Split Billing

Brief Accounting allows invoices to be split amongst as many parties (matters) as required, in whatever proportions are required per matter. The amount to be paid by each party and the total amount due is detailed on the invoice. An invoice may be split amongst different matters belonging to the same client, or between matters belonging to multiple clients.

A summary of the process and outcome is below:

1. Create a Primary Matter and Secondary Matters.
2. All Time & Disbursement slips are entered under the Primary Matter.
3. When posting a standard invoice for the Primary Matter, an allocation table is displayed.
4. Distribute the Fees & Disbursements as required between the Secondary Matters.
5. An individual invoice is automatically be created for each Secondary Matter, using the next consecutive invoice number, plus a corresponding letter suffix. E.g. If the Primary Matter is 2010001*, and the next invoice number is 1501, then the Secondary Matter 2010001a will have invoice number 1501a; Secondary Matter 2010001b will will have invoice number 1501b, etc.
6. When a payment is received, receipts will be posted to the individual invoices in their respective matters.

How to Setup Split Billing

Create a Primary Split Billing Matter

This is the matter in which ALL Time and Disbursements are entered. The File number of the Primary Matter must end with an asterisk (*). The file number may consist of letters/numbers as long as it ends with an asterisk. (e.g. 20-003*). See link for Creating New Matters.

Note: If necessary, an asterisk can be added to the end of an existing matter to designate it as the Primary Split Billing Matter.

Create Secondary Split Billing Matters

The Secondary Matters must have the same file number as the Primary Matter, with the exception of the asterisk. For example, for a Primary Matter of 20-003*, the Secondary Matters would be:

20-003a, 20-003b, 20-003c, etc.

As many Secondary Matters as required can be created.

Note: If multiple Secondary Matters are required for a single client in Brief Accounting, the Secondary Matters should be set so that each one may be assigned it's own Address and Contact. Click to see information on setting up Matter-Based Addresses. When setting up Matter-Based addresses, the matter Contact can be preceded with "c/o" or "Attn" as this appears below the Client Name in the "To" field of the invoice being issued.

Note: The Split Billing invoice does not include the Primary Matter (this is just used to enter Time and Disbursements), so if the invoice will be split into 3 matters, then 3 Secondary Matters are required in addition to the Primary Matter.

Billing

After all Time & Disbursements have been entered to the Primary Matter, a prebill can be printed or invoice posted as usual.

To view the Spilt Billing allocation on a prebill:

Select the Billing module icon > Summary tab

Enter the Primary File Number and click OK.

A Summary of the total Time & Disbursements is displayed:

Click the Print icon.

Make sure that Statement of Fees & Disbursements is selected:

A Split Billing screen is displayed showing the Fee and Disbursement allocation for each of the Secondary Matters:

The default allocation is to divide the Fees and Disbursements equally amongst the Secondary Matters. These can manually be adjusted to allocate the Fees and Disbursements as required.

Note: If the amounts are manually allocated, the sum total of all Secondary Matters must equal the total invoice amount. If they do not, the "Allocate" button is greyed out and the Time and Disbursement amounts to allocate are listed at the bottom beside "Balance":

With the distributions in balance, click the Allocate button to continue with printing prebills / posting invoices.

An individual invoice is produced for each Secondary Matter. Each invoice will show the Matter-specific contact information and address and the allocated total for that Matter.