QuickBooks Online in Actionstep's Practice Pro + Accounting plan

Actionstep offers an integration with QuickBooks Online that will allow you to do your Billing, trust accounting and general matter management in Actionstep and have all your accounting information automatically updated in QuickBooks Online.

The integration works slightly differently for an Actionstep system set to our Practice Pro + Accounting plan than it does for those on an Express or Practice Pro plan. In this article, we will explain why it works differently and how you can configure and control that integration. 

An overview of how QuickBooks Online integrates with Actionstep Practice Pro + Accounting

When you are using Actionstep on an Practice Pro + Accounting plan, you will have a built-in General Ledger in your Actionstep already. You can use this for all your accounting needs but some users prefer to use QuickBooks Online being what they are used to, what their accountant support or for other reasons. 

When you integrate your Practice Pro + Accounting system with QuickBooks Online, the transactions you enter will still be posted to Actionstep's general ledger but the integration will create duplicates of those transactions to appear in your QuickBooks Online account.

Important information you need to know about the Integration with Actionstep and QuickBooks Online on Practice Pro + Accounting

Before you integrate, please make sure you read and understand the following on how the integration works.

1. The integration is one way only, from Actionstep to QuickBooks. When you create an invoice in Actionstep it will create an invoice in QuickBooks. When you create a payment in Actionstep for that invoice, it will create a payment in Quickbooks against that invoice. If you create an invoice in QuickBooks, it does NOT create an invoice in Actionstep. If you pay an invoice in QuickBooks, even an invoice that was originally created in Actionstep, it does NOT create a payment in Actionstep. 

    

   NOTE

   The Actionstep Integration with QuickBooks is built to allow you to do your Billing and Trust Accounting in Actionstep and have the Accounting information updated in QuickBooks. 

2. Not all Accounting transactions you are used to entering into Actionstep will be pushed through to QuickBooks. 

   The following accounting transactions are pushed through to QuickBooks Online:

   1. Sales and Purchase information such as the bills you send to clients, Vendor invoices and Credit notes.
   2. Payments to those Sales and Purchase transactions such as payments to your client bills or vendor invoices.
   3. Bank to bank transfers 
   4. All Trust transactions.

   The following are accounting transactions that are not pushed through to QuickBooks Online:

   1. Bank deposit or withdrawals. There are not payments to invoices but on off deposit or withdrawals.
   2. General Journal entries.

3. General Retainers are not currently supported with QuickBooks Online. If you have General Retainers configured, you will have to unconfigure them. To be able to do this, you will need to remove any retainer balances from your maters. 

    

4. Once you are linked with QuickBooks Online, Actionstep will mark each transaction as 'locked'. We do this so that an Actionstep user does not make changes to the transactions in Actionstep and not have QuickBooks not reflect that change. There is a process where you can unlock transactions to be able to edit them though. See Quickbooks Online Integration- Correcting Errors for more details on how to do that.

    

5. Transactions will only flow through to QuickBooks Online after you integrate the systems. Only new transactions will be pushed through. Any existing invoices, account balances or payments you have made in Actionstep, will not be created in QuickBooks. Only new transactions you create. Once you integrate, you may want to consider moving any open invoices back into draft and saving them again. By saving them again, you will push them through to QuickBooks. Any partially paid invoices will either have to have the payments removed, moved back into draft, reposted and re-paid or you will have to ensure that you deal with those payments in QuickBooks separately from Actionstep.

    

6. While Actionstep support having multiple divisions for its built in accounting, it's integration with QuickBooks does not support more than one division. You cannot link a different division to a different QuickBooks Account. 

Integrating Actionstep Practice Pro + Accounting with QuickBooks Online

There are two stages to integrating Actionstep Practice Pro + Accounting with QuickBooks Online. The first is where you authorize Actionstep as allowed to integrate with your QuickBooks, the second is mapping items between the two systems.

The mapping process takes a bit longer but is important. As both Actionstep and QuickBooks have their own general ledger, currencies, and sales taxes, it is important to map the two together. By doing this, you ensure that a transaction in Actionstep coded to a certain general ledger account with a certain amount of tax is processed in QuickBooks Online with the correct general ledger account and tax code.

