Tag Archives: RB Lite

Lesson #48

Receivables – Receive Payments function

Enter a payment and apply it to outstanding invoices in this function — whether the payment is for a single invoice or multiple invoices. RB can handle an unlimited number of invoices paid by one check or other type of payment — such as credit card, electronic payment, or retainer.

Adjustments

You can make adjustments if needed when applying payments to invoices — such as when a client sends you a check that is slightly less than the current balance of an invoice and you don’t want to try to collect the difference. You can discount the difference on the posted invoice. Or if a client sends you a check for more than is owed, enter the excess as an overpayment. (RB tracks all overpayments so they can be refunded in the future.)

Fees & other charges

You can also enter late charges, finance charges, and credit card/PayPal processing fees. (If you receive a payment prior to when late charges would accrue, the Late Charges and Finance Charges fields in Receive Payments are grayed out and uneditable so you won’t accidentally penalize a client.)

Credit card payments

When processing credit card payments, you can break out the usage fees associated with them. Set up credit card payment processing fee accounts in your business units. Then when processing fees are applied to invoices in Receive Payments, they are included in the corresponding accounts for your company. You have 2 options for handling credit card fees in RB: If you pay the processing fee, you use the Processing Fee option; if your client will pay the fee in addition to the balance of the invoice, you use the Surcharge option.

Retainers

If you are holding a retainer from a client, it will automatically appear when applying payments by that client so you don’t overlook it. If any money is left over, it remains in the client’s retainer account until you issue a refund check to the client.

Other payment info

Beyond payment types and adjustments, you can maintain a wealth of information about a payment from the check number and date to third-party payer to transaction date (when you entered the payment) and debited account.

Online payments

If clients pay online through RB Connect, you do not have to enter payment information manually. RB9 automatically enters the payment — including the processing fee if you have set up processing fees in RB9. You can review and edit the payment if needed, then post it like any other payment.

One Check One Invoice vs. Multiple Invoices

If a client is paying for a single invoice, you can use the streamlined One Check One Invoice sub-function to quickly enter the payment. If a client is paying for multiple invoices with one check or you don’t know what invoice they are paying, use the One Check Multiple Invoices sub-function which displays a client’s entire list of open invoices which you can search by job number, invoice number, or amount range. You can export the list as an Excel spreadsheet to save, print, or use in other applications.

Posting payments

After entering a payment and applying it to outstanding invoices, you can continue to add payments to other invoices or finish the payment process by posting the payment. If you have a lot of transactions to record — instead of posting payments as you go — enter them all first then select a batch to post all at once.

All daily transactions are temporary until they are posted (i.e., closed out). And once posted they cannot be modified nor deleted. Some RB reports — such as monthly journals — use the post date (not the transaction date) to select and group transactions on the report.

When you post a payment it must match the total amount of the invoice(s) you applied it to. If the payment is more than the invoice balance(s), RB will not allow you to post it until you balance it with credits (such as the overpayment credit). One exception: RB does not require payment of late fees or finance charges to post. So if a client sent a check for the original amount of the invoice only even though there have since been late fees and/or finance charges applied, you can post the invoice and RB will zero out the fees and remove the invoice from your outstanding receivables.

Audit trail

Unposted payments remain in Receive Payments until they are balanced. RB tracks who entered a payment and when, so you have an audit trail of who is responsible for crediting payments to invoices. You can use this feature to filter unposted payments to see only those you entered to get a total amount and reconcile.

Information on who entered payments and when appears in the results when you search for unposted payments in Receive Payments so you can see it at a glance. Listings also display the payment type, transaction date, payer and if it was a third party (for example if an insurance company paid for a bill their lawyer incurred for them), invoice amount, and its outstanding balance. Grand total and total outstanding balance amounts also appear in the results.

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function, RB will revert back to the default order). Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

You can pull up any unposted payment’s details from the results — either as a drop-down to quickly see all the invoices paid with one transaction, along with their fees breakdown and bill to/sold to information — or in a separate transaction screen.

TL;DR: Enter payments and apply them to one or more invoices — making adjustments as needed for overpayments, late charges, finance charges, and credit card processing fees. Maintain an audit trail of who entered which payments and when.

RB concepts in this lesson

Bill To Contact: The person responsible for paying the invoice for a job.

Bill To Firm: The company responsible for paying the invoice for a job.

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Processing Fee: If you pay the credit card processing fee when a client pays an invoice by credit card, you record it as a processing fee in RB.

RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources. More >

Sold To Contact: Person who ordered the services on the invoice.

Sold To Firm: Company that ordered the services on the invoice.

