Matter Balances Report

In this article:

• Brief Description  
• A Note Before You Generate This Report 
• Use Cases 
• Finding and Using the Report  
• Available Filters 
• Report Output 
• Additional Notes  

Brief Description  

This report provides a snapshot of every matter at a given date, including: 

• The Accounts receivables (the unpaid bills and unallocated credits) 
• The WIP (unbilled time and disbursements) 
• The balance of trust / client account funds 
• The balance of the general retainer

The report shows a row for every matter in the system that qualifies to be included in the report. This happens when the matter has a monetary value that appears in any column but the retainer columns. 

A Note Before You Generate This Report 

This report will be accurate for the date that it is generated. Backdating transactions in Actionstep may change the results of the report. The following examples illustrate how backdated transactions could generate different results:

• The Matter Balances Report is generated on 30 July. For one matter, it shows there are Unpaid Bills of $5000, Fees of $400 and Disbursements of $200. If a user was to bill the matter as at 20 July, then run the report again with the same date, the Unpaid bills would change to $5600 and the Fees and Disbursements would both be $0.00. 
• The Matter Balances Report is run on 30 July and for one matter it shows that there are Unpaid Bills of $5000, Fees of $400 and Disbursements of $200. It was discovered that a payment of $500 that was dated 15 July for one of the bills on this matter should have been applied to an invoice on another matter. If a user was to open and edit the payment to apply it to the correct invoice then run the report again, the Unpaid Bills would change to $5500, the Fees and Disbursements would be unchanged. 
• The Matter Balances Report is run on 30 July and for one matter it shows that there are Unpaid Bills of $5000, Fees of $400 and Disbursements of $200. An invoice from a supplier arrived in the mail and was dated 25 July that contained $60 worth of items that were to be billed onto the client for this matter. If a user entered that supplier invoice with that date creating a disbursement for the matter of $60, then ran the report again using the same 30 July date then the Unpaid Bills column and Fees column would be the same amounts, but the Disbursements column would show $260. 

Use Cases 

This is useful for users to get an understanding of the potential income that a firm could generate at any given point in time.  

Finding and Using the Report  

• In Actionstep, go to Reports > Billing Reports > Reports List > General. 

Then, refer to these articles for help generating and saving reports for future use:

• Reporting Overview
• Generating a Report
• Saving a Report Configuration

Available Filters 

Basic Tab     

• As-at: Choose the date the report will display values for. The report will show AR, WIP, trust / client account and retainer balances for each matter at the date that you enter here. These balances are made up of transactions that happen up to this date. Any transactions after this date will not affect results shown in this report. 
• Currency (only displayed if you have multi-currency enabled): Select the currency you want included in the report. Only matters with balances in the selected currency will be displayed.

Advanced Tab

• Responsible Lawyer: Select the person responsible for the billing of the matter. Responsible lawyers are assigned by your Actionstep admin based on role in Admin > Billing. When using this option, you can only see matters where the selected contact(s) is the Responsible Lawyer.  
• Matter type: Select the matter types you want included in the report. 
• Customer: Select the customers you want included in the report. This is typically the contact that will be billed. If you leave this option empty, all matters (regardless of Customer) will be shown. 
• Matter: Select the matters you want included in the report.  
• Include tax in AR/WIP: Toggle this option to on to include sales tax in any unpaid bill / unallocated credits / AR balances / fees / disbursements / total lockup amounts. (When toggled to off, these amounts will exclude sales tax.) (Trust account and general retainer balances are not applicable to sales tax so amounts in those columns will not be affected by this option.)   
• Include draft invoices in AR: Toggle this option to on to include draft invoices for unpaid bills and AR balance fees in the report. When set to off, these amounts will exclude draft invoices.  
• Include all Matters that have a trust account balance: Toggle this option to on to include matters that have a trust balance. By default these matters are excluded if all other balances are blank. 
• Group by: Select how data is organized in the report: by Matter type, Responsible lawyer, or Customer. 
• Order by: Choose the order in which data is displayed in the report: by Responsible lawyer, Customer, Matter type, or Lockup amount. 

