Overview

ℹ️ Feature Availability
The functionality described below may not yet be available in your environment. New features are released progressively and may be available to Pilot or Early Access customers before general availability.

Invoice Date Range Filtering provides greater control over the items included when creating Draft Invoices and Scheduled Billing.

Rather than including all eligible unbilled items up to the invoice date, users can define a billing period by specifying Bill From and Bill To dates. Only eligible items within that period are included on the invoice.

This is particularly useful where the invoice date differs from the period being billed. For example, an invoice dated 5 November may only include work completed between 1 October and 31 October.

Filter by Period allows you to define a Billing Period for manually created Draft Invoices. Bill by Date Range provides the same functionality for Scheduled Billing.

Benefits

• Separate the invoice date from the billing period.
• Create invoices for specific billing periods.
• Reduce manual removal of unwanted items.
• Improve billing accuracy.
• Support common monthly and periodic billing processes.
• Use the same billing period when generating Scheduled Billing invoices.

⭐ What's new

Invoice Date Range Filtering introduces:

• Filter by Period for Draft Invoices
• Bill by Date Range for Scheduled Billing
• Independent Billing Period and Invoice Date handling
• Category-based invoice creation
• Billing Period support in invoice templates

Creating a Draft Invoice Using Filter by Period

Navigate to:

Matter > Invoice+

The Invoice Header includes a Filter by Period option, allowing you to define a billing period using Bill From and Bill To dates.

When Filter by Period is enabled, the invoice header displays:

The Excluded Items Notification only appears when eligible billable items exist outside the selected billing period. If all eligible items fall within the selected period, no notification is displayed.

Billing Period Fields

If Bill To is left blank, Efimis automatically uses the Invoice Date as the end of the billing period.

The Invoice Date and Bill From/Bill To are independent values and may differ.

Example

Result:

Only eligible billable items dated between 1 October and 31 October are included on the invoice.

Default Behaviour

If no Filter by Period is specified:

• All eligible unbilled items are included.
• Existing invoice creation behaviour is maintained.

When a Filter by Period is specified:

• Only eligible unbilled items within the selected date range are included.
• Items outside the range are excluded.

Existing invoice creation behaviour is preserved whenever Filter by Period is not used.

Date Validation Rules

Billing periods are inclusive. Items dated exactly on the Bill From or Bill To date are included on the invoice.

Item Date Rules

The system uses different dates depending on the item type.

Only items that fall within the specified Bill From/Bill To are included.

Excluded Items Notification

When Filter by Period is enabled, Efimis displays an informational notification whenever eligible billable items fall outside the selected billing period.

The notification displays:

• Number of excluded items
• Total excluded value
• Breakdown by item type:
  • Fees
  • Disbursements
  • Cost Recoveries

The notification updates immediately whenever the Bill From or Bill To dates are changed, allowing you to see the impact before saving the invoice.

The notification only reflects items excluded because of the Bill From/Bill To. Items manually removed from the invoice are not included in the notification totals.

Editing the Billing Period

The Billing Period can be amended using Edit Header.

Any change triggers a confirmation prompt before recalculation occurs.

Updating the Billing Period

Prompt:

Items outside the specified Bill From/Bill To will be removed from this invoice. Eligible items within this range will be added. Do you wish to continue?

Clearing the Billing Period

Prompt:

Clearing the Bill From/Bill To will add all eligible unbillled items to this invoice. Do you wish to continue?

Invoice Date Validation

If the Invoice Date is amended and becomes earlier than the Bill To date:

An error is displayed:

Invoice date cannot be before the end of the specified Bill From/Bill To.

The invoice cannot be saved until the conflict is resolved.

Users must either:

• Update the Bill To date
• Revert the Invoice Date change

Add Unbilled Items

Where a Filter by Period has been applied, the same Bill From and Bill To dates controls which items are available through Add Unbilled.

