00:01: So in this video, I'm going to walk you through the billing workflow in CARET legal
00:05: specifically focusing on firms that do not use retainers or trust accounts.
00:11:
00:12: We'll go step-by-step from creating billable activity to generating invoices,
00:17: all the way through sending invoices out to clients and receiving payments.
00:22: Let's go ahead and get started.
00:24: At a high level, the billing workflow in Carrot Legal includes creating billable
00:29: activities,
00:30: generating and previewing pre-bills,
00:33: finalizing invoices,
00:35: sending invoices to clients, and receiving payments.
00:38: In this workflow, payments are applied directly to invoices after they're sent,
00:43: since there are no retainers involved.
00:47: Let's start with creating billable activity, specifically time entries, since that's
00:52: the foundation of most billing.
00:54: There are several ways to track your time in Carrot Legal.
00:57: You can do it automatically by capturing time from emails, phone calls, or calendar
01:01: events.
01:02: You can also track time using the timer, the mobile app, tasks, or the matter
01:08: activity log.
01:10: Or you can enter time manually using the Quick Add menu and selecting New Time
01:16: Entry.
01:17: From the Time section,
01:19: heading over to Time Entries tab and clicking the plus sign to create a new time
01:23: entry.
01:25: Or within the matter under the Time and Expenses tab.
01:31: The key here is consistency,
01:33: making sure all your billable time is captured accurately before billing.
01:38: Next, let's talk about flat fees and expenses.
01:41: For flat fees, head to the Time section, then the Flat Fees tab.
01:46: Click the plus sign to add your entry.
01:49: You can also add flat fees directly inside the matter.
01:54: For expenses, Carriot Legal supports soft costs, hard costs like checks or credit
02:00: cards,
02:01: vendor bills, and even interest on overdue invoices.
02:07: You can enter expenses from the Expenses tab in the Time section, from the Matter
02:13: page under Time and Expenses tab,
02:17: the Quick Add menu where you can add a new expense as a soft cost or new check as a
02:21: hard cost.
02:23: Vendor bills can only be created from the Accounting page under Vendors and Bills
02:28: tab by
02:29: clicking the plus sign on the right and creating a new vendor bill.
02:33: The goal is to make sure everything that is billable, not just time, is included.
02:40: Once your activities are in place, it's time to generate a pre-bill.
02:45: To do this, go to the Accounting, then open Invoices and Payments tab, and click the
02:51: plus sign on the right side of the green bar.
02:55: Here you can choose to invoice unbilled activities or create an invoice from
03:00: scratch.
03:03: When creating a
03:06: new invoice from scratch, you will manually add items like flat fees, time and
03:10: expenses.
03:12: In this video, we are going to build existing unbilled activities.
03:19: In this Generate Invoice screen,
03:22: first set your filters.
03:25: Set the date range.
03:27: Select the matter if you are billing an individual matter and any other additional
03:32: filters as needed.
03:34: Then click Generate Invoice.
03:37: If you would like to see the details of what is captured,
03:41: click on Manually Select Items and then turn on the toggle Show Details.
03:46: By
03:48: clicking the arrow next to the billable line item, you can now see the details of
03:54: captured activities,
03:56: such as time entries, cost, or the flat fees or interest.
04:04: Select the matters or
04:09: switch back to select all items to generate.
04:13: Then click Generate Invoice.
04:16: Confirm the invoice date and due date,
04:19: then click Generate.
04:21: Your drafts will be created and you'll see the confirmation along with the invoice
04:25: numbers.
04:26: By design, the system will leave you on this page so you can continue generating
04:31: additional invoices if needed.
04:35: Once done, click Back to all invoices to be taken back to the Accounting page.
04:42: Incarried legal prebills show up as draft invoices.
04:47: You can find them again in the Accounting section under Invoices and Payments or
04:52: directly inside the matter.
04:56: On the matter page, click on the Invoices tab where you will see the list of
05:01: invoices where they are approved or in draft pertaining to this particular matter.
