How to Email Bills from Abacus Accounting

Prefer to email your bills rather than print and mail them? Read below for instructions on how to set up Abacus Accounting to email your bills when you are doing your billing process.

Index

• Setup Email
• Create your Billing Email Template
• Perform your Billing Run
• Add or Change an Email Address on a Matter
• Resend a Posted Bill

Setup Email

1. If you are using the Microsoft Outlook desktop client for your email, ensure that the Abacus Outlook Add-in is set up. If it is not installed and enabled, view this article for instructions: How to Install the Abacus Outlook Add-in
2. Inside Abacus Accounting, navigate to File > Setup > Workstation Options.
3. Click Email Settings at the bottom left.
4. If you are using Microsoft Outlook, check Use Outlook to send email.
   • We strongly recommend using Microsoft Outlook for sending emails through Abacus Accounting.
5. If you are NOT using Microsoft Outlook, you will need to enter the details for your email address and SMTP server. Contact your IT or email provider for your SMTP Server and Server Port, if you do not know it.
   
   

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Create your Billing Email Template

Follow the instructions here to edit your Billing Email Template: How to Edit The Billing Email Template. This is the standard template that will be used to compose the email to each client that has their bill attached.

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Perform your Billing Run

You must email your bills DURING the print bills process. If you post your bills BEFORE emailing them, emailing your bills cannot be done in bulk, and must be done individually!

Add your bills to your Print Bills billing run as normal. When you have added all of your bills to the Bill Selection window:

1. Set the Destination dropdown to Email.
2. Click Email.
3. If you see a prompt that indicates that there are no email addresses on certain matters, proceed to the section below.
   
   
   
   
4. Abacus will begin to email your bills. Note that you will not see any email messages appear on-screen, as the messages are sent automatically. However, you should see the sent emails in your Sent Items folder within Outlook afterward.

Outlook may appears with a warning prompt that states: “A program is trying to send an e-mail message on your behalf. If this is unexpected, click Deny and verify your antivirus software is up-to-date.”. If so, follow the instructions in this Microsoft knowledge base article If you are using AbacusLaw on-premise. If you are using AbacusLaw on Abacus Private Cloud, contact the APC Support team at 888-726-3339, and they will assist you with disabling this prompt.

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Add or Change an Email Address on a Matter

If any matters do not have an email address associated, follow the instructions below to add one:

1. Navigate to Matters > Matters.
2. Double-click a matter that you need to add an email address to.
3. Open the Address tab.
4. Fill in the E-Mail Address field.
   
   

This field will be auto-filled from the email address on the name record assigned as BILLTO when you first send the matter to Accounting. Ensure that this field is filled in on the client's name record before assigning a BILLTO on all future matters.

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Resend a Posted Bill

If you need to resend a bill to a client that you have already posted, follow these instructions:

1. Navigate to Matters > Matter Billing Activity
2. Select the Matter Number that you would like to resend the bill on.
3. Click Show Bills on the bottom button bar.
4. Highlight the relevant bill, and click Email Bill.
   
   

The bill will be emailed using a hard-coded email template, NOT the format that you set up within your Billing Email Template.