Firm Receipts

The Firm Receipts routine allows the user to enter Firm Receipts into the system, and to apply the Receipt to Client's Bills. For example, if a Client has an outstanding Bill and comes into the Firm to make a payment, a Receipt will be entered for that payment. The payment can then be directly applied to the Client's outstanding Bill. This routine also allows the user to apply Credit Notes to Client's Bills, and to create Credit Notes for payments that exceed the outstanding amount on a Bill.

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

Field Definition

Firm Receipts

The first two fields on this form display the Journal Type (FR) and Journal Number (23).

Posting Date
The date on which the Firm Receipts are being entered into the system. The default is the current Date, but this may be changed by making a selection from the Calendar provided or by manually entering a different date in the proper formats.

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 Firm Receipts, and asked to verify the Accounting Period; this is used to ensure that all transactions occur within the correct Accounting Period.

Dept
The Department and Office associated with the current user. This is displayed automatically but can be changed by making a selection from the List of Values provided.

Batch
The unique Batch Number is automatically assigned by the system, but the user may enter the Batch Description. If the user tabs through this field, the description defaults to the Batch Number, and the current system Date and Time (i.e. "BATCH -- 1234 -- 2002/05/21 12:46:12"). The maximum length for the Batch Description is 2000 characters. This information is used for tracking or identifying groups of Firm Receipts (i.e. a new Batch is started after each posting).

DR GL (Debit General Ledger Account) The General Ledger Account that will be debited when the current batch of transactions is posted to the General Ledger. A selection may be made from the List of Values provided.
Batch Amount The sum of the current batch of Firm Receipts. If this dollar amount is not known when the Batch is started, it may be entered or adjusted prior to saving. Proof A running total of the dollar amount of Firm Receipts that have yet to be applied. The Proof amount starts at the Deposit Amount and automatically decreases as the user enters Firm Receipts. The batch cannot be posted to the General Ledger until the Proof amount is zero (meaning that the entire Deposit Amount has been applied).
Receipts In the Receipts section of the screen, the user must enter the Firm Receipt details.

Firm Receipts

Receipt No
The user must enter the Firm Receipt Number. If the number entered is not unique, the user will be alerted with a message and asked if they wish to continue. The maximum length of the Receipt Number is 50 characters.

Description
The user may enter a description of the current Firm Receipt transaction, or any other information that they deem important. If the user tabs through this field, the description defaults to the current Receipt Number (i.e. "Receipt Transaction -- 456").

Date
The date on which the Firm Receipt information is being entered into the system. This defaults to the current date, but may be changed by making a selection from the Calendar provided.

Rcpt Type (Receipt Type)
The user must enter the Firm Receipt Type for the current Receipt. Valid options are "B" (to pay a Bill), "G" (payment to a General Ledger Account), or "C" (as a Credit Note). A selection may be made from the List of Values provided.

Pay Type
The user must enter the method of payment for the current Firm Receipt (i.e. Cash, Cheque, Credit Note, Visa, MasterCard, Trust Cheque). A selection may be made from the List of Values provided. Note: If the payment type is a Credit Note, the user will be presented with the Credit Notes Selection View screen, as seen below, from which they must select the Credit Note. Credit Notes are only used in conjunction with payment to a Bill (i.e. if the user selects the payment to a General Ledger option in the previous field, they can not then select the Credit Note option in this field).

CR GL (Credit General Ledger Account)
This field is used only in conjunction with Firm Receipts of type "G" (i.e. Receipts for payments to a General Ledger Account). The user may either manually enter the General Ledger Account that will be credited when the Firm Receipt is processed, or a selection may be made from the List of Values provided.

Rcpt Amt (Receipt Amount)
The dollar amount of the payment (i.e. the amount for which the Receipt is being written).

Create CR Note
If the amount of a Firm Receipt exceeds the amount outstanding on the selected Bill(s), a Credit Note can be written for the remainder. To create a Credit Note, the user must click this button and then enter the necessary information in the screen that appears (see the Creating Credit Notes section below for more information).

Select Credit Note
To select a Credit Note to be applied to a Bill as payment, the user must click this button. See the Credit Notes Selection View section below for more information.

Select Bills
By clicking this button, the user can access the Outstanding Bills Selection View screen. To apply the current Firm Receipt to a Bill, the user must first select the Bill from this screen. Once a Bill has been selected, the bill information will be displayed in the Receipt Distribution Detail section of the screen.

