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How to Manage Fixed Fees and Discounts on Invoices

This article explains how to manage fixed fees and discounts on invoices and expense templates, including how completion-based fixed fees appear for billing, how to combine fixed fees on a single invoice, how to create and finalize invoices, and how to record and track discounts.

Fixed fees: completion-based vs non-completion-based

  • Completion-based fixed fees must be manually marked as Completed for them to appear on the Ready to Bill page.
  • Fixed fees that are not completion-based do not need to be marked complete to appear on Ready to Bill; they can be invoiced normally.

How to invoice fixed fees

  1. Go to the Ready to Bill page to review items available for billing.
  2. Create a draft invoice from Ready to Bill.
  3. If multiple fixed fees should be combined on one invoice, add each fixed fee to the same draft invoice (they can be invoiced together).
  4. Finalize the draft invoice:
    • Select the checkbox next to the draft and choose Submit to QuickBooks, or
    • Use the triple-dot menu on the right of the draft and choose Submit to QuickBooks.
  5. Once finalized, the invoice will appear under Manage Invoices and can be sent to the client.

Managing discounts on invoices and expense templates Options for recording discounts:

  • Add a discount as a negative expense line item in the Expenses section of the invoice.
  • Apply an invoice-level adjustment (write-off) when finalizing the invoice.
  • Use the courtesy discount field on the draft invoice prior to finalizing.

Tracking discounts across invoices

  • There is no built-in LeanLaw report that totals discounts over a period of time.
  • To get an overview of discounts across invoices:
    1. Export your list of invoices as a CSV.
    2. Filter or sum discount amounts manually (for example, in Excel).
    3. Discount entries can be identified by their labels in the exported data; note that how discounts are recorded (e.g., courtesy discount field vs negative expense line) will affect what appears in the export.

Practical tips

  • Verify whether a fixed fee is completion-based by clicking into the Fixed Fee; this determines whether you must mark it Completed before billing.
  • Use draft invoices to combine multiple fixed fees into a single client invoice.
  • Standardize how your firm applies discounts (negative expense line vs invoice-level adjustment vs courtesy discount) so exported data is consistent and easier to track.