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How do I automatically apply a retainer payment to a new invoice?
How do I automatically apply a retainer payment to a new invoice?

Applying a retainer payment to your new invoice.

PracticePanther Help Center avatar
Written by PracticePanther Help Center
Updated over a week ago

Automatically applying a credit using your client's trust account to pay off their invoices is easy.

Please watch this video or follow the steps below:

Make sure that you already added the retainer amount to the contact and or matter. To add the retainer amount, follow the steps bellow. If you already added the retainer amount, scroll down to "Generate an invoice for the contact and or matter".

1) Click the "New" button at the top of your screen (or the green "New" button, if you're in a contact or matter), and select "Payment". 

2) Select "Add a Retainer", and choose "Add a Payment" (or you can choose "Request Payment" or "Charge a Card" to process the payment through LawPay. Click here for more information on our LawPay integration).

3) Assign the trust payment to a contact and or matter. If you selected the green "New" from within a contact or matter, you can skip this step, as the payment will automatically be assigned to a contact and or matter. 

4) Fill everything out (you can use the notes field for the check number), and hit "Make Deposit". 

5) You'll now be able to see the added trust money in the contact and or matter.

Generate an Invoice for the contact and or matter

1) Click the "New" button at the top of your screen (or the green "New" button, if you're in a contact or matter), and select "Invoice".

2) Select "One Invoice" (or "Multiple Invoices", if you're doing batch invoicing). 

3) Assign the invoice to a contact and or a matter. You can skip this step if you created the invoice through the green "New" button from within a matter or a contact. 

4) Enable the "Use Trust Account Balance To Pay This Invoice" toggle, and hit "Save". 


What happens now? 

PracticePanther will automatically apply the available trust balance to your invoice. 

You can also see the remaining trust balance in the contact or matter, through the financial summary at the top of the page, or by clicking on the "Payments" tab. For a step-by-step guide on checking how much retainer a certain client has, click here.

Notice how PracticePanther reflects two payments for this transaction. One that indicates money leaving the trust account (in red), and one that indicates a deposit in your operating account (in green). 

Pro-tip 1:
You can also generate multiple invoices at once, and apply trust balances to every invoice. For more information on batch invoicing, please see this article. To automatically apply a trust balance to your invoice, always make sure to enable "Use Trust Account Balance To Pay This Invoice".

Pro-top 2:
You can always apply a trust and or retainer balance to an invoice at a later time. Just hover over the retainer deposit payment with your mouse, and select "Pay Invoice", through the menu that pops up right under it. 


Enjoy! 

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