Taking card and bank payments with LawPay or Confido Legal

Esqase can take card and bank payments on your invoices through LawPay or Confido Legal, two payment processors built for law firms. Once your firm connects one of them, your clients can pay a payment link by card or straight from their bank account, and Esqase records each payment on the invoice by itself, as soon as the processor reports it. Nobody at your firm has to check the bank and mark the payment cleared.

This page explains who can connect a payment processor, the three ways to connect one, test and live connections, how to map the processor's bank accounts to your Esqase accounts, the card, bank, and autopay switches, how to read the recent activity, how to reconnect or disconnect, and how to fix the problems you are most likely to meet.

Before you begin

• The connection belongs to the whole firm. Like accounting sync, a payment processor is connected once for everyone. Whoever connects it, every payment link your firm sends takes card and bank payments through the same account.
• One processor per firm. Your firm can connect LawPay or Confido Legal, not both at once. To switch, disconnect the one you have first.
• Who can connect and manage it. Firm owners, and members whose role includes Update access for Firm payment settings, can connect a processor, map its accounts, change the switches, and disconnect. By default that is the Owner and Administrator roles. A member with View access can open the payment settings and read them, but cannot change anything. See Roles and permissions.
• You need a merchant account. If your firm already uses LawPay or Confido Legal, you connect the account you have. If it does not, you can apply for one from inside Esqase (see Apply for a merchant account from Esqase).
• You need Esqase accounts to map to. Every payment the processor takes is recorded on an Esqase account you choose, so set up an active Operating or Savings account for invoice payments first, and a Trust Account, IOLTA, Client Trust Account, or Escrow account if your processor account includes a trust account. See Accounts, trust, and transactions.
• Card and bank details never reach Esqase. Your clients type their card or bank details into secure fields hosted by LawPay or Confido Legal. Esqase never sees or stores them. A card or bank account a client saves for a payment plan is kept by the processor, and Esqase keeps only a reference to it.

The three ways to connect

Whichever way you use, the connection ends up in the same place: Settings, then under Firm, Payments, on the Processor tab.

Connect an account you already have

1. In the sidebar, click Integrations.
2. Under Payments, find the LawPay or Confido Legal card and click Connect.
3. A dialog opens (Connect LawPay or Connect Confido Legal). It explains what Esqase sends to the processor (your client's name and email address, the invoice amount and number, and the matter title as the payment description), what it reads (the names and types of your bank accounts, and the status of each payment), and that the connection is shared by your whole firm. Read it, then click Continue to LawPay or Continue to Confido (or Cancel to stop).
4. Sign in on the LawPay or Confido Legal screen and approve the access Esqase asks for.
5. You come back to the Processor tab of your payment settings with the message Connected. Map your bank accounts to finish. Nothing can be paid by card or bank yet: map your accounts next (see Map your bank accounts).

Once connected, the card shows a Connected badge (after the mapping is saved) and a more options (⋯) menu. The menu shows the connected account and offers Payment settings (opens the Processor tab), Reconnect when the connection needs it, and Disconnect.

Apply for a merchant account from Esqase

If your firm has no LawPay or Confido Legal account yet, you can start the application from Esqase. The account connects to your firm on its own once the processor approves it.

1. In the sidebar, open Settings. Under Firm, click Payments, then click Processor beneath it.
2. With no processor connected, the page reads No payment processor connected. Under No merchant account yet, choose one:
   • Sign up with LawPay takes you to LawPay's own application page, with your sign-in email as the applicant email. Finish the application there. Back in Esqase, the Processor tab reads Your LawPay account is being set up and the status shows Application in progress. LawPay connects the account to Esqase when it is ready, and your bank accounts then appear on the tab.
   • Apply with Confido Legal opens the Confido Legal application right on the page. Your answers are saved as you go, so you can leave and finish later from the same page with Continue application. When you submit it, you see Application sent to Confido Legal. Confido Legal usually reviews an application in two to three business days.
3. While a Confido Legal application is under review, click Check status to ask Confido Legal where it stands. You see Confido Legal is still reviewing the application until it is approved, and then Confido Legal approved the application. Map your bank accounts to finish.

