Legal Billing: Record Work and Review the Bill

Match the Bill to the Charging Basis

Match each proposed charge to the work you agreed to perform and the basis on which you agreed to charge. Identify the client and matter, the relevant stage and any instructions changing the scope. Then find the applicable hourly rates, billing units or fixed-fee milestone and the treatment of external costs.

For time-based work, confirm which worker’s rate applies and how recorded minutes convert into chargeable units under the agreement. Keep actual duration visible even where the charging calculation uses units. For a fixed fee, establish that the agreed work or milestone has been completed. Time records can explain the work and inform supervision without replacing the fixed fee with an hourly calculation.

Compare the proposed bill with the latest estimate and earlier bills. A later instruction can change the work required, but the billing review must also identify any necessary updated disclosure. The Victorian regulator explains the costs-disclosure requirements, including consequences for a costs agreement and recovery where required disclosure is missing. Resolve that issue before treating the draft as collectible.

Keep the agreement and disclosure decision with the billing file. The costs agreement establishes the charging terms the reviewer applies here.

Record and Review Work Against the Matter Scope

Record work when it happens, with the matter identifier, worker, task date, duration and a description of the work performed. Legal time recording must let the supervisor distinguish separate tasks and locate the instruction or document behind the entry.

For financial disclosure work, a useful narrative might read, ‘Review statement-analysis report and prepare questions about transfers between the disclosed accounts’. A bare ‘financial review’ entry leaves the reviewer unable to tell which records were considered or what work followed. Ask the worker to clarify it from their records. Do not invent detail or hours to make an entry appear complete.

Keep these activities separate when reviewing the matter:

• The solicitor’s time considering the analysis and advising the client is the solicitor’s own work, assessed against the agreed terms.
• The external provider’s completed analysis is a separate service charge, supported by its instruction and invoice.
• Unrelated office administration belongs outside this matter’s bill. In the Victorian example, preparing or giving the bill itself cannot be charged to the client.

A supervisor must resolve duplicate imports, overlapping timers and inconsistent units before approval. Check whether ‘0.5’ means half an hour or a billing-unit quantity in the source record. Retain the original entry, the correction, its reason and the people who made and approved it. A write-off changes the proposed charge while preserving what was originally recorded.

The same controls apply when staff use billing software for law firms. Give corrections an attributable record and keep unapproved entries out of the issued version.

Check Disbursements and External Analysis Charges

Support each external cost with the instruction authorising it, the supplier’s evidence and an explanation of its benefit to the matter. Confirm whether the retainer permits that cost to be charged to the client and how it must appear on the bill. A supplier invoice establishes what the practice was charged. The agreement and applicable law determine the client’s charging treatment.

Match the supplier invoice to the correct matter and service period. Check whether the cost was already billed, paid directly by the client or included in a fixed fee. Resolve any credit, tax treatment or proposed mark-up before approval. Where authority or supporting evidence is missing, leave the charge out of the approved draft until the reviewer resolves it.

FinTrace saves legal teams hours of statement conversion and review by returning a searchable Excel ledger and a source-backed findings report. Its per-matter service fee is an external analysis cost to assess against the retainer. Keep that fee separate from the solicitor’s actual time considering the report and preparing advice.

Efficiency does not create extra hours worked. If an external service removes a manual review task, a time-based bill records the work the practice actually performs. A fixed-fee matter follows its agreed scope and charging terms. Record the benefit of faster analysis separately from the time entries used to calculate the bill.

Prepare and Approve the Client Bill

Prepare the client bill from the reviewed records, then approve the version that will actually be issued. Use this sequence so a corrected draft cannot bypass the final check.

1. Assemble the draft for the correct client, matter and billing period. Separate professional fees from external costs and identify earlier payments or credits relevant to the account.
2. Compare the draft with the scope, charging basis and latest estimate. Resolve missing disclosure, incomplete milestones or work awaiting authority before proceeding.
3. Check each charge against the corrected work record or supplier evidence. Confirm calculations, units and the applicable GST treatment.
4. Obtain the responsible reviewer’s approval. Preserve the approved version and the explanations for reductions or exclusions.
5. Read the client-facing descriptions. They must explain the work while protecting confidential information, particularly where a third-party billing platform receives them.
6. Add the applicable billing-rights information and identify the responsible principal. Check the permitted delivery method and retain evidence of issue.

In a hypothetical matter, a solicitor records 45 minutes reviewing a disclosure report. A timer import creates a duplicate 45-minute entry. The draft also includes an external analysis invoice and 15 minutes preparing the bill.

The supervisor removes the duplicate and the bill-preparation charge. The approved draft retains the original 45-minute review entry, with its agreed charging calculation. The external invoice remains only after its authority and charging treatment are confirmed. The correction record identifies the duplicate source and explains both exclusions, so the lower total can be reproduced later.

For the Victorian private-client example, the regulator’s billing guidance requires dispute options and relevant time limits with the bill. It also explains how to identify the responsible principal. The governing provisions include sections 186 to 192 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law and rule 73 of the Uniform General Rules. Other jurisdictions and excluded client categories need their applicable requirements.

Electronic billing adds submission controls to this approval process. Preserve required client identifiers, matter codes and charge fields when exporting to an e-billing system. Compare the uploaded or generated bill with the approved draft, including any descriptions shortened by field limits. For delivery by email in the Uniform Law example, obtain the client’s consent to that delivery method. The Legal Services Council explains the bill-delivery rules.

Record the submitted version and its transmission reference. If the system rejects a charge code or required field, retain the rejection, correct the problem and approve any changed charge before resubmission. Acceptance confirms the submission status. Record payment separately when it occurs.

Retain the Record and Handle a Billing Query

Retain a connected record of the issued bill, supporting entries, supplier vouchers and approval. Keep later credits, replacement bills and payment records tied to the same account. Give the approved charges to the team handling legal accounting with enough detail to post them without reconstructing the billing decision.

Before closing the billing review, choose a charge from the issued bill and trace it back to its work entry or voucher. Confirm that its charging basis and correction history explain the amount. Check that the issued version matches the approval and that any electronic rejection has a recorded resolution.

When a client queries a charge, locate the exact item and its supporting records first. Explain the task performed, the charging calculation and any correction. If a duplicate or wrong rate reached the issued bill, record the correction and provide the revised account or credit through the practice’s approval process.

In the Victorian example, a person entitled to assessment can request itemisation within 30 days after lump sum costs become payable. The practice must comply within 21 days of the request. Keep that request and response with the bill, and apply the relevant dispute deadlines independently of informal discussions.

If the disagreement concerns whether the costs are payable or reasonable and needs formal review, use the separate costs assessment route. Preserve the disputed bill and its supporting record so the issue can be considered without altering the original evidence.