Surcharge: If you pass along the credit card processing fee when a client pays an invoice by credit card to the client, you record it as a surcharge in RB.

Lesson #47

Manage accounts receivable

Receivables is another large module in RB with functions for accepting and crediting payments, assessing additional charges, correct invoices, monitor accounts receivable, and perform collections. In this module, you can:

• Credit and track client payments. Apply a payment to multiple invoices at once. Apply retainers and payments via checks, PayPal or credit cards.
• Keep track of retainers. If a client has a retainer, it automatically appears when crediting payments from that client so you can apply it.
• Enter credits, discounts, overpayments, and other adjustments.
• Balance transactions and post payments.
• Enter non-cash transactions, such as credit and debit memos, duplicate payments, refunds, miscellaneous income, voids, and write-offs.
• Acknowledge client payments with emailed receipts.
• Provide resources with billing reports instead of invoices to see what they can expect to be paid for work they have done.
• Assess finance charges.
• Include PayPal and credit card processing fees.
• Run daily register reports.
• Print or email monthly journal reports to your accountant. Get an instant snapshot of accounts receivable for any date.
• Send clients monthly statements via email or regular mail.
• View monthly client activity reports. View all paid or voided invoices for a set time period.
• Find overdue invoices.
• Send clients detailed collection letters.
• Monitor collection efforts using reports, follow-up alerts, collections notes log, and copies of disputed or unpaid bills you can pull up from the central repository and email to clients from within RB.

Receivables functions by name

• Receive Payments
• Enter Other Transactions
• Send Payment Receipts – RB9-only function
• Resource Billings Report – RB9-only function
• Daily Register
• Daily Balance Log – RB9-only function
• Finance Charges
• Monthly Journals
• Aged A/R
• Send Statements
• Client Account Activity – RB9-only function
• Paid Invoices – RB9-only function
• Voided Invoices – RB9-only function
• Collection Letters – RB9-only function
• Collection Follow-up – RB9-only function
• Collection Forecast – RB9-only function

TL;DR: Apply payments and perform other accounts receivable tasks, including collections.

RB concepts in this lesson

Notes Logs: Un-editable internal-use only notes entered either by a user or automatically by RB appear in chronological logs in the database record where they occurred.

Lesson #44

Inquiry – Receivable Transaction Inquiry function

Look up the payment details for a single check or search payment histories by transaction type and/or other options. Searchable options include:

• Check number
• Check date
• Invoice number
• Transaction date
• Posted date
• Payment details
• Firm billed
• Payer

Searching by check date will return only check payments. You can also search for any posted receivable transaction. Transaction types include:

• Payment
• Duplicate payment
• Credit
• Debit
• Miscellaneous receipt
• Write-off
• Void
• Refund

Any transactions that meet your search criteria will appear as a report. The search results in the report include all of the search categories (except the billed firm) plus:

• Payment type
• Payment amount
• Who entered the payment into RB
• When it was entered

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order — or group transactions by one or more parameters to more easily see information you want to know (but when you exit the function, RB will revert back to the default order). You can export the report to save, share, use in other applications, or print.

View individual transactions

From your search results you can view detailed information about individual payments and other transactions. If you look at a payment’s details, it will include a list of the invoices paid by the payment and a breakdown of how the payment was applied to each invoice in the list. For other transactions, you can find information about the client and/or remarks about the transaction depending on the type of transaction.

You can also view invoice details directly for all transaction types except miscellaneous receipts.

Use with Aged A/R

In addition to using Receivable Transaction Inquiry to look up payments or search payment histories, you can also use it when you are managing collections and accounts receivable with the Aged A/R function. In the interactive Aged A/R report you can open the Receivable Transaction Inquiry directly for any client and it will automatically list that client’s payment activity for the past 90 days.

TL;DR: Use Receivable Transaction Inquiry to look up a single check or search payment histories and view detailed information about individual payments and other transactions such as refunds and write-offs.

RB concepts in this lesson

Firm: Business you provide services to, usually law firms. More >

Lesson #43

Inquiry – Witness Inquiry function

Instead of going through Turn In to find information about a witness, use this function to find information about witnesses quickly. Find individual deponents by name — or bring up a list of all deponents for a particular case, job, and/or range of job dates. You can also find witnesses tied to one or more business units in your company.

See at a glance in the results returned the witness name, job number and date, case, resource on the job, your company’s business unit responsible, and transcript information like number of pages, last exhibit marked, and when the transcript was sent, signed, and received, or is expected back.