Dist The Payment Distribution Type to be applied to the current payment (i.e. the order in which money is to be applied to outstanding Disbursements, Fees, and Taxes). A selection may be made from the List of Values provided.
Bill No, Sub-Bill The numbers of the Bill and Sub-Bill that payment is being made to (i.e. the receipt is being written for payments on this Bill). The user must either manually enter these values or click the Select Bills button. CR Note Amt If the amount of a Firm Receipt exceeds the amount outstanding on the selected Bill(s), a Credit Note can be written for the remainder. To create a Credit Note, the user must click the Create CR Note button and then enter the necessary information (see the Creating Credit Notes section below for more information). Once this is complete, the amount of the Credit Note is displayed in this field. Current Receipt Proof This is a running total of the dollar amount of the current Firm Receipt that has yet to be applied to Bills. The Proof amount starts at the Receipt amount and automatically decreases as the user applies the Receipt to Bills. The user cannot enter more Firm Receipts until the Proof amount for the current Receipt is zero.

*The Credit Note Selection View* To select a Credit Note to be applied to a Bill as payment, the user must first click the Select CR Note button on the main screen. Once presented with the screen shown below, the user must select the desired Bill/Credit Note record (i.e. in this screen, outstanding Bills are displayed, along with the total amount of Credit available for application to that Bill).

Credit Note Selection

Sel
To select the current Bill/Credit Note record, the user must "check" this field. This may be done by clicking in the box, or by tabbing to the field and then hitting the space bar on the keyboard.

Type
The type of Credit Note associated with the current record (i.e. "CR" - Credit Note created from firm receipts; "PC" - Pending Credit Note created from bill reallocation).

Bill No, Sub
The numbers of the Bill and Sub-Bill associated with the current record (i.e. if this record is selected, any available Credit will be applied to this Bill as payment).

Bill Date
The date of the Bill associated with the current record.

Client, Matter, Bill Entity
The unique identifiers of the Client, Matter, and Bill Entity associated with the current Bill/Credit Note. The corresponding names are displayed in the Client Name, Matter Name, and Bill Entity Name fields.

Fees, Disb, Tax
The amount of outstanding Fees, Disbursements, and Taxes on the current Bill. If this Bill is selected, the Credit available will be applied as payment to these amounts.

Total Credit
The total amount of Credit available to be applied to the current Bill as payment.

Bill Entity Name
The name of the Bill Entity associated with the current Bill/Credit Note. The corresponding unique identifier is displayed in the Bill Entity field.

Once all Credit Note selections are made, the user must return to the main screen.

Credit Note Selection

Client, Matter, Bill Entity
The user must enter the unique identifiers of the Client, Matter and/or Bill Entity for which the Credit Note will be created. A selection may be made from the Lists of Values provided.

Description
Any description/explanation about the Credit Note that the user may wish to enter.

Fees Amount
The amount of the Credit Note that will be for Fees (i.e. in the screen section shown above, the Client will have a $70.00 credit for future Fees).

Disb Amount
The amount of the Credit Note that will be for Disbursements (i.e. in the screen section shown above, the Client will have a $5.00 credit for future Disbursement costs).

To complete the Credit Note creation process, the user can click the Create button. Once the Credit Note has been completed, the user will be returned to the main screen where they can continue entering the Firm Receipt information. To cancel the process and return to the main screen, the user can simply click the Cancel button.

The Outstanding Bill Selection View
To select Bills to which the current Firm Receipt amount will be applied, the user must click the Select Bills button. The user will then be presented with the Outstanding Bill Selection View screen, as seen below. The only fields that can be edited in this screen are the Dist, Sel, and W/O fields. The user can execute a query in this screen based on information entered in the following fields: Bill No, Sub No, Client, Matter, Bill Entity, Fees, Disb, Tax, Interest, and Total Owing. Since this screen is in query mode when entered, the user may simply hit F8 to return all available Bills. Note: If the user has selected a Credit Note prior to accessing this screen, the Bills displayed will be restricted to the Client/Matter associated with the selected Credit Note.

Using Credit Of, Matter
If the user has selected a Credit Note prior to accessing this screen, the unique identifier and name of the Matter associated with that Credit Note will be displayed here. In addition, only Bills associated with this Matter can be queried.

Using Credit Of, Bill Entity
If the user has selected a Credit Note prior to accessing this screen, the unique identifier and name of the Bill Entity associated with that Credit Note will be displayed here. In addition, only Bills associated with this Bill Entity can be queried.

Receipt/Credit Amount Available for Bill Payment
If applying Firm Receipts, this field displays the amount of the Firm Receipt that is being applied to Bills (i.e. the amount being paid on the selected Bill/Bills); if applying Credit Notes, this field displays the amount of Credit that is being applied to Bills (i.e. the amount being paid on the selected Bill/Bills).

Dist
The way in which payments on the current Bill are applied by default (i.e. first to Tax, then to Disbursements, and then to Fees). To change the order of application, the user may make a selection from the List of Values provided.

