Time & Billing Settings – Admin

Time & Billing Settings – Admin

Our Admin Centre is accessed by clicking the settings icon on the bottom left of your menu and contains all your firm settings and configurations relating to Thread, including general settings, matter settings, system configurations, team management, template desk and integrations with other applications.  

 

 

Your firm administrators can set your required time and billing settings such as time types, time recording mode, hourly rates, billing method, tax rates, expense categories, etc. 

 

Time Type  

Located in Settings > Matters tab. 

Time types can be set as either Billable or Non-billable, dictating whether the time record with that time type applied could be included in a bill. You can also set a default time value for time types, which would auto-populate the ‘Billable time’ field when the relevant time type is applied (i.e. ‘Documents Review’ should always be 15 minutes).   

You can choose which time type should be applied as default, and use other time types for tracking time included in a fixed fee, spent on a specific type of work like reporting etc. 


InfoTo set up your firm’s preferred Time Type, see Time Type - Admin.

 

Time Settings 

Located in Settings > System tab. 

With Thread, you can choose time settings that best suit your firm’s needs, such as setting a time recording mode for your firm (off, manual or automatic), enforce mandatory start/end times for all time records, and enable time rounding for billable time. You can also pre-determine set time values for specific time types (see above). 

 

Time recording modes 

Time recording modes (Automatic/Manual/Off) can be set up in admin settings and will define the options that users will have in their personal settings.  

Choosing an automatic time recording mode in admin settings applies that setting to all users in the firm, without the option to switch their time recording mode to manual or off. All users will see their Time recording mode in personal settings set to Automatically, and there will be no option to change this. This ensures all users’ time is tracked consistently. 

Selecting a Manual time recording mode in admin settings allows users in your firm to choose between their timer starting automatically or only starting the timer manually. Manual mode will also give users prompts to add their time record after completing an action. 

If time recording is not relevant for your firm, you can set time recording mode to Off in your firm admin settings to allow each user not to record their time or receive any time prompts. They can still choose another option if they prefer in their personal settings. 

 

Time rounding 

Enable time rounding for billable time that users record on specific items within a matterFor example, if time rounding is set to 8 minutes and a user spends 5 minutes sending an email on a matter, editing a document, etc., the billable time will automatically round up to 8 minutes. If 10 minutes is spent, the time will round up to 16 minutes, and so on. 

InfoTo set up your firm’s preferred Time Settings, see Time Settings – Admin.

 

Hourly Rate 

Located in Settings > General tab. 

All users and matters on Thread can be assigned an hourly rate. The hourly rate is applied to time records in accordance with the time a user has spent working on a particular item.  

Your firm’s default billing method will define which hourly rates will auto-apply to time records, i.e. users’ hourly rate, matter owner’s hourly rate, matter category rate, or none. 


InfoTo set up your users Hourly Rates, see Hourly Rates – Admin.

 

Tax Rate 

Located in Settings > General tab. 

Thread can automatically apply Tax to bills generated on the application. Ensure that Tax is at the correct value and added to each bill by configuring it in admin settings. 


InfoTo set up your firm’s preferred Tax Rate(s), see Tax Rate - Admin.

 

Expense Settings 

Located in Settings > General tab. 

Thread users can easily add expenses that they have borne for a client or a particular case. The Expense Category feature on Thread allows you to add distinct categories of expenses, meaning you can organise expenses based on their type You can also add codes that equate to an expense type, for example, E102=Travel Fees. This way, you can easily add these codes to expenses you create on Thread, making it easier for accountants or users responsible for the finances of your firm to manage expenses.   


InfoTo set up your firm’s preferred Expense Categories and Expense Codes, see Expense Settings - Admin.

 

Billing Approval 

Located in Settings > System tab. 

Billing Approval can be set up by your firm’s administrators so that all users must obtain billing approval from the relevant department before they can issue a bill.  

Info
To set up Billing Approval for your firm, see Billing Approval.

 

Billing Method 

Located in Settings > System tab. 

Setting up a default billing method allows you to charge a standard rate for all bills issued by your organisation through Thread.  

You can choose to set up the default billing method as:  

  • -Rate per category – default rate per category, i.e., €300 for wills.  

  • -Rate by matter owner – everything in the matter will be charged at the matter owner's rate.  

  • -Rate by author – everything in the matter will be charged at the rate of the user logging their time 

  • -Fixed fee – no hourly rate will be applied. 


InfoTo set up your firm’s preferred Billing Method, see Default Billing Method – Admin.
 

 

 

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