Why a posted bill never changes

The temptation to edit

A client rings to say the bill has the wrong matter reference, or that two hours of drafting were agreed as free. The quickest fix is to open the bill, change the line and send it again. In most practice software that is one click.

The trouble is that the first bill has already left the building. The client has a copy, the firm's books recorded the fee on the day it was issued, and the tax on it became due at its tax point. Change the bill in place and three records disagree about what happened, with nothing to say which one is right.

What a posted bill carries

When a bill posts, several things happen at once and none of them can be undone quietly:

• It takes the next number in an unbroken sequence, so a missing number is visible to anyone who looks.
• The fee and the tax are written to the ledger as a journal on the bill's date.
• The time and disbursements it charged are locked, so they cannot be billed twice.
• The tax is worked out at the rates in force on its tax point.

For those reasons Dangana treats a posted bill as fixed in every field. Nothing in the product, and nothing sent straight to the database, can change it.

Correcting it properly

A mistake is corrected with a credit note against the bill: all of it, or an amount off particular lines, with a reason chosen from the firm's own list and explained in words. The credit note has its own number and its own journal, and it takes the tax off at the rates of the original bill's tax point, even if the rates have changed since. Where the bill charged time that should be billed again, the person issuing the credit note chooses which entries go back into work in progress. Nothing goes back on its own.

If the bill was simply wrong, credit it in full and post a fresh one. The client's statement then shows the first bill, the credit note and the replacement, which is exactly what happened.

Money the client will not pay

A balance the client will never pay is a different thing from a mistake. It is written off as bad debt, with a reason, and above the firm's threshold it waits for a second person to approve it before anything posts. The write-off analysis then shows what the firm has given up, and where.

Why it matters

A bill that can be edited after it is sent is a bill nobody can fully trust, including the partner who approved it. Keeping posted bills fixed, and making every correction a record of its own, means the answer to "what did we bill and why" is always on file.