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Unbilled amounts

Unbilled Amounts | Overview

The Accruals module in Tracker is optional for companies. Companies use accruals data to generate more accurate spending reports. Legal departments track spending against the department's annual budget. Spending is also one of the primary ways departments are evaluated. When you input unbilled amounts directly into Tracker, your clients will have more accurate forecast and budget predictions.
If a company enables accruals, firms and vendors post unbilled amounts directly into Tracker, in a process similar to posting electronic invoices.
You can generate a standard file of unbilled amounts from your time and billing system and upload the file directly into Tracker. You can use this standard file format for all clients in Tracker. Similar to Tracker invoicing, you can use your own matter structure and matter numbers from your time and billing system and you do not need to rely on a spreadsheet of matters provided by the company. If your firm uses multiple matter names and numbers for a single company matter in Tracker, Tracker will automatically combine the multiple law firm amounts into one accrual for the Tracker matter.

The Accruals Process

Companies can set up accruals in a number of different ways. They can require accruals monthly, quarterly, or yearly and accruals can be due before or after the end of the month. The company's system settings determine how law firms must enter their unbilled time.
  • The prior month(s) unbilled amount, which is any unbilled amount from the start of the client’s fiscal year through the last full calendar month.
  • The current month estimated billing, which in the example below is the estimated billing for the month of June.
Assume that unbilled amounts are due on the 20 day of the last month each quarter and the firm is submitting unbilled amounts in June at the end of the second quarter.
There are several reasons why two separate amounts are entered:
  • The prior months unbilled amount is always determined the same way-the unbilled amount from the first day of the client's fiscal year through the last full calendar month of the accrual period. This consistency helps firms create a standardized process for generating the unbilled amounts data.
  • While the prior months unbilled amount is a known monetary amount based on actual work that has occurred, the current month estimated billing amount is an estimate. Some clients want to review the estimate for reasonableness and for their own budget purposes.
  • Clients can audit invoices posted against the prior months unbilled amount. If the prior months unbilled amount and the current month estimated billing amounts were commingled, the auditing would not be as accurate and likely would lead to more billing disputes and perhaps more invoices being reduced.
By definition, your client’s accrual report is only for unbilled amounts for their current fiscal year. To find out the first month of your client's fiscal year, view the Calendar of Events, or contact your client directly.

Client Options and Settings

Each client sets the following parameters in its system:
  • The months during which unbilled time must be entered.
  • The dates during which unbilled time must be entered (for example, from the 15 through the 25 of the month)
  • Whether firms must enter amounts only through the last full calendar month or whether the unbilled amounts must also include an estimate of billings for the current month.

Firm Options and Settings

Your firm can identify the primary and secondary billing contact for each client. These are the users who will receive the primary notification if unbilled amounts are due. It is important to keep these users up-to-date. If you fail to enter unbilled amounts in the system, your invoices may be rejected.

Audit History

Changes to the unbilled amounts are captured in the audit history of the system. For example, if unbilled amounts are uploaded from a spreadsheet and a firm user edits any of the unbilled amounts, then those events are recorded in the
Source
 column. In addition, any changes made by company users to unbilled amounts are also recorded in the
Source
 column.

This article applies to:

  • Product: Legal Tracker
  • Audiences: Firm