How do you import credit card transactions into Lexis Affinity?

How do credit card transactions get into Lexis Affinity?

By file import. Lexis Affinity publishes no public API, so there is no live feed from a card program into the practice management system. Card spend enters Affinity as structured batch data loaded through an import, the same way other external transaction data does on an on-premise system.

What does the manual process cost an accounts team?

• Statements arrive at month-end, weeks after the spend.
• The accounts team chases fee earners for receipts and explanations.
• Each line is coded — office expense or matter disbursement — in a spreadsheet.
• The spreadsheet is reshaped for import or the entries keyed in by hand.

Matter-related spend that surfaces weeks late is the expensive part: cost recovery slips, and billing cycles close without it.

How does Vergo automate the Affinity import?

Vergo shifts the work to the moment of spend. A transaction appears in Vergo when the card is used; the fee earner photographs the receipt immediately; the accounts team codes the line the same day — general ledger account for office costs, matter reference for recoverable spend. When it is time to post, Vergo generates a custom-built CSV export matched to the import format Affinity expects, so the file loads without spreadsheet rework.

The final step happens in Affinity: run the import and review the batch. The data arrives coded, receipt-backed, and reconciled.

What should the first import verify?

Start with a small test batch. Confirm account codes match your Affinity chart, check matter references resolve correctly, verify GST treatment and dates, and make sure the batch posts to the intended period. Once confirmed, the format is fixed and monthly runs are routine.

How often should firms import?

Weekly imports keep matter costs current for billing; monthly suits a standard close. Because coding happens continuously in Vergo, the export is ready either way.

What changes for cost recovery?

Recoverable spend stops leaking. When a fee earner's card purchase is flagged to its matter the day it happens — receipt attached — it reaches Affinity in the next import and lands on the matter before the bill goes out. Under the manual process, that same purchase surfaces weeks later on a statement, often after the billing cycle it belonged to has closed. The import file is the same either way; the difference is that the coding happened when the context was fresh, so the firm bills what it actually spent.