Invoices & Fees

Permission required: invoice.read to open Invoices/Fees. The Fee items tab also needs fee.read. Creating invoices needs invoice.create. Issuing, voiding and recording payments need invoice.update. Adding, editing and deleting fee items needs fee.create, fee.update and fee.delete.

Billing in CaseBright starts on the case. You add fee items (filing fees, service fees and other charges) to a case's payment steps, then collect pending fee items into an invoice for the client. Payments are recorded against the invoice, either by the client paying online in the client portal or by your team recording an offline payment.

Open Invoices/Fees from the Billing group in the left sidebar.

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1. Key concepts

Term	Meaning
Payment step	A case step of the Payment type. Fee items always belong to a payment step. Payment steps come from the case's workflow (see Workflows).
Fee item	One charge on a payment step: a description, amount, currency, type and due date.
Invoice	A bill for one client, built from one or more pending fee items.
Payment	Money received against an invoice, either online through Stripe or recorded manually by staff.
Ledger	A running list of balance movements (payments, refunds, manual fee payments, adjustments) for an invoice, a case or a client.

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2. Fee items on a case

Fee items are managed on the case, in the Payments tab. If the case has no payment steps, the tab shows No payment steps.

The tab has a Payment summary card with Total amount, Pending, Paid and Waived totals (one row per currency), and three views:

View	What it shows
Payment steps	Each payment step with its fee items.
Invoices	Invoices generated for this case, with their status and balance. Needs invoice.read.
Case ledger	Balance movements associated with this case. Needs invoice.read.

You can also see and edit a step's fee items when you open the payment step itself.

Adding a fee item

1. Open the case and go to the Payments tab.
2. Under the payment step, click Add fee item.
3. Fill in:

Field	Notes
Description	Required, for example "Filing Fee".
Amount	Required; must be greater than 0.
Currency	Required.
Type	Pick an existing fee type or type a new one and choose Create "...".
Due date	Optional.
Notes	Optional.

4. Click Create.

The payment step's due date follows its fee items: it is set to the earliest due date among the step's pending items. When an item is marked Paid, Waived or Cancelled, the next pending item's due date becomes the step's due date.

Fee item statuses

Status	Meaning
Pending	Not paid yet. Only pending items that are not already on an invoice can be invoiced.
Paid	Payment received.
Waived	You decided not to charge it. The item stays on the record.
Cancelled	The charge no longer applies.

Editing a fee item or closing it by hand

1. Click the fee item row (or its edit icon).
2. Change the details. To close an item that is not on an invoice, set Status to Paid, Waived or Cancelled.
3. When you close an item by hand, Evidence type (for example "Bank Transfer Receipt") and Evidence note are required. You can also attach files under Evidence attachments (optional); attaching one is recommended for a stronger audit trail.
4. If the status is Paid, you can set the Paid date.
5. Click Update.

Once a fee item is on an invoice, it shows Invoiced and its status can no longer be changed by hand. It follows the invoice: when the invoice is paid in full, its items become Paid; a partial payment keeps them Pending.

To delete a fee item, click its delete icon and confirm. This cannot be undone.

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3. Creating an invoice

Invoices are generated from pending fee items. You can start from the case or from the client.

From a case

1. Open the case and go to the Payments tab.
2. In Payment summary, click Generate invoice. The number on the button is how many fee items are ready to invoice.

From a client (several cases at once)

1. Open the client profile and go to the Billing tab.
2. Click Generate invoice.

In the Generate invoice dialog:

1. Under Fee items, tick the items to include, or use Select all / Clear. Each item shows its case and step.
2. Set the Issue date (defaults to today) and the Due date (defaults to 30 days later).
3. Optionally add Notes (optional), for example payment instructions.
4. Check Selected items and Invoice total, then click Generate invoice.

Rules to keep in mind:

• All selected items must belong to the same client and use the same currency.
• The case must be linked to a client.
• A new invoice is created as Draft.

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4. The Invoices/Fees page

The page has two tabs.

Invoices tab

Summary cards show Total invoices, Outstanding, Paid and Overdue. The All invoices list shows Invoice #, Client, Status, Issued date, Due date, Total and Balance. Click a row to open the invoice.

