We want to emphasize that when a contact is created at the Client-level, you DO NOT need to create that contact again at the Matter-level if they are the ones receiving the invoices. We often find many of our users create a duplicate contact at the Matter-level, and this creates issues when an address or phone number changes, as the user ends up facing multiples of the same contact but some with outdated details.
To add contacts at the Client-level, click on Clients>Clients & Matters>[client name]>Contacts>New Contact. We recommend you do save under Client-level contacts, to avoid the issue of duplicates discussed above.
When saving a new contact, whether it is under the client name or the matter name, you will get four options regarding the type of contact being created.
This is the hierarchy in which the invoice will fetch contact information:
- Matter contact > Type ‘Optional Invoice’.
- Matter contact > Type ‘Main’.
- Client contact > Type ‘Optional Invoice’.
- Client contact > Type ‘Main’.
So, to summarize, if you have saved a contact as type ‘Main’, this contact will be the one used in invoices, unless you also have an ‘Optional Invoice’ contact, which will always supersede a ‘Main’ contact. A ‘Main’ contact would be, for example, the president of a company. An ‘Optional Invoice’ contact would be, for example, the accounting department of that company where the president wants the invoices to be sent to. Any contacts listed under ‘Related Party’ or ‘Other’ are for informational purposes only, and will not appear on an invoice.
If contact details are missing at any of the above levels, the system will continue to go down the list in that order to try to fetch the contact details.
If you’d like TimeSolv support for more help in understanding the differences between a Matter-level contact and a Client-level contact, please call 1.800.715.1284 or schedule a FREE 30-minute session now!