Create and manage Client invoices

Open Billing from firm navigation. Owners and admins can always use Billing; under Firm Settings → Billing, they can grant Manage invoicing to a staff member. That capability is independent of the member's descriptive legal role and gives only the Firm-wide financial view needed for invoicing.

Set up Billing

Before the first invoice, an owner or admin opens Firm Settings → Billing and enters default payment terms and instructions, reminder preference, review cadence, and optional rates. The Firm's name and postal address come from General settings. New drafts copy the saved payment terms, instructions, and reminder preference automatically. Rates are effective-dated and can apply Firm-wide to one member or override that member's rate for one Case. BetterDocket uses the latest applicable rate on the Time Entry's work date in the Firm timezone.

Set the Billing review cadence to control when an active Case returns to Needs billing. For example, a 30-day cadence shows Cases that have never been billed or whose last issued invoice was at least 30 days ago. Drafts stay in the list until they are completed or deleted.

Invoice numbers start at INV-000001 by default. You may change the prefix and starting number until the first invoice is issued; the sequence is locked after that.

Build a draft

Open Needs billing to see the Client and Case ready for review, then choose Create invoice. The first Client added to a Case becomes its Billing contact automatically. You can change that persistent default from the Case's Client settings or directly in the Billing review list. A new draft uses the Billing Contact as Bill to, so you do not need to choose the recipient every time.

Inside the draft, you may override Bill to for that invoice and explicitly choose any current Case Clients who should be additional viewers. BetterDocket never sends an invoice to every Client automatically.

A draft may contain:

• completed billable Time Entries with a rate;
• manual lines with a description, positive decimal quantity, unit, and unit price; or
• both.

Only the Time Entry's separate Billing description is client-facing. Firm-only notes are never copied to an invoice. Adding a Time Entry reserves it to that draft, so it cannot be edited, deleted, or used elsewhere until you remove the line or delete the draft. You may reduce billed time but never increase it; issuing consumes the whole source entry and preserves the write-down.

An optional fixed-dollar or percentage discount applies after the subtotal. The final total must remain positive. BetterDocket calculates all money on the server in integer cents.

Issue and deliver

The Case must still be active. The draft also needs a bill-to Client, at least one line, complete Firm identity/address, payment instructions, and a due date on or after the issue date.

Issuing freezes the invoice number, identities, addresses, Case title, recipients, lines, dates, instructions, and totals. BetterDocket then creates a permanent multipage PDF. If PDF generation fails, the invoice remains issued with its number; use Retry PDF. Clients cannot see the invoice and notices do not send until the PDF is ready.

Issued invoices cannot be edited. Use Resend for another audited delivery, or void and replace the invoice when its content is wrong.

Record payments received elsewhere

BetterDocket does not collect money. Use Record payment after the Firm receives an external payment. Enter the amount, received date, method, and optional reference or note. Partial payments are supported up to the remaining balance.

A payment record cannot be edited. Reverse the whole record with a reason, then add its replacement. An invoice cannot be voided while an unreversed payment remains.

Reminders and Subscription locks

Reminders are on by default. The bill-to Client is reminded on the due date and every seven days afterward while a balance remains. Turn them off for one invoice or use the Firm-wide switch.

When the BetterDocket Subscription is locked, Billing is read-only and automatic reminders pause. They resume only at the next future seven-day cadence—there are no catch-up sends.

What Billing is not

Billing is not the Firm's BetterDocket Subscription. It also does not collect online payments, hold retainers or other Client Funds, produce trust-account statements, reconcile a bank account, calculate taxes, or replace accounting software.