--- title: Can I send CounselMore invoices and payments to my bookkeeping software? description: Auto send CounselMore invoices and payments to your bookkeeping software. --- [Skip to content](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/can-i-send-payments-and-invoices-to-my-bookkeeping-software#main-content) English Show submenu for translations [![CounselMore College Planning Software Knowledge Base](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logos/CMLogo_CCS_wide_trans-w2000-1.gif?width=1116&height=125&name=CMLogo_CCS_wide_trans-w2000-1.gif)](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/?hsLang=en) Open main navigation Close main navigation - English Show submenu for translations Select below, or search by topic - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Knowledge Base : CounselMore Support](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/?hsLang=en) 2. [SETTINGS MENU & CUSTOMIZATIONS](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/settings-menu-customizations?hsLang=en) 3. [Settings - Integrations](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/settings-menu-customizations?hsLang=en#settings-integrations) # Can I send CounselMore invoices and payments to my bookkeeping software? ## Sync your invoices and payments to QuickBooks (or anywhere) with Zapier **Who is this for:** counselors and practice admins who bill through the Accounting tab **Time to set up:** about 15 minutes for the first Zap **You'll need:** a Zapier account, your CounselMore login, and an accounting tool Zapier reaches (QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks, or even a Google Sheet) What this does When you send an invoice or record a payment in CounselMore, Zapier passes it straight to your accounting tool. Your books stay in step with the Accounting tab without you typing anything twice. CounselMore sends four events: | When this happens in CounselMore | Zapier sees | | --- | --- | | You email an invoice from the Accounting tab | **Invoice Sent** | | You change an invoice you've already sent | **Invoice Updated** | | An invoice becomes paid, by you or by Stripe | **Invoice Marked Paid** | | A payment is added to a client | **Payment Recorded** | Zapier checks for new events every 1 to 15 minutes depending on your Zapier plan, so expect a short delay rather than an instant update. ### What doesn't sync - **Scheduled auto-send invoice summaries.** If you have invoices set to go out weekly or monthly, those are summary emails and don't create an invoice record in CounselMore, so there's nothing to send on. Only invoices you send from the Accounting tab appear in Zapier. - **Voided or cancelled invoices.** CounselMore can't void a sent invoice, so if you cancel one by agreement, void it in your accounting tool yourself. - **Your own CounselMore subscription.** This is about what you bill your families, not what we bill you. --- Before you start - **Enable Zapier** switched on, under *Settings → Business Setup* - A plan that includes invoice emailing - A Zapier account — the free plan is enough to try one Zap **In a multi-counselor practice, the account admin connects once.** The admin's Zap receives invoices raised by every counselor in the firm, and each event names who raised it. Individual counselors don't connect their own Zapier accounts. --- Connect CounselMore to Zapier 1. In Zapier, create a Zap and search for **CounselMore** as the trigger app. 2. Choose **Invoice Sent in CounselMore**. 3. Sign in with your CounselMore email address and password — the same ones you use for the app. 4. Choose your accounting tool as the action, and map the fields. 5. Turn the Zap on, then send a test invoice from the Accounting tab to confirm it arrives. ### Map the Invoice Number This is the one field to get right. Every invoice now carries a number, assigned when you send it. It's what lets every later event find the right invoice again. In QuickBooks it's called the invoice number, or *DocNumber*. > **Without it, an edit or a payment can't be matched, and you'll get duplicates.** Invoices you sent before this feature existed have no number and fall back to an internal id. They still match correctly — the id just looks like a jumble of characters rather than a number. ---   ⚠️ If you already sync Stripe to QuickBooks, read this Many counselors have Stripe's own QuickBooks connection switched on. If you do, and you also build a Zap that posts payments, **every Stripe payment will be recorded twice**. Two ways to avoid it: - **Recommended:** in your payment Zap, add a Filter step that only continues when **Payment Method** is not `stripe`. Stripe's own sync handles those; your Zap handles cheques, transfers, and anything you enter by hand. - Or turn off Stripe's QuickBooks connection and let the Zap handle everything. A related point: when a client pays a Stripe payment link, CounselMore fires **both** *Payment Recorded* and *Invoice Marked Paid*. That's correct and expected. > **Only ever post money from *Payment Recorded*.