How to use the Billing Guidelines Feature
The Billables AI Dashboard makes customizing your time entries seamless by allowing you to set billing guidelines that match your firm’s needs. Follow along to set up guidelines, configure client preferences, and use advanced matching features—ensuring accuracy and compliance every time you log activities.
Apply Guidelines to Personal Account (individual user)
Step 1: Open Settings and Access Billing Guidelines Navigate to the settings page. In the My Preferences tab, locate the billing guidelines section.
Step 2: Enter Personal Billing Rules Find the guideline text box and add any instructions that shape the format or style of your time entries. This ensures that Billables AI structures your activities as you expect.
Apply Guidelines at the Organization Level (for Admins)
If you’re an admin, switch to the Organizational Preferences tab within settings to apply guidelines across your whole firm. For firms with detailed requirements, upload a PDF of your guidelines for Billables AI to extract and enforce those rules.
Apply Client-Specific Billing Guidelines
Head to the Billing Codes page. Click the pencil icon next to a client to open their settings, where you can input rules unique to that client. This is ideal when client contracts require custom formatting or specifics.
Types of Guidelines (suggested)
Narrative Guidelines
Add rules for how time entry narratives should look. This can take shape in many forms
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Inclusions (e.g. add period to the end of the narrative)
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Excusions (e.g. do not use full names, do not use case names/numbers, do not include users CC'd in emails)
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Replacements (e.g. use "reviewed" instead of researched, use MO instead of Mary Orville)
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Stylistic (e.g. use present tense instead of past tense)
Hidden vs Shown Guidelines
Recall: Bilables AI will automatically hide entries of low relevance (much like spam filtering). You can reveal them anytime by toggling View All from the dashboard.
You can choose to always hide or show entries based on the activity that generated it, including calendar and video/audio calls. See image below for some examples.
Client-Matter Matching Guidelines
You can use billing guidelines to improve client-matter matching. Enter prompts to assist with matter assignment, and be sure to use the exact name of the client and matters as they appear on your billing codes page.
Auto-merging Entries Guidelines
Control how Billables AI merges entries (for example, all emails with a single client per day into one time entry).
Best Practices When Using Billing Guidelines
To improve the accuracy and efficiency of the billing guidelines feature, we suggest you follow these procedures:
- Use clear and plain sentences when inputting guidelines
- Use client/matter names as listed
- Avoid conflicting rules ("always start with re:" & "always start with a verb")
- List each rule on its own line
- Place your most important rules at the top
- Update your guidelines periodically (to see if they need to be changed)
Not ideal:
Ideal:
We hope this feature improves your Billables AI experience!