Setting Up and Using the Law Ruler > Intuit QuickBooks Online Integration Follow

Setting Up and Using the Law Ruler > Intuit QuickBooks Online Integration

Law Ruler^TM proudly supports our integration with Intuit QuickBooks Online (also searched as “Quick Books" or “QBO”) accounting software.  Think of Law Ruler as your revenue tool that feeds into your QuickBooks Online (QBO) as your accounting software.

Supported QBO Versions: This sync requires a QuickBooks Online (QBO) Advanced or Professional subscription, not Essentials/Plus.  QBO Essentials/Plus does not support expense tracking per customer or non-paired bank account transactions.  Using the Essentials version is not recommended and creates errors in the QBO Audit Trail.  We suggest upgrading your QBO if you have Essentials.

This tutorial will also help familiarize you with how to set up and maintain the integrations for your firm’s workflow. The QuickBooks Online (QBO) > Law Ruler integration uses a sync feature to transmit customers, vendors, invoices, and financial transactions from Law Ruler to QuickBooks Online. 

The integration workflow can be as simple or complex as your firm would like it to be and is customizable depending on the financial controls at your firm. The complexity will be determined by whether you have a customer, invoice, or vendor approval process in Law Ruler.  The simplest implementation is to have everything on auto-approve.

💲 QuickBooks Online is a third-party application and is cloud-based financial management and accounting software.  Law Ruler is a legal case management software CRM that integrates with QuickBooks Online to provide full lifecycle ERP functions for law firms by combining Law Ruler with QuickBooks Online via the integration. Please note that Law Ruler does not integrate with the Intuit QuickBooks desktop edition.

Aside from Law Ruler, all other trademarks, trade names, screenshots, or company names referenced herein are used for identification purposes only and are the property of their respective owners.

For any support needs regarding QuickBooks Online, please contact Intuit QuickBooks Online support directly since Law Ruler may assist with the integration process but they cannot support the QuickBooks Online service.

For any accounting, finance, or tax advice, please contact a certified accounting professional.  Law Ruler support is not able to provide accounting, finance, or tax advice.

 

Table of Contents

Setting Up the QuickBooks Online Sync from Law Ruler

Setting Up Law Ruler > QuickBooks Chart of Accounts/Products and Services

Your Law Ruler Company Information > QuickBooks Company and Account Settings

Law Ruler Clients/Primary Contacts > QBO Customers in the QuickBooks Online Sync

Law Ruler Vendors > QBO Vendors in the QuickBooks Online Sync

Law Ruler Vendor Balances/Vendor Transactions > QBO Bills in the QuickBooks Online Sync

Law Ruler Invoices > QBO Customers/Invoices in the QuickBooks Online Sync

Law Ruler Bank Transactions > QBO Customers/Invoices/Accounts in the QuickBooks Online Sync

Law Ruler Settlements > QBO Payment Transactions

How to Find QuickBooks Online Sync Issues - the Audit Trail

Stopping the Law Ruler > QuickBooks Online Sync

Support/Assistance

 

Setting Up the QuickBooks Online Sync from Law Ruler

Let’s get started. The first step is to click “Setup” on the left menu bar. Then, click on “QuickBooks Settings” You must be a user with admin access, or you will not be able to see these menu options. Please ask your firm administrator or IT department if you need assistance.

⚠️ This sync requires a QuickBooks Online (QBO) Advanced or Professional subscription, not Essentials.  QBO Essentials does not support expense tracking per customer or non-paired bank account transactions.  Using the Essentials version is not recommended and creates errors in the QBO Audit Trail.

Next, you will click the green “Activate/Sign into QuickBooks” button to open the sync window in QuickBooks Online. You will need to enter your company’s QuickBooks Online user and password to complete the integration process. This is required since QuickBooks Online will require your permission to accept and share data with Law Ruler.

You should see a new window open in the browser that will redirect you to a QuickBooks Online login screen that looks like this screenshot.

Press the green “Connect” button.

If the connection is successful, then you should see this success message:

After the sync is successful, you will see the word “Connected” in a green font and the red “Disconnect” button below it. This indicates that the Law Ruler > QuickBooks Online Sync (QBO) is working and that you are now connected! 😊

⌛ When the sync is successful, please allow an average of 5 to 15 minutes to push each change into QBO since we utilize batch updates of data to the QBO service based on the vendor’s requirements. Please do not expect instantaneous changes to sync between systems.

