Billing Automation
Automatically log time entries when specific events occur so no billable time slips through the cracks.
Why this matters
You generate a report. You generate an invoice. You move a file to "Inspection Completed." Each of those actions takes a predictable amount of your time, and each one should produce a time entry on the appraisal. In practice, half of them never get logged. You move on to the next thing and forget. End of month, your billable hours are noticeably lower than the work you actually did.
Billing automation closes that gap. Pick the events that match billable activities for you, tell the app how much time each event represents, and the time entry shows up automatically every time. You can still edit individual entries when a case took longer than the default, but the baseline is captured without you thinking about it.
The customers who tell us this feature changed their billing are the ones who used to round down on invoices because they did not trust their own time logs. With auto-logging in place, the data is real and you can bill confidently.
Billing automation removes the manual step of logging time for predictable activities. When a trigger event occurs - like generating a document or moving an appraisal to a new status - AwardLettr automatically creates a time entry on the appraisal.
Common Use Cases
Setting Up Billing Automation
Go to Account Settings > Workflow
Navigate to your account settings and open the Workflow section.
Open Billing Automation
Click on the Billing Automation card to expand or open the configuration panel.
Click "Add Rule"
Create a new automation rule.
Select a Trigger
Choose the event that should trigger the time entry. Options include status changes, document generation, and more.
Configure the Time Entry
Set the activity type, default hours, and any notes to include on the auto-logged entry.
Save the Rule
The rule is active immediately. The next time the trigger event occurs on any appraisal, the time entry will be logged automatically.
Available Triggers
- Status changed to a specific status (e.g., Inspection Completed)
- Document generated (e.g., report, award letter, invoice)
- Inspection booking approved
What Gets Auto-Logged
Each rule creates a time entry with the activity type and hours you configured. The entry is added to the appraisal it was triggered on, dated at the time the event occurred.
Review Auto-Logged Entries
Managing Rules
Your billing automation rules are listed in Account Settings > Workflow > Billing Automation. You can enable, disable, edit, or delete any rule at any time. Disabled rules are preserved but will not fire until re-enabled.
Avoid Duplicates