Part Payment Claim on an Engagement

Overview

1. All claims for payment should be made against the Engagement Order including claims for work done on deliverable documents. Therefore it is not necessary to make payment claims or request variations against the Deliverable Orders. However, when closing the Deliverable Order a final $0.00 claim is required as part of the close-out process.
   See topic Close a Deliverable Order and Submit Claim for details.
2. While multiple Payment Claims may be submitted over the course of the Engagement, they can only be submitted consecutively. In other words, a Payment Claim must progress to the point that the Invoice has been submitted for approval before the next part Payment Claim can be commenced. Until then the Submit Payment button is disabled.
3. Exceeding the Approved Limit (Budget) for the Engagement can negatively affect the Provider’s rating. Therefore, before commencing a Payment Claim check that the total of this Claim plus Claims already made or in progress will not cause the Approved Limit to be exceeded. If the Approval Limit needs to be increased, submit a Request for Variation before the limit is exceeded.
   See topic Request Budget Variation on an Engagement Order for details.
4. A Payment Claim cannot be submitted while a Request for (Budget) Variation or Request for Extension of Time on the Engagement is being processed. The Engagement Order is not in the WORK IN PROGRESS status while either of these request types is in process. Therefore the Submit Payment button is not visible.
   See topics Request Budget Variation on an Engagement Order and Request for Extension of Time for details on how to finalize these requests.
5. If the expected cost of work is unknown by the Client, they may create an Engagement with a $0.00 Approved Limit. Part payment claims can be submitted on a $0.00 budget without impacting the Provider rating. Before ending work on the Engagement, a request for variation needs to be submitted to have the Budget set.

The following procedure describes how to:

• Create a Payment Claim;
• Add and edit items on the Payment Claim;
• Remove items from the Payment Claim;
• Attach and submit the associated Invoice for approval;
• Submit a subsequent Payment Claim.

1. Export the required Invoice from your company’s financial/accounting system and save it in a location where it can later be uploaded into LPG (Use the invoice number as the filename.)

2. Find and open the Matter against which you want to claim a part payment.
   The Matter screen appears.
   
   
   
   See the user guide Searching for Orders and Matters for ways to access the Matter and/or Engagement Order.
3. If the Engagement tab is not already selected, click the Engagement tab.

   IMPORTANT: The Status must be WORK IN PROGRESS – OPEN (N1) for a claim for payment to be submitted. If a different Status is displayed (e.g. CUSTOMER RESPONSE TO VARIATION REQUEST), when you click the Action button you will not go to the Order In Progress screen and the Submit Payment button will not be available.

   N2 - Take note of the Approved $ (total amount budgeted for this Engagement) and the Budget % (percentage of the allocated budget used so far). Exceeding the Approved $ limit can negatively impact your rating with the Client. See important notes at the start of this procedure on managing part payments and budget variations. A Budget % of 0.00 (as in the example shown below) indicates that no payment claims have been submitted yet.
4. Assuming the Status is at WORK IN PROGRESS – OPEN, scroll down and click the Action button.
   The Order In Progress screen appears.
   N3 - The Items tab on the Engagement Order lists all items associated with the Engagement Order and all associated Deliverable Orders. When the Engagement is first received a list of default items may be included from the Client.
   N4 - The Consumed By column indicates which Order the item is part of. In the example shown below there is an Engagement Order (B94467), a Deliverable Order for an Advice document (B94468) and a Deliverable Order for a Barrister Briefing (B94469).
   
5. Scroll to the bottom of the Order In Progress screen and click the Submit Payment Claim button.
   The Submit Payment Claim screen appears with any default items associated with the Engagement Order listed in the Items tab.
   N5 - Some default items are editable directly within the list. Editable fields have a white background.
   N6 - A default item of type “Deliverable” (N7) is included for each Deliverable Order associated with the Engagement. These items are not directly claimable (fixed at $0.00). Claim costs associated with producing the Deliverable by adding other relevant items to the Payment Claim (available on the Find Item screen as described in the following steps). See the user guide Close a Deliverable Order & Submit Claim for details on how to manage Deliverables.
   N8 - the default items are effectively a checklist of items that can be claimed against this Engagement. To claim a default item that is not editable directly in the list, you need to add the item on a new line in the Payment Claim then assign a unit rate and claimed quantity.
   