Setting Up Law Ruler > QuickBooks Chart of Accounts/Products and Services

Now that the QuickBooks Online sync is active, there will be some additional settings that you will need to configure.  These will be set up based on your firm’s financial accounting requirements and are only visible with active sync in effect.

The screenshot below will show you the suggested default settings for the Law Ruler > QBO Sync:

• Do you want to be asked to add each new client to QBO when a new LR case is created?
  • By default, this is in the “Off” position. With this in the “Off” position, Law Ruler will automatically search QuickBooks Online for each client/case when a Lead/Intake is made into a Case. If the client/case does not exist in QuickBooks Online yet, then Law Ruler will have QuickBooks online create it for you.
  • If you set this to the “On” position, then you will be prompted to approve each new client/case before it is added to QuickBooks Online. This can be an issue with mass imports of leads/intakes/cases and is not a recommended option but is available for firms that need this level of control.

• Allow contact information changes to sync LR < > QBO for Clients and Vendors
  • By default, this is in the “On” position. With this in the “On” position, Law Ruler will automatically push any changes in contact information for Clients and Vendors to QuickBooks Online. This could be name, phone number, email address, mailing address, Tax ID number, etc
  • If you set this to the “Off” position, then the contact information for Clients and Vendors at the time of the initial sync will be used and no subsequent changes will be shared via the sync. Turning this “Off” is not suggested but is available if you need this level of control.

⚠️ The next step is to match up Law Ruler with your Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks.  It is highly recommended that you ask your accountant or firm administrator how to set up the matching between Law Ruler and QuickBooks. 

Law Ruler has provided the following suggestions below, but these are suggestions only for example purposes and are not intended to provide accounting, tax, or bookkeeping advice to your firm.

🎦 The QuickBooks online community has a video about understanding and setting up your Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks that you may want to review.

If you do not see the QuickBooks Product and Service, Account, or Account Type dropdown values that you are looking for, then please ask your accountant or firm administrator to go into your QuickBooks Online system and add them, then come back to Law Ruler and refresh the screen to continue with the setup process. Getting this matching right before activating the sync is highly recommended and will save your accounting professional countless hours of time in reconciling your books each month. 

• Match Law Ruler Time Entries to a QBO Product/Service
  • This is a dropdown that will show your existing QuickBooks Online Products and Services. Choose the appropriate values for your firm. Some firms will add a default value of “Hours” inside of their QuickBooks Online system to be used since this is Fee Income that will be invoiced.   This applies to almost all Billing Types since Hourly, Flat-Fee, and Contingency all generate Attorney Fees.
    
    
• Match Law Ruler Soft Cost Expenses (Due to Firm) to a QBO Product/Service
  • This is a dropdown that will show your existing QuickBooks Online Products and Services. Choose the appropriate values for your firm. Some firms will have a default value for this or should add a value of “Reimbursable Client Costs” inside of their QuickBooks Online system to be used since these are Income items Due to the Firm. Most firms consider soft cost expenses to be “Other Income” in QuickBooks.
    
    Since this needs to create a "Bill" in QuickBook, then you will need to set up an expense account type.  We suggest using a default value of "Other Expense"

• Match Law Ruler Hard Cost Expenses (Due to Third-Party Vendor) to a QBO Product/Service
  • This is a dropdown that will show your existing QuickBooks Online Products and Services. Choose the appropriate values for your firm. Some firms will have a default value for this or should add a value of “Advanced Client Costs” inside of their QuickBooks Online system to be used since these are Third-Party Vendor costs.  Most firms consider “Advanced Client Costs” to be “Other Asset” in QuickBooks.
    
    
    • Since this needs to create a "Bill" in QuickBook, then you will need to set up an expense account type.  We suggest using a default value of "Other Asset"

    💡 FYI - These direct litigation expenses include advance payment for medical records, experts’ fees, witness fees, deposition costs, filing fees, laboratory fees, etc. In general, direct litigation costs are considered a “loan” to your client and are not deductible as a business expense. This is usually true whether your firm reports on a cash basis or accrual basis for tax purposes.

    Since the expense is considered a loan, the costs should be reflected as assets. When these costs are later recovered — sometimes months or even years from when they were incurred — they then offset the amounts previously capitalized, resulting in no impact to your firm’s reported income.

• Match Law Ruler Interest to a QBO Product/Service
  • This is a dropdown that will show your existing QuickBooks Online Products and Services. Choose the appropriate values for your firm. Some firms will add a default value of “Interest” inside of their QuickBooks Online system to be used.  Most firms consider “Interest” to be “Other Income” in QuickBooks.