Add a Confido Legal API token

If your firm already uses Confido Legal and you prefer to paste a key instead of signing in, add an API token.

1. In Confido Legal, create an API token under Settings, API Tokens, and copy it.
2. In Esqase, open the Processor tab of your payment settings. Next to Already use Confido Legal?, click Add Confido API token.
3. In the Add a Confido Legal API token dialog, paste the token into API token and click Add token.
4. Esqase checks the token with Confido Legal and loads your bank accounts. You see Confido Legal connected, and the Account mappings section appears for you to map them.

The token is stored encrypted and is never shown again. To replace it, disconnect and add the new token.

Test and live connections

The Environment row on the Processor tab shows which kind of connection your firm has:

• Live means real cards and bank accounts are charged, and real money moves. This is what your firm has in Esqase.
• Test means the connection uses LawPay's test accounts or Confido Legal's sandbox, so no real money moves. You only see it in a test copy of Esqase.

A LawPay login can hold both test and live accounts. Esqase loads only the live ones, and if the login has none, connecting stops with a message such as That LawPay login has no live accounts Esqase can take payments into. Confido Legal keeps its sandbox separate from its live service, so a sandbox API token is not accepted by a live connection.

Map your bank accounts

Mapping tells Esqase which of your Esqase accounts records the money that arrives in each of the processor's bank accounts. It keeps your Esqase ledger matching what the processor deposits in your bank, and it keeps trust money apart from operating money. Until an operating account is mapped, the status reads Map accounts and your clients cannot pay by card or bank.

1. Open the Processor tab of your payment settings and scroll to Account mappings.
2. The processor's accounts are listed in two groups, Operating accounts and Trust accounts. Each row shows the account's name, a badge for its kind (Operating, Trust, or eCheck), and its currency.
3. For each account, choose the Esqase account that records its payments, or leave it on Not mapped. Only active accounts of a matching kind and currency are offered:
   • an operating or eCheck account maps to an Operating or Savings account;
   • a trust account maps to a Trust Account, IOLTA, Client Trust Account, or Escrow account.
4. Choose the Default in each group:
   • The default operating account is where invoice payments are charged, and every card and bank payment on an invoice is recorded on the Esqase account mapped to it. One is required.
   • The default trust account is optional. It receives the deposits clients pay through a trust deposit request, recorded on the Esqase trust account mapped to it. See Trust deposit requests. The first account you map in a group becomes its default automatically.
5. Click Save changes. You see Account mappings saved, and the status turns Connected.

If you add a bank account in LawPay or Confido Legal later, click Refresh accounts at the top of the Processor tab to load it, then map it. An account that has disappeared from the processor drops off the list, and its mapping comes back if the account returns.

Choose how clients can pay

The card, bank, and autopay switches live on their own tab.

1. In your payment settings, click Autopay beneath Payments. The section is titled Online payments and autopay.
2. Under How clients can pay:
   • Card payments lets clients pay payment links by credit or debit card.
   • Bank payments (eCheck) with LawPay, or Bank payments (ACH) with Confido Legal, lets clients pay from their bank account. Bank payments usually take 3 to 5 business days to clear, and show as pending until then.
3. Under Payment plans:
   • Autopay for payment plans lets a client save the card or bank account they pay with, so the rest of their installments are charged on their due dates.
   • Send payment plan emails emails the client a link to pay by hand when an automatic charge fails.
   • Retry schedule is shown for reference: Failed card charges are retried on days 3, 5 and 7.
4. Click Save changes. You see Payment settings saved.

All four switches start on. Turning Card payments or Bank payments off removes that option from payment links straight away, including links you have already sent. For how payment plans and autopay work, see Payment plans and autopay.