   NOTE: See the heading Data Carried Forward to Next Payment Claim in the Tips & Troubleshooting section at the end of this user guide for notes about items carried forward from the previous Payment Claim.

6. If an existing item on the Payment Claim is editable, enter the Unit Rate and/or Claimed Qty as required.
   The item rate type determines if the Unit Rate is editable. See the user guide Overview of Item Rates in the Tips & Troubleshooting section at the end of this user guide for more information.
7. If you need to add items to the Payment Claim, you first need to append blank lines by doing the following (otherwise skip to 11):
   
   1. Scroll to the bottom of the Submit Payment Claim screen and select the number of blank lines you want to add to the Claim.
      A message is displayed reminding the user that added items should be approved by the Client.
      
   2. Click the OK button to acknowledge the message.
      N9 - The specified number of blank lines is added to the bottom of the Items list.
      
8. To add an item to the Claim do the following:
   1. Click the Find icon  on one of the blank lines.
      The Find Item screen appears.
      N10 - The Item list includes all items associated with the Contract governing this Engagement.
      
   2. You can optionally filter the Items list by entering a partial Item Id and/or Description then clicking the Submit button.

      Tip: If you need to add one of the uneditable default items to the Payment Claim, you can copy the Item Id from the default item and paste it into the Item Id search field.

      The list is filtered to display only items matching the search criteria. If you do not filter the list, you need to scroll down the list until you find the item you wish to add to the Payment Claim..
      
   3. To add the Item to the Payment Claim, click the Item Id.

      Notes on Adding Items to the Claim: N11 - IMPORTANT: There are a series of Credit Note items. Typically the Item Id is the same as the item with which it corresponds (“CBFJ” is the credit note item for item “BFJ”). Do not include Credit Note items on a Payment Claim. They are only to be used to create a Credit Note when the Client has been overcharged. See the user guide Submit a Credit Note for details. N12 - Take note whether the item includes GST or is GST exempt (tick or cross in the GST column). Both options may be available. Choose which item is appropriate depending on the Client. N13 - Take note of the Unit of Measure (UOM) that applies to the item. In some cases the same item (e.g. Lawyer’s Legal Fee) may be available as a daily rate item and also as an hourly rate item.

      The Find Item window closes and the Item is inserted into the blank line on the Submit Payment Claim screen.
      N14 - If the Item already appears on the Claim, a note is displayed. In the case of uneditable default items (as shown in the example below) this duplication is necessary because the default item cannot be edited.
      
   4. Depending on the type of item, a drop down list may appear from which you can further categorise the item.
      In the example shown above, the location that the fees were incurred has been selected (“District Court”).
   5. If editable, enter the Unit Rate and Claimed Qty for this Item as applicable.

      NOTE: The Item rate type determines which fields will be editable. For example, the Unit Rate of a “Capped” rate item can only be adjusted to be less than the capped rate. The Unit Rate of a “Fixed” rate item cannot be edited. See the Tips & Troubleshooting section for a discussion of rate types.

   6. If required, enter additional notes about the item being claimed.
9. Repeat step 8 for each item that needs to be added to the Claim.

10. To remove an Item from the Claim do the following:
    
    1. If the Item to be removed was added on a blank line of the Submit Payment Claim screen, select and delete the Item ID. Then click elsewhere on the screen or press the Tab key on your keyboard.
       The line will be reset to a blank line (Unit Rate, Claimed Qty and Item description are removed).
       
    2. If the item to be removed was a default item on Payment Claim, delete the editable fields (Unit Rate and/or Claimed Qty) then click elsewhere on the screen or press the Tab key.
       The default item remains on the Claim but the amount claimed for the item is set to zero.

After following the steps above to itemize the Payment Claim, do the following to complete the Claim:

11. Scroll to the bottom of the Submit Payment Claim screen and manually enter the Docket Start Date (format dd/mm/yyyy) or click the Calendar tool  to select the date.
12. By default today’s date is entered in the Docket End Date. If necessary change the date.
    The Docket End Date cannot be later than the current date. The Docket Start Date and Docket End Date specify the date range covered by the claim and associated invoice.
13. Click the Submit Payment Claim button.
    A notification message appears indicating the total of the Claim and that the Engagement Order cannot be completed or further payment Claims submitted until this Claim is processed.
    