Example

Invoice Date Range:

When Add Unbilled is selected:

• Only eligible items dated between 01/01/2026 and 31/01/2026 are available. If an eligible item was previously removed from the invoice, it may appear again in Add unbilled, provided it:
  • falls within the current billing period
  • remains eligible for billing

This prevents accidental inclusion of items outside the invoice period.

Creating New Items from an Invoice

Users can create:

• Time Entries
• Disbursements
• Cost Recoveries

directly from the invoice editor.

Default Date Behaviour

Users can amend the date before saving.

New items must fall within the selected Bill From/Bill To dates. Items outside the Date Range cannot be saved.

Error:

Item date must be within the invoice date range.

When creating new Time Entries, Disbursements or Cost Recoveries from the Invoice Editor:
If a Date Range exists, the item defaults to the Bill To date.
If no Date Range exists, the item defaults to the Invoice Date.

Invoice Templates

When Filter by Period is enabled, the selected Bill From and Bill To dates are available for use within invoice templates.

This allows firms to display the billing period separately from the invoice date.

This enables invoice templates to display the billing period separately from the invoice date where required.

Category-Based Invoice Creation

Category-Based Invoice Creation allows users to control which billing categories are included when creating a draft invoice.

Rather than creating a full invoice and manually removing items, users can choose the categories to include from the outset.

Available Categories

By default, all categories are selected.

Include in Draft Invoice

When creating a draft invoice, the Include in Draft Invoice section allows categories to be included or excluded using simple toggle controls.

Example Use Cases

• Cost Recovery only invoices
• Fee-only invoices
• Disbursement-only invoices
• Mixed billing arrangements

Users can still add or remove individual items after invoice creation.

Category-Based Invoice Creation may not be available in all environments. Contact your system administrator if the Include in Draft Invoice options are not available.

Live Summary

The invoice summary updates automatically as categories are selected or deselected.

The summary always displays:

• Fees
• Disbursements
• Anticipated Disbursements
• Cost Recoveries

When a category is excluded:

• The category remains visible.
• The displayed value changes to 0.00.

Blank Draft Invoices

If all categories are deselected:

A warning is displayed:

No categories have been selected, a blank draft invoice will be generated.

Users may continue and create the invoice.

This supports scenarios such as:

• Creating an invoice shell
• Adding a fixed fee manually
• Adding narrative content before billing items

Scheduled Billing

Bill by Date Range allows Scheduled Billing to include only billable items that fall within a selected relative Billing Period.

Bill by Date Range can be configured at:

• Settings > Matter Billing Defaults > Scheduler
• Matter > Update Details > Periodic Billing Schedule

If Bill by Date Range is enabled, select one of the available relative Date Range options.

If Bill by Date Range is not enabled, existing Scheduled Billing behaviour applies and all eligible unbilled items up to the Invoice Date are included.

Because Scheduled Billing runs repeatedly, Date Range options are relative rather than fixed dates.

When Current month is selected, the Billing Period ends on the Invoice Date rather than the last day of the current month. If you want to bill for a complete calendar month after month-end, use Previous month.

Category Selection

Scheduled Billing uses the same category selection options as manually created Draft Invoices.

By default, all billing categories are selected. You can choose which categories to include when generating scheduled invoices.

Available categories include:

• Fees
• Disbursements
• Anticipated Disbursements
• Cost Recoveries

At least one category must remain selected before the Billing Schedule can be saved.

If all categories are deselected, a warning is displayed and the schedule cannot be saved until one or more categories have been selected.

Best Practices

• Use Filter by Period Filtering when billing for a specific accounting period.
• Ensure Bill To dates align with your intended billing cycle.
• Review the Excluded Items Notification before finalising an invoice to ensure no eligible billable items have been unintentionally omitted.
• Use Category Selection to simplify invoice preparation.
• Use Billing Period fields in invoice templates where clients expect invoices to show the billing period.
• Retain all categories where no specific billing requirement exists.
• Review Scheduled Billing configurations regularly to ensure the selected Date Range aligns with your billing cycle. 
• Disable Bill by Date Range if you want Scheduled Billing to include all eligible unbilled items up to the Invoice Date.