Fortnox

Fortnox is a Swedish cloud accounting and business software provider. If your office uses Fortnox for bookkeeping, you can connect it to Legalsense so client, matter, and invoice information flows between the two systems automatically. This article explains how to set up the integration.

Note: After setup, see the article ↪ Managing the integration with accounting software to monitor the synchronization, review the sync queue, and change the ledger and trust account configuration.

How the integration works

The integration between Legalsense and Fortnox works both ways. Legalsense sends information to Fortnox, such as debtors, matters, and invoices, and also retrieves information from Fortnox, such as disbursements and invoice payments.

This means you don't have to enter information twice. For example, if you enter disbursements in Fortnox and Legalsense imports them, you only enter that information once instead of in both Fortnox and Legalsense.

Set up the integration

Go to Settings → Fortnox and click Set up Fortnox now.

Fortnox settings page, showing the Setup Fortnox now button.

1. You are redirected to the Fortnox website. Enter your credentials and approve access for Legalsense.

The authorization screen in Fortnox

2. Enter the email address of the user who should be notified if the integration produces an error, and click Next.

Fortnox setup step showing the email address field for the bookkeeper.

3. Set up the flow of the integration: which data Legalsense exports and imports.

Fortnox setup step showing the Flow configuration options.

The flow step includes the following choices:

• Matters and debtors: choose whether to export both matters and debtors to Fortnox, or only debtors. By default, Legalsense exports matters, which then appear in Fortnox under Projects. If you want to record third-party funds or disbursements in Fortnox, you must also export matters.
• Invoices: there's no other option here. Legalsense always exports invoices.
• Payment status: choose whether Legalsense fetches an invoice's payment status from Fortnox, or ignores it. By default, Legalsense fetches the payment status.
• Disbursements and creditors: your choice here depends on the number of disbursements, how you process them (yourself or through your accountant), and how often you enter them. If you enter disbursements frequently, enter them in Fortnox and let Legalsense fetch them from there. If your bookkeeping is processed only every two weeks or once a month, it's better to record disbursements in Legalsense and choose whether to export them to Fortnox. If you choose to import expenses and creditors from Fortnox and export written-off expenses to Fortnox, specify a default matter for expenses booked without a matter, and a default expense type.
• Matter numbering: there's no choice here. Legalsense always creates the matter number.
• Debtor numbering: by default, Legalsense uses its own debtor numbers. The other option is to use Legalsense's client numbers.

Note: If you choose to use Legalsense's client numbers, Legalsense books debtors that aren't clients on a miscellaneous debtor number, which you specify in step 4. If this happens often, many invoices end up booked on the miscellaneous debtor, making it harder to find the original debtor in Fortnox.

4. Set up the ledger accounts: use Legalsense's default ledger accounts, or configure your own.

Fortnox setup step showing the ledger account configuration.

Click Next once you've set up the correct ledger accounts.

5. Set up the revenue accounts per user: book revenue for each timekeeper to a different ledger, or to a cost center per timekeeper.

Fortnox setup step showing the Revenue accounts per user configuration.

Click Next once you've set this up.

6. Set up the accounts for disbursement types: choose No overrides to book disbursements on the general disbursement accounts, or Specific accounts per expense type to give each disbursement type its own ledger account. With Fortnox, Legalsense only uses these accounts when it imports purchase invoices, not when it sends disbursements. Click Next once you've set this up.

7. Specify the date from which Legalsense should start synchronizing journal entries, then click Done, commence syncing.

Legalsense shows a final confirmation.

Fortnox setup confirmation screen.

8. Click Yes to start the synchronization.

If an error occurs, Legalsense sends a notification to the email address you entered in step 2.