Products are the embodient of
ContactsLaw's
item-billing features. A product is a collection of
time and
fixed charges with a discernible commonality; they may represent a tangible deliverable such as a
document, or an intangible item such as
court proceedings. They can be used to represent billable items on a statutory
scale, or may represent fixed-price services within a
workgroup.
Properties of products
Every product belongs primarily to a workgroup. Every workgroup must have at least one, default product (which may, in this capacity, be shared with other workgroups). Products have the following additional properties:
- An alphanumeric product code, unique to the workgroup (or a collection of workgroups)
- A name, for identification and billing purposes (note: the name of the product should NOT include its charge policy or cost)
- An extended description (including formatting) to disclose the nature of the product
- An optional qualifier to indicate that a statutory scale applies to the product
- For both the billing scale and, optionally, the statutory scale, a date-dependant charge policy which encompasses:
- Whether the product is charged on an as-recorded, maximum cap or fixed amount basis
- Item number for the product on any relevant court scale
- Suggested, maximum, fixed or per-unit amount charged
- A discontinuation date, after which the product is no longer available
Additionally, products can be configured to automatically capture certain types of fixed charges through redirection. This is useful in the case where a product represents a particular fixed charge and certain rules govern how it is billed.
Fixed-amount products
ContactsLaw offers a range of options with regard to products which are charged at a fixed amount.
If a quantity is not permitted, the product is intended to be billed only once, usually at its conclusion. Subsequent attempts to bill the product will result in a warning.
If a quantity is permitted and the quantity figure is preserved, ContactsLaw will apply the quantity included in the cost estimate (or 1 if not previously quoted), charging at the amount quoted. Subsequent attempts to bill the product will decrement the quantity on the cost estimate.
If a quantity is permitted and the quantity figure is taken from either the total minutes/units recorded or the number of time/charge records assigned to it, ContactsLaw will ignore the quoted figure and recalculate the charge according to the policy.
Impact on files
At the
file level, time and charges accumilate against the default product unless otherwise directed. During file creation, a quote/estimate can be constructed from products and disbursements. Products can be quoted on a definite or indefinite basis, depending on how likely they are to occur throughout the file's life cycle.
Certain
activities direct charges to other products; for example, a
document template can be configured to charge the creation, editing and subsequent reading of a
document to a particular product.
At the point of
billing, the
member nominates which products to bill and has ultimate control over how much to charge. Varying the charge for a product will cause the time and charges to be adjusted on a pro-rata basis; if no charges are recorded against a product, time is written up on behalf of the
file manager.