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 the way your firm prefers — plain email with bank details, the client portal, Xero, or a Stripe-hosted invoice.

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 how it should be delivered and remembers the choice: MatterFirst email with your bank details, publish to Xero, a Stripe-hosted invoice, or combinations that also keep Xero in sync. Emailing needs your firm's email connected; the Xero and Stripe options need those integrations 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 how to deliver it: email from MatterFirst with your bank details, publish to Xero, a Stripe-hosted invoice, or a combination that keeps Xero in sync. Your choice is saved for next time. Emailing needs your firm's email connected, and the Xero and Stripe options become available once those integrations are connected under Settings › Integrations.

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.

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, client portal, Xero, or a Stripe-hosted invoice.
Tracking disbursements Setting up Xero sync

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