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Time, billing and client funds

Bill legal work in Hayat Legal — the settings (default hourly rate, time increment, invoice due days, tax on fees, reminders, client portal, accounts), the timesheet, matter expenses paid by the firm or from client funds, invoices from unbilled time and expenses with a write-down and a fee line through Sales, pay links and receipts, cancelling an invoice, client funds (trust / retainers) with deposits, refunds and applying them to an invoice with the client's approval, the five reports, account codes and what posts where.

Recording your own time and expenses needs legal.time. Rates for others, billing, receipts, client funds and write-offs need legal.manage.

Settings

Open Legal settings:

Setting	Default	Means
Default hourly rate	10,000	Used when neither the team member nor the matter has a rate
Time increment (minutes)	6	Hours are rounded up to this step (1, 5, 6, 10, 15 or 30); 6 minutes = tenths of an hour
Invoice due in (days)	14	Due date of new invoices
Professional fees are taxable (standard rate)	Off	On: sales tax on services is added to fees; disbursements stay exempt
Hearing reminder (days before)	2	Staff notifications and the client's hearing reminder
Deadline reminder (days before)	7	Staff notifications
Client portal by link (my.hayaterp.com/legal/…)	On	See The client portal
Accounts	4791, 1791, 2791, 6791	See Account codes

Press Save settings.

Time

Every lawyer records their time daily. Open Timesheet — your week, with a total per day — or the matter's Time & expenses tab, and Add time:

Field	Fill
Matter
Date, Hours	e.g. 1.5 — rounded up to the time increment
Work done	What you did: Drafted written statement, Appeared — evidence of PW-2
Billable	Untick for internal or courtesy work
Lawyer, Rate	Only managers can record time for someone else or change the rate

The amount is hours × rate. An entry stays Unbilled until it goes on an invoice; only unbilled entries can be edited or deleted (your own, or anyone's with legal.manage). Write off (legal.manage) drops an entry you will not bill. Mine only on the timesheet shows just your entries.

Expenses

Open Matter expenses or the matter's Time & expenses tab and Add expense:

Field	Fill
Matter, Date, Amount, Description
Kind	Court fee, Filing, Stamp, Travel, Expert, Courier or Other
Recover from the client (billable)	Tick to bill it on the next invoice
Paid from	Firm (your cash or bank) or Client funds (the money you hold for the client)
Method, Reference	How it was paid

Paid from	Billable	Accounts
Firm	Yes	Disbursements recoverable until it is invoiced
Firm	No	Matter expenses (your cost)
Client funds	—	Taken from the client's funds; never billed again

Write off a billable expense you will not recover; it moves to matter expenses.

Bill a matter

On the matter's Billing tab (legal.manage) you see everything unbilled: time with hours and value, billable expenses, the suggested fee and — for fixed fees — how much is already billed.

Tick Bill everything unbilled, or tick the time and expense entries to include.
Optional: a Write-down on time % to reduce the time value (e.g. 10).
Optional: a Fee line amount and Fee line label — the fixed fee, this month's retainer, or the contingency fee.
Check the Date and Due date, add Notes, and press Create invoice.

Hayat posts one Sales invoice to the client with a line for professional fees, the fee line, and one disbursement line per expense kind. The time and expenses are marked Billed with the invoice number.

Invoices and receipts

Legal invoices lists every invoice (filter by Status — Open, Paid, Cancelled — and Client) with total, paid and balance.

Pay link → Create link makes an online payment link for the balance (or an amount you type) to send the client. The client can also pay from their portal.
Record receipt: Amount, Method (Cash, Card, JazzCash, Easypaisa, Raast, Bank transfer, Cheque or Pay order), Reference (needed for card, cheque and transfer), Date. A receipt from the client's page can go to one invoice or be spread over their open invoices.
Cancel an invoice only when nothing is paid on it and no client funds were applied. Its time and expenses go back to unbilled.

Client funds

Client funds are money you hold for the client — an advance against fees, a retainer deposit, money for court fees. They are a liability, never income, until applied to an invoice with the client's approval.

Action	Where	Means
+ Deposit	Client page	Money received: Amount, date, Method, Reference, optional Matter, notes
Refund	Client page	Money returned to the client — not more than they have
Paid from: Client funds	An expense	A court fee or cost paid out of their money
Client funds (apply)	An open invoice	Pay the invoice from their money

Applying client funds to an invoice needs a record of the client's approval:

On the invoice press Client funds.
Type the Amount (not more than the funds held or the balance).
Fill Approved by (client) — who agreed — the Approval method (Written, Email, WhatsApp, Signed letter or Verbal (recorded)), the Approval reference (e-mail date, letter no.) and Approved on.
Save. The invoice is paid by that amount and the approval is kept on the transaction.

Client funds in the menu shows every client's received, paid out and held amounts. Each movement is numbered LTR-….

Reports

Open Legal reports, choose the Report and From / To, then Run.

Report	Shows
Work in progress (unbilled)	Per matter: unbilled hours, time value, expenses, total, the oldest entry and its age
Billing & collection realisation	Per lawyer: hours, value worked, billed, written off, unbilled, billing realisation %; totals with invoiced, collected and collection realisation %
Hearings this week	Today and the next 7 days: matter, client, date, time, court, purpose, lawyer
Matter profitability	Per matter: fees, disbursements billed, collected, unrecovered expenses, hours, time value, contribution, effective hourly rate
Lawyer utilisation	Per lawyer: hours, billable, non-billable, value and utilisation % against working hours (Mon–Fri × Hours per day, 8 by default)

Hayat Reports (see Hayat Reports) has two Hayat Legal datasets — matters and time — for your own charts and dashboards.

Account codes

Hayat Legal adds these accounts to your chart the first time it needs them. Each can be pointed to another account in Legal settings.

Code	Account	Kind	Used for
1791	Disbursements Recoverable from Clients	Asset	Firm-paid billable expenses until invoiced
2791	Client Funds Held in Trust (Retainers)	Liability	Client advances and retainers held
4791	Legal Fees	Income	Professional fees invoiced
6791	Matter Expenses (not recovered)	Expense	Firm-paid expenses not billed, and write-offs

What posts where

Event	Accounts
Invoice	Sales invoice Dr Receivable / Cr Sales (+ tax); then fees moved to Legal fees 4791 and disbursements to Disbursements recoverable 1791
Firm pays a billable expense	Dr Disbursements recoverable 1791 / Cr Cash or bank
Firm pays a non-billable expense	Dr Matter expenses 6791 / Cr Cash or bank
Billable expense written off	Dr Matter expenses 6791 / Cr Disbursements recoverable 1791
Client funds deposit	Dr Cash or bank / Cr Client funds 2791
Expense paid from client funds	Dr Client funds 2791 / Cr Cash or bank
Client funds refund	Dr Client funds 2791 / Cr Cash or bank
Client funds applied to an invoice	Dr Client funds 2791 / Cr Receivable (a Sales receipt)
Receipt from the client	Dr Cash / bank / wallet / Cr Receivable (Sales receipt)
Invoice cancelled	Reversed in Sales and in Hayat Legal's moves

Invoices use service items made on first use: LEGAL-FEES (exempt) or LEGAL-FEES-T (taxable, when fees are taxable) and LEGAL-DISB (disbursements, exempt). Document numbers: LCL client, MAT matter, LTR client funds; invoices and receipts carry the Sales numbers.