The
Books module of
MerusCase allows firms to process their per-case profit-and-loss. And this can be done from start (
recording billable time or fees
) to end (
applying payments to invoiced time/fees
). Whether it is the hourly, the fixed-fee or the contingency case billing methods, it can all be captured in a case's Ledger. So this allows MerusCase to process billing for virtually 'any' type of case.
Workers' Compensation in California clearly illustrates billing on both sides of the fence: primarily, defense firms representing the employer/carrier bill by the hour; while applicant firms representing the injured worker earn a percentage of the eventual case settlement. Additionally, certain fees and expenses can also occur for both sides of Comp cases, For ex.: deposition fees.
The contingency model used by applicant firms means that their use of Books in MerusCase is usually limited to tracking particular type of fees. For instance, an attorney at one of our applicant firms was using case Ledgers to track deposition fees and payments for said fees by manually entering fee and payment line-items per case, and also skipping invoicing entirely. Therefore, when they went to Open Charges, they saw all ledger items across all cases, as the Ledger entries they entered had never been linked to invoices.
Even within the limited scope of a certain fee type, MerusCase's Books module can be a powerful tool when items in a case's Ledger are fully invoiced and reconciled. We recommend the user attach their deposition fees to invoices when they send bills out, and that they attach payments to their invoices as they receive them. This way, Open Charges shows unbilled deposition fees across all cases. Whereas, Open Invoices shows all cases on which the firm is still owed payment, and Historical Payments show the entire history of the
cases' payments
.
Leave a Reply