Accounting Data Migration for Time & Billing Firms

Data Sets Defined:

1) WIP (work in process) - This is a collection of unbilled-billable items in a legacy system, including time entries, flat fees, and expenses. Filevine users will add these items to invoices when they do their first invoicing batch out of Filevine. This data is essential to launching on Filevine so as not to interrupt the first billing cycle in Filevine. 

2) Accounts Receivable (AR) -  Accounts Receivable is the population of invoices previously billed that remain unpaid. Firms typically report on their Accounts Receivable using an aging report (current, 30 days overdue, 60 days overdue, etc.).  Firms will need to apply future payments against outstanding invoices included in Accounts Receivable. 

3) Retainer Balances by Client (Project Funds) - Firms will have maintained a retainer or trust balance at a case/matter level either in their legacy case management system or in their accounting system. Firms billing against a retainer need to have accurate balances in order to pay themselves for fees billed in the period. This data is essential to launching on Filevine only for firms billing against retainers. 

4) Historical Client Billing Data (paid) - This is the population of invoices previously billed and for which the firm collected payment. This data is not essential to launching on Filevine. 

Migrations Strategies Based on Finance Connect Feature Sets

Time and Billing with Filevine Payments & Project Funds

Time and Billing with QuickBooks Payments

Finance Connect: Time and Billing with Filevine Payments & Project Funds

1) WIP (work in process) - This is a collection of unbilled-billable items in a legacy system, including time entries, flat fees, and expenses. These items can be migrated into Filevine as billable items (unbilled) by a data migration service provider. Filevine users will add these items to invoices when they do their first invoicing batch out of Filevine. This process is essential to launching on Filevine to avoid interrupting the next billing cycle. 

2) Accounts Receivable (unpaid invoices) -  There are a few options for migrating in accounts receivable invoices or balances to Filevine. Each option will be priced accordingly. Establishing at a minimum an AR balance on each project in Filevine preserves the functionality of the Finance Connect integration, meaning payments subsequently applied in Filevine will be recorded in QuickBooks. 

a. Open invoices from a legacy system can be migrated into Filevine as billable items and converted to finalized invoices by a data migration service provider. This is the preferred method as it preserves the data analysis of future payment applications against individual billing items.
Discounts - negative flat fee items
AR invoice with partial payments - may need to consider migrating in payment 
b. At a minimum, only the opening balance can be migrated in as a flat fee item into Filevine and finalized onto a back-dated invoice. Will work for firms without a payment application reporting need. 
c.  Firms can finish collection on open invoices in their legacy system and choose to not bring AR into Filevine.

3) Retainer Balances by Client (Project Funds) - Opening trust/retainer balances should be migrated to each Filevine project as a "Project Fund" deposit. A detailed history report of the opening balance should be preserved by the firm. These reports can optionally be stored in Filevine. This process is essential to launching on Filevine only for firms billing against retainers. 

4) Historical Client Billing Data (paid) - This is the population of invoices previously billed and for which the firm collected payment. This data is not essential to launching on Filevine. Historical client billing data from a legacy system can be preserved in downloaded reports. We recommend preserving both an Excel report with bulk data by the client/matter and PDF copies of all invoices. These reports can optionally be stored in Filevine or uploaded one time to Domo where the data can be presented alongside current billing data. This process is not essential to launching on Filevine.

Finance Connect: Time and Billing with QuickBooks Payments

1) WIP (work in process) - This is a collection of unbilled-billable items in a legacy system, including time entries, flat fees, and expenses. These items can be migrated into Filevine as billable items (unbilled) by a data migration service provider. Filevine users will add these items to invoices when they do their first invoicing batch out of Filevine. This process is essential to launch on Filevine to avoid interrupting the next billing cycle. 

2) Accounts Receivable (unpaid invoices) -  We recommend firms finish collection on open invoices in the legacy system. Optionally, firms can transfer AR from legacy systems to Filevine at their own pace by manually drafting and finalizing invoices in Filevine. Finalized invoices will also be created in QuickBooks Online, preserving the functionality of later applying a payment in QuickBooks with the integration recording the payment to FV automatically. This process is not essential to launching on Filevine. 

3) Retainer Balances by Client (Project Funds)  - If the client is not using QuickBooks to maintain client-level trust balances, then as part of data migration, client-level trust balances should be saved from the legacy system in a CSV/Excel file. The firm's QuickBooks user can then use this file to enter opening balances for trust in QuickBooks. This is achieved using a Journal Entry transaction in QuickBooks (see article). The client may also want a transaction-level history of the trust balance. This can be saved from the legacy system in a CSV/Excel file and saved locally for later reference. This process is essential to launching on Filevine only for firms intending to use auto-apply trust features. 

4) Historical Client Billing Data (paid) - This is the population of invoices previously billed and for which the firm collected payment. This data is not essential to launching on Filevine. Historical client billing data from a legacy system can be preserved in downloaded reports. We recommend preserving both an Excel report with bulk data by the client/matter and PDF copies of all invoices. These reports can optionally be stored in Filevine or uploaded one time to Domo where the data can be presented alongside current billing data. This process is not essential to launching on Filevine.