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function RB will revert back to the default order). Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Download files & update information

Click a witness name in the results to get complete witness details including original transcript location, production notes, etc. Download witness files — such as exhibits — and read the witness Notes Log. You can also enter new information about deponents and upload new files to the witness repository.

TL;DR: Lists a single deponent or all deponents for a particular case, job, range of job dates, and/or business unit. View and update witness details.

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Notes Logs: Un-editable internal-use only notes entered either by a user or automatically by RB appear in chronological logs.

Repository: RB has 9 repositories where you store files for safekeeping and quick retrieval, including one for witness-related files like exhibits.

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service.

Lesson #41

Inquiry – Resource Activity function

If a reporter has questions about their pay — such as whether they got paid for a particular job, what their next paycheck will include, or what’s the total amount you owe them — use Resource Activity to search for invoices that include a specific resource’s billable services.

You can view a resource’s full pay history or use filters to focus your search. For example you can find the next pay amount or the total payable for any resource within seconds. View basic information about the invoices at a glance — such as invoice amount and pay amount, whether the resource was paid or not, if they were paid for the original or copies, the job number and date, and basic client information. You can drill down to view complete details of individual invoices the same as in Client Activity, and update invoice information.

View pay history

In addition to viewing a resource’s next pay or total payables, you can also view all invoices related to the resource — including paid invoices so you can review if the resource was paid correctly for any invoice they are challenging. You can restrict the results listed to a date or date range of the related invoices, jobs, or when the invoices were posted in RB.

You can search for a resource’s invoices for a specific firm or a single contact only. You can also search for invoices related to a single case. And you can find invoices for all, some, or a single business unit.

The invoices listed in the search results display:

• Invoice number
• Invoice date
• Invoice amount
• Invoice balance
• Invoice payment date
• If the invoice was for an original transcript
• Resource pay amount and when paid
• Related business unit
• Job number
• Job date
• Case name
• Sold To and Bill To clients
• Date voided

The results include grand totals at the bottom for invoice amounts, invoice balance amounts, and resource pay.

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function RB will revert back to the default order). Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

TL;DR: View a resource’s next pay amount or their total payables — along with basic information about the invoices, such as invoice and pay amounts. Drill down to view complete details of individual invoices.

RB concepts in this lesson

Bill To Contact/Firm: Contact/Firm responsible for paying the invoice for a job.

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with.

Firm: Business you provide services to — usually law firms.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service.

Lesson #39

Inquiry – Client Activity function

Look up a single client’s invoices using filters to focus your search so you can, for example search the client’s invoices by case to come up with a settlement amount for a particular case in seconds, no matter how long the case has been going on.

And if the client requests a copy of all the invoices for that case you can email them all of those invoices as a single PDF file with the click of a button.

Finding invoices

You can find invoices for a firm that scheduled the jobs billed or the firm responsible for paying the invoices (since they are not always the same firm). You can find invoices for a firm’s parent company — not just the individual firm if they are part of a larger organization. You can find invoices for all of the contacts at the firm, or a specific contact.

You can further refine your results by filtering for the date or date range of the invoice(s), the job(s), or when the invoice(s) posted in RB. You can find a firm’s invoices for all jobs or a single case. And you can find firms invoices billed by all, some, or a single business unit of your company.

The search results include all of the search categories (except the post date) plus invoice number and amount, balance, payment date, job number, and date voided. You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function RB will revert back to the default order).

You can export the results to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Email multiple invoices as single PDF

You can view all invoices or only paid or unpaid invoices — which is handy when you are looking for a client’s outstanding invoices. If viewing unpaid invoices you can email a single PDF of the invoices with “Past Due” automatically stamped on them.

If you don’t use any of the search filters RB will list all of the selected client’s financial activity with your company.

If you don’t want to send all the invoices listed in your search results you can select only the ones you want to include in the compiled PDF. You can also include other attachments with the email if desired. When you send invoices from Client Activity RB logs the event in the invoice’s Notes Log.

You can view any invoice’s details from the search results and see the same level of detail as in Invoice Inquiry.

Embedded in Aged A/R report

While you can access Client Activity from the main menu in RB, you can also access individual client’s activity directly from the interactive Aged A/R report in Receivables — saving you time when working on collections or just looking for answers about the client’s outstanding invoice amounts displayed in the Aged A/R report.

TL;DR: One use of Client Activity is to generate a settlement amount for a particular case in seconds — no matter how long the case has been going on. Plus you can send the client a single PDF of their related invoices. 

RB concepts in this lesson

Bill To Firm: Firm responsible for paying the invoice for a job.

