Setting up late fees in Monograph helps encourage timely payments and keeps your billing process consistent. By applying late fees to overdue invoices, you can reinforce payment expectations, reduce delays, and maintain healthier cash flow for your projects.

There are two ways to set up late fees in Monograph, depending on how they need to be managed. Late fees can be configured at the firm level to apply consistently across all projects, or set up at the project level to tailor them for specific clients or projects.

This flexibility allows for a billing process based on individual agreements. Keep reading to learn how to enable each option.

Enabling this setting will apply a default late fee percentage to all projects, ensuring a consistent approach to handling overdue invoices.

To enable this setting, navigate to Settings > App Defaults, and under Invoicing & Expenses, locate the Late Payment Fees section. Toggle it on to apply interest-based late fees to invoices when previous invoices for a project are past due.

Some contracts and clients require unique terms, such as custom late fee percentages or no late fees at all. Keeping late fees flexible allows firms to align with these agreements and adapt to different project needs.

There are two ways firms can enable late fees; at the firm level, with specific percentages customized for individual projects, or only for selected projects without applying them across the entire firm.

Then to override the rate for a specific project:

This approach maintains a consistent standard while still allowing flexibility to adjust rates for individual clients or projects

This will apply late fees only to that project, without enabling them across the entire firm.

The interest is calculated based on the percentage set, using a 30-day monthly period. This percentage will be available for application across all projects by default, unless a different late fee percentage is configured at the project level.

Interest is calculated using a standard 30-day month. This means late fees are spread evenly across 30 days.

For example, a 3% monthly fee on a $1,000 invoice equals $30 per month, or about $1 per day once the invoice is overdue. So, if the invoice is 10 days late, the late fee would be $10. If it’s 30 days late, the late fee would be $30.

Once late fees are enabled for a project, if there’s an open (past-due) invoice when you create a new one, the system will automatically add a late fee in the Invoice Builder. You’ll see it under Additional Items after entering the required invoice details.

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The amount and related details are automatically calculated based on the late fee percentage set at the project or firm level.
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If you decide not to charge the late fee, you can simply remove it by clicking the X, or offset it by adding a credit (a negative line item). This allows you to acknowledge the past-due balance while choosing to waive the fee for the client.

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Click Next to review the invoice, including the late fee, in the Designer and Preview views. In the Description field, the past-due invoice will appear as a clickable link, allowing you to review the details behind the late fee.

Late fees applied in Monograph are synced to QuickBooks Online as a separate line item on the invoice.

Because of this, it’s important to ensure late fees are mapped to the correct service in QBO.

To set this up, navigate to Settings → QuickBooks Online, then locate the Late Fees section. From there, use the dropdown menu to select the appropriate QBO service that late fees should be mapped to.