Entering a New Invoice
From the Accounting and Finance Module, select the New Invoice button under the Invoicing heading or from the Invoice Register, the New Invoice button are at the top of the screen, under the menu bar.
Step 1: Search a matter to invoice for. The Primary Client will fill from the matter chosen. You can also search by a Fee Earner, Status, or Record Type.
Status: If you wish to show Draft or Unbilled Status transactions. Note: Draft Disbursements will not appear to be billed even if the Draft status is selected. Disbursements must be confirmed before they are able to be billed.
Record Type: This allows you to search between the registers for different transactions e.g. Time, Fixed Fees, Disbursements etc
You can also select 'all' if you want to search for everything.
Step 2: Select which records to bill.
Step 3: (optional) Add records to an existing invoice or, if it is a new invoice, leave this blank
Step 4: Create the invoice by selecting one of the options at the bottom of the page depending on whether you have more Invoicing to do.
Once an invoice is created, it will appear in the Invoice Register for further action.
Selecting the Invoice number will take you into the invoice where you have options to approve, confirm and delete the invoice.
Approve Invoice
This indicates that the invoice is ready to be sent to a client. All the entries must be checked for grammatical and spelling errors before this point.
Confirm Invoice
This indicates that the invoice is ready to be linked to your accounting system and will send the invoice to it. The invoice should be client ready at the point of confirmation.
Delete Invoice
To Delete an Invoice, it must be in DRAFT or POSTED status.
If it is in CONFIRMED status, you will need to wait until it has posted through to your external accounting system before deleting it.
Important Info about Editing and Deleting Invoices:
- Can edit/delete when invoice is draft
- Can edit/delete when invoice is approved
- CANNOT delete once invoice is confirmed
- Can delete once invoice is posted to accounting system (if you delete the second entry in the external accounting system (E.g. QuickBooks Online) , you will then need to delete the original entry in the OWL as well)
- Can delete invoice in external accounting system (this will not flow back to WOL)
Note: If you delete an invoice in Wise Owl, there will be an option to make the items available for a replacement invoice. This will mark them as unbilled for the next time you are making an invoice.
If you have payments applied to an invoice, it will not let you delete that invoice until the payments are also deleted. This is to prevent monies already receipted from being un-receipted and changing the client’s account balance incorrectly. Note: You should only delete receipts if you can confirm that no funds were actually received by the firm.
To delete an Invoice:
- Go to the Invoice Register and choose your invoice record.
- Click on the Invoice Number to open the invoice
- Select the red 'Delete Invoice' button
- Read the warning - If the Invoice has been posted to the external accounting system then you need to delete it from there as well. Once read and actioned, you can press the delete button.
IMPORTANT: There is a checkbox on this screen that is ticked by default. this allows the records that were billed on this invoice to be rebilled after this invoice has been deleted.
If you untick this checkbox, these records will no longer be available to bill.
Records that were created on a blank invoice (not within the Time, Fixed Fee, Disbursement or Recovery sections of the OWL) will not be available to bill.
- If necessary (I.e. if your invoice was posted before deletion), go into your external accounting system and delete the invoice there as well.
There is often a search system to be able to find transactions by their reference number or amount in accounting systems.