• Match Law Ruler Tax to a QBO Product/Service
  • This is a dropdown that will show your existing QuickBooks Online Products and Services. Choose the appropriate values for your firm. Some firms will add a default value of “Taxes and Licenses” inside of their QuickBooks Online system to be used.
    
    
• Match Law Ruler Bank Accounts to QBO Accounts
  • Each of the Bank Accounts in your Law Ruler system needs to be matched up to a corresponding QuickBooks Online "Account" to be able to sync bank transactions

 

Your Law Ruler Company Information > QuickBooks Company and Account Settings

As part of the Law Ruler > QBO Sync, your firm’s name, address, Tax ID number, and contact information will sync with QuickBooks Online into the Company and Account Settings screen. This will occur automatically at the time that the sync is successfully activated.  Any further changes to your “Firm Settings” in Law Ruler will actively sync into QBO for your convenience.

⚠️ Company Name Changes Not Allowed Via Sync for IRS EFTPS Enrolled Companies: If your company is enrolled in EFTPS, then you cannot use the LR > QBO sync to change your company name or you will receive a business validation error that says: Changing your company's legal name will un-enroll you in the electronic tax filing program, EFTPS. Please contact Payroll support to change your company's legal name.

To manage your “Firm Settings” in Law Ruler, click on “Setup” and then “Firm Settings”

Editing firm settings in Law Ruler does require admin-level access.

To access your Company and Account Settings in QuickBooks Online, click on the gear icon in the top-right corner inside of QBO, and then “Account and Settings”

 

Law Ruler Clients/Primary Contacts > QBO Customers in the QuickBooks Online Sync

One of the core features of the Law Ruler > QBO Sync is to have every new client/case created in Law Ruler be added into QuickBooks Online, as well as any updates to them. 

In Law Ruler, each lead/intake/case has a Primary Contact associated with it.  Any new case/matter that is created from a lead/intake in Law Ruler will have the Primary Contact (Client) data synced with QBO and is referred to as a “Customer” in QuickBooks Online. For the purposes of this sync, Law Ruler leads/intakes are not considered to be Clients or Accounts until after they are made a case. Thus, leads/intakes do not sync with QBO, only cases. Law Ruler cases are considered to be clients/accounts for the purposes of this integration.

What contact information syncs to QuickBooks Online?

Any changes in each case to the Primary Contact’s name, address, city, state, zip, phone, email, will be automatically synced with QBO for each Case. Only the Primary Contact in each LR Case is synced with QBO, not any additional contacts that may be added to each case. If you change the Primary Contact in a Law Ruler Case, then it will change the QBO “Customer” in QuickBooks Online for that Case.

(In Law Ruler, this is done automatically unless you have this disabled in “Billing Settings” under the QBO settings)

In addition, the Law Ruler “Case Name” and any changes to it will be synced into the QBO “Display Name” field as shown here in these QuickBooks Online screenshots:

 

Law Ruler Vendors > QBO Vendors in the QuickBooks Online Sync

Vendors are an important part of case cost and expense management. One of the other core features of the Law Ruler > QBO Sync is that each new Vendor that is created and approved will be automatically added into QuickBooks Online, as well as any updates to them.  To manage Vendors in Law Ruler, you will need to have “Accounting” user permissions, or you will not see the Vendor option available in the left menu.  If you need access to manage Vendors in Law Ruler, then please contact your firm administrator or IT department.

☑️ Vendor Approval Process: Law Ruler has an optional Vendor Approval process that may be enabled at any time in the “Billing Settings” screen that will be considered in any data that is synced to QBO.  If your firm has Vendor Approval in the “On” position, then unapproved Vendors and any transactions for unapproved Vendors will not sync to QBO until each Vendor is approved inside of your Law Ruler system.

If your firm does not use the Law Ruler Vendor Approval process, then all Vendors, changes to Vendors, and transactions made in Law Ruler will automatically create in QBO via the sync.

 

Law Ruler Vendor Balances/Vendor Transactions > QBO Bills in the QuickBooks Online Sync

In Law Ruler, each expense has a Vendor/Firm associated with it.  There are a couple of different types of scenarios for Expenses as they relate to Vendors/Firms.

