How to Charge Late Fees/Interest on Bills

Abacus Accounting provides the capability to automatically charge a late fee on prior balances carrying over from a previous billing cycle. Read on for instructions on how to set it up, and how it works.

Index

• How the Late Charge Rate Works
• How to Set a Late Charge Rate Globally
• How to Set a Late Charge Rate per Matter
• How to Manually Add Late Fees/Interest for Past Billed Items
• Compound Late Fees/Interest

How the Late Charge Rate Works

The percentage specified for the late fee will be applied to the next bill, but will only be calculated from fees and costs where the following are true:

• The client has already been billed for the charges.
• The charges are older than 30 days.
• A corresponding client payment has not paid the charges since the last bill.

How to Set a Late Charge Rate Globally

Set Rate for NEW Matters

1. Inside Abacus Accounting, navigate to File > Setup > Company Preferences.
   • You must have the Administrator security profile in AbacusLaw by CARET to be able to view Company Preferences.
2. Under Rates, set the Late Charge Rate %.
   
   

This will set the late charge percentage rate on all NEW matters to default to this, but will not change any existing matters.

Set Rate Globally for Existing Matters

1. Navigate to File > Utilities > Global Database Changes.
2. Change Select Table and Field to Change to Matters Database – Interest Rate.
3. Set your desired rate in the field for Change the selected field to.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Done. On each confirmation prompt that appears, click Yes.

You can always set a different rate (or no rate) on certain matters by following the steps below.

How to Set a Late Charge Rate per Matter

1. Navigate to Matters > Matters.
2. Double-click on the matter that you would like to set the late charge on.
3. In the window that appears, click the Rates tab.
4. Open the Tax, Intt, Admin & Disc Rates sub-tab (at the top).
5. Set your desired rate at Late Charge Rate %.
6. Click Save.
   
   

How to Manually Add Late Fees/Interest for Past Billed Items

See this article for more information on how to manually enter late fees for previous bills.

Compound Late Fees/Interest

See this article for more information on how to set late fees to compound.