Billing Setup

This article provides an overview of how to configure Filevine’s Billing feature, including an overview of the Billing Setup Advanced tool, and instructions on how to set up project-level billing. To enable Billing in your Org, contact support or ask your Filevine representative. You can also watch the Time & Billing training videos to learn more. 

Billing Setup Advanced Tool

In the Billing Setup Advanced tool, you can configure Org-level billing functionality. To navigate there, click Advanced > Billing Setup. 

The Advanced tool contains six sub-sections: Rates, Invoices, Payments, Email, Codes, and Settings.

• Rates: create and assign rate schedules, including hourly rates, time increments, and templates for expenses and flat fees. Learn more about setting up rate schedules.
  In the second tab, Access, you can set user access to view rates.
• Invoicing: upload custom invoice templates and configure additional settings to enable emailing, configure LEDES-compatible invoices, and more. Learn more about invoice templates and settings.
• Payments: manage invoice terms, automatic payment application, and automatic payment creation from project funds. Learn more about payment settings.
• Email: choose your Reply-To Email and customize the content of your billing emails. Learn more about billing email settings.
• Codes: define codes for your billing items, such as LEDES codes, and determine whether users are required to choose a code when creating an item. Learn more about billing codes.
• Settings: choose the default settings when entering time. Continue reading to learn more about this subsection.

Settings

In the Settings subsection of the Billing Setup tool, you can set default values for certain time entry fields. This option can help you reduce user error, but users can still manually change these values as appropriate when entering time.

Under “Default Time Entry Settings,” the following default options can be toggled on or off:

• Create new entries as billable
• Create new entries as chargeable
• Create new entries in draft status

By default, whatever changes you make will apply to newly-created projects only. Newly-created time entries in existing projects will be unaffected. Additionally, project Admins can override the default settings at the project level if desired.

To apply these settings to existing projects, click Apply Settings to Projects. In the modal that appears, click Apply Settings again to confirm.

Add a Billing Section to the Project

To use timekeeping and billing features, the built-in section of the Billing type must be added to a project template in the Customs Editor. Follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the Sections tab in the Customs Editor. In Filevine, click Main Menu > Advanced > Customs Editor. Choose the project type that you would like to add this section to. Make sure the Sections tab is selected.
2. Add a Billing section. In the top right, click Create Section. Choose the name and icon for the section, and in the Section Type dropdown menu, choose Billing (Built-in). Click Save. The Billing Section will now appear in projects of this type.
   

To view the project-level Billing section, navigate to the project and click the Billing Section on the lefthand side (it will appear as whatever you have named it). This built-in section contains a summary, a space to enter time, expenses, and fees, and project-specific billing settings. Learn more about this section in the project-level Billing article.

Auto-Move Billing Documents

If desired, you can set billing documents to auto-move to the desired project folder. Setting up auto-move requires a project folder template, and will automatically move files to the designated folder within the Docs Section when generated.

In Filevine, click Main Menu > Advanced > Customs Editor. Select the desired project type, and then find and select the Billing section. Next to “Document Folders,” click Manage Folders.

In the Manage Billing Folders modal, there are four types of billing documents eligible to auto-move to folders:

• Invoice PDF Folder: choose the default location for generated invoice PDFs.
• Invoice LEDES Folder: choose the default location for LEDES 1998B compatible bills.
• Expense Attachments Folder: choose the default location for files attached to expense items.
• Flat Fee Attachments Folder: choose the default location for files attached to flat fee items.

To set up the target folder for a given billing document type, click the button underneath the respective header to expand the folder tree view. This view displays the folder structure for the selected project type. Click the caret next to a folder to show its subfolders, and then click the desired folder’s name to choose that folder.

When you’re finished, click Save.

Heads Up!

• The target location cannot be a protected folder.
• If there is no selected folder, the respective files save to the top level folder by default.
• If the selected folder does not exist in the project—for example, if the project folder template is changed, or a folder is deleted in the individual project—folders will automatically be created, including the entire folder path.
• If your Org has a project selected in Invoice Generation Settings, invoice PDFs will follow the auto-move settings of that project type, rather than the settings of the originating projects.