Matter Expenses

A guide on how to create Matter Expenses, as well as the parts of a Matter Expense.

Vaughn avatar
Written by Vaughn
Updated over a week ago

*********NOTE* - Due to changes in terminology, all references to Bills have been changed to Invoices, all references to Billings have been changed to Time Entries, and all references to Costs have been changed to Expenses in the Guide below. At some point, the Video above may also be updated. *************

For Matter Expenses, there are actually quite a few ways to add them, including in the Quick Create section (shown in this guide here) and within the Invoicing section in the Daily Work Entity, but these are second to actually creating a Matter Expense in the Matter Expenses Entity.

The reason for this (and the reason that we’ll be focusing on the Entity for this guide) is that the Entity is the only place in which you can specify whether the Expense is a Hard Expense or a Soft Expense.

In the future, we’ll be adding fields for these in every place in which a Matter Expense can be created, but for now and for this guide, we’ll stick to creating Matter Expenses in the Matter Expenses Entity.

Creating the Matter Expense

To access Matter Expenses, scroll down the Action Bar on the left side of your screen and find the Matter Expenses Entity under the Accounting Subheading.

This screen will default to Active Matter Expenses and will show you a list of currently Active entries, as well as some other information across the rows. To create a new Matter Expense, find the +New button the top of the screen.

Note the fields with Red Asterisks in the following page. All fields like this *must* be filled out in order for the Matter Expense to be saved to the respective Matter. These fields are outlined below:

The Type field is asking for a Type of Expense/Charge. You should have what you need in the list, but if not, you can either Create a New Matter Expense Type by clicking the blue option as it appears, or else you can have an Admin add a new Matter Expense Type for you.

The Matter field is simply asking for which Matter this Expense will be created.

The Date, Payee, Payment Method and Amount should all be self-explanatory in the following screen, but the Expense Type can take a little explanation, as you’ll need to specify between Hard and Soft Expenses.

A Soft Expense can include any expense that does not require a check, but for which you still may wish to be reimbursed by your client. Common examples of Soft Expenses can include court parking, mileage, or postage.

By contrast, a Hard Expense would include any expense that requires your firm to write a check on behalf of your client. Common examples of Hard Expenses can include filing fees, paying a private investigator or paying an insurance adjuster.

By default, this field will always start as a Soft Expense.

The final two Required Fields will fill automatically based on the Expense Type, so you can simply leave these be.

Once finished and ready to Submit, click Submit Expense at the top. If, however, you would rather leave this to be Submitted later, you can choose Save & Close.

After Submission

This Matter Expense, Soft or Hard, has been Submitted to your accounting team! Now we wait. If your Firm does not have Auto Approval on Matter Expenses, then the new Status Reason on the Expense is Pending Approval.

But if Auto Approval is ON -or- if it's been Approved by your accounting team, you'll see that the Status Reason has been set to Ready to Invoice.

Now your path will diverge slightly depending on whether you have Business Central integration or not. By default, your firm WILL NOT have Business Central unless you've requested it and we've integrated it for you. After an Expense has become Ready To Invoice, a new option will appear at the top for Complete.

*NOTE* - It is recommended that an Expense is not marked as Completed unless the Client has paid the Expense, but you may use this button however you see fit.

--Without Business Central

Regardless, once your Firm considers this Expense Complete, click Complete (and confirm a subsequent dialogue box) to close out this Matter Expense.

--With Business Central

If, however, your Firm IS using Business Central, you'll see the option at the top of the screen to Post. Posting, in this case, will simply send the Expense to Business Central to be processed there. Click Post and confirm the subsequent confirmation box to continue.

While you wait for the Expense to be processed at Business Central, the Posting Step will show Queued.

Now you can sit back and wait for Business Central to finish processing the Expense, and, as above, you can mark it as Complete once the Expense meets your Firm's specific criteria.

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