Quickbooks Integration in ZenCase
You can enable Quickbooks in your firm settings to allow expense, invoices, payments, and trust transactions to get sent automatically to Quickbooks when created in ZenCase.
Be sure to Setup Quickbooks for Zencase for the best experience in Zencase before enabling Quickbooks.
Connect Quickbooks to ZenCase For Your Firm
In the top right corner, select the down arrow next to your name
In the navigation menu, select "Firm Settings"
On the Firm Settings page, click the "Integrations" tab
Under Quickbooks, click the "Settings" button
Click the "Connect" button
You will be redirected to the Quickbooks website and be prompted to login
Login to Quickbooks to confirm that you want to integrate with ZenCase
You will be redirected back to ZenCase integrations page.
Configure Quickbooks Integration in ZenCase For Your Firm
Once you've been redirected back to the ZenCase integration page for Quickbooks Online, then click the "Settings" button to configure the integration.
Additional Configurations
QuickBooks integration has two new configuration options to “Group Invoice Lines By Member/Class” and “Skip Zero Amount Invoices”.
When choosing to group invoice lines by member/class, ZenCase will push to QuickBooks 4 line items per member for fees, hard costs, soft costs and interest on the invoice when available.
When choosing to skip zero amount invoices, ZenCase will not push to QuickBooks any invoices that are $0 bill amount. Go to Firm Settings > Integrations > QuickBooks and click on Settings to enable on the new options.
Setup Accounts
First, you should configure the Accounts in ZenCase that align with the related Quickbooks Online Chart of Account.
Set the Following QuickBooks Accounts for Zencase:
Note: QuickBooks integration will now show a warning when you set the A/R account that you must ensure the selected A/R is the default A/R account in QuickBooks. The “default” A/R account in QuickBooks would be the A/R account that is debited when a new invoice is created.
Account Name | Account Type | Detail Type | Sub-Account |
Billed Fees | Income, Other Income | Service/Fee Income |
|
Checking | Bank | Checking |
|
Accounts Receivable (A/R) | Accounts Receivable (A/R) | Accounts Receivable (A/R) |
|
Accounts Payable (A/P) | Accounts Payable (A/P) | Accounts Payable (A/P) |
|
Client Cost Advanced - Paid | Accounts Payable (A/P) | Accounts Payable (A/P) | Accounts Payable (A/P) |
Client Cost Advanced - Pay When Paid | Accounts Payable (A/P) | Accounts Payable (A/P) | Accounts Payable (A/P) |
Unbilled Client Cost Advanced | Fixed Asset, Other Asset, Other Current Assets | Other Current Assets |
|
IOLTA | Bank | Trust Account |
|
Unallocated Funds | Other Current Liabilities, Long Term Liability | Other Current Liabilities |
|
Credits/Discounts/Write Offs | Expense | Other Business Expenses |
|
Soft Costs | Income | Service/Fee Income |
|
Interest | Income | Service/Fee Income |
|
Client Refunds | Accounts Payable (A/P) | Accounts Payable (A/P) | Accounts Payable (A/P) |
Firm Expense | Expense, Other Expense | Office/General Administrative Expenses |
|
Blackbook Expense | Expense, Other Expense | Other Business Expenses |
|
Here is an example of Quickbooks Accounts with the Type and Detail Type
Setup Vendors
Next, you will also need to add a Firm Vendor in which to track expenses that are tied to the firm.
In QuickBooks, create a new vendor for your firm vendor.
In ZenCase, under the "Vendors" > "Firm Vendor" dropdown, select your vendor.
Vendors created in ZenCase will be created in QBO automatically, if they doesn't exist, once a transaction is sent to Quickbooks Online (i.e., create an expense, update expense, etc).
Customers created in ZenCase will be created in QBO automatically, if they doesn't exist, once a transaction is sent to Quickbooks Online (i.e., create an invoice, create trust transaction, etc).
Setup Expense Accounts
Finally, you will setup Expense Accounts in ZenCase that align with the Quickbooks Online Chart of Accounts.
There are 3 types of expenses you can send to QuickBooks from ZenCase.
Client Expense: These are expenses you create from the Time & Expenses list page that will be added to client invoices and billed to the client. A QuickBooks Bill will get created for the client/customer account. The client expense will be available in ZenCase from the Time & Expenses list page.
Firm Expense: These are business expenses incurred to operate your business, such as inventory, payroll, and rent. Typically these are entered directly into QuickBooks, however using the quick add "+" icon in the top header bar near your name, you can send the firm expense to QuickBooks without having to leave ZenCase. Click the "+" icon, then "Add Expense" and you will see a dropdown option to choose "Firm" for the expense type. A QuickBooks Bill will get created, however the firm expense will not be available in ZenCase.
Blackbook Expense: These are tax deductible business expenses. Typically these are entered directly into QuickBooks, however using the quick add "+" icon in the top header bar near your name, you can send the blackbook expense to QuickBooks without having to leave ZenCase. Click the "+" icon, then "Add Expense" and you will see a dropdown option to choose "Blackbook" for the expense type. A QuickBooks Bill will get created, however the blackbook expense will not be available in ZenCase.
What is a blackbook expense? A blackbook expense is a tax deductible expense that the firm has not decided to reimburse as a "firm expense" – but it allows partners to get a tax benefit. For example, a partner will take a reduction in salary equal to the amount of a reimbursable blackbook expense. The firm will take the tax deduction for the expense and reimburse the partner. The expense reimbursement is technically not income to the partner. This means that a partner can effectively pay for expenses that would otherwise be tax-deductible with pretax rather than post-tax money.
When an client Expense is created in ZenCase, then a QBO Bill will be created.
When an Invoice is created in ZenCase and sent to QBO, then the time entries and fixed fees are created as line items on an invoice. These will affect the “Fees Billed” account.
Enable Quickbooks For Your Firm
Click the toggle button that is shaped like a circle on a line to enable.
The toggle button should now be blue.
Quickbooks should now be enabled.
You can now start using Quickbooks to manage your invoices, expenses and payments for your legal practice.
Note: Once you've setup QuickBooks, it is important that you make changes directly in ZenCase. Any changes to expenses, invoices, payments and/or trust transactions within ZenCase will be pushed to QuickBooks. However, any changes in QuickBooks will not directly sync to ZenCase.
Quickbooks Audit Logs
Now that you have Quickbooks integrated with ZenCase, you can view the audit logs to see all the things that are happening in your quickbooks accounts. ZenCase creates a series of journal entries to track all of the transactions that occur in ZenCase and gets sent to Quickbooks automatically.
You can view your Quickbooks audit logs by going to the top right corner and click the gear icon.
From the open menu, select "Audit Logs".
On the Audit log page, you can then click the "Filter" button and view all of the possible ways you can filter your audit logs to view logs for a certain time, by user, or even by transaction.
You should be able to view all of the Quickbooks audits from this page.
If you have any problems integrating QuickBooks with ZenCase, please let us know!