• Soft cost expenses are photocopies, mileage, admin fees, etc, and are due to your firm. For soft cost expenses, your firm will be inserted as the Vendor by default, unless another firm is selected inside of each expense. This is because when a check needs to be written to reimburse your firm or another firm for these soft costs, that check needs to be written to the appropriate firm. Soft costs do not have third-party vendors, so this special handling is needed to allow the firm to recover costs in contingency settlements.
  
  
• Hard cost expenses are expenses due to a third-party vendor such as hospital bills, mediations, transcription services, airline tickets, court fees, medical record retrieval, etc. For hard cost expenses, the selected Vendor will be inserted as the Vendor in Law Ruler and that same Vendor will be used in the QBO sync.

Each hard cost expense has two parts:

• “Accounts Receivable (A/R)” is the amount owed by a Customer to your firm. For A/R, the Amount Billed is what you invoice each Customer for each expense, also known as the Customer Balance. The Customer Balance of each expense can only be updated with Bank Transactions by paying, crediting, or adjusting Customer Invoices or with LawPay. Only Bank Transactions will affect A/R, not Vendor Transactions.
  
  
• “Accounts Payable (A/P)” is the amount owed by your firm to a Third-Party Vendor. The “Vendor Balance” is the current balance owed to a Vendor and reflects the current amount that your firm paid or owes a Vendor for each payable. Only Vendor Transactions will affect the “Vendor Balance”
  
  
  • For example, if you recover expenses during contingency settlements, then you should add Vendor Transactions to always have the proper Vendor Balances for any expenses that you prepay during a case. The Vendor Balance for each expense is what the Settlement Wizard will pay each Vendor during settlements.
    
    
  • If you have the QuickBooks Online Sync active, then as an expense is added in Law Ruler, it will create a Vendor and Vendor Payable in QuickBooks Online, which is referred to as a Vendor “Bill” in QBO. Law Ruler does not create Vendor “Bills” in the same way as QuickBooks Online.  To add a payment or view the “Vendor Balance” for any expense, you will click on any expense to drill down inside of a case.

Inside of Law Ruler, “Vendor Balance” amounts are only visible in Cases, not leads/intakes, as shown below:

Here is a closer view:

If you add any payment transactions in Law Ruler on a Payable, then those transactions will sync with QBO and update the balance for the related “Bill” in QuickBooks Online. 

Any transactions on any payables will also update the “Vendor Balance” for the related Vendor in QBO. In QuickBooks Online, the “Vendor Balance” is the total amount that your firm owes to each Vendor at any given time.

 

Law Ruler Invoices > QBO Customers/Invoices in the QuickBooks Online Sync

Each new invoice that is created and approved in a Law Ruler case will automatically sync both the invoice and the customer with QuickBooks Online.

☑️ Invoice Approval Process: Law Ruler has an optional Invoice Approval process that may be enabled at any time in the “Billing Settings” screen that will be considered in any data that is synced to QBO.  If your firm has Invoice Approval in the “On” position, then unapproved Invoices will not sync to QBO until each Invoice is approved inside of your Law Ruler system.

If your firm does not use the Law Ruler Invoice Approval process, then all invoices and bank transactions applied to each invoice will automatically create or update in QBO via the sync.

Law Ruler calculates and adds finance charges for interest on past due invoices if you have interest charges activated inside of your system or enabled on a specific invoice. The “Interest Rate” is set up in the “Setup” > “Billing Settings” screen if you are an administrative user.  Otherwise, you may turn interest on/off inside of each individual invoice at any time in the “Invoice Settings” area at the bottom of each invoice. 

Law Ruler displays interest charges in the Subtotal section of each invoice if interest = “On” otherwise it is not displayed.  You will not see interest charges if it is turned "Off"

If interest is enabled on an invoice, then it will be created as a separate line item in QuickBooks Online. Example:

If you would like to remove interest from an invoice in Law Ruler, then disable the “Charge Interest” option in “Invoice Settings” by setting it to the “Off” position as shown below.

🕛 Interest/Finance charges automatically calculate daily (at midnight, when the calendar date changes). Any existing invoices and backdated invoices will be updated at that time to include the correct amount of interest when that happens. Any invoices that are drafts or not approved will not accrue interest until they are approved and made into real invoices.

 

Law Ruler Bank Transactions > QBO Customers/Invoices/Accounts in the QuickBooks Online Sync

All bank transactions in Law Ruler will have a Bank Account associated with them.  The Law Ruler Bank Account will sync data into the corresponding QBO Account in your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts for each transaction created in Law Ruler.  This is 1-way.