Int W/O
To write off the Interest charged to the current Bill, the user must 'check' this field.

Sel
To select the current Bill, the user must 'check' this field. Those Bills selected are the ones to which the current Firm Receipt will be applied.

Bill No
The Bill number, as appears on the Bill itself. This number was automatically assigned by the system when the Bill was posted.

Sub No
The Sub-Bill number. This number was automatically assigned by the system when the Bill was posted.

Bill Date
The date of the Bill, as appears on the Bill itself.

Client, Matter
The unique identifier of the Client and the Matter associated with the current Bill. The corresponding Client Name is displayed in the Client Name field and the corresponding Matter Name is displayed in the Matter Name field.

Bill Entity
The unique identifier for the Bill Entity associated with the current Bill. The corresponding Bill Entity Name is displayed in the Bill Entity Name field.

Client Name, Matter Name, Bill Entity Name
The names of the Client, Matter, and Billing Entity associated with the current Bill.

Fees Tax, Disb Tax
A breakdown of the Tax charges on the current Bill; the total amount of Tax applied to Fees on the current Bill, and the total amount of Tax applied to Disbursements on the current Bill.

Sel Bills Owing
The sum of the total dollar amount owing on the Bills selected.

Firm Receipts

Default Payment Distribution
The dollar amount of the Bill payment that will be applied to Fees, Fees Tax, Disbursements, and Disbursements Tax, as per the default payment distribution type for the current Bill.

Once the user has selected the Bills to which the current Firm Receipt will be applied, they must close this screen and return to the main screen. The Bill information will then be displayed in the Receipt Distribution Details section of the screen.

Receipt Distribution Detail - Applying the Receipts to Bills
In the Receipt Distribution Detail section of the screen, the information for the Bills selected in the Bill Selection View screen is displayed (the Bills that are displayed are those that the current Firm Receipt is being applied to). In this section, the user can write off the interest for a Bill, access the AR Redistribution screen to edit the Timekeeper distribution for a Bill, and view and/or edit the Tax on a Bill.

Note: The fields in the section of the screen seen here cannot be edited by the user.

Bill No, Sub No
The Bill and Sub-Bill that the current Firm Receipt is being applied to.

Client, Matter
The unique identifier for the Client and the Matter associated with the current Bill. The Client Name and Matter Name are displayed in the two fields that run along the bottom of this section of the form.

Bill Entity
The unique identifier and name of the Bill Entity associated with the current Bill.

Type
The unique identifier for the Bill type, as specified at the time of creation. This value originally defaults from the Matter level, where the user selects the Bill Style.

Payment Distribution
This section of the screen displays the amount of Fees, Disbursements, Tax, and Interest that is being paid on the current Bill by applying the
Firm Receipt amount. If necessary, the user may edit the amounts displayed in this section of the screen.

W/O
If the current Bill has an outstanding Interest amount, it can be written off by 'checking' this field. The total amount of Interest being written off is displayed in the field below the W/O fields.

Total Paying
The total dollar amount being paid to the current Bill through this transaction. This value is displayed automatically, based on the receipt amount entered in the Receipts section of the screen.

Balance Owing
The first four fields that run along the bottom of this section of the screen represent the amount of Fees, Disbursements, Tax, and Interest that is left owing on the current Bill after the Firm receipt has been applied. These fields cannot be edited by the user.

Distribution
By clicking this button, the user can access the AR Redistribution routine to view and/or edit the Timekeeper distribution for the current Bill.

Bill Tax
By clicking this button, the user can view the Tax types and view and/or edit the distribution amounts for the current Bill. See Bill Tax Distribution for more information.

Bill Tax Distribution
The screen shown below is presented to the user when they click the Bill Tax button.

Type
The type of Tax that has been applied to the current Bill. This field cannot be edited by the user.

Tax Rate
The rate at which the current Tax Type is charged. This field cannot be edited by the user.

Tax Payment Distribution
This section displays the amount of Tax that has been applied to the Fees and to the Disbursements on the current Bill. If necessary, the user may edit these fields.

Balance Owing
The amount of outstanding Tax for Fees and Disbursements on the current Bill.

Save
Once the user has made any necessary changes to the Tax types and/or amounts, they must click the Save button to commit the changes and return to the main screen.

	Using Credit Of, Client If the user has selected a Credit Note prior to accessing this screen, the unique identifier and name of the Client associated with that Credit Note will be displayed here. In addition, only Bills associated with this Client can be queried.
Default Payment Distribution Type The way in which payments on these Bills are applied by default (i.e. first to Tax, then to Disbursements, and then to Fees). This field cannot be edited by the user. To change the order of application for a specific Bill, the user must do so in the Dist field.