Authorizing Actionstep with QuickBooks Online

Authorizing is the process where you agree within QuickBooks to allow Actionstep to post transactions to it. This is started from within Actionstep.

NOTE

You will need Admin access for both Actionstep and QuickBooks Online to do this. 

You will need Actionstep Admin access to get to the screen where the integration is triggered.

It is important that you have Admin access to QuickBooks Online for this process. When you log into QuickBooks Online (covered below) the permissions of the account you use will be the permissions that Actionstep has within QuickBooks. If you log in with an account that can only post bills but not payments, then Actionstep will have a similar restriction. 

To authorize the integration, log into your Actionstep account and go to the Admin screen by clicking on the button in the top right of Actionstep.  From the Admin screen, choose Accounting. On the right-hand side of the screen choose Connect to QuickBooks. 

Admin > Accounting > Connect to QuickBooks.

You will be redirected to the QuickBooks log in page where you should enter your login details. You will be asked to authorize Actionstep, please do so. Actionstep may take a moment to update with details from QuickBooks, then you will be redirected back to the QuickBooks mapping screen in Actionstep.

Mapping Actionstep and QuickBooks

During the mapping process, you will take accounts that are in Actionstep and map them to the equivalent account in QuickBooks. 

Before you get to mapping, let's have a look at what is on the screen. Its made up of four parts. To the left are sections for how the Synchronization will work, The GL account Map and Sales Tax Map.

To the right of the screen, is all the General Ledger (GL) accounts from your QuickBooks Account. As you map these accounts they will be crossed on this list so that you can see what has been mapped and what is left to be mapped.

Now, we can explore the three sections.

Synchronization

In this section, you set what types of transactions you will want to post through to QuickBooks and mapping the QuickBooks account that should be used for offsetting bank-to-bank transfers.

Sales Invoices	By switching this on, you are allowing the sales invoices (the bills you produce for your clients) to be pushed through to QuickBooks Online. As well as the invoices, any payments made to those invoices or credit notes for those invoices will be pushed through. Tip: TIP It is common for this to be on for all user who integrated with QuickBooks Online.
Supplier invoices	By switching this on, you are allowing supplier or vendor invoices (bills sent to your company to pay to someone else) to be pushed through to QuickBooks.  As well as the invoices, any payments made to those invoices or credit notes for those invoices will be pushed through. Tip: TIP Not all users will enable this with their QuickBooks integration, instead preferring to enter in their expenses directly into QuickBooks. However, if you are wanting to enter supplier invoices into Actionstep to bill the expense onto a customer, you will want to switch this on.
Trust transactions	By switching this on, any trust transactions that you create in Actionstep will push through to QuickBooks.  While you can allow your trust transactions to be pushed through to QuickBooks, it is important to note that you should not feel the need to complete trust reconciliations or any other transactions within QuickBooks. It is expected that your trust compliance will be completed in Actionstep. Tip: TIP It is uncommon for this to be on for all user who integrated with QuickBooks Online.
Bank transfers account	This is used when transferring funds from one bank account to another, including transfers between a trust and business bank account. As Actionstep and QuickBooks handle the transfer of funds slightly differently, it is worthwhile to use this account.

GL account Map

In this section, you will map the accounts in your General Ledger (GL) in Actionstep to equivalent accounts in QuickBooks. 

To do this you will use the Add row button to create a new row and within that row, select an account in Actionstep in the left-hand drop-down and the equivalent account in QuickBooks online in the right-hand column.

As you map these items you will find that some are required and some are not. You can save yourself some time by not mapping every account but the important ones. 

For example, if you are not going to be syncing trust transactions, you do not need to map your trust bank accounts. If you are going to be mapping your expenses, you do not have to map every expense account, just the ones that you are likely to use.

As a rule of thumb, map your

• Bank accounts
• Income accounts
• Accounts receivables

 

NOTE

You can see a full list of recommended accounts and why you might want to consider mapping them here: Detailed Explaination of QuickBooks / Xero Mapping for Practice Pro + Accounting.

The Mapping screen is clever. If you try to save the mapping without a crucial account mapped, it will warn you of that, like in the screenshot below. 

Sales Tax map

Similar to the section above, you use the Add row button to create a new row and within that row, select a tax code in Actionstep in the left-hand drop-down and the equivalent tax code in QuickBooks online in the right-hand column.