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition — but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Notes Log: Un-editable internal-use only notes entered either by a user or automatically by RB appear in chronological logs in the database record where they occurred — such as a case, job, invoice, or entity. More >

Parent Firm: Headquarters of a multi-branch corporation.

Sold To Firm: Firm responsible for a job with your company.

Lesson #38

Inquiry – Invoice Inquiry function

Search for posted invoices using a variety of criteria, such as invoice number, type, amount(s) and/or date(s). Find invoices for a particular job, location, case, claim number and/or client matter number. Limit your search to open or paid invoices. Send original or current invoices to clients. Export or print the results as a report. Get detailed information about the invoices including payment history.

Quickest way to find invoices

Invoice Inquiry will usually be the best function for finding invoices when you don’t have the invoice number because it has the most search filters. You can search for all open invoices or invoices that match any one or combination of these filters:

• Invoice number
• Invoice date, job date, or invoice-posted date
• Date range
• Job number
• Open invoices, paid invoices, or both
• Case
• Claim number
• Client matter number
• Invoice total $ amount range
• Client’s reference number
• Resource’s reference number
• Type of invoice — such as its source, purpose, or function
• Job location city and/or state
• Business units

Invoice Inquiry lists posted invoices based on your set of search criteria as an exportable/printable report. The report includes information from the search categories as well as the amount outstanding, void date, Bill To client, and Sold To client so you can see most information about an invoice at a glance.

Invoice Inquiry displays an invoice’s original amount plus 2 current balance amounts:

1. The outstanding amount of the original invoice minus any payments appears in the Balance column.
2. The current balance for the invoice including all fees added since the original invoice was issued — such as late charges and finance charges — and minus any payments already made appears in the Balance+ column.

The report also includes a Totals line. You can export the grid as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV(comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

Customize how you view posted invoice lists

The grid in which you view posted invoices is customizable to your individual preference:

• Re-arrange the columns so the most important information is most prominent.
• Stick up to 10 columns to the left side of the grid so they do not scroll when you have a results grid wider than your screen.
• Stretch/shrink columns to fit the results.
• Hide columns you don’t need to see.
• Choose which column(s) to sort results by.
• If you select more than one column, choose in what column order to sort the list.
• Choose whether to sort info by ascending or descending order in each selected column.
• Save your custom grid as your default.

You can save your custom grid as your default. Your customizations do not affect other users, and you can restore the original RB grid layout anytime.

View, re-send, & edit any invoice listed

You can view, send, and update individual invoices listed. For example if you didn’t get a party’s e-billing information until you posted the invoice, you can enter it here. You can see information about the witness, service items, and billed amounts. Plus you can see what the resource was paid and when. You can also view an invoice’s detailed receivables transactions — including late fees, finance charges, and credit card processing fees — as well as download the invoice from the repository and read the invoice’s Notes Log.

You can email or print out the invoice you are viewing. You can choose the original or the current invoice that includes any finance or late charges added since the invoice was originally issued. If emailing you can include other attachments from your desktop or RB’s Witness-level Repository plus edit the email contents before sending. If you choose the print option, you can preview the invoice with details on or off, export the invoice in a variety of formats plus search for a word or phrase in the onscreen invoice. RB will highlight all instances of your searched word/phrase in the invoice and list them in a scroll box along with the page number where they occur.

NOTE: Because COD invoices are different from regular invoices and cannot be posted until paid, they are not included in Invoice Inquiry searches. To find COD invoices, use Billing > COD Invoices.

TL;DR: Search for posted invoices using a wide variety of criteria. Export or print your results as a report. Get detailed information about the invoices including payment history.

RB concepts in this lesson

Bill To client: Client responsible for paying the invoice for a job.

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Notes Log: Un-editable internal-use only notes entered either by a user or automatically by RB appear in a chronological log.

Repository: RB has 9 repositories where you store files for safekeeping and quick retrieval, including a dedicated invoice repository.

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service.

Sold To client: Client responsible for a job with your company.

Lesson #37

Find targeted information fast

Need to find an invoice quickly? Want to know how much you billed a client last month? These questions and more can be answered in the Inquiry module. What you can do in this module includes:

• Instantly locate information about jobs, invoices, clients, resources, witnesses, payments and transcripts. 
• Generate a settlement amount for a particular case in seconds, no matter how long the case has been going on. Send a client a PDF of their invoices. 
• Analyze aspects of your business, such as clients’ billing activity and resources’ billing and pay amounts. Run monthly, yearly, and year-to-date total reports. 
• Audit resource pay overrides.
• Print labels for cards and gifts to send to clients celebrating upcoming birthdays and other anniversaries.
• Find who your best clients and resources are, and which clients are new or inactive.