How card and bank payments reach your invoices

Once the connection is Connected, the Generate payment link dialog on an invoice offers Card and Bank payment as payment methods, ticked by default. Your client picks one on the payment page and enters their details in the processor's secure fields. See How clients pay invoices.

• A card payment is recorded as Cleared the moment the processor accepts it. The invoice balance moves, the payment is posted to your mapped operating account, and a receipt number is issued if your firm uses official receipts.
• A bank payment is recorded as Pending, like a check that has not cleared. When the processor reports that the money arrived, usually 3 to 5 business days later, Esqase marks it Cleared and posts it. If the bank refuses the debit, Esqase marks it Failed.
• You do not mark these payments cleared. A payment taken through LawPay or Confido Legal has no Mark Cleared button in the Review payment dialog, because Esqase clears it for you. See Recording and managing payments.
• Your team is told. Members who can see invoices get a notification such as Payment received on invoice INV-0042 (or Payment processing on invoice INV-0042 for a bank payment that has not cleared yet), and the client gets a Payment received or Payment processing notification in their client portal. See Notifications.

Esqase hears about each payment from the processor within moments, and also checks every 15 minutes for anything it missed, so a payment is never left pending because one message went astray.

Read the connection details and recent activity

The top of the Processor tab shows the connection:

• Provider, Environment (Live or Test), and Status: Application in progress, Map accounts, Connected, or Needs reconnecting.
• The processor account's name and the login used to connect it.
• Connected with: how it was connected (LawPay sign-in or Confido Legal sign-in, Application through Esqase, or API token).
• Connected by, Connected on, and Last synced (the last time Esqase checked the processor for changes).
• When the processor reported a problem, a red notice titled LawPay reported a problem (or Confido Legal reported a problem) with the details.

Recent activity at the bottom of the tab lists the payment updates the processor sent, newest first, 10 to a page. Each row shows when it was Received, its Type (for example Payment settled, Payment failed, Payment returned, Payment refunded, Payment voided, Saved payment method updated, or Account set up), the processor's Transaction reference, its Status, and any Error:

• Processed: Esqase applied the update to the payment.
• Ignored: the update did not concern a payment in Esqase, for example a charge someone took directly in the processor's own portal.
• Failed: Esqase could not apply it. When the error begins with Needs attention, a person has to act; see Troubleshooting.
• Received: the update has arrived and is being applied.

Reconnect when the processor stops accepting the connection

If LawPay or Confido Legal stops accepting the connection Esqase saved (for example, someone revoked Esqase's access in the processor's own settings), the status on the Processor tab turns Needs reconnecting and the card on the Integrations page reads LawPay no longer accepts the saved connection. Reconnect LawPay to keep taking payments.

1. On the Processor tab, click Reconnect. It opens the Integrations page.
2. On the LawPay or Confido Legal card, open the more options (⋯) menu and click Reconnect, then click Continue to LawPay or Continue to Confido in the dialog.
3. Sign in to the same LawPay or Confido Legal account and approve the access.
4. You see Reconnected. Your bank account mapping is unchanged. Payments pick up where they stopped.

Disconnect

1. On the Processor tab, click Disconnect. (Or open the card's more options (⋯) menu on the Integrations page and click Disconnect.)
2. Confirm in the Disconnect LawPay? (or Disconnect Confido Legal?) dialog.

Here is what changes when you disconnect:

• Card and bank options leave your payment links. Clients can still pay by bank transfer or QR code if you offer them.
• Saved cards and bank accounts stop working. Every card or bank account a client saved for a payment plan is switched off, and it stays off even if you connect again later. Clients save a new one the next time they pay an installment.
• Payment plans stay on their invoices, but autopay cannot charge. Clients keep paying installments from the payment link. See Payment plans and autopay.
• Recorded payments stay in Esqase. Nothing already recorded is changed or removed.
• Pending bank payments stop updating. A bank payment that was still processing is no longer updated automatically. Connecting the same account again lets Esqase pick it up.

