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Sales

You create a sales invoice to record your agreement with a client to sell legal services on certain payment terms.

You can easily correct or cancel a posted sales invoice before it is paid. This is useful if you want to correct a typing mistake or if the client requests a change early in the sales process. If the posted sales invoice is paid, then you must create a sales credit memo.

Sales documents can be sent as PDF files attached to email. The email body will contain an extract of the sales document, such as services and total amount. For more information, see [Send Documents by Email].

For all sales processes, you can incorporate an approval workflow, for example, to require that matters to certain clients are approved by the manager responsible. For more information, see [Using Workflows].

Register New Clients

Clients are the source of your income. You must register each client you sell to as a client card. Client cards hold the information that is required to sell legal services to the client. For more information, see [Invoice Sales] and [Register New Items].

Before you can register new clients, you must set up various ~~sales codes~~ that you can select from when you fill in client cards. For more information, see [Setting Up Sales].

Adding new clients

You can add new clients manually, by filling out the fields on the Client Card page, or you can use templates that contain predefined information. For example, you can create a templates for different types of client profiles. Using templates saves time when adding new clients, and helps ensure that the information is correct each time. If you create templates for more than one type of client, you can choose the template to use when you add a client. If you create only one template it will be used for all new clients. After you create a template, you can use the Apply Template action to apply it to one or more selected clients. To create a template, you fill in the information that you want to reuse on the Client Card page, and then save it as a template. For more information, see [To save the client card as a template].

Tip

It can be helpful to personalise the Client Template page when you create a template. For example, you might want to add the Credit Limit field to a template. For more information, see [Personalise Your Workspace].

You can also create a client from a contact. For more information, see [To create a client, vendor, employee, or bank account from a contact].

To create a new client card

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 11. icon, enter Clients, and then choose the related link.

  2. On the Clients page, choose the New action.

    If only one client template exists, then a new client card opens with some fields filled with information from the template.

    If more than one client template exists, then a page opens from which you can select a client template. In that case, follow the next two steps.

  3. On the Select a template for a new client page, choose the template that you want to use for the new client card.

  4. Choose the OK button. A new client card opens with some fields filled with information from the template.

  5. Proceed to fill or change fields on the client card as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.

The Prices & Discounts action provides options for managing special prices or discounts for the clients. For more information, see [Record Sales Price, Discount, and Payment Agreements].

The client is now registered, and the client card is ready to be used on sales documents.

If you want to use this client card as a template when you create new client cards, you can save it as a template. For more information, see the following section.

To save the client card as a template

  1. On the Client Card page, choose the Save as Template action. The Client Template page opens showing the client card as a template.
  2. Fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.
  3. To reuse dimensions in templates, choose the Dimensions action. The Dimension Templates page opens showing any dimension codes that are set up for the client.
  4. Edit or enter dimension codes that will apply to new client cards created by using the template.
  5. When you have completed the new client template, choose the OK button.

The client template is added to the list of client templates, so that you can use it to create new client cards.

Deleting client cards

If you have posted a transaction for a client, you cannot delete the card because the ledger entries may be needed for auditing. To delete client cards with ledger entries, contact your Microsoft partner to do so through code.

Managing credit limits

Credit limits, balance amounts, and payment terms make it possible for MatterX to issue a credit and an overdue balance warning when you enter a sales invoice. Furthermore, reminder term and finance charge term facilities allow you to invoice interest and/or additional fees.

The Credit Limit field on a client card specifies the maximum amount that you allow the client to exceed the payment balance before warnings are issued. Then, when you enter information in journals and invoices, MatterX tests the sales header and individual sales lines to see if the credit limit has been exceeded.

You can post even though the credit limit has been exceeded. If the field is left blank, there will be no credit limit for this client.

You can choose not to have warnings telling you that the client's credit limit has been exceeded, and you can specify which types of warning you want to see.

To specify credit limit warnings

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Sales & Receivables Setup, and then choose the related link.

  2. On the General FastTab, in the Credit Warnings field, choose the relevant option as described in the following table:

Option Description
Both Warnings Both the Credit Limit and the Balance Due fields on the client's card are checked, and a warning is shown if the client has exceeded its credit limit or if the client has an overdue balance.
Credit Limit The value in the Credit Limit field on the client's card is compared with the client's balance, and a warning is shown if the client's balance exceeds this amount.
Overdue Balance The Balance Due field on the client's card is checked, and a warning is shown if the client has an overdue balance.
No Warning No warnings are shown about the client's status.