Inquiry functions by name

• Invoice Inquiry
• Client Activity
• Client Analysis – RB9-only function
• Resource Activity
• Resource Analysis – RB9-only function
• Witness Inquiry
• Receivable Transaction Inquiry
• Override Resource Pay Inquiry
• Anniversary Inquiry – RB9-only function
• Marketing Inquiry – RB9-only function

TL;DR: Use Inquiry functions to quickly look up information about invoices, clients, resources, witnesses, and transactions.

RB concepts in this lesson

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service.

Lesson #35

Billing – Transfer Invoice function

Transfer invoices between clients when there has been a mistake in addressing the invoice to a client, instead of voiding and re-billing.

Find the invoice you want to transfer to another client by its invoice number, date, job number, case, and/or your company’s business unit(s).

Invoices in the results gird display their information in all of the search categories plus:

• Invoice amount
• Balance
• Post date
• Sent date
• Bill To and Sold To clients
• Job date
• Void date

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function, RB will revert back to the default order). Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

Transfer options

You have several options for transferring invoices. You can change the:

• Firm responsible for paying the invoice (Bill To firm)
• Contact responsible for paying the invoice (Bill To contact)
• Firm which ordered the services billed on the invoice (Sold To firm)
• Contact who ordered the services billed on the invoice (Sold To contact)

You can transfer a posted invoice even if it has already been paid.

TL;DR: If you billed the wrong client, transfer the invoice to the correct client, instead of voiding the invoice and re-billing.

RB concepts in this lesson

Bill To Contact: The person responsible for paying the invoice for a job. This contact could be the same as the Sold To Contact, but also could be a different person at the same firm or a person at a third-party firm that is paying the invoice, such as an insurance agency.

Bill To Firm: The firm responsible for paying the invoice for a job. This firm could be the same as the Sold To Firm, but also could be a third-party firm, such as an insurance agency.

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Sold To Contact: Usually the person who ordered a job.

Sold To Firm: Usually the firm that ordered a job.

Lesson #34

Billing – Send Invoices function

After posting invoices to your RB ledger, send clients copies of their invoices and archive the invoices in the central repository.

You can access the Send Invoices function either directly from the main menu or when posting invoices. When you post invoices, RB gives you the choice to send/archive the invoices at the same time which automatically opens the Send Invoices window with the posted invoice(s) in the results pane.

In Send Invoices you have a lot of options for finding posted invoices  — and more options for what you want to do with them. You can find the invoice(s) for a single job or use other search filters to find invoices for a date/date range, a case, a Bill To firm, one or more invoice types, and/or one or more business units in your company.

Invoices in the results gird display their information in all of the search categories plus :

• Invoice amount
• Balance
• Date sent
• Method used to send the invoice
• Bill To clients
• Sold To clients
• Void date

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function, RB will revert back to the default order). Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

You can preview original and current versions of posted invoices with service items details visible or not. Then email either version to ordering clients or print them to send via traditional delivery methods. You do not have to choose which method to use for each client here. Contacts’ preferred method of receiving invoices — email, print, or none — is stored in their RB database entry. The Send Invoices function will automatically send invoices via each contacts’ preferred method, but you can override it for individual invoices when sending.

Emailing invoices

If you send invoices from RB9 via email and you have RB Connect, you can automatically include a Pay Invoice link in the invoice emails so when your clients click the link they will go directly to the invoice in their RB Connect office to pay the invoice online.

When emailing invoices you can attach files from your desktop or your RB Witness-level Repository.

If you email invoices, RB9 records the emails sent in the Email Log function in Tools, so you can refer back to them later. It also makes an entry that includes the receiver’s email address in the Notes Log of the sent invoices.

You can archive original invoices to the Invoice-level repository here. With all options — send, print, or archive — you can select any or all invoices to process at the same time.

TL;DR: Send clients copies of their original or current posted invoices and archive the invoices in the central repository.

RB concepts in this lesson

Bill To Contact/Firm: Contact/Firm responsible for paying the invoice for a job.

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Notes Logs: Un-editable internal-use only notes entered either by a user or automatically by RB appear in chronological logs in the database record where they occurred, such as a case, job, invoice, or entity. More >

RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources. More >

Repository: RB has 9 repositories where you store files for safekeeping and quick retrieval. When you store files in a case, they are in RB’s Case Repository; when you store files in a job, they are in RB’s Job Repository; etc. If you have RB Connect, you can give clients and/or resources access to specific repository files.

Service items: Regular charges that you bill to your clients.

Sold To Contact/Firm: Contact/Firm that ordered the services on the invoice.