Amicus Attorney

[pas982]

I understand that Quickbooks Pro integrates with Amicus Attorney V (a legal contact management system). Does anyone know if the entire Quickbooks program needs to be installed on the same computer as the Amicus Administrator? or just the company file?

The person who will be using Quickbooks the most currently has Quickbooks Pro 99 and we are planning to upgrade that computer to 2002 and any other workstation that will use Quickbooks. The server that the Amicus Administrator on does not currently have the program Quickbooks installed. In the past we were able to use a multiuser version of Quickbooks with just the company file residing on the server and each workstation having Quickbooks Pro 99 installed.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

[brecor]

It's shouldnt need to be, usually you just pick the import file from your other system no matter where it resides on the network.

[pas982]

Thank you.

When you mention "import" the file, which direction are you speaking, importing Amicus file into Quickbooks or Quickbooks company file into Amicus? And is importing a one time issue or will they remain synchronized? linked?

[brecor]

Most 'external programs' have a export feature to export a certain time period. So typically you would export to file from the amicus for a specific period and then import that into quickbooks. I am not familiar with amicus, but would imagine it would work same process as others. They aren't real time synch'd.

[cbullecks]

pas982,
We are using Amicus and are contemplating changing
accounting software packages to one that integrates with Amicus.

Are you now using QuickBooks with your Amicus? If so, please email me privately at ckb@megalink.net so I can ask you some specific questions about how that integration is working.

Thanks.
Colleen

[m sherwood]

I have linked Amicus Attorney Version V with Quickbooks Pro 2002. The time posts from Amicus, but it does not appear on the Client register, nor does it appear in the time and expenses screen. I am creating invoices by entering time and expenses in Quickbooks eventhough I have entered first in Amicus. I have completed the "Exchange" in Amicus Administrator and have reconciled all of the conflicts that matter.

I would appreciate any help.

MSherwood

[cbullecks]

For those of you who have integrated Amicus and QuickBooks, do you use the integration just for invoicing your Amicus clients or do you use QuickBooks for all your office accounting. We'd like to have a "one stop shopping" for all our accounting needs (Amicus and general bookkeeping) and want to know what problems or successes others have had.

Any information would be helpful.
Colleen

[m sherwood]

I am attempting to create invoices from time posted in Amicus, asw well as using Quickbooks to perform all necesssary accounting. I am postponing training on the accounting because of the linking issues with Amicus. Therefore, I don't have any information of the value of Quickbooks accounting, but I will say that the linkage between Amicus and Quickbooks time, billing and invoice functions is problematic.

I could use some help

m sherwood

[gibbo]

m sherwood - could you attach a sample of the exported file from Amicus to this thread? (Change the data so that it is not recognisable, but ensure the figures balance). I would be interested to see what comes out. This would assist in knowing what needs to be done to produce invoices.

[jandrewmorrison]

Has anyone ever tried to customize the data transfer instead of just using the link.

I notice that on the Amicus Web-site they have "Enhanced Accounting Links" and "Other Accounting System Options"

I love quickbooks, but looks like if your sold on Amicus, the Accounting software with true "links" are limited to Juris and Tabs III.

I would also like to know if you can transfer Client information between the two systems through a one-click "integration" or if you have to export/import then clean up?

I have 22 more days to decide if they should get my money, so any comments on the quality of the link between the two systems would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Andrew

[jandrewmorrison]

I broke down and spent the money.

I upgrade my Quickbooks to the 2003 edition, and paid for the Amicus Advanced Edition, and the integration is complete.

For accounting purposes, I use solely quickbooks, and the amicus integration makes time tracking so much more efficient.

I am a sole practitioner, and have already billed more in one-month than I did in the previous 2 thanks to the ability to track each phone call wihout having to attempt to figure them out at the end of the day.

I can't say the integration was easy, but I do have it figured out pretty well now. If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me, or post here.

Andrew

[cbullecks]

Andrew (or any other Amicus user),
When your Amicus time entries are invoiced to the clients through QuickBooks, how are the Amicus time entries shown? Are they detailed to show any notes you may have taken during a phone call? Or, do they show Call to SoAndSo and the number of minutes (or 1/10ths of minutes)?

Any information on this is appreciated.
Colleen

[jandrewmorrison]

When using Amicus, it will set up a default listing of the detail (i.e. Telephone call from Tom Jones -- spoke -- ) then if you type in notes during the phone call they will stay in your notes on that call and transfer into Amicus Time Sheets. All information from your Amicus Time Sheets is then transferred into Quickbooks as is.

If the notes you type in on your phone call have confidential client information in them, (which is a lot more of the time than you would think when you actually strat typing in your phone notes) ou can change the Amicus time slip entry either when you create it (which is a mouseclick after the phone call is completed) or before it posts to Quickbooks. You can also change the entry on the Quick Books Invoice after you have created it.

Either way, its a pretty good system.

If it's not a phone call, say if you were responding to discovery or something, you can either elect to use the default, or just type in your own discription. Whatever you post on you Timesheet in Amicus gets transferred directly over to Quickbooks.

So, yes, they do transfer over. (Sorry, slow day at the office.)


Andrew

[gibbo]

But won't you still have the problem that if you want to group times together once you have imported them into QuickBooks, you can only use the QuickBooks description?

[jandrewmorrison]

I bill each client for only one "activity" per time keeper daily. When I post from Amicus to Quickbooks Amicus has already combine all the time I spent on that customer, and all the activity descriptions for what I did in that time. I think there was a point where I requested that Amicus do it this way, and I am pretty sure you can "unbundle" your billing to show each activity individually.

Either way, if you bundle all activities for each customer on a daily basis, each activity is separated by a semi-colon and the full description is given.

[bsdotson]

We are a small 1 attorney practice and integrated our QB2003 with Amicus last year. Not all of our time will move from Amicus to QBs. We recently upgraded to QB2005 and I would really like to make the attorney happy by getting all our time to post correctly. If anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it. I can give details on what is and is not happening with the programs. Thank you very much!!! BSDOTSON

[cbullecks]

Since I first posted the question about the integration of QuickBooks with Amicus Attorney I have not received a very positive picture of how the two integrated. So, we went with another piece of case/time/client/contact tracking software which has a full accounting/billing package included - PCLaw if anyone is interested.

[LintnerLaw]

I read your posts about Amicus & QB integration and then your decision to go with PCLaw. I am an attorney with a small firm - 2 attorneys and 2 assistants. I have used QB for many years. I am trying to decide on a practice management program. How is PCLaw working for your firm? I am considering either PCLaw for both case management and accounting or else Amicus with QB. Would appreciate your comments if you have the time. - Thanks

[cbullecks]

I don't know that QuickBooks folks would appreciate us using their forum for this discussion. Please email me privately at ckb@megalink.net and I'll be happy to answer your questions.
Colleen