Overview

Invoice Finalising Controls allow firms to separate invoice approval from invoice posting.

Historically, users with Standard Billing permissions could approve, finalise, and unfinalise invoices. This meant many firms had lawyers posting invoices directly to the General Ledger as part of the approval process.

Invoice Finalising Controls introduce a separate level of billing permission so firms can control who is authorised to finalise and unfinalise invoices.

This helps:

• Protect the integrity of the General Ledger
• Separate approval responsibilities from posting responsibilities
• Restrict invoice posting to Finance, Accounts, or other authorised users

Important Change

Following this update, invoice finalisation and unfinalisation permissions are no longer included as part of the standard Lawyer role. Users who previously had the Lawyer role and were able to finalise or unfinalise invoices will no longer have this capability after the update.

If a user needs to continue finalising and unfinalising invoices, they must be assigned the new Biller role.

Finance and Accounts staff are generally not affected by this change, as users responsible for posting invoices should already have the appropriate billing permissions assigned.

Billing Permission Levels

There are four billing permission levels available:

The standard Lawyer role now uses Standard Billing permissions and cannot finalise or unfinalise invoices.

Users who need to post invoices should be assigned the Biller role. 

For detailed information about billing permission levels and role assignments, refer to the Roles & Permissions guide.

The Biller Role

The Biller role provides the ability to:

• Finalise invoices
• Unfinalise invoices
• Access the Ready to Post area
• Post approved invoices to the General Ledger

Best Practice: Assign the Biller role only to authorised Finance, Accounts, or billing staff.

Invoice Statuses

Invoices move through the following statuses:

How Approval and Posting Work

Standard Billing User

When a user with Standard Billing permissions approves an invoice:

1. The invoice moves from Pending to Approved

2. The invoice is not posted

3. The invoice appears in Ready to Post

4. A user with the Biller/Accounts role must finalise it

Standard Billing users cannot finalise or unfinalise invoices.

Biller User

When a user with the Biller role approves an invoice:

• The invoice can be approved and posted in a single step, depending on firm settings (see below)
• The user can also unfinalise invoices where required

Finalise Invoice on Approved

A setting is available in Firm Settings → Finalise Invoice on Approved.

Enabled

When enabled:

• A Biller approving an invoice will approve and finalise it in one action
• The invoice immediately becomes Posted

A Standard Billing user can still approve invoices, but they will remain in Approved status because they do not have finalisation permissions.

Disabled

When disabled:

• Approval and posting are always separate actions
• All approved invoices move to Ready to Post
• A Biller/Accounts must manually finalise the invoice before it is posted

Even if the approver is a Biller, the invoice will remain in Approved status until manually finalised.

Ready to Post

Ready to Post contains invoices that have been approved but not yet posted.

Access to this area is restricted to users with an Accounts role or the Biller role.

From Ready to Post, a Biller can:

• Review approved invoices
• Finalise invoices
• Control when invoices are posted to the General Ledger

This allows firms to separate invoice approval from financial posting where required.

Approval Workflows

Approval workflows determine who can approve invoices.

Invoice Finalising Controls determine who can finalise and post invoices.

These are separate controls and can be configured independently.

Approval Groups can be used to simplify approval workflow management and reduce administration when staff change roles.

Best Practices

• Assign the Biller role only to authorised users responsible for posting invoices.
• Use Standard Billing permissions for lawyers who should approve invoices but not post them.
• Review invoices before finalising, as posting updates the General Ledger.
• Use Ready to Post when invoice approval and financial posting should be separate responsibilities.
• Consider disabling Finalise Invoice on Approved where additional financial review is required before posting.
• Regularly review who has been assigned the Biller role.