Lesson #133
Setup – System Preferences function
Billing System Preferences
Choose an invoice template based on your company’s payment options, and set other billing options.
Invoice
Before invoicing clients set an invoice-posting alert, choose your default invoice template plus other invoice options, and customize the email that accompanies invoices. These choices are system-wide.
The first option will pop up an alert when posting an invoice if no Pay Rate is selected or the Pay Amount is 0. With this turned on you get a reminder to ensure that resources get paid for invoiced work if you overlooked it when creating the invoice.
Invoice templates to select from:
- Standard RB invoice with a remittance section at the bottom of the invoice
- Invoice without a remittance section
- Invoice with a credit card payment section that accepts American Express, MasterCard, and Visa
- Invoice that accepts only MasterCard and Visa
Other options you can set include:
- Have the word “Certified” appear before copy in invoice headers if you certify transcript copies.
- Give your clients job location information on invoices when the job location is included in your RB database.
- Have a red “PAST DUE” stamp printed on unpaid invoices that are older than your payment terms. (Set up payment terms in Lists.)
- Have RB automatically include both the client firm’s main phone number & fax number (if they have one) below the address on printed invoices.
Customize invoice email template
If you email clients their invoices, you can customize the email that accompanies invoices. Similarly to job calendar cancellations and notifications, you can change the default text in the Subject and Message fields and insert contextual data fields so that real data from RB related to the job, case, and invoice merge into the email automatically.
If you have RB Connect, you can insert a pay invoice data field into the Email Message that converts into a hyperlink in the email, which when clicked, automatically sends the user to RB Connect. After the user logs in, the related invoice screen appears for a convenient payment process.
You can also customize the appearance of the body of the emails with text formatting, colors, images, hyperlinks, and tables. You can edit your email contents in the default WYSIWYG word processor environment or as HTML markup.
The invoice itself will attach to the email as a PDF. And you can override the defaults set here in any invoice emails sent from RB.
LEDES 1998B
If you have clients that request electronic billing in LEDES 1998B format, RB9 exports invoices as text files. But if your clients require a different file type from TXT, you can change the default file extension to meet their specifications.
You can also set an option to exclude billed $0 amount service items in exported files, so electronic bills only include services that had billable charges.
NOTE: Export Invoices is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.
Reward Points
If you want to offer clients an incentive program that awards points for services they order from your company (and your state allows it), turn on RB9’s Reward Points System. Then set the options for how your system generates and redeems points.
- Choose whether clients accumulate points for original invoices only or all orders.
- Set the default dollar amount billed on invoices that earns a point, e.g., every $100 billed earns 1 point.
- Select whether invoiced amounts will be rounded up, down, or split (amounts ending in 1–4 are rounded down, amounts ending in 5–9 are rounded up).
- Specify the multiplier RB9 will use to convert points to dollars when clients redeem points. You don’t have to use whole numbers, — you can use up to 2 decimal places — and the amount can be less than one.
After setting up your reward point options in System Preferences, you then designate which services earn points and set up individual contacts to earn points for bookings with your company. You can designate different and/or multiple contacts at the same firm to earn points for a contact’s bookings, and boost a contact’s points-earning ability by automatically doubling or otherwise multiplying their points. If you have RB Connect, you can allow contacts to request point redemptions online.
NOTE: Reward Points is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.
TL;DR: Customize your invoices. Optionally, set up electronic billing and a booking reward system like a frequent flyer program.
RB concepts in this lesson
Reward Points: Used to encourage clients to book with your agency by rewarding them with points for different services. (Also referred to as award points.)
Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with, such as attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, and legal assistants.
RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources.
