Objective:
- Record a Payment that exceeds the amount due on the Bill in New Clio
- I Can't Apply an Overpayment on an invoice
- Can I record an overpayment on a bill?
- How to apply a payment that is higher than the invoice total
- Hold a credit for a client after an over payment
- How to Record an Overpayment on a Bill
- How to handle overpayments
Contents
Overpaying the Bill
Record a Transaction for the Full Amount Received
Apply Bill Payment and Record Overpayment Transaction Separately
Showing your Client's Account Information on Bills
When the overpayment is applied to the bill, the overage amount will be added to the Operating account, allocated to the client's Matter. The best practice for handling any overpayment of funds is to transfer them to your trust account, to be held in the client’s name. We recommend that you show the Client Account Payment information on bills so that your clients can see the overpayment amounts you are holding on their behalf.
Here are the steps to record an overpayment on bills:
- Open the bill and click Record Payment
2. Under the Source (at the top), choose Direct Payment
3. Under Payment (NOT under Payment Amount), add the total payment to reflect the overpayment
4. Click Record Payment
Please note that Clio will only accept overpayments if they are entered in the "Payment", not the "Payment Amount" field.
In this case, I added an extra $190.00 to the payment. Clio will record two payments, one for the amount due, and one for the overpayment amount.
The overpayment amount will also be included in the Operating Account Balance section near the bottom of the bill (here are the steps on how to show your Operating Account on bills). In this case, the Operating account is holding the $190 overpayment for the client.
Once the overpayment is applied, it will add the overage to the Firm's Operating account and allocate it to the Matter to be used on future bills.
You can track the funds from inside the Matter's Transactions tab.
You can absolutely leave the funds here if you like and use this amount to pay towards a future bill by following these steps: How to Record a Credit from an Overpayment on Another Bill
Or, if you would like to transfer these additional funds to the Trust Account for the Client or Matter, you can follow these steps: How to Transfer Client Funds from Operating to Trust?
Record a Transaction for the Full Amount Received
In this workflow, you would record the amount received in the Matter's Transaction tab first, then you would apply the payment to the bill. This is helpful if you need to have the funds added to a specific account such as a Trust account, and also if you have received the client payment before you are ready to work on your bills. When applying the funds to the bills, the specific "Source Account" that is holding the funds will need be selected instead of using the default "Direct Payment" option. Using the same example as above, let's create a transaction to reflect the full payment of $1,000 which includes the $190 overpayment.
- Go to the matter's Transactions tab
- Select the account where the funds need to be recorded from the dropdown on the left (right beside the YYYY-MM-DD fields)
- Click New transaction (on the right)
4. Complete the New Transaction form
5. Add a Description (optional and useful for tracking purposes)
6. Click Record transaction
Once saved, the Transactions page will show the new "Funds in" transaction and the current balance.
Next, go to the Bill, and click "Record Payment" as demonstrated previously.
Then click the Source field and select the account where the funds were previously recorded.
In this case, the funds are in "IOLTA trust (Matter)", and once selected I can see the "Funds Available in IOLTA Trust" section at the top right side of this window displays how much is in this Matter's IOLTA balance:
To complete the payment, enter the payment amount into the "Payment" field and click on "Record Payment": In this example, I am recording the payment of $810. The bill now shows that the payment of $810 was applied and that the balance owing is zero. In the Client Account section, the $190.00 overpayment is reflected as a balance in the IOLTA Trust.
Apply Bill Payment and Record Overpayment Transaction Separately
In this workflow, you would simply pay the bill normally using the Direct Payment default or other Source account. Then once applied, you would go to the Matter's Transactions tab and record the overpayment amount to the account of your choice.
Once inside the Bill,
- Click Record payment
- Under Source, choose Direct Payment
- Keep the Payment amount as displayed (equal to the total balance)
- Add a note in the Description field (optional)
- Click Record payment
The bill will be paid and any notes added regarding the payment will be visible in the Client Account section (if showing Account Details).
Next, record a Transaction in the Matter to the account of your choice to allocate the overpayment. In our example this will be $190.00:
The newly added transaction will now be allocated to the client's Matter Transactions subtab and will be available to draw from on any future bills.
You can also generate Client Ledger or Trust Ledger/Listing reports via the Reports tab to track the funds as needed.
Showing your Client's Account Information on Bills
Regardless of the workflow option you choose to track the overpayment, you will want to ensure that your Bill Theme is showing the Client Account information so that the overpayments are visible to your clients.
To access the Bill Themes section:
- Click the gear icon/Settings in the bottom left corner
- Click Billing
- Click Bill Themes (at the top)
- Click the image of the Bill Theme
- Click Statement of Accounts
- Click Client Account
- Click Account Summary (to show the balance in your Trust account) or Account Details (to show individual transactions)
- To show Operating account information, click the Include Operating Account History checkbox
