💡 This guide covers:
What you need before you start
Adding your branding and reviewing your collection agents in Adfin
Getting Actionstep ready: a dedicated Adfin user, and your payment link on your bills
Connecting Adfin and Actionstep
Recording payments and choosing which bills come to Adfin
How bills and payments move between the two systems
Adfin is a payments platform for law firms in the UK and Ireland. Connecting Actionstep to Adfin lets you collect your Actionstep bills through Adfin. Approved bills come into Adfin as invoices, and your clients can pay online by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Pay by bank, bank transfer or direct debit, depending on the payment methods you have switched on. When a client pays, Adfin records the payment in Actionstep as a client receipt against the bill, so nothing needs to be manually entered. Receipts you record in Actionstep come into Adfin too, so Adfin stops chasing a bill once it's paid.
Before you start
Please make sure you have the following in place:
An Actionstep administrator at your firm, to add the Adfin user and change your bill templates.
An Adfin account that has finished verification. Your payment link becomes available once verification is complete.
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.
Microsoft Word, to edit your bill template. Please don't use Google Docs, as it removes the merge fields Actionstep fills in on each bill.
Step 1: Add your branding in Adfin
Your clients see your branding on the emails Adfin sends them and on the payment portal they reach from your bills. Until you add it, they see the Adfin logo instead of yours, so please set it up first.
Please click Settings in the Adfin sidebar, then Branding, under Account. You need to be an admin on your Adfin account to see this page.
Click Upload logo and choose your firm's logo, as a JPEG or PNG. Adfin picks your Primary brand colour from the logo for you.
If you have a square version of your logo, add it under Icon.
Check the Primary brand colour and Secondary brand colour, the lighter colour used for backgrounds, and type in a different hex code if you need to.
Your changes save as you go, and the preview shows how your invoice emails, direct debit emails and payment links will look.
Step 2: Review your collection agents
Each client in Adfin is assigned to a collection agent, which decides what Adfin sends them and when. Clients who come in from Actionstep are assigned to your default agent.
We recommend starting with nothing sent. When we set up your account, we add a No Chasing agent, with no communication steps and Auto Collect turned off, and make it your default, so Adfin doesn't send your clients anything or collect payments automatically when your bills first come in. This is only a recommendation: we can set your agents up differently to suit how your firm works.
Before you connect, please click Collection agents in the Adfin sidebar and check No Chasing is marked Default. If it isn't, please get in touch via live chat.
Once your clients are in Adfin (Step 6), move any you want chased to another agent. Open the client from Customers, go to the Collection agent tab, click Change agent and pick the agent. Choose Change for existing and new payments, so the bills already in Adfin follow the new agent too, and click Update agent. You can also move several clients at once.
If you send bills yourself from Actionstep, with your payment link on them (Step 4), remove the Initial delivery step from the agents you move clients to, so they don't get the bill twice. Any reminders you keep still go out as normal.
Step 3: Create a dedicated Adfin user in Actionstep
Adfin signs in to Actionstep as this user, both to connect to your Actionstep organisation (Step 5) and to record your clients' payments as client receipts and bring in the receipts you record (Step 6). Only Adfin should use this login, never a member of staff, so that:
receipts Adfin creates are easy to tell apart in your audit logs
payments keep being recorded when someone leaves or changes their password
💡 The Create user screen warns that a new user increases your licence count. Actionstep doesn't charge for the Adfin user, but you need to ask them to mark its licence as non-billable once it's created (see the last step below).
Add the user
Please click the Admin icon (the tools icon at the top right), then Users & permissions.
Click Invite new user.
In Contact record, type Adfin Integration. As there is no contact with that name yet, click + Create New Contact.
Leave Identity type as Individual, enter Adfin as the first name and Integration as the last name, and click Save. You are taken back to Create user with the new contact selected.
Fill in the rest of the form:
Email address: any address that nobody at your firm already uses to sign in to Actionstep. We suggest [email protected] or [email protected]. It needs to be a mailbox you can open, as Actionstep sends the user's invitation there.
Timekeeper initials: for example ADF.
System role: User.
Click Save.
Open the invitation email in that mailbox and set a password for the user. Keep the email address and password to hand for Steps 5 and 6.
Email [email protected] with the Adfin user's name and email address, and ask them to mark its licence as non-billable.
Check multi-factor authentication
Adfin signs in with the user's email address and password, so the Adfin user needs to be able to sign in without multi-factor authentication (MFA) or single sign-on (SSO).
Please go to Admin > Users & permissions > Authentication settings and check that Enforce Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) and Enforce Single Sign-On (SSO) are both off.
Step 4: Add your Adfin payment link to your bills
Every firm on Adfin has its own invoice payment portal: one link, such as https://app.adfin.com/portal/your-firm, that works for every bill. You add it to your Actionstep bill template once, and it appears on every bill you produce from then on.
