Credited disbursement resulting in having insufficient disbursements to cover the value

QUESTION: How to deal with a credited disbursement that results in not having enough disbursements to cover the value? How come I cannot apply a negative disbursement to the invoice? How to deal with total disbursements value lower than 0.00 during invoice preparation?

RESPONSE: The application will not allow the posting of invoices where the net disbursement balance is less than zero, as this will conflict with desired outcomes from the fee allocation schema applied.

If the matter is ongoing and there is a reasonable expectation that there will be ensuing charges that will offset the negative disbursement balance, then you can leave the balance as is, so it is cleared in a near future billing cycle once those future disbursements have been recorded.

If the matter is not ongoing or nearing its end-of-life cycle, then you will want to clear the negative balance and use the funds by transferring them as retainer in trust. To do this, generate a quick cheque payable to the firm in trust, with the distribution content including the same matter, disbursement code and the disbursement balance you want clear. *In other words, enter the amount of the negative disbursement you want to clear as a positive value.

Once the quick cheque with the disbursement is posted, the positive disbursement entry will offset the negative one on the matter, resulting in a net disbursement value equal or greater than 0.00.  The general quick cheque must then be deposited into your retainer in trust account for the same matter, allowing the user to proceed with an invoice that includes the pro-forma payment of invoice from trust.

If the negative disbursement was the result of a credit provided by a supplier, during invoice preparation add a paragraph into the paragraph tab of the invoice properties,  explaining that the trust payment applied is the result of a credited disbursement. Use the “Insert Paragraph” option at the time of generating the invoice document to ensure the paragraph is included as added text instead of time entry substitution.