Reversing bills

Practice Manager only

The bill reversal feature on the Bills tab enables you to return billed amounts to WIP. This is handy, for instance, if you would like to correct bills that are raised against the wrong client or where the bill was issued for an incorrect amount.

Reversing a bill:

Reduces the debtors balance by the exact amount of the fee.
Reinstates the WIP time and disbursement entries associated with the original fee so they can be billed at a later date.

When reversing entries, the full amount of the entry (bill, receipt, adjustment) is reversed.

There may be three (3) stages to reversing a bill:

Where a receipt has been allocated against the invoice you want to reverse, you will need to unallocate the receipt first.
Next, reverse the bill
Finally, allocate the original bill against the reversal bill

To unallocate a receipt

In Practice Manager, open the client and click on the Main tab. The Main tab appears.
From the TASKS bar, click Debtors ledger. The Debtor Ledger opens.
Select Show Zero. Transactions that are fully allocated appear.
Highlight the relevant receipt and click Unallocate. The Unallocate Cash Tax Rate screen appears.

If the prompt, Failed to unallocate. You can not unallocate cash which is in a closed accounting period appears, you will need to enter a negative receipt.
Select the relevant Tax Rate and click OK. The receipt is now unallocated.

To reverse the bill (AE)

Open the Client page or Assignment Details page for the client or assignment against whom/which the bill was posted.

To reverse a bill created at the client level, open the client page. To reverse a bill raised at the assignment level, do this through the client page or the Assignment Details page.
Click the Bills tab.
In the Full Billing History area, select the bill you want to reverse.
Click Reverse. The Bill Reversal message is displayed requesting confirmation of the reversal.
Click Yes. A draft version of the bill is created with today’s date in the Draft Bills list.
Double–click the new draft bill. The Billing Main page opens.
Click Bill Paragraphs
. The Bill Paragraphs window opens and the amount to be reversed is displayed as a negative amount in the Totals fields. Add a comment to identify the reasons for reversing the bill.
Click OK to save the information entered in the Bill Paragraphs window.
Change the Invoice Date, if required. If the original invoice is in a prior period, bill reversals are processed in the current open period so that the end of the month reports for the previous period(s) are not adversely affected. If the original invoice is in the current period and you are reversing a bill in the same period in which it was created, the reversal date should not be before the original billing date.

When reversing a fee, if the original invoice number was 120045, you can change the invoice number on the reversal fee to 120045R. This will help when reconciling the Debtors Ledger as well as make it easier to see what has occurred with billing under the Client > Bills tab. It will also not impact on your invoice number sequence.
Click Submit
, then Authorise
, then Post.

You need the correct level of security to authorise and post the bill.
Click Yes to accept the Confirm Posting message to complete the reversal. The Bills Ready to Print window opens. You can preview or print the bill or click Close to exit the window. A new bill is listed in the Full Billing History area of the Bills tab showing the reversed amount. The reversed WIP is available against the relevant assignmentsjobs when you next bill the client.

To reverse a bill (AO)

Open the Client page for the client against whom the bill was posted.
Click the Bills tab.
In the Full Billing History area, select the bill you want to reverse.
Click Reverse. The Bill Reversal message is displayed requesting confirmation of the reversal.
Click Yes. A draft version of the bill is created with today’s date in the Draft Bills list.
Double–click the new draft bill. The Billing Main page opens.
Click Bill Paragraphs
. The Bill Paragraphs window opens and the amount to be reversed is displayed as a negative amount in the Totals fields.
Add a comment to identify the reasons for reversing the bill.
Click OK. To save the information entered in the Bill Paragraphs window.
Change the Invoice Date, if required. If the original invoice is in a prior period, bill reversals are processed in the current open period so that the end of the month reports for the previous period(s) are not adversely affected. If the original invoice is in the current period and you are reversing a bill in the same period in which it was created, the reversal date should not be before the original billing date.

When reversing a fee, if the original invoice number was 120045, you can change the invoice number on the reversal fee to 120045R. This will help when reconciling the Debtors Ledger as well as make it easier to see what has occurred with billing under the Client > Bills tab. It will also not impact on your invoice number sequence.
Click Post.

You need the correct level of security to post the bill.
Click Yes to accept the Confirm Posting message to complete the reversal. The Bills Ready to Print window opens. You can preview or print the bill or click Close to exit the window. A new bill is listed in the Full Billing History area of the Bills tab showing the reversed amount. The reversed WIP is available against the relevant jobs when you next bill the client.

To allocate the reversal bill

Allocate the reversed bill in the Debtors Ledger against the original invoice. You may issue a new invoice for the correct amount making appropriate write ups/offs.

Access the Debtors Ledger in Ledger mode for the client.
Click on the reversal bill.
Press and hold [Ctrl] and click on the original bill you want to allocate the reversal bill against.
Click Allocate. The reversal bill is allocated to the original bill.

Where a receipt has been unallocated prior to reversing the bill, this receipt will need to be allocated against a future bill.