Create sales invoices

If the client decides to buy, you post the sales invoice to create the related quantity and value entries. When you post the sales invoice, you can also email the document as a PDF attachment. You can have the email body pre-filled with a summary of the invoice and payment information. When the client then pays the invoice, you can register that payment in different ways, depending on the size and preferred workflows of your organisation. For more information, see the [Registering Payments] section.

You can fill client fields on the sales invoice in two ways depending on whether the client is already registered. See step 2 in the following procedure.

To create a sales invoice

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Sales Invoices, and then choose Prepare Sales Invoice link.

  2. In the Client field, enter the name of an existing client.

    Other fields on the Sales Invoice page contain standard information about the selected client. If the client is not registered, See {Create a New Client Card}.

    Several fields on the sales invoice are now filled with information that you specified on the new client card.

  3. In the Matter field, enter the matter number of the selected existing client. Fill in the remaining fields on the Sales Invoice page as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.

Note

If you allow the client to pay immediately, for example, by cash or by PayPal, then fill in the Payment Method Code field. The payment is then recorded as soon as you post the sales invoice. If you select CASH, then the payment is recorded in a specified balancing account.

You are now ready to fill in the sales invoice lines for products that you are selling to the client or for any transaction with the client that you want to record in a G/L account.

  1. On the Lines FastTab, in the Type field, select what type of product, charge, or transaction that you will post for the client with the sales line.

  2. In the No. field, select a record to post according to the value in the Type field.

    You leave the No. field empty in the following cases:

    • If the line is for a comment. Write the comment in the Description field.
    • If the line is for a catalog item. Choose the Select Catalog Items action. For more information, see [Work With Catalog Items].
    • In the Quantity field, enter how many units of the product, charge, or transaction that the line will record for the client.

Note

If the item is of type Service, or the Type field contains Resource, then the quantity is a time unit, such as hours, as indicated in the Unit of Measure Code field on the line. For more information, see [Set Up Item Units of Measure]

The value in the Line Amount field is calculated as Unit Price x Quantity.

The price and line amounts are with or without sales tax, depending on what you selected in the Prices Including Tax field on the client card.

  1. If you want to give a discount, enter a percentage in the Line Discount % field. The value in the Line Amount field updates accordingly.

    If special item prices are set up on the Sales Prices and Sales Line Discounts FastTab on the client or item card, the price and amount on the sales line automatically update if the price criteria is met. For more information, see [Record Sales Price, Discount, and Payment Agreements].

  2. Repeat steps 9 through 12 for every product or charge that you want to invoice the client for.

    The totals fields under the lines are automatically updated as you create or modify lines to display the amounts that will be posted to the ledgers.

Note

In very rare cases, the posted amounts may deviate from what is displayed in the totals fields. This is typically due to rounding calculations in relation to VAT or sales tax.

To check the amounts that will actually be posted, you can use the Statistics page, which takes into account the rounding calculations. Also, if you choose the Release action, the totals fields will be updated to include rounding calculations.

  1. In the Invoice Discount Amount field, enter an amount that should be deducted from the value shown in the Total Incl. Tax field.

    If you have set up invoice discounts for the client, then the specified percentage value is automatically inserted in the Invoice Discount % field if the criteria are met, and the related amount is inserted in the Inv. Discount Amount Excl. Tax field. For more information, see [Record Sales Price, Discount, and Payment Agreements].

  2. When the sales invoice lines are completed, choose the Post and Send action.

The Post and Send Confirmation dialog box displays the client's preferred method of receiving documents. You can change the sending method by choosing the lookup button for the Send Document to field. For more information, see [Set Up Document Sending Profiles].

The related item and client ledger entries are now created in your system, and the sales invoice is output as a PDF document. The sales invoice is removed from the list of sales invoices and replaced with a new document in the list of posted sales invoices.

  1. Prepare and post a sales invoice  
  2. Create and post a sales invoice  
  3. Create and post a sales credit  
  4. Pay a posted sales invoice with a cash receipt journal