Preliminary Invoicing

The preliminary invoice used in CSI Lawyer and CSI Professional is a draft version of an invoice that is created for review before the final sales invoice is generated. The preliminary invoice helps reduce billing errors, as it allows users to verify that all work performed (transactions) and expenses related to the matter have been correctly recorded and that the invoice corresponds to what has been agreed with the client.

The handling of a preliminary invoice can be very straightforward. For example, an assistant may review the formatting of the transactions on the preliminary invoice, after which the matter owner or responsible person makes any final adjustments and marks the preliminary invoice as approved.

However, the preliminary invoice also supports a more comprehensive internal review and approval process. A separate review workflow can be defined in which the preliminary invoice is passed from one reviewer to another, such as key personnel involved in the matter, until it is ready to be invoiced.

If changes are required on a preliminary invoice, you can:

• Edit transaction and expense rows on the preliminary invoice, as well as add or remove entries.
• Modify payer information, the billing period, or the print order of the preliminary invoice.
• Adjust the final invoice amount or payer-specific and timekeeper-specific amounts using the Adjust Price function.

Typically, the process works as follows:

1. A general or matter-specific preliminary invoice review process is defined.
2. A preliminary invoice is created from the matter.
3. Responsible persons (for example, lawyers) review and correct their own transactions on the preliminary invoice.
4. Once the preliminary invoice has been reviewed by all required persons, it is approved.
5. The final invoice is generated.

The Preview function on the preliminary invoice ribbon can be used to preview the invoice and verify that the final result is as intended. By default, the button opens a quick preview, which displays the preliminary invoice directly in the preview window and bypasses the print parameter window. This speeds up the review process, especially when users need to review a large number of preliminary invoices.

If you want to open the print parameter window when previewing the preliminary invoice, click the arrow below the Preview button and select the standard Preview option.

The preliminary invoicing process can also be skipped, and invoices can be created directly from the matter. However, this is recommended only when it is known that no changes to transactions, expenses, or payer information will be required before the final invoice is generated.