When a client follows the link, they enter the name and postcode the bill is addressed to, and the invoice number. A bill only opens when all three match, so only someone holding that bill can see it and pay it. Nobody can browse your bills or see another client's.
Every payment is matched to the right client and bill automatically, and recorded in Actionstep as a client receipt, so you always know who has paid and for what.
Switch on and copy your link in Adfin
Please click Payment, under Create in the Adfin sidebar.
Choose Invoice payment portal.
Under Authentication method, switch on Full Name + Invoice Number + Postcode.
Click Copy link.
Download your bill template
Actionstep bills are built from a Word template. To check which one you use, please go to Admin > Billing in Actionstep and look at Bill template in the Hourly invoices and Fixed fee invoices sections.
If it's one of Actionstep's built-in templates (Invoice, or Legal Invoice 1 to 4): scroll down to Custom bill templates, click Create new custom bill template, and under Template downloads click your template's name to download it.
If it's a custom template: click its name under Custom bill templates, then click the file under Current template to download it.
Add the link in Word
Please open the template in Microsoft Word and add a short line where clients will see it, for example just below the amount owing:
Pay this invoice online: Pay now. You will need the invoice number, name and postcode.
Link the words Pay now to your Adfin link (select them and press Ctrl+K, or Cmd+K on a Mac), then save the file. Leave the merge fields, the text in «», as they are.
Upload the template and use it for your bills
Please go to Admin > Billing and, under Custom bill templates, click Create new custom bill template.
Enter a Template name, for example Legal Invoice 1 – Adfin pay link, and a Description if you like.
Under Upload new template file, select the file you edited, and click Save.
To update a custom template you already use, open it from Custom bill templates, select the edited file under Upload new template file, and click Save.
Then, still in Admin > Billing, set Bill template to your new template in both Hourly invoices and Fixed fee invoices, and click Save.
The link appears on bills you produce from now on. Bills you have already produced keep their existing PDF. Your clients can pay through the link once their bills have come into Adfin (Step 6). To check it works, open the PDF of your next bill and click the link: it should open your Adfin payment portal, showing your firm's name and branding.
Step 5: Connect Adfin and Actionstep
Please go to Settings > Integrations in the Adfin console and click + Connect on the Actionstep tile.
Sign in to Actionstep as the Adfin user you created in Step 3, not with your own login. If you're already signed in to Actionstep, please sign out first or use a private browser window.
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.
Step 6: Set up the connection in Adfin
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.
Record payments in Actionstep
In the Push payments back to Actionstep section:
Please click Set up.
Enter the email address and password of the Adfin user you created in Step 3.
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.
Adfin also uses this login to bring the receipts you record in Actionstep into Adfin, so please set it up before you choose which bills come to Adfin.
Choose which bills come to Adfin
Open Syncing invoices and choose:
All invoices: 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.
Before you save, please check your default agent is set up the way you want (Step 2). When you click Save changes, every approved bill that still has an amount owing comes into Adfin within a few minutes, older ones included, and each follows its client's collection agent.
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, due date and total. Any receipts already recorded against the bill come in as payments, so your client is only asked for what's 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, phone number and mailing address. Their later bills are added to the same record.
What happens next follows the collection agent your client is assigned to (see Step 2 above).
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.
How your clients pay
Your client clicks the link on their bill, or in the email Adfin sends.
From the link on their bill, they enter the Name and Postcode the bill is addressed to and the full invoice number, then click Continue.
They are taken to the bill and pay it using any of the payment methods you have switched on in Adfin.
Adfin emails your client a payment confirmation.
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, 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.
Receipts coming into Adfin
If a client pays you another way, for example by bank transfer, please record a client receipt against the bill in Actionstep as you normally would. Adfin picks it up within a few minutes:
A receipt for the full amount marks the invoice as paid, shown as Paid externally, and Adfin stops chasing it.
A receipt for part of the bill reduces the amount owing, and Adfin keeps chasing the rest.
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?
Please check you've saved your choice under Syncing invoices (Step 6), and 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.
My client says their details weren't recognised
Please check they entered the name exactly as it appears on the bill (the company name for a company client, rather than their own name), the postcode from the address on the bill, and the full invoice number. The bill also needs to be in Adfin, as above.
A bill was settled outside Adfin. How do I stop the reminders?
Please record the receipt against the bill in Actionstep as you normally would. Adfin picks it up within a few minutes and stops chasing once the bill is fully paid. If the payment won't be recorded in Actionstep, open the invoice in Adfin and use Mark as paid. There is more on this in My customer paid outside Adfin.
Can each bill have its own link?
Not at the moment. Your payment portal link is the same on every bill, and your client's details tell Adfin which bill they are paying.
Do I need to update every bill template?
Yes. Please add the link to each bill template your firm uses.
Do tax rates come across from Actionstep?
No. Each bill arrives as its total, 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.