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The Ready-to-Bill Report in LeanLaw

How to use LeanLaw's Ready-to-Bill report to prepare for billing — including reviewing WIP, unbilled expenses, trust balances, and last payment dates for every client and matter.

The Ready-to-Bill report (also called the WIP / Ready-to-Bill report) gives you a complete pre-billing snapshot of every client and matter — showing unbilled work, outstanding expenses, available trust, and when the client last paid. It's the ideal starting point before your monthly billing run.

 

What the Ready-to-Bill Report Shows

Column

What It Contains

Client / Matter

Each client and their associated matters with unbilled work.

Unbilled Time (WIP)

Total dollar value of time entries that have not yet been invoiced.

Unbilled Fixed Fees

Fixed fee charges staged but not yet included on an invoice.

Unbilled Expenses

Expenses (soft and hard costs) not yet invoiced.

Receivables

Outstanding invoice balance — what the client currently owes.

Trust Balance

Current trust/retainer balance for the client.

Last Payment

The date of the client's most recent payment — useful for identifying clients who haven't paid recently.

 

Accessing the Report

Navigate to: Reports → Ready-to-Bill / WIP

 

Alternatively, the Billing → Ready to Bill tab is the actionable version of this data — where you actually stage invoices. The Ready-to-Bill report provides the same data in a print/export-friendly format.

 

Using Ready-to-Bill as a Pre-Billing Checklist

Before your monthly billing run, use the Ready-to-Bill report to:

  1. Identify all clients with unbilled WIP — these are your billing candidates for the cycle.
  2. Check the Trust Balance column — if a client has trust funds greater than their WIP, consider applying trust to their invoice rather than sending a standard bill.
  3. Review the Last Payment column — flag clients with old last-payment dates for follow-up before sending a new invoice.
  4. Spot clients with both high Receivables and new WIP — decide whether to bill immediately or wait for the outstanding balance to be paid first.

 

💡 Tip: Export the Ready-to-Bill report as a CSV before each billing run and use it as your billing checklist. Mark off clients as you invoice them to ensure nothing is missed.