Filters:

Filter	Description
Search	By invoice number.
Status	Any invoice status.
Client / Case	Limit to one client or one case.
Workflow category / Workflow name	Limit to cases of a given workflow.
From date / To date	Issue date range.

Use Clear all filters to reset.

Fee items tab

Case fee items lists fee items across all cases so you can track due dates. Summary cards show Total fee items, Pending, Overdue, Invoiced and Amount sum. Columns include Fee item, Client, Case, Status, Due date, Amount, Invoice # and Billing.

Besides search, status, client, case and workflow filters, you can filter by Invoiced / Not invoiced, Fee item type, Due from / Due to, and turn on Overdue only.

Click a fee item to open its payment step on the case. Click Open billing to go to the client's Billing tab.

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5. Invoice statuses

Status	Meaning
Draft	Just generated. Can be issued or voided.
Issued	Finalized. Can be paid, or voided if nothing has been paid.
Partially Paid	Some payment received; a balance remains.
Paid	Paid in full.
Overdue	Treated like an issued invoice for payments and voiding. CaseBright does not move invoices to this status automatically when the due date passes, so check the Due date column.
Void	Cancelled. Its fee items are released and can be invoiced again.

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6. Working with an invoice

Open an invoice from the list, from the case's Payments tab or from the client's Billing tab. The invoice page shows:

• Line Items with the totals: Subtotal, Tax, Total, Paid and Balance due.
• Payment History, with each payment's amount, method, status and date. For a successful payment, click Receipt to open its receipt.
• Ledger, the invoice's balance movements in date order.
• Client (with Open client billing), Related matter (the case and step), Payment information (due date and currency) and Actions.

Issuing an invoice

1. Open a Draft invoice.
2. Click Issue invoice.

The status changes to Issued. Issuing does not email the client.

Recording an offline payment

Use this for bank transfers, checks, cash and other payments made outside CaseBright.

1. Open an Issued, Partially Paid or Overdue invoice with a balance due.
2. Under Actions, click Record payment.
3. Enter the Amount. It cannot be more than the balance due shown under the field.
4. Choose the Method: Bank Transfer, Check, Cash or Other.
5. Optionally set Payment date (optional) and a Note (optional) such as a reference number.
6. Click Save payment.

The paid amount, balance and status update straight away: Partially Paid if a balance remains, Paid when the balance reaches zero. The payment also appears in the ledger.

Sharing an online payment link

Permission required: invoice.update and integration.stripe.manage

If your firm has connected Stripe (see Admin Settings), you can send the client a link to pay without signing in.

1. Open an Issued, Partially Paid or Overdue invoice with a balance due.
2. Under Actions, click Generate payment link. The link is copied to your clipboard.
3. Send it to the client by email, text message or your usual secure channel.

The link charges the full balance due. When the payment goes through, CaseBright records it on the invoice automatically.

Downloading a PDF

Under Actions, click Download invoice PDF.

Voiding an invoice

You can void a Draft, Issued or Overdue invoice that has no payments. Invoices that are Paid or Partially Paid cannot be voided.

1. Click Void invoice.
2. Enter the Reason for voiding (required).
3. Click Void invoice to confirm.

This cannot be undone. The fee items on the invoice are released and can be included in a new invoice.

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7. Client billing

Permission required: fee.read or invoice.read

The Billing tab on a client profile brings together everything billed to that client:

• Billing summary: fee items across all the client's cases, with Grand total and totals for Pending, Paid, Waived and Cancelled, plus the Generate invoice button.
• Client ledger: all ledger movements for this client (needs invoice.read).
• Invoices: every invoice generated for the client, with its balance or Paid in full.
• Fee items grouped by case, with their due dates and whether they are Invoiced.

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8. What the client sees

Clients see their invoices under Payments in the Client Portal, where they can download a PDF and pay online if your firm has connected Stripe. Invoices appear there as soon as they are generated, including while they are still Draft, so review the fee items before you generate an invoice.

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9. Tips

• Use Waived rather than deleting a fee item you decided not to charge; the item stays on the record.
• Attach evidence when you close a fee item by hand, so the payment can be traced later.
• If an invoice was generated with the wrong items, void it (as long as nothing has been paid) and generate a new one; the items become available again.