💡 This guide covers:
What you need before you connect
Connecting Adfin and Actionstep
Setting up payment receipts and choosing which bills come to Adfin
How bills and payments move between the two systems
Connecting Actionstep to Adfin lets you collect your Actionstep bills through Adfin. Approved bills come into Adfin as invoices and are sent to your clients with a link to pay. When a client pays, Adfin records the payment in Actionstep as a client receipt against the bill, so nothing needs to be keyed in twice.
Before you start
Please make sure you have the following in place:
Someone who can approve access to your Actionstep organisation, usually an Actionstep administrator at your firm.
A dedicated Actionstep user for Adfin. Adfin signs in as this user to create client receipts. Give it only the permissions it needs to create client receipts, and switch off multi-factor authentication (MFA) for it.
No other software connected. You can only have one active integration at a time. If you use Xero or QuickBooks with Adfin today, please get in touch with us via live chat to discuss the switch before connecting Actionstep.
Connecting Adfin and Actionstep
Please go to Settings > Integrations in the Adfin console and click + Connect on the Actionstep tile.
Sign in to Actionstep, choose your organisation if you have more than one, and allow access.
You will be brought back to Adfin and see an Actionstep connected message.
The Actionstep tile now shows Connected to followed by your Actionstep organisation's ID.
Setting up
Once connected, you will land on the Actionstep settings page. You can come back to it at any time from Settings > Integrations, by clicking the three dots on the Actionstep tile and choosing Manage connection.
Step 1: Record payments in Actionstep
In the Push payments back to Actionstep section:
Please click Set up.
Enter the username and password of the dedicated Adfin user you created in Actionstep.
Click Connect & verify. Adfin checks the login works with the organisation you connected.
Once verified, the section shows Signed in as with the username, and the switch is on.
Step 2: Choose which bills come to Adfin
Open Syncing invoices and choose:
All invoices (the default): bills from every Actionstep matter come to Adfin.
Control by matter type: only bills from the matter types you select come to Adfin, for example only Conveyancing Purchase.
Click Save changes.
How it works day to day
Bills coming into Adfin
A bill comes into Adfin within a few minutes of being approved, as long as it has an amount owing. Drafts stay in Actionstep.
The invoice uses the Actionstep bill number, invoice date and due date, and the amount still owing. Line items and the bill PDF stay in Actionstep.
Your client is added to Adfin as a customer, with their name, email address and phone number. Their later bills are added to the same record.
Adfin then sends the invoice to your client, following the collection agent they are assigned to. To avoid your client receiving the bill twice, don't also email it from Actionstep.
If your client has no email address in Actionstep, the invoice still comes across but isn't sent. Add their email address to the customer in Adfin, then choose how the invoice is collected.
Payments going back to Actionstep
When a client pays, Adfin creates a client receipt in Actionstep against the bill:
The receipt is for the amount paid against the bill, so part payments are recorded as they come in.
It is dated the day of the payment (or the bill's date, if that is later), with the payment method set to Credit Card for card, Apple Pay and Google Pay, or EFT for bank payments and direct debits.
Direct debit payments are recorded once they have been collected successfully, which takes a few working days.
The memo starts Adfin payment for invoice, so Adfin receipts are easy to find in Actionstep.
Only payments on bills that came from Actionstep are recorded. Invoices you create directly in Adfin, and invoices you Mark as paid, are not sent to Actionstep. You will see Invoice imported from Actionstep and Payment synced to Actionstep in the invoice's activity in Adfin.
Pausing or disconnecting
Stop recording receipts: turn off the switch on Push payments back to Actionstep to pause, and turn it back on whenever you're ready. To stop for good, click Remove login, which also deletes the saved login details. Receipts already in Actionstep are unaffected either way.
Common questions
Why hasn't a bill appeared in Adfin?
Check that the bill is approved and still has an amount owing. If you use Control by matter type, check the bill's matter type is one you selected. A bill also won't come across if an invoice with the same number already exists in Adfin.
A bill was settled outside Adfin. How do I stop the reminders?
If a bill is paid another way, Adfin won't know and will keep chasing. Open the invoice in Adfin and use Mark as paid. There is more on this in My customer paid outside Adfin.
Do tax rates come across from Actionstep?
No. Each bill arrives as its total amount owing, with any tax already included.
If you have any questions, please get in touch via live chat, using the Get help button in the bottom left of the Adfin console.