** Use *Invoice Marked Paid* for things that aren't money — a Slack message, a spreadsheet row, closing a task. --- **Telling Zapier which invoice a payment settles** The Accounting tab is a running ledger per student, so a payment isn't automatically tied to a particular invoice. You can now say which one it settles. When you record a payment, use the **Apply to invoice** dropdown. It lists that student's open invoices, and the payment's note will show which one you picked — for example *Applied to invoice 310942*. Each payment event tells your Zap how confident the match is, in a field called **Invoice Attribution**: | Value | What it means | | --- | --- | | `explicit` | You chose the invoice yourself, or it came from a Stripe payment link. Always correct. | | `only_open` | The student had exactly one open invoice. | | `amount_match` | Several were open and exactly one matched the payment amount. | | `ambiguous` | Several were open and none could be singled out. **The invoice fields are left empty.** | | `no_open_invoice` | The student had nothing outstanding. | This is deliberate. Most students with an open invoice have more than one, often for the same amount, so guessing would apply money to the wrong invoice in your books. For the ambiguous ones, apply the payment in your accounting tool yourself, or build a second Zap that flags them. **The simplest way to avoid ambiguity is to pick the invoice when you record the payment.** --- Reading the Accounting tab at a glance The Accounting tab mixes invoices, payments and billable time in one list. Each now has its own shading: - **Green** rows are payments - **Blue** rows are invoices - Payments collected through **Stripe** carry a card icon and a green edge --- Frequently asked questions ### Can I edit an invoice after sending it? > Partly, and this is worth understanding before you rely on it. > > A sent invoice is a **snapshot**, taken at the moment you sent it. Editing a time entry or a line amount in the Accounting tab afterwards changes your running ledger — it does **not** change that invoice, and it does **not** send an *Invoice Updated* event. The invoice your client received, and the one in your accounting tool, both stay as sent. > > *Invoice Updated* fires when the invoice record itself changes: its friendly or legal notes, or its paid status. It carries the full current invoice plus a **Changed Fields** list you can filter on. > > If you need to correct a sent invoice, the reliable route is to fix the line in the Accounting tab and send a fresh invoice, then void or amend the old one in your accounting tool by hand. ### How are partial payments handled? Each payment arrives as its own **Payment Recorded** event with **Is Partial Payment** set to true and a **Remaining Balance**. Your accounting tool applies each one and leaves the invoice part-paid. Nothing special to set up. ### Who does the invoice go to? CounselMore doesn't have a single "billing contact". It emails an invoice to every enabled contact with an email address on the student, so events carry a *list* of recipients. Most Zaps should map the first one. ### What about siblings who share a parent? That parent's email appears on both students' invoices. That's correct — they're two invoices — but your accounting tool will match them to one customer, which is usually what you want. ### Nothing is coming through. What should I check? 1. Check **Enable Zapier** is still on in Business Setup. 2. Check the Zap is turned on in Zapier. 3. Remember scheduled auto-send summaries don't sync — send one invoice from the Accounting tab as a test. 4. Events are held for **7 days**. A Zap switched off for longer than that will miss anything from before the gap. Still stuck? Email [support@counselmore.com](mailto:support@counselmore.com) with the Zap's name and roughly when you sent the invoice. --- Related articles - [Accounting: marking a payment as received](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/accounting-marking-payment-as-received?hsLang=en) - [ACCOUNT SET UP](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/account-set-up?hsLang=en#main-content) - [New Account - SELF GUIDED SET UP](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/account-set-up?hsLang=en#new-account-self-guided-set-up) - [New Account - FREE LIVE TRAINING](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/account-set-up?hsLang=en#new-account-free-live-training) - [New Account - MULTI LICENSE ACCOUNT SET UP](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/account-set-up?hsLang=en#new-account-multi-license-account-set-up) - [New Account - COLLEGE SEARCH NAVIGATION](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/account-set-up?hsLang=en#new-account-college-search-navigation) - [New Account - PARENT & STUDENT USERS](https://helpdesk.counselmore.com/account-set-up?hsLang=en#new-account-parent-student-users) - 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