Report Output 

• Matter ID/Name, Customer (or Client), Responsible Lawyer: This column is to help identify the matter that information will be displayed for in the rest of the row. It includes the matter's ID and the matter name as well as the name of the customer (the primary participant on the matter, normally the client) and who the responsible lawyer for the matter is. 
• Last Bill: This is the date of the last invoice for the matter. If there are multiple invoices, this column will show the latest invoice date. 
• Unpaid Bills: This will show the total that is due for all invoices for that matter as of the date. An invoice must be dated on or before the report date to affect the value in this column and must have an amount unpaid or owing as of the date of the report. For example:  
  • If a $1,000 invoice is created with a created date on or before the date of the report, it will increase the amount in the Unpaid Bills column by $1,000. 
  • If a $100 payment is made on a bill for that matter that is dated on or before the date of the report, it will decrease the amount in the Unpaid Bills column by $100. 
  • If a $300 write-off dated on or before the date of the report is applied to an invoice for the matter, it will decrease the amount in the Unpaid Bills column by $300. 
  • If a $50 Credit Note is applied to the invoice on the matter and the applied date is on or before the date of the report, it will decrease the amount in the Unpaid Bills column by $50. 
  • If an invoice is created and dated after the date of the report, it will not affect the amount in the Unpaid Bills column. 
  • If a payment is applied to an invoice and the date of the payment is after the date of the report, even if the invoice date is before, it will not affect the amount in the Unpaid Bills column. 
  • If a credit note is created for the matter but not applied to any invoice, regardless of the date of the credit note, it will not affect the amount in the Unpaid Bills column. 
    TIP:  The Include draft invoices in AR filter on the Advanced tab lets you choose if draft invoices should be included in these amounts. By default, it is toggled to on. To exclude draft invoices, toggle it to off. 
• Unallocated Credits: This shows the total due of any credit notes for the matter that are open on or before the date of the report. A credit note must be dated on or before the report date to affect the value in this column, and it must have an amount unallocated or owing as at the date of the report. For example:  
  • If a $600 credit note is created and dated on or before the report date, it will increase the amount in the Unallocated Credits column by $600. 
  • If a $150 of a credit note is allocated to an invoice and the date of that allocation is on or before the date of the report, the Unallocated Credits column will be reduced by $150.  
  • If a credit note is created and dated after the date of the report, it will not affect the amount in the Unallocated Credits column. 
  • If a credit note allocation is applied to an invoice and the date of the allocation is after the date of the report, even if the credit note date is before, it will not affect the amount in the Unallocated Credits column. 
  • If a credit note is created for the matter, regardless of the date of the invoice, it will not affect the amount in the Unallocated Credits column. 
• AR Balance: This shows the total the client owes at the date of the report. This column will total the Unpaid Bills column and the Unallocated Credits column. 
• WIP: This shows unbilled amounts (both fees and disbursements) which are billable items recorded against the matter that have not been allocated to a bill. Columns in this section will only show the balances for items unbilled at the report date. (WIP means Work in Progress.) 
• Fees: This is the value of any fees or time records recorded against the matter not billed at the date of the report. A time record must be dated on or before the date of the report and it must not have been added to a bill before or on the date of the report to contribute to this column. For example:  
  • A $30 time entry is recorded on or before the date of the report will increase the amount in the Fees column by $30.  
  • A $50 time entry that is added to a bill that is dated before the date of the report it will reduce the Fees column by $50.  
  • If a time entry is entered after the date of the report, it will not affect the Fees column. 
  • If a time entry is added to a bill and the bill date is after the date of the report, it will not affect the Fees column. 
• Billing Arr.: This shows the billing arrangement on the matter, which sets defaults for how the bill will be created and shows how the matter is set to be billed. Currently, the two options are for an Hourly or a Fixed fee billing arrangement.  
• Disbursements: This shows the value of any disbursement/expense or time record that is recorded against the matter that has not been billed by the report date. To be listed in this column, a disbursement/expense must be dated on or before the report date but not added to a bill before or on the dates. For example:  
  • A $10 disbursement/expense entry is recorded on or before the date of the report will increase the amount in the Fees column by $10.  
  • An $80 disbursement/expense is added to a bill that is dated before the date of the report will reduce the Fees column by $80.  
  • If a disbursement/expense is entered after the date of the report, it will not affect the Fees column. 
  • If a disbursement/expense is added to a bill and the bill date is after the date of the report, it will not affect the Fees column. 
• Total Lockup Amount: This shows the amount that could be recovered from the matter if all billable items were billed and paid on the date of the report and all bills paid and credits applied. This column will total the AR Balances column, the Fees column and the Disbursements column.  
• Trust / Client Account: This show details about the funds in trust as at the date the report is generated. 
• Current: This shows the total amount of funds in trust for any trust current accounts for the matter at the date of the report. If the firm has multiple trust current accounts, then this will total the amounts from all trust current accounts.  If there are no trust current accounts for the firm the column will be hidden.  
• Investment: This shows the total amount of funds in trust for any trust / client account investment accounts for the matter at the date of the report. If the firm has multiple trust investment accounts, then this will total the amounts from all trust investment accounts. If there are no trust investment accounts for the firm, the column will be hidden. 
• General Retainer: This shows the total amount of funds in retainer for the matter at the date of the report. If the firm does not use general retainers, the column will be hidden.  
• Matter Created: This shows the date the matter was created as is recorded against the matter. 

Additional Notes  

Because unallocated payments are not applied to the matter, they do not appear in the Matter Balances report.