Bulk billing generates bills across many matters and clients at once, or combines one client's matters into a single bill. You select the matters to bill, set the generation options, and generate the bills together. Your firm bills a full cycle in one pass instead of one matter at a time.
Note: Only billable matters with unbilled activities appear in bulk billing. A matter with only non-billable activities appears when at least one activity is marked to show on the bill. Time entries with a duration of zero do not appear, though entries billed at a £0 rate do. Once activities appear on an approved bill, they lock. To edit activities, delete or void the bill.
Tip: Split billing lets you divide a matter's bill among multiple payers, each paying a specified portion.
Generate bills in bulk
Note: When a matter has expenses in more than one currency without conversion to the matter billing currency, a separate checkbox appears for each currency, generating one bill per currency.
- Go to Billing and select New bills.
- Use the checkboxes to select the matters to bill. Use Filter to narrow the list by client, matter, responsible or originating solicitor, activity date range, currency, split invoice, or custom fields.
- Click Generate.
- Complete the modal. To combine a client's matters into one bill, check Combine multiple matters for one client into a single bill. See the full option list in Generate a Quick Bill.
- Click Generate bills.
Monitor bulk billing jobs
Job Status in Clio Manage lets your firm confirm that a bulk billing action finished and troubleshoot any that did not. You track the status of bulk actions such as generating bills, applying trust, and deleting drafts, and you review error details when they occur. This lets you confirm a full billing run has been completed without watching it in real time.
Track a bulk billing action
Note: Bulk billing actions continue to progress even when you are not viewing the Job Status subtab. You can check back later to confirm they completed.
- Go to Billing and select the Job Status subtab.
- Review the date, action type, and current status of past bulk actions.
- Click a result's hyperlink to view its detailed results.
- Optional: Click the Today dropdown to filter by Today, Past 2 Days, or Past 7 Days.
- Optional: Click the three dots next to an action to clear its log, or click Clear all.
Resolve common bulk billing errors
| Error code | Action and description |
|---|---|
| unexpected_error |
Action: Any Description: A generic error for unknown issues. |
| negative_matter_amount |
Action: Generate bills Description: A bill cannot be generated when the matter has a negative amount due, often caused by overpayment on previous invoices. Current messaging: “You have matters with a negative amount due; they cannot be combined into a single bill.” |
| no_charge_aggregate |
Action: Generate bills Description: Occurs when trying to generate an aggregate bill that contains only non-billable activities. |
| no_time_entries |
Action: Generate bills Description: Triggered when bill generation is requested but there are no time entries to include on the bill. |
| no_expense_entries |
Action: Generate bills Description: Triggered when bill generation is requested but there are no expense entries to include on the bill. |
| nothing_to_generate |
Action: Generate bills Description: Triggered when bill generation is requested, but there are no billable activities to include. |
| split_bill_not_on_client_bill |
Action: Generate bills Description: Occurs when split bills are selected in a bulk billing job that also includes the option to "Combine multiple matters for the same client in one bill." |
| split_bill_not_aggregated |
Action: Generate bills Description: Occurs when split bills are selected in a bulk billing job where the "aggregate records" option is selected. |
| no_client |
Action: Generate bills Description: Triggered when attempting to generate a bill for a deleted client. |
| no_matter |
Action: Generate bills Description: Triggered when attempting to generate a bill for a deleted matter. |
| paid_bill_transaction_error |
Action: Apply trust Description: Occurs when applying trust to a group of bills and at least one bill is not in "awaiting payment" status. |
| bill_deleted |
Action: Submit for approval Description: Occurs if the bill has been deleted in a different session or by another user. |
| bill_voided |
Action: Submit for approval Description: Occurs if the bill has been voided in a different session or by another user. |
| bill_paid |
Action: Submit for approval Description: Occurs if the bill was paid while another user was viewing an outdated version of the bills table. |
| bill_awaiting_payment |
Action: Submit for approval Description: Occurs if the bill was moved to "awaiting payment" in a different session or by another user. |
| no_contact_for_grace_period |
Action: Approval Description: Triggered when attempting to approve a bill and set the issue date based on the grace period, but the client has been deleted. |
| job_level_failure |
Action: Any job Description: Occurs when the job was interrupted before completion. |
| matter_has_zero_balance |
Action: Bill generation Description: Occurs when attempting to generate a bill, but the matter has a zero balance. |
Enable firm notifications on bills
You can send a notification to selected firm members when a bill is generated. Using the feature is optional even when it is turned on.
- Go to Settings > Billing > General.
- Scroll to Bill notifications.
- Check Display notification section during bill generation.
- Click Save changes.
Up next
Bill States and Approval: See how a bill moves from draft to approved to paid.