14. To proceed with the Payment Claim, click the OK button.
    The Claim Submitted Successfully screen appears.
    
15. Click the Back to Worklist button.
    The display returns to the screen from which you started the Claim for Payment. In the example shown in the steps above, the procedure started from the Matter screen. So the display returns to the Matter screen with the Engagement tab selected.
    N11 - Payment Claims are automatically approved without Client interaction. For this reason the message “No payment claim record found” is displayed in the PAYMENT CLAIM(S) section.
    N12 - An entry now appears in the Invoices list with Status NOT YET SUBMITTED.
    N13 - Until the Invoice is submitted the percentage of total budget used (Budget %) is not updated.

    IMPORTANT: Submitting the Payment Claim is only the first stage of the procedure. The next stage is to upload and submit the corresponding Invoice file. See the following heading for steps.

    

1. Click the Acquire button (or Action button) next to the Invoice.
   The Submit Invoice screen appears with the Invoice Items tab selected.
   N1 - The items that were specified in the Payment Claim are displayed.
   
2. Scroll to the bottom of the Submit invoice screen and enter the Invoice #.

   IMPORTANT: The Invoice # must match the filename of the Invoice you are about to upload. Otherwise you will be unable to upload the file. In the example shown above the corresponding filename would be “1011900.pdf”.

3. Optionally enter an Invoice Message that describes the Invoice you are submitting.
4. Click the Submit button.
   If LPG is configured for CC messaging, the “Carbon Copy” screen appears with a list of relevant personnel who you may wish to notify that the Invoice has been submitted.
   
5. Take only one of the following actions on the Carbon Copy screen. Either:
   1. Tick the names that need to be notified and then click the Submit button or,
   2. Click the Skip button to continue without sending notifications.
   The Submit Invoice (Upload Attachment) screen appears.
   
6. Click the Choose File button.
   The Open window appears.
   
7. Find and select the Invoice file from your local drive or network, then click the Open button.
   The display returns to the Submit Invoice (Upload Attachment) screen.
   N2 - The selected file name is displayed next to the Choose File button.
   
8. Enter a Description that will identify the uploaded file.
9. Click the Upload button.
   N3 - A message is displayed indicating that the file was successfully uploaded.
   N4 - If desired, the LPG-generated Invoice can be viewed by clicking the View/Print Invoice button.
   N5 - If desired, the uploaded Invoice file can be viewed by clicking the View Attachment button
   
10. Click the Back to Worklist button.
    The display returns to the screen from which you started processing the Invoice. In the example shown in the steps above, the procedure started from the Matter screen. So the display returns to the Matter screen with the Engagement tab selected.
    N6 - The summary is updated showing the total invoiced so far and the percentage of budget used.
    N7 - The uploaded Invoice # is displayed and the Status is changed to AWAITING APPROVAL. A new Payment Claim can at this point be commenced if required.
    

    NOTE: The Invoice is now with the Client to approve. Once the Invoice is submitted for approval, it is possible to commence another Payment Claim. N8 - The Action (or Acquire) button can be used at this point to recall the Invoice from the Client. However it does not allow the Claim to be revised. See the user guide Recall an Invoice - Awaiting Approval for a discussion of options to recall the Invoice and Payment Claim.

    N9 - When the Client approves the Invoice the status changes to APPROVED. The Action button is no longer available because once the Invoice is approved it cannot be recalled by the Provider. Only the Client can reset the Invoice at this point to put it back in the control of the Provider.
    N10 - The Invoice number changes colour to blue indicating that it is now a link. You can click the Invoice number to view the LPG-generated tax invoice.
    
    N11 - Once the Client approves the Invoice the status moves to PAYMENT IN PROGRESS .
    
    N12 - When the Client has made payment, they will mark the Invoice as PAID AND CLOSED.
    

    NOTE: You can use the Find Invoice menu option to search for the Invoice to see the Client’s Payment reference number (N13).

Tips & Troubleshooting

 If any of these items needs to be included on the current Payment Claim, do the following:

1. If necessary, change the Unit Rate.
   The Unit Rate may not be editable depending on the Item rate type. See the user guide Overview of Item Rates for more information.
2. Enter the Claimed Qty as required.

   NOTE: It is best practice to follow the steps above rather than adding new lines for these items. If new lines are added for these items they will continue to accumulate on subsequent Payment Claims padding the Claim with unused items and possibly causing confusion.