Set Up Automatic Finance Charges

The finance charge function automates finance charge calculations on unpaid invoice balances when generating a new invoice.

Important: Be sure to set up your finance charges for application in a manner consistent with your clients’ retainer agreements.

Important to Know

You must activate finance charges at the firm level for use at the matter level.
Finance charges are computed based on overdue balance when an invoice is being generated.
Once you have generated an invoice, changes you make will not be reflected in previously calculated finance charges. You must click Recompute to recalculate the finance charges.

To activate finance charges:

From the left navigation panel, click Setup.
From the Setup left navigation, click Firm Settings.
From the tabs atop the Firm Settings screen, click Financial.
Scroll down to the Finance Charge Settings section and check the box beside Calculate Finance Charges.
The Finance Charge Settings section expands, displaying additional fields.

Annual Interest Rate	Enter the annual interest rate you want to apply to past due balances.
Finance Charge Type	Click the drop-down to choose either Simple Interest or Compound Interest. Simple calculates the finance charge on total overdue amounts but excludes previous finance charges. Compound calculates the finance charge on total overdue amounts including previous finance charges.
Grace Period	Enter the number of days past the due date before finance charges begin accruing.
Threshold Finance Charge	Enter a threshold amount over which finance charge will be added. This setting is used to avoid adding small finance charges.

In the upper right corner, click Save.
This activates finance charges for all new matters.

While your firm level finance charge setting will be the default for all matters, you can override the firm setting within each matter.

To override finance charges in a matter:

From the left navigation panel, click Matters.
From the Matters screen, single-click the matter, click on the three dots at the end of the row and from the drop-down, click Edit.
From the tabs atop the Matter’s Summary section, click Settings.
From the tabs atop the Settings section, click Billing.
In the Options section, click Calculate and Apply Finance Charges.
The Options section expands, displaying the Annual Interest Rate, Finance Charge Type, Grace Period, and Threshold Finance Charge fields and their respective firm level defaults.
From the applicable drop-downs, click Custom.
The fields activate for editing.
Enter your overrides.
Click Save.
Your overrides apply to this matter.

UpdatedNovember 18, 2024