Q: Why are the fees collected for a timekeeper different on the Total Fees Billed and Collected report compared to the Realization: Fees Collected Summary?

A:  The Total Fees Billed and Collected report shows fees collected as they have been allocated to the timekeepers who did the work. For an explanation of how this is done, see:

Help > Contents > Reports > Fees Billed and Collected

However, the realization reports are for the Billing Timekeeper, who may or may not have done the work.

In the extreme case, a senior attorney may be responsible for a matter (the Billing Timekeeper), but may give all the work to an associate who does the work. Any fees collected on the matter will show up for the associate on the Total Fees Billed and Collected report, but they will show up for the senior attorney on the Realization: Fees Collected Summary report.

It is also important to understand how client payments are handled by the fees billed and collected reports. In order to allocate fees to timekeepers, RTG Bills must know how much of each payment consists of fees (and not expenses, late charges, and taxes). If payments are entered with automatic allocation, which is the usual way, that determination is not made until the payment appears on a bill.

Therefore, payments that are received during the date range of the report, but have not yet appeared on a bill, will not be included in the timekeeper totals.  They show up as "unapplied payments" instead. Read more about this here: Payments not yet allocated.