Creating multiple invoices

If you want to create several invoices at once, instead of invoicing one matter at a time, use the Invoices menu. From here, Legalsense offers two starting points, Bill all outstanding activities and New invoice, and 11 ways to narrow down a New invoice run. This article explains what each one does and when to use it.

Invoices menu showing the New invoice and Bill all outstanding activities buttons.

From here, you have two options:

• Bill all outstanding activities
• New invoice

The two differ in scope and control. Bill all outstanding activities bills every outstanding time entry and disbursement across your whole environment; you don't select anything beforehand, so it's the fastest way to run a full billing cycle. New invoice lets you narrow the run down first, by matter, debtor, client, role, matter type, or invoice type, so it's the better choice whenever you want to bill a subset rather than everything at once, or need more control before Legalsense generates a single invoice.

Bill all outstanding activities

Click Bill all outstanding activities to create a draft invoice for every outstanding time entry and disbursement, across all matters. Depending on how many matters your Legalsense environment has, this can take a while.

Note: We recommend this method if you send invoices on a monthly basis for your whole firm. Because it doesn't let you exclude matters beforehand, review the resulting draft invoices before finalizing them, and delete any you don't want to send yet.

New invoice

Click New invoice for more control over which matters to bill. Because you limit the number of matters included, this can speed up billing, which is especially helpful when a large number of matters have outstanding activities.

New invoice menu showing the available invoice creation options.

Legalsense presents the following options:

• Based on matter
• Based on debtor
• Based on client
• Based on parent client
• Based on account manager
• Based on billing supervisor
• Based on matter supervisor
• Based on matter type
• Advance invoice
• RvR invoice
• Empty invoice

The first four options group matters by the party linked to the client: a matter, a debtor, a client, or a parent client. The next three group matters by role: an account manager, a billing supervisor, or a matter supervisor. Based on matter type groups matters by classification instead of by party or role. The last three, Advance invoice, RvR invoice, and Empty invoice, don't bill outstanding activities at all; they create a specific type of invoice on a matter you select.

The table below gives you a quick overview; the sections that follow explain each option in more detail.

Based on matter

Legalsense creates an invoice for the matter you select. Use this option to bill one matter without leaving the Invoices menu; if you're already on the matter page, use the New invoice button there instead. See the article ↪ Invoicing single matters for the full procedure.

Matter selection screen for creating a new invoice based on matter.

Based on debtor

A debtor is the party Legalsense actually sends the invoice to, which isn't always the client you did the work for. See the article ↪ Billing invoices to others for how debtors work.

Legalsense creates an invoice for the debtor you select, including all matters linked to that debtor.

Debtor selection screen for creating a new invoice based on debtor.

After you select the debtor, you can choose to bill all its matters on a single invoice, or create a separate invoice for each matter. Use this option when matters, possibly belonging to different clients, are billed to the same debtor and you want to handle them together regardless of which client they belong to.

Based on client

Legalsense creates an invoice for the client you select, including all matters linked to that client.

Client selection screen for creating a new invoice based on client.

Use this option when you want to bill everything for one client in a single run, regardless of which debtor each matter is billed to.

Based on parent client

Legalsense creates an invoice for the parent client you select, including all matters linked to that parent client and to any subsidiary clients that list it as their parent client.

Parent client selection screen for creating a new invoice based on parent client.

Use this option when you bill a group of related companies together instead of client by client. See the article ↪ Client Management for how to link a subsidiary to its parent client.

Based on account manager

Select the account manager you want to create invoices for. Legalsense shows all matters linked to clients where that user is set as the account manager, and you select which of them to bill.

Account manager selection screen for creating a new invoice based on an account manager.

Use this option to bill by relationship owner rather than by client or debtor, for example when an account manager wants to trigger billing for their whole book of clients in one run.

Based on billing supervisor

Select the billing supervisor you want to create invoices for. Legalsense shows all matters on which that user is set as billing supervisor, and you select which of them to bill.

Billing supervisor selection screen showing matters where the selected user is billing supervisor.

The remaining selection fields match the other invoice screens, with one difference: here you can also choose to exclude legal aid and/or insolvency matters.

Use this option to bill by who's responsible for billing on a matter, for example when a billing supervisor wants to run their own matters on a different schedule than the rest of the firm.

Based on matter supervisor

This option works almost the same as Based on billing supervisor, except you select a matter supervisor instead of a billing supervisor.

Matter supervisor selection screen showing matters where the selected user is matter supervisor.

Use this option to bill by who's responsible for running the matter day to day, which can be a different person from the billing supervisor.

Based on matter type

If you've classified your matters into different types (such as litigation or advisory), you can create invoices per matter type by selecting the type in Matter type. Configure matter types at Settings → Lists → Matter Types.

Matter type selection screen for creating a new invoice by matter type.

Use this option to bill by practice area or matter classification, for example when litigation matters go out on a different schedule than advisory matters.

Advance invoice

Click this option to create an advance invoice.

Advance invoice creation screen.

This works the same as creating an advance invoice from the matter page, except here you also select the matter yourself. See the article ↪ Creating advance invoices (obsolete) for the full procedure.

Use this option to invoice an advance payment without first opening the matter, for example while you're already working from the Invoices menu for a batch of other invoices.

RvR invoice

Click this option to create an invoice to the Raad voor Rechtsbijstand (RvR) for a Dutch legal aid ("toevoeging") matter. Legalsense values the work at the number of points assigned to the matter, multiplied by the RvR's fee per point for the year the work was done, and deducts any client contribution already invoiced.

RvR invoice creation screen.

Use this option instead of billing the client directly when a matter uses the Dutch legal aid pricing scheme and you need to invoice the RvR rather than, or in addition to, the client. See the article ↪ Pricing schemes for how the legal aid pricing scheme and its points work.

Empty invoice

Click this option to start with a blank invoice. Enter the matter you want to create the invoice for, and select the source for the text fields.

Empty invoice creation screen showing the matter field and text source selection.

Legalsense creates the invoice without any lines, so you add them yourself, such as activities, advances, disbursements, or miscellaneous lines. Use this option when none of the other methods fit and you'd rather build the invoice from scratch.

Note: You can also create an advance invoice or an empty invoice directly from the matter page. See the article ↪ Invoicing single matters.