If you connect the same LawPay or Confido Legal account again later, your account mappings come back. To switch processors, disconnect the one you have, then connect the other.

Troubleshooting

• The Connect button is greyed out and the card says only firm owners and administrators can connect a payment processor. Your role does not include Update access for Firm payment settings. Ask a firm owner to connect, or to give your role that access.
• The card says to disconnect LawPay to connect Confido Legal (or the other way round). Your firm already has the other processor connected. Only one can be connected at a time.
• The card says "Finish the application to start taking payments". Your application with the processor is still in progress. For Confido Legal, finish it with Continue application and use Check status. For LawPay, finish the application on LawPay's page and wait for LawPay to connect the account.
• The card says "Map your bank accounts in Payment settings to start taking payments". The connection works, but no default operating account is mapped yet. See Map your bank accounts.
• The status reads Needs reconnecting. The processor no longer accepts the saved connection. See Reconnect when the processor stops accepting the connection.
• The processor notice says "Esqase could not sign up for LawPay payment updates". Esqase could not ask the processor to send it payment updates. Payments still update, because Esqase checks the processor every 15 minutes, but it can take up to 15 minutes. Click Refresh accounts to try signing up for updates again.
• The tab says no accounts were found. The processor has no bank account Esqase can take payments into. Add one in LawPay or Confido Legal, then click Refresh accounts.
• Card and Bank payment are greyed out when you generate a payment link. Either no processor is connected (the dialog says Connect a payment processor in Integrations to take card and bank payments), or the switches are off or the accounts are not mapped (it says Turn on card and bank payments and map your bank accounts in payment settings). Card and bank payments are also only offered on invoices in the same currency as the processor account.
• A Recent activity row says "Needs attention" and names a charge with no payment in Esqase. The processor took a payment that Esqase has no record of. Check the charge in the processor's portal, then record the payment or refund it by hand.
• A Recent activity row says "Needs attention: refund rejected by the processor". A refund you recorded in Esqase did not go through at the processor. Void the refund transaction in Esqase by hand, then try the refund again. See Void a transaction.
• A Recent activity row says reversing a payment would take a trust balance below zero. The processor reversed a payment that was already used from trust. Nothing was changed. Record the reversal by hand once the trust balance allows it. See Trust compliance and three-way reconciliation.
• The card shows Coming soon. Online payments are not switched on for your account yet. There is nothing to set up until they are.
• You see "Linking is not available right now" or "Online payments are not available right now". Esqase cannot work with LawPay or Confido Legal for your firm at the moment. Try again later.

Common questions

• Does every member have to connect LawPay or Confido Legal? No. The connection is firm-wide. One person connects it for everyone.
• Can we connect both LawPay and Confido Legal? No. A firm can have one payment processor at a time.
• Do card and bank payments replace the bank transfer link and QR code? No. They sit alongside them. You choose which methods each payment link offers.
• Who charges the processing fees? The processor, under your firm's own agreement with it. The fees are taken from your operating account, never from trust and never from the payment your client makes.
• Can clients be charged a surcharge for paying by card? No. Esqase does not add surcharges, and the full invoice amount is charged.
• Where does the money go? Straight from the processor to your bank, under your own merchant account. Esqase never holds your clients' money.
• Do payments taken in the processor's own portal appear in Esqase? No. Only payments made through an Esqase payment link are recorded. A charge taken directly in LawPay or Confido Legal is listed as Ignored in Recent activity.
• Will card and bank payments reach QuickBooks or Xero? Yes, as cleared payments, the same way as a payment you clear by hand. Refunds and reversals are still recorded there by hand. See Connecting QuickBooks Online or Xero.

Related

• Integrations overview
• Payment settings
• Payment plans and autopay
• Trust deposit requests
• Recording and managing payments
• How clients pay invoices
• Accounts, trust, and transactions