Calculate Interest

The Calculate Interest routine allows the user to calculate the interest that will be charged on Bills. Interest can be calculated for Bills of a certain age, for all Matters, for Matters associated with a specific Client, or for Matters associated with a specific Timekeeper. This routine also allows the user to reverse interest that has been previously calculated.

When the Calculate Interest routine is accessed from the eQuinox main menu, the screen shown below will be displayed.

Field Definition

Journal Type, Journal Number
The first two fields on this form display the Journal Type (i.e. the Journal that tracks Interest Calculations) and the Journal Number. These values cannot be edited by the user.

Posting Date
The date on which the user is calculating interest. This field defaults to the current system date, but this may be changed by making a selection from the calendar provided.

Acct Period
The Month (in number format) and Year of the Firm's current Accounting Period. This field automatically defaults to the current Accounting Period. Note: Depending on the Firm's preferences (as indicated in the Firm Parameters routine), the user may be alerted with a message when posting the Interest Calculations, and asked to verify the Accounting Period; this is used to ensure that all transactions occur within the correct Accounting Period.

Date Calculate To
The date to which Interest is to be calculated (i.e. Interest will be calculated from the Date Last Calculated up to and including this date). This field automatically displays the current date, but this may be changed by making a selection from the Calendar provided.

Interest Rate Usage
The user must select an Interest Rate Usage option to determine the rate at which the Interest is calculated. To calculate Interest at the Matter's specified Mater Rate, the user must select the Matter Rate option. To calculate Interest at the Matter's specified Billing Rate, the user must select the Billing Rate option. Matter and Billing Rates are Matter specific.

Age Of Bill
The age of Bills, in days, for which Interest will be calculated. Any Bills that are this age or older will have Interest calculated. The default for this field is 30 days, but the user may change this value by manually entering a different number.

Client/Matter Selection Criteria
In this section of the screen, the user must specify which Matters interest is to be calculated for (i.e. for all Matters, or for a specific Client/Matter).

All Matters
To calculate Interest for all Matters, the user must select the All Matters option. When the user selects this option, the date on which Interest was last calculated for the Firm is automatically displayed in the Date Last Calculated field. This date is for reference purposes only. This date cannot be changed by the user.

Specific Client or Matter
To calculate Interest for either a specific Client or Matter, the user must select the Specific Client or Matter option. When the user selects this option, they must then select the Client and/or Matter from the lookup forms provided in the Client and Matter fields. Once the user has selected the Client/Matter for which they are calculating Interest, the date on which Interest was last calculated for this Client/Matter will be automatically displayed in the Date Last Calculated field. This date is for reference purposes only. This date cannot be changed by the user.

Journal Type
This field displays the Journal type (i.e. the Journal that tracks Interest Calculations). This value cannot be edited by the user.

Posting Date
The date on which the user is reversing interest calculations. This field defaults to the current system date, but this may be changed by making a selection from the calendar provided.

Journal No
The user must select the Journal Number for which they wish to reverse Interest.

Note: When reversing interest, the Journal Type field at the top of the field changes to display "INX" (i.e. the journal that tracks interest reversals).

Once the user has entered all the necessary information on the main form and/or the sub-form, they must click the Save button or press F10 to complete the process. Once the Interest has been successfully calculated or reversed, the user will be alerted with a message. After receiving this message, the user may then close any open sub-forms.