05:09: If we click Draft Filter, we can narrow down our list to draft invoices only.
05:16: From here, you can print drafts by selecting them all and clicking on the
05:22: Multi-Select Options button and choosing Print Selected Invoices.
05:29: Under Multi-Select Options, you will also see other options, such as Approve
05:34: Invoices in Bulk or Delete them.
05:37: When deleting a bill, all activity captured in the draft will return back to
05:43: unbilled status.
05:44: To
05:46: make changes,
05:47: use the three-dot menu on the right side and select edit or
05:53: click on the invoice number.
05:55: From
05:58: the draft preview screen,
06:00: we can edit each individual line item by clicking on the Edit Pencil button or
06:07: delete by clicking the trash can icon if needed.
06:11: We can also add new line items such
06:17: as time, flat fee,
06:20: or expenses.
06:23: In addition, we can change the invoice date or the due date, add a discount, and add
06:29: notes.
06:33: Reviewing drafts is an important step.
06:36: Make sure everything is accurate before finalizing.
06:40: Depending on your firm's setup, invoices may require approval.
06:45: If approval is enabled,
06:47: you can submit for approval so that other user can review and approve individually
06:53: or in bulk.
06:55: Alternatively, you can approve your invoices directly.
07:00: Once approved, the status change from draft to approved or
07:06: not paid, and we can go back to the invoices list.
07:14: The approved invoice is now ready to be sent to clients.
07:18: Let's approve the remaining drafts in bulk.
07:21: Now that the invoices are finalized, it's time to send them to your clients.
07:33: For sending, we have a few options.
07:36: First, using Bulk Billing Center.
07:39: It will allow us to send multiple invoices at once.
07:44: Set the date range.
07:48: In the next screen, apply filters like Attorney, Matter or Client.
07:57: In the next step, we can review the invoices and exclude any invoices from emailing
08:03: if needed.
08:06: In the final step, we can customize our message and click blast and close.
08:12: If Carrot is enabled,
08:14: invoices will also include a Pay Now link.
08:18: This option is great for efficiency.
08:22: The second option is emailing individual invoices.
08:26: Click the three-dot menu next to the invoice and select Send Payment Link.
08:35: Each email includes a PDF invoice,
08:39: a payment link if CarePay is enabled.
08:43: The message also can be customized.
08:47: Select the recipient and
08:50: click send.
08:55: And the third option,
08:57: you can securely share your invoices via client portal.
09:05: Click the three-dot menu on the right side and select Share via Portal.
09:13: Select the contact.
09:17: Make sure you have an email and a phone number for the client.
09:20: The client will receive an email notification and the invoice can be paid directly
09:26: from the portal if
09:28: the carrot pay is enabled.
09:33: All of these options make it easy to communicate clearly with your clients.
09:38: Finally, let's talk about receiving payments.
09:42: Since there are no retainers in this workflow, all payments are applied directly to
09:47: invoices.
09:49: You can apply a payment to a single invoice from the three-dot menu and selecting
09:55: Record Payment,
09:57: or click the plus sign on the right side of the green bar
10:01: and select apply direct payment to pay multiple invoices
10:11: payment methods can include check cash credit card or you can accept payment online
10:17: through caret pay if that is enabled once
10:21: applied invoice statuses will be updated to paid or partially paid if the partial
10:28: payment was made.
10:30: This flexibility makes it easy for both you, your clients, to pay you and your firm
10:34: to track payments accurately.
10:39: This flexibility makes it easy for both your clients to pay and your firm to track
10:45: payments accurately.
10:46: And that's the full workflow.
10:47: We covered creating billable activity, generating and reviewing invoices.
10:54: Sending invoices and receiving payments directly.
11:04: CARET legal provides a comprehensive system to help you manage building efficiently.
11:09: Thanks so much for watching and feel free to revisit this tutorial.
11:13: Anytime you need a refresher.