Why is import the route into AJS?
AJS, the hosted practice management and legal accounting system used by South African firms, publishes no public API documentation — there is no developer content on ajs.co.za or ajsglobal.com for a third-party platform to build a sync against. So card activity reaches AJS the way other outside data does: through file import. The aim is to make everything before that import automatic.
What is painful about the manual version?
In a firm, card reconciliation is not just data entry — it is allocation. Every charge has to be answered twice: which matter does this belong to, and is it a recoverable disbursement or firm overhead? Done manually, that means the bookkeeper working through a statement weeks later, chasing fee earners for receipts and context, with billing and trust-accounting consequences riding on guesses.
How does the workflow run with Vergo?
1. Spend on Vergo cards. Each transaction is captured at the point of sale — merchant, amount, date — with nothing left to reconstruct from a statement.
2. Code at the point of spend. The fee earner attaches the receipt from their phone and codes the purchase to the correct matter, or to the firm's own accounts, while they still remember what it was for. Approvals can sit wherever the firm wants them.
3. Export the import file. Vergo provides custom-built CSV exports matched to AJS's import format — the columns and layout the system expects — so no one re-maps spreadsheets between export and import.
4. Import into AJS. Load the file as a batch, confirm the batch total against Vergo's export, spot-check matter allocations, and post to the correct period.
What does this do to month-end?
The reconciliation step shrinks from a reconstruction project to a verification step. Matter allocation, receipt documentation, and account coding are complete before the file is generated, so the import is where finished data lands — not where problems get discovered. Recoverable disbursements reach billing with their documentation already attached in Vergo.
Is this an API integration?
No, and Vergo does not present it as one. AJS publishes no API for anyone to integrate against, so file import is the honest and working path. If AJS publishes developer documentation in future, deeper integration becomes possible; today, this workflow removes the manual work and keeps the firm in control of the one step that remains.
Can card transactions sync into AJS automatically?
Not via API — AJS publishes no public API documentation. The working path is file import, with the capture and coding automated upstream in Vergo.
What file does AJS receive?
A CSV custom-built by Vergo to match AJS's import format, loaded through the system's standard import as a batch.
How are disbursements kept separate from firm expenses?
Fee earners code each card purchase in Vergo at the point of spend — matter and disbursement, or firm overhead — so the distinction is made when the context is fresh, not guessed at month-end.
How often should a firm run the import?
On whatever cadence suits billing and the close — many firms import weekly so recoverable disbursements reach matters quickly rather than waiting for month-end.
