to TM tech support and they said sorry, but nothing can be done. Anyone have a way to prevent this from happening?

I'm using TM/BM Enterprise 11. Windows 7 Operating system.

Thank you.

Scott Rubino

Church, Harris, Johnson & Williams, P.C.

Great Falls, MT

Quick Reply

Adding REFERENCE field to merge template

Jennifer Ahrens — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:31:30 GMT

Hi, we have set up a merge template that pulls in the REFERENCE field (from billing preferences) and we have noticed that there is some kind of character limitation. The merge template works on ones where we don't have a lot of text in there but for ones where we have a lot of text in the reference field it has problems parsing it and the merge template errors out. Other than shortening up the text we have in the reference field is there any other work around for this?

Deleting Invoice repricing billing items

Jwyatt — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:19:01 GMT

On a couple of occasions we had an invoice which properly had differing rates for an attorney. One rate for activity prior to a date and another rate for activity after that date. The current default rate for the attorney is the second (higher) rate. When we had an occasion to delete the invoice then recreate the invoice, all the billing items with the lower rate changed their rate to the new, higher rate. This was one invoice which spanned several months which is why it had both rates on the one invoice.

This is unexpected behavior. We have not noticed this behavior in the past but are not for sure this set of circumstances has occurred before. Is the program "re-pricing" the billing items when they go from a "billed" status to "unbilled" and thus assigning the current default rate for that attorney? If so, I can work around it.

Date range in bills

Joseph Nierenberg — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:11:10 GMT

(TM/BM ver. 10 SP3 Hfx 1011)

I have enabled the use of date ranges in billing forms, modified the appropriate billing profile, and modified the appropriate billing layout. My question is not about how to show a date range, but about the fields involved and their labels.

Before I modified things, the billing record showed only a bill date (ignore the record date). After the modification, it showed both the bill date and a "Start Date."

In the bill layout, there is a "Date" field available. There is also an "End date (if applicable)" field. The "Date" field pulls the bill date from the billing record. But there is no "Start Date" field. Instead, the "End Date (if applicable)" field seems to pull the data from the billing record's "Start Date" field.

Is this correct? Am I missing something in the layout or elsewhere?

Unbilled Time Report

Scott CHJW — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:50:50 GMT

Is there an easy way to generate a summary report of unbilled time? I'm just looking for a report that will show how much in total time and expenses each responsible attorney has that has not been billed.

I'm using TM/BM Enterprise 10.0 SP# Hotfix 1011. Windows 7 Operating system.

Thank you.

Scott Rubino

Church, Harris, Johnson & Williams, P.C.

Great Falls, MT

Custom Billing Form & Showing Charges Prior to Discount

Richard "Bert" Diener — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:54:19 GMT

I'm using TM Enterprise 10, SP3 and came into this after the default billing was set up. However, I've managed to hobble something that ALMOST works but just can't seem to get this final part working.

We have the billing preferences set up for a matter with a -10% Default Fee Markup/Discount (under the arrangement tab), which gives us the correct amount the client will be charged on the Bill Layout using Bill Designer (Data Field: Billed Fees). I also have the total amount BEFORE the discount showing on the invoice (Data Field: Billable Fees). However, the charges listed (Data Field: Charge) already have the discount applied to them, and so total up to the discounted amount instead of the total amount prior to discount (which I would prefer).

My worry is that our client will total these fees up himself and see the discounted amount reflected and not understand where that original amount came from. If I could, I'd like for it to show the original amount of the charges prior to the discount on the invoice. Is that at all possible?

Showing Total Adjustments on Bill

cfhuntley — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:45:37 GMT

Is there a way to show the total adjustments made on a bill? We are offering discounts to certain clients and want to show them how much they saved. Something like "YOU SAVED XXXX" at the bottom of the bill.

Expense Billing Code default rate not working

Jwyatt — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:04:06 GMT

TM7enterprise BillingMatters Plus

When we hit Ctrl|Shift|B, then toggle the Time button to Expense and select a Billing Code for "Copy" the default rate of 25 cents does not populate the rate field. I have determined that if you first remove the Staff from this form then select the Bill Code, the default does populate. When you first hit Ctrl|Shift|B the staff populates and their default rate is entered before you have done anything.

As you can probably guess, this can lead to charging $250 per copy which is a bit high even for a law firm. Is there some setting I am missing or procedure error?

I would like the default rate for the billing code to overwrite anything in the rate field at the moment the code is selected.

Thanks,

Jeff Wyatt
Abilene Texas

Tag & Process but No calculation

Jwyatt — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:58:30 GMT

We use the Tag and Process method to change some billing items to Do Not Bill. It works in changing the label and the billing item will not get billed; however, the other fields on the billing record do not update. For instance the field "Non-Billable Hours" does not change. Also, "Est. Allocation" does not change.

Is there a way to trigger a "refresh" or a "recalculation" so that these fields get updated?

Jeff Wyatt
Abilene Texas

changing rate levels

Jennifer Ahrens — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:28:20 GMT

Greetings, we have three rate levels set up for a staff person that we need to change the dollar amount for. What will happen to billing items that he has entered (billed and unbilled ones) if we change the amount? Would it be better to create a new rate table and assign the new rate table to him? we are concerned about the existing billing items - both billed and unbilled and if they will lose the current rate if we update the current rate table or create a new one. What is the best way to handle this? We are on TM/BM 10 Enterprise SP3 Hotfix 1011.