To add a bank transaction in Law Ruler, you can use either the case shortcuts dropdown at the top of each case, or you can go into “Bank Transactions” > “Add Transaction” and add a deposit, payment, credit, transfer, or adjustment transaction.  These transactions will automatically sync with QBO when they are added to the Bank Transactions in each Law Ruler case.

Screenshot of the case shortcuts dropdown:

Examples of Law Ruler Bank Transactions that can sync to QuickBooks:

 

Law Ruler Settlements > QBO Payment Transactions

After a contingency settlement is finalized and ready to be disbursed, you will press the red “Process Transactions” button in the bottom right corner of the Settlement Wizard.  At this time, all financial transactions to vendors, firms, and clients will be added to both the Law Ruler “Bank Transactions” screen and will also sync with QuickBooks Online, if the sync is active at the time.  This is a big time-saving feature since it will get everything created in QBO in a flash.

• Any customers, vendors, and firms that do not exist in QuickBooks Online at the time will be created when the settlement transactions are processed. Also, everyone that is to be paid in the settlement will have payment transactions created at this time.
• Any attorney fees that are configured in the settlement will be paid at this time.
• Any third-party vendors that are owed money in the settlement will be paid the vendor balance amounts at this time and be created as "Bills" inside of QuickBooks Online since they use that for Vendor Balances.
• Any firm expenses that were prepaid that are being recovered in the settlement will be paid to the firm(s) at this time for the specified recovery amounts as configured in each settlement.
• Any customer(s) to be paid in the settlement will be paid at this time as credit memos in QuickBooks Online. The credit memo will be remitted to the customer name provided earlier in the “Settlement Distribution” screen for each case.

  

How to Find QuickBooks Online Sync Issues - the Audit Trail

Sync issues?  Missing synced data in QBO? Looking for QuickBooks errors? 

Law Ruler includes a full audit trail log of all transactions that are synced with QuickBooks Online.  If you are missing transactions in QuickBooks Online, then you will want to visit the QBO Audit Trail screen to learn why customers, vendors, expenses, invoices, payments, deposits, etc are not syncing to QBO. 

To access the QuickBooks Online audit trail, you will want to go back to the QuickBooks Settings screen. 

Let’s get started. The first step is to click “Setup” on the left menu bar. Then, click on “QuickBooks Settings”  You must be a user with admin access, or you will not be able to see these menu options. Please ask your firm administrator or IT department if you need assistance.

Next, you will click on the “QuickBooks Audit Trail” link as shown below:

Now, you will be in the “QuickBooks Audit Trail” screen. 

These filters are available in the QuickBooks Audit Trail:

• Date Range – you may filter the audit trail by date range to find something specific, the default date range is the Current Month
• Search - you may use the keyword search on the top-right corner to search for a client by name

The QuickBooks Audit Trail contains these columns with information to assist you in solving any sync issues:

• Date/Time – the date and time in your time zone when the error occurred
• Client – this is a clickable link to go directly to the client record in Law Ruler
• Operation – the sync operation from LR > QBO
• Object – the sync object that is being used from LR > QBO
• Error Code – the QuickBooks Online Error Code – these are all searchable in the QuickBooks Online Support Forum
• Message – the sync error message from QuickBooks Online
• Explanation – the explanation of why this transaction failed to sync to QuickBooks Online. Many of the explanations are provided so that you may solve issues on your own or you may contact QuickBooks Online Support

Law Ruler lists the exact QuickBooks Online Error Codes and Explanations, so you will be able to correct any errors yourself or search the QuickBooks Online Support Forum for more assistance.  Law Ruler Support is not able to provide assistance with the QuickBooks Online service since it is a third-party company.  All error codes are searchable inside of the QuickBooks Online Support Forum.

Want to retry a sync transaction?  If you have corrected the issue in your QuickBooks Online software and want to retry any sync transaction, then you will click the green retry icon on the far-right side of each failed sync transaction.

 

Stopping the Law Ruler > QuickBooks Online Sync

Need to turn off the QBO sync?  If you need to stop the Law Ruler > QuickBooks Online Sync or update with new QuickBooks credentials, then you will press the red “Disconnect” button, then sync again, as needed.

Then, press the “Disconnect” button one more time in the popup as shown below.

Support/Assistance

If you need further assistance, then please contact Law Ruler Support to assist you further. 

🤗 Thank you very much for choosing Law Ruler!