Key takeaways
- No employee expense module: Actionstep's expenses are client disbursements.
- Disbursements carry matter, timekeeper, income account and tax code.
- Firm withdrawals record costs without an invoice and can create billable records on a matter.
- Vergo adds card spend coding to matters and receipt collection by text.
Where should you go next?
- Vergo's Actionstep integration
- What expense management software integrates with Actionstep?
- Get started with Vergo
What does Actionstep include for costs?
- Hard disbursements: paid to a vendor and billed to the client.
- Soft disbursements: internal costs such as copies charged to the client.
- Firm withdrawals: GL account, matter, bill flag and UTBMS or LEDES expense code.
- Bank reconciliation: manual or by electronic statement upload.
Where does that leave work for the billing team?
- Card charges must be matched to matters by hand.
- Receipts are chased from lawyers.
- Unbilled costs slip through when the matter is unknown.
When is a separate tool worth it?
When lawyers carry firm cards and disbursements are missed on bills. Vergo proposes the coding by inference from your own accounting structure and history — no rule library to build, no keyword lists to maintain, and new vendors are coded on first sight. Once API access is enabled, Vergo records coded card spend in Actionstep as disbursements against the matter, or as bills, through Actionstep's API.
How Vergo works alongside Actionstep
Actionstep stays your practice management, billing and trust accounting system. Employees handle everything by text message — no app to download, no portal login — and Vergo chases missing receipts itself instead of waiting for a report. Supplier bills and staff reimbursements can go through the same review, and payment stays on the rails you already use.
A practical example
A family law practice on Actionstep found that card-paid search fees were regularly missed on client bills. With Vergo, each fee triggers a text for the receipt, the matter is proposed from the paralegal's open files, and the disbursement is recorded before the bill run.
What should a law firm check before adding a tool?
Three things: that costs land on the matter as disbursements rather than as a lump in operating expenses, that UTBMS or LEDES codes can be carried where clients demand them, and that nothing touches trust accounting. Vergo records firm card spend as disbursements or bills in Actionstep and leaves trust alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Actionstep have a mobile expense app?
No. Actionstep's mobile app covers time entries, schedule and tasks, not expenses.
What are disbursements in Actionstep?
Client costs billed to a matter, called expenses in the U.S.
What does Vergo add?
Matter coding by inference for firm card spend and receipts collected by text.
Who enables the connection?
Your IT enables Actionstep API access once.
Do we need to change cards?
No. Connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change.
