*********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. *************

Sometimes it can be a little jarring for a client to receive a big Invoice when one of the larger Flat Fee Services have been created. In other instances, you and your Client have worked out a Payment Plan in order to pay down a larger charge. In cases like either of these, we now introduce the Payment Plan feature!

You’ll use the Payment Plan feature from the Flat Fee Service record, and the system will create smaller, ‘Child’ Flat Fees that will break up the initial value of and be directly associated with the original Flat Fee Service. This can be a lot to get your head around, but I promise, this one is easy to execute. So let’s dive in with some examples below!

To begin, let’s go to a Matter with a large Flat Fee Service applied. If you’re not sure about how to create a Flat Fee Service in the first place, check this Guide here. Otherwise, from a Matter, select an Uninvoiced/Uninvoiced Flat Fee Service. You’ll know that it’s good to use this feature because the Status of the Flat Fee Service will say Ready to Invoice, as shown below.

Once you open the Record, you’ll see the Payment Plan button in the top ribbon. Click it and let’s see our options.

First, you’ll want to choose a number of months, as this will decide for how long and how frequently the Client will be Invoiced for the Flat Fee Service. In our example below, we’re doing 10 months. Later, this system may be even more flexible than simply monthly, but for now, we’re only able to do a month-by-month Payment Plan.

Once you choose your number of months, click Preview at the bottom.

Now you’ll see a preview of the Payment Schedule, shown below. These dates are what the system will look for as you Generate Invoices in the future. So when you tell a Invoice to Generate for all charges up to X date, the Payment Plan Flat Fees will be included up to that date. We’ll show a Invoice in just a moment that better illustrates this idea, but for now, review the Payment Plan and make sure you like it. The system will have split up the Payments as evenly as possible.

Once you’re satisfied, click Add Payment Plan, and click Yes to confirm on the popup screen.

This Status Update could take anywhere from a few seconds to a full minute, so don’t panic if this sits on your screen for a while.

The first thing to notice, after applying our Payment Plan, is that the Is Payment Plan field now says Yes. This lets you know that a Payment Plan is in place and awaiting Invoice Generation.

Additionally, we now see the Child Flat Fees attached to the Record, making up the individual Payments. Clicking any of these will open up their own Record as well, but it should be noted that a Payment/Child Flat Fee cannot have its own Payment Plan.

We’ll talk about how these look on a Invoice soon, but let’s move on to making edits or removing the Payment Plan altogether.

The first thing to understand about making changes to the Payment Plan is that you CANNOT change them if any of the Payments have been Invoiced. If ANY Payment Plan Flat Fee Service, any of the Child Flat Fee Services discussed above, have been Generated onto an Invoice, the Payment Plan is locked and cannot be changed. But provided that they’re all still Pending or Un-Invoiced, you can edit the Payment Plan by clicking the same Payment Plan button in the top Ribbon as before. Since a Flat Fee Service can only have one Payment Plan per Record, clicking the button again simply allows the existing Payment Plan to be edited.

After that, you can change the number of months and resubmit the Payment Plan.

Deleting, on the other hand, is a bit trickier. Let’s say that either:

a) you wanted to change the Flat Fee Service price, or

b) you wanted to delete the Payment Plan altogether

Both of those are accomplished by simply changing the Amount of the Flat Fee Service. When you change this amount, provided NO CHILD FEE has been Generated onto an Invoice, then it will remove the Payment Plan altogether and change the Parent Flat Fee Service Value, shown below.

Change this Value here.

Then click Save and see this message appear.

Now you’ll need to recreate the Payment Plan if still want it on the Flat Fee Service.

Conversely to the steps above, you could simply Delete the initial Flat Fee Service altogether by clicking Delete, and all of the Payments from the Payment Plan will go with it.

When we Generate an Invoice PDF for a Matter on which there is a Flat Fee Service and for which there is a Payment Plan, the system WILL NOT add the initial Flat Fee Service to the Invoice PDF (though it will be referenced, shown a little further down), but will instead add whichever Child Flat Fees are relative to your Invoice Generation Date. See the Video for a better explanation of this.

What you’ll see instead, in the Flat Fees portion of the Invoice PDF, is the initial Flat Fee Service that we set up, showing under Service Total, and then the individual Payment Charge of the Child Flat Fee Service/s, under Amount Due, that have been added to this Invoice.

We have other updates coming to this feature in the future, but in the meantime, enjoy getting the money that is owed to your Firm in smaller, manageable chunks!