Lesson 3 of 6 · 12 min

Creating invoices

Build invoices from unbilled work and send them your firm's preferred way.

Lesson 3 of 6

MatterFirst builds invoices straight from a matter's unbilled work and sends them itself, the way your firm prefers: email with your bank details, email with a card payment link, the client portal, or a record published to Xero for your accountant to send.

Before you start

  • Unbilled time or disbursements on a matter (optional — you can also start a blank draft)

Two places invoices live

Create an invoice from a matter's Billing tab. Manage and send every invoice firm-wide from Billing (/app/billing), which also shows outstanding, overdue, paid-this-month, and draft totals at the top.

Send workflows

When you send an invoice the first time, MatterFirst asks who should send it and remembers the choice. There are two answers: MatterFirst emails the invoice from your own inbox, or MatterFirst publishes it to Xero and your team delivers it from there. If Xero is connected, the record syncs either way: that is a property of the integration, not a separate workflow to choose. Emailing needs your firm's email connected.

  1. 1

    Start an invoice from the matter

    On the matter's Billing tab, click New Invoice. The Create Invoice modal opens, ready to draft an invoice for this matter.

  2. 2

    Pull through unbilled work

    The modal defaults to 'Include unbilled time entries and disbursements'. Leave it ticked to auto-populate the draft from the matter's unbilled time and billable disbursements, or untick it to start a blank draft and add line items later. Create the draft.

  3. 3

    Manage invoices firm-wide

    Billing (/app/billing) lists every invoice with status filters and headline totals for outstanding, overdue, paid this month, and drafts. Open an invoice to review its line items and send it.

    Billing is the firm-wide hub for reviewing, filtering, and sending invoices.
  4. 4

    Choose how it is sent

    Open an invoice and choose who delivers it: MatterFirst emails it from your inbox with your bank details, or you publish it to Xero and send it from there. Your choice is saved for next time. Optionally, with Stripe connected, tick 'Also offer card payment' under Settings › Organisation to add a secure payment link to the invoice email; MatterFirst still sends the email itself, and Stripe only processes the card. Emailing needs your firm's email connected.

Tips & pitfalls

  • The include-unbilled option pulls both unbilled time and billable disbursements into the draft.
  • Sending by email needs your firm's email connected — set it up under Settings → Integrations.
  • MatterFirst remembers your send workflow, but you can change it later in Organisation settings.
  • Card payment is off by default. Most firms take payment by bank transfer, so turn it on only if online card payment is worth the processing fee to you.

Key takeaways

  • Invoices are created from a matter's Billing tab and default to including unbilled work.
  • Billing (/app/billing) is the firm-wide list with outstanding, overdue, paid, and draft totals.
  • Send workflows: MatterFirst email with bank details, MatterFirst email with a card payment link, client portal, or publish to Xero.
Tracking disbursements Setting up Xero sync

Put the lesson into practice.

Book a guided session and our team will help you configure MatterFirst for your own practice.

Book a session Back to the Academy