After you generate a bill, you can edit it to reflect the correct activities, dates, and amounts before it reaches a client. You can edit bills in the draft and pending approval states. Once bills are approved, edits are limited by default, and for paid bills, you will need to delete any payments before editing. This keeps every bill accurate at whatever stage it currently sits.
Note: Autosave for bill editing is available only to firms that generate standard bills. Firms that generate trust requests, use split billing, or bill in more than one currency do not have autosave available for any bill. See Edit bills without autosave. Firms that generate only standard bills: see Edit bills with autosave below.
Tip: Learn more about deleting and voiding bills.
Enable full editing of unpaid bills
By default, only bills in draft and pending approval allow full editing. To allow editing of all unpaid bills, including approved ones, turn on Allow editing of approved bills and trust requests under Manage bill states in Configure General Bill Settings.
Edit bills with autosave
When you edit an unpaid bill, Clio automatically saves your changes, so you do not need to click Save invoice after each change. A save status indicator in the top right shows when your changes are being saved and confirms when they are saved.
Important: If your firm adds a second currency, enables split billing, or generates a trust request, autosave is not available for any of your bills.
Tip: Click the content under the Type, Date, Activity category, Description, Qty, and Rate columns to make changes. Check or uncheck the Tax 1 and Tax 2 boxes to apply or remove tax for each line item. Turn off Update activity entries to apply the changes only to the bill, not to the original activity entries.
Edit bills in draft or bills pending approval
Draft bills and bills pending approval allow full edits by default, including time and expense activities, taxes, discounts, issue date, due date, and currency.
- Go to Billing and click the bill Id number to view the bill, then click the More actions dropdown and select Edit. You can also click Edit directly for a bill in draft or pending approval.
- Click Add time or Add expense to add activities, or click Remove to remove an activity. Removing an activity removes it from this bill only. It remains available to generate on a later bill.
- Make any other changes, such as the due date, tax, or discounts.
- Confirm that the save status indicator in the top right shows your changes saved.
Edit approved bills
By default, an approved bill allows changes only to non-activity items, such as adding a discount or invoice notes, and changing the bill ID. Enable full editing of approved bills in the section above to also edit activities on an approved bill.
- Go to Billing and select the Unpaid quick filter to view approved bills.
- Click the down arrow next to Send and select Edit bill. You can also click the bill Id, then the More actions dropdown, then Edit.
- Make the necessary edits. Without full editing enabled, edit only the bill ID#, a Discount or Invoice note, or the Subject and Purchase order #. With full editing enabled, you can also add or remove activities, change the Issue date and Due date, and edit taxes directly on the line items.
- Confirm that the save status indicator in the top right shows that your changes have been saved.
Edit bill invoice ids
Clio automatically assigns a numeric invoice ID when it generates a bill. Change an individual unpaid bill's invoice ID to any alphanumeric value; each new bill continues from the next available numeric value. To change the invoice number on a paid bill, first remove its payment.
- Go to Billing, or go to a contact or matter's Bills subtab.
- Click the bill ID number to view the bill.
- Click Edit, or click the down arrow next to More actions and select Edit, depending on the bill state.
- Under ID#, enter the new value.
- Confirm that the save status indicator in the top right shows your change has been saved.
Edit bills without autosave
Firms that generate trust requests or bill in more than one currency do not have autosave available for any bill. Save changes manually as described below.
Tip: If you are editing a trust request, see Manage Trust Requests.
Edit bills in draft or bills pending approval
Draft bills and bills pending approval allow full edits by default, including time and expense activities, taxes, discounts, issue date, due date, and currency.
Tip: Click the content under the Type, Date, Activity category, Description, Qty, Rate, Discount, and Tax columns to make changes. Check Update records if you want your edits to also affect the original activities; uncheck it to apply changes only to the bill.
- Go to Billing and click the bill Id number to view the bill, then click the More actions dropdown and select Edit. You can also click Edit directly for a bill in draft or pending approval.
- Click Add time or Add expense to add activities, or click Remove to remove an activity. Removing an activity removes it from this bill only; it remains available to generate on a later bill.
- Make any other changes, such as the due date, tax, or discounts.
- Click Save invoice.
Edit approved bills
By default, an approved bill allows changes only to non-activity items, such as adding a discount or invoice notes, and changing the bill ID. Enable full editing of approved bills in the section above to also edit activities on an approved bill.
- Go to Billing and select the Unpaid quick filter to view approved bills.
- Click the down arrow next to Send and select Edit bill. You can also click the bill Id, then the More actions dropdown, then Edit.
- Make the necessary edits. Without full editing enabled, edit only the bill ID#, a Discount or Invoice note, or the Subject and Purchase order #. With full editing enabled, also add, and remove activities, change the Issue date, Due date, and Currency, and edit taxes directly on the line items.
- Click Save invoice when finished.
Note: If your firm regularly bills in multiple currencies, consider adding currencies in Configure Bill Settings.
Edit bill invoice ids
Clio automatically assigns a numeric invoice ID when it generates a bill. Change an individual unpaid bill's invoice ID to any alphanumeric value. Each new bill continues from the next available numeric value. To change the invoice number on a paid bill, first remove its payment.
- Go to Billing, or go to a contact or matter's Bills subtab.
- Click the bill ID number to view the bill.
- Click Edit, or click the down arrow next to More actions and select Edit, depending on the bill state.
- Under ID#, enter the new value.
- Click Save invoice.
Edit bill invoice notes and options
Before sending a bill to a client, edit its footer, invoice memo, and payment profile notes, and update the bill theme or the client's multiple addresses. Change or remove the footer notes, invoice memo, and payment profile notes, and view each change in real time on the bill invoice.
Note: These changes affect only the bill you are editing. See Create and Manage Bill Themes to change the overall bill theme.
- Go to Billing and click the bill ID number to view the bill. You can also click the down arrow and select View bill.
- On the left menu under Options, change the bill theme or a client's address if they have multiple addresses.
- On the left menu under Note, change or remove the footer notes, invoice memo, or payment profile notes.
Up next
Send Bills to Clients: Send a bill by email, text, or the client portal.