*********NOTE* - Due to changes in labeling, all references to Bills have been changed to Invoices, and all references to Billings have been changed to Time Entries in the Guide below. At some point, the Video above may also be updated. *************
Introduction
When creating a Payment, you can manually Allocate funds to specific Charges on specific Invoices, and for a full Guide on that process, click here, but if you’d rather the System simply Allocated your Payment for you, based on a collection of preset logic, this Guide will show where to find that option.
*NOTE* - This Auto Allocation logic is built from Auto Allocation Configurations, so if yours isn’t behaving properly or your Configurations have never been set up, use this significantly-more-involved Guide here for the process by which you can set your Auto Allocation Configurations.
Allocation Hierarchy
The Auto-Allocation and Manual Allocation buttons are going to apply specific funds to specific charges in a specific Order. As we discussed above (and will touch on again below), the Order in which the charges are paid is dependent on the Auto-Allocation Configurations that you've already set up, but the order of the funds used to pay them is something new.
They go as follows:
Credits - First, any Credits available to the Client and set, in the Auto-Allocation Configuration, to be considered for Time Entries, will be applied.
Retainer Funds - Second, funds in Retainer will be used, and again, they'll be applied in the order that you've set previously.
Payments - Finally, the Funds from the Payment itself will be applied to the Invoice, in the same order as the Credits and Retainer Funds.
For this reason, you may find that you have an excess of Funds on a Payment after everything is applied. These can be sent to an overage Account, for which we have a Guide here, or applied directly to the Matter Retainer by creating an Allocation and setting the Type to Matter Retainer.
The Auto Allocate Button
To begin, you’ll need to access your Payment. There are few ways to find a Payment that you created, but for our Guide, we’ll go directly to the Payment Entity on the left side of the screen.
Select the Payment you want.
And then simply click the Auto Allocate button at the top of your screen!
Next, you can choose the Matter to which these Payment Allocations will be applied, as well as decide what the Max Amount is that will be applied to the related Invoices.
Additionally, you'll notice a field for Consolidated Invoices. If you're paying a Consolidated Invoice that encompasses multiple Invoices, either from the same Matter or from Multiple Matters, you can search for that Invoice here. For more information on Consolidated Invoices, click here.
Finally, we have the Surplus to Matter Overage option, comprising of simply a Yes and a No. This option will allow any extra funds in the Payment to be automatically assigned to an Operating Overage account on the Matter. For a full Guide on Overage Accounts, click here.
***BONUS TIP*** You can also use this option to assign an entire Payment to an Overage Account. In the event that you receive a Payment for a Matter whose Balance is already $0, those Funds can still be properly Allocated to the Matter using the Overage Account, no Outstanding Invoices necessary!
Give it a few minutes, refresh the page, and then you should see the Allocations that were automatically created from this process!
