Legal Practice: matters, time, billing, collections and client trust

#Purpose and scope

This chapter covers the Legal Practice module: matters and their parties, conflict-of-interest screening, deadlines and tasks, time and expenses, fee arrangements, billing, receivables, and client trust accounting with its monthly three-way reconciliation.

#Before you start

1. The module installs its own billing ledgers and record types. If they are missing BSuit says “Legal billing ledgers not found — reinstall the Legal Practice module.”
2. A trust bank ledger for the firm, which you choose on each matter. Each matter gets its own client trust liability ledger (TRUST-<matter code>), created automatically in the Client Trust group when the matter is created.
3. The LEGAL-ADMIN role (or a superuser) for trust deposits, disbursements and reversals, conflict overrides, reports and trust reconciliation. Named permissions apply on top for money actions: legal_practice.payment.receive, invoice.write_off, invoice.credit_note, invoice.void, retainer.draw, trust.reverse and trust.reconcile.

#1. Open a matter and screen conflicts

1. Open Matters and create a matter with a unique code and a name. Status is Open, OnHold or Closed.
2. Add the client, opposing side and others in Matter parties (or on the matter’s Parties tab). The role is Client, Opposing, Related, Witness or Other.
3. BSuit screens every name on the matter (its own name and all its parties) against every party on other matters. A match is exact when the normalised names are equal and partial when one contains the other (names of at least 4 characters). The result is stored on the matter and refreshed after any matter or party change, so adding a clean party never erases an earlier hit.
4. You can also run a conflict check for any list of names before taking a matter on.

#2. Fee arrangement

1. On the matter set the fee arrangement type and terms. Payment terms must be 0 to 365 days and the default hourly rate cannot be negative. A rate card may give each attorney a rate (one row per attorney); the rate card wins over the arrangement default.
2. Hourly: bills recorded hours. Fixed fee: needs a fixed fee amount above zero and bills milestones (their total cannot exceed the fixed fee). Retainer: needs a retainer amount and a mode, Trust drawdown or Apply to invoice. Contingency: needs a percent above 0 and up to 100, and a recovery amount.

#3. Time, expenses and tasks

1. Record time in Time entries: matter, employee, hours (above 0 and at most 24) and rate. Or start a timer on a matter and stop it later. Time and expenses can be recorded only against an Open matter.
2. Record Expenses against an Open matter with a positive amount.
3. Track deadlines in Deadlines & tasks: status open, in progress, done or cancelled, due date and an optional reminder some days before. Overdue active tasks are flagged, and reminders can be sent. An open task cannot be added to a closed matter.

#4. Bill the matter

1. On the matter choose Bill. Select unbilled billable time, unbilled billable expenses, pending fixed-fee milestones, or a contingency fee, according to the arrangement.
2. BSuit posts one journal and creates one invoice snapshot atomically for the selection. Invoices are numbered INV-<matter code>-0001, sequential per matter.
3. For a contingency fee, BSuit bills the percentage of the recovery not yet billed.

#5. Collect, adjust and void

1. Open Receivables for open invoices and aging by days past due. Record a payment on a matter (needs legal_practice.payment.receive): amount, instrument (cash, bank or cheque), the cash or bank ledger it went into, and an idempotency key. If you give no allocation, it is applied oldest due first; allocations must add up to the amount and cannot exceed an invoice’s balance.
2. Write off or credit note an invoice (needs legal_practice.invoice.write_off or credit_note) with a positive amount up to the balance and a reason of up to 1,000 characters.
3. Void an invoice (needs legal_practice.invoice.void) to post a reversing journal and un-bill every line.
4. For a retainer matter in Apply to invoice mode, apply the retainer to an invoice (needs legal_practice.retainer.draw).

#6. Client trust

1. Open Trust controls for client funds held, exceptions (negative client balances, stale funds with no recent activity) and the reconciliation.
2. Deposit a client retainer into trust on the matter: debit the firm’s trust bank ledger, credit the matter’s trust ledger. Disburse to the firm as an earned fee or to a third party.
3. Reverse a trust transaction with a reason (needs legal_practice.trust.reverse). The original is flagged and never deleted, and a reversal cannot itself be reversed.

#7. Monthly three-way trust reconciliation

1. On Trust controls choose the trust bank ledger and a period end that is the last day of a month and not in the future. Enter the bank statement balance.
2. BSuit compares three figures: the bank statement, the general ledger balance and the total of the client ledgers. Save the draft (needs legal_practice.trust.reconcile).
3. Sign off. If the three agree within half a cent and no client balance is negative, signing records who and when. If not, you must resolve the difference or sign with a variance explanation of at least 10 characters.