Payment plans are an incredibly useful and time-saving element of the Lawmatics Time & Billing module. Online Payment Plans allow you to use our Auto Pay option, charging future installments for that invoice automatically. For firms who want to offer their clients more flexibility of payment, use this feature to set up invoice installments to be paid over time on a fixed cadence.
To set up a payment plan, you will first begin by creating a new invoice. Learn more about creating invoices here.
When creating your invoice select the Allow Installments toggle, shown below, to add a payment plan to your invoice:
Of course we’ve made this feature highly customizable, allowing you to create unique terms for each individual invoice as needed. This includes setting a start date, installment period, initial payment amount, and the number of installments. You will see all of these options near the bottom left corner in the image above.
The system will automatically calculate the installment amount based on the total invoice amount and the number of installments. You can also override this calculation and enter a manual installment amount, and opt to Add Remainder to End if needed.
Should a client decide to submit a payment larger than the balance due per installment, the difference will be applied towards the total invoice amount and will be reflected in the final installment. Any payments towards a Payment Plan can be entered manually, or collected via LMPay.
Understanding the Installment Fields
Plan Start Date — The date the installment plan begins. All payment due dates are calculated from this anchor date.
Installment Period — How often payments occur (weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.). This controls the spacing between due dates starting from the plan start date.
First Payment Amount — An optional custom amount for the first installment. Useful for collecting a deposit or down payment. If set, the remaining balance is divided among the remaining installments.
Number of Installments — The total number of payments in the plan, including the first payment.
Installment Amount — The recurring payment amount applied to installments after the first. If no custom first payment is set, this applies to all installments. The system calculates this automatically based on the total, but you can override it manually.
Add Remainder to End — If the invoice total doesn't divide evenly into equal payments, enabling this option adds any remaining cents to the final installment rather than distributing rounding across multiple payments.
How the fields work together
The start date and installment period define your payment calendar — changing the start date shifts the entire schedule, and changing the period changes the spacing between payments.
The total is divided using the first payment amount, installment amount, and number of installments. If a custom first payment is set, the remaining balance is split across the remaining installments. If no first payment is set, the total is divided evenly across all installments.
Example: $20,450 invoice, starting June 1, monthly, 5 installments, first payment of $6,000, "Add Remainder to End" enabled → Payment 1 (June 1): $6,000. Payments 2–4: $3,000 each. Payment 5 (final): $5,450 — the standard installment amount plus the remaining balance to bring the total to exactly $20,450.
Not yet using LMPay and Lawmatics Time & Billing?
Click here to learn how to get started with that registration process, and email us at [email protected] to add these features to your active Lawmatics account.