Karbon Ignition Integration Guide [2026 Updated]

If your accounting firm uses both Karbon for practice management and Ignition for client proposals, connecting them is the key to automating your entire client onboarding process. A successful integration stops manual data entry in its tracks, eliminates errors, and creates a smooth handoff from sales to service delivery. This guide walks you through why this connection matters, what methods are available, and provides a step-by-step tutorial on making it happen.

Understanding the Tools: Karbon and Ignition

Before diving into the integration details, it’s important to understand the specific role each platform plays in a modern accounting firm. They are powerful on their own, but become a true system of record when connected.

What is Karbon? Karbon is a collaborative practice management platform built specifically for accounting firms. It's the central hub for managing your firm’s work, client information, and team communication. Its primary purpose is to organize projects, assign tasks, track deadlines, and automate internal workflows. Think of it as your firm’s operational brain, where all client work is planned, executed, and completed.

What is Ignition? Ignition (formerly Practice Ignition) is a client engagement and commerce platform. Its main function is to streamline the front-end part of your client relationship. Firms use Ignition to create and send professional proposals, securely capture payment details, and automate client billing. It handles everything from the initial proposal to engagement letter signing and getting paid, effectively automating your client intake and revenue collection.

Why Integrate Karbon and Ignition?

The core benefit of connecting these two platforms is creating a single, automated workflow from prospect to project completion. When a client accepts your proposal in Ignition, all their details and the services they’ve agreed to should flow directly into Karbon, triggering the creation of a new project—all without a single mouse click from your team.

Consider the manual alternative: a client signs a proposal. A team member then has to:

• Manually create a new client record in Karbon.
• Copy and paste contact information like name, email, and phone number.
• Look at the signed proposal to see which services were purchased.
• Create a new "Work Item" or "Project" in Karbon based on those services.
• Assign the work to the appropriate team members and set deadlines.

This process is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error. A typo in an email address or a forgotten service can cause client communication issues and project delays. Integrating the two systems eliminates these risks and inefficiencies entirely.

Integration Methods: What Are Your Options?

As of 2026, there is no official, direct, one-click integration built by either Karbon or Ignition. This means you must use a third-party automation tool or a custom solution to bridge the gap. Here are the most common methods:

• Third-Party Connectors: This is the recommended route for most firms. Tools like Zapier or Make (formerly Integromat) act as middleware, allowing you to create automated workflows ("Zaps" in Zapier) between the two applications without writing any code. For example, you can set a "Trigger" in Ignition (e.g., "Proposal Accepted") to cause an "Action" in Karbon (e.g., "Create a Work Item").
• API/Custom Integration: Both Karbon and Ignition have open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). For firms with highly specific needs or access to a developer, this allows for a fully custom-built connection. This method offers the most flexibility but comes with higher costs, requiring technical knowledge to build and maintain. Most firms will find this option unnecessary.

For the remainder of this guide, we will focus on using Zapier, as it is the most popular, user-friendly, and powerful solution for connecting Karbon and Ignition.

Step-by-Step Guide: Connecting Karbon and Ignition with Zapier

This tutorial will show you how to create an automated workflow that creates a new Work Item and a Contact in Karbon every time a proposal is accepted in Ignition. This is the cornerstone automation for any firm using this tech stack.

Prerequisites

• An active Karbon account.
• An active Ignition account.
• An active Zapier account. While Zapier has a free plan, you will likely need a paid plan to build multi-step Zaps (e.g., one trigger causing multiple actions).

Step 1: Connect Your Accounts to Zapier

Before you build your workflow ("Zap"), you first need to authorize Zapier to access your Ignition and Karbon accounts.

1. Log in to your Zapier account.
2. In the left-hand navigation, click on "My Apps."
3. Click the "Add connection" button and search for "Ignition."
4. A pop-up window will ask you to grant Zapier permission to access your Ignition account. Follow the prompts to sign in and authorize it.
5. Repeat the process for Karbon. Search for "Karbon" and follow the prompts. For Karbon, you may need to provide an API key and user ID, which you can generate from within Karbon’s settings menu under "Connected Apps."

Step 2: Create Your Zap - The Trigger

Now that your apps are connected, it's time to build the Zap. Every Zap starts with a "Trigger"—the event that kicks off the automation.

1. In Zapier, click "Create Zap."
2. For the Trigger App, choose Ignition.
3. For the "Event," select "Proposal Accepted." This tells Zapier to watch Ignition and start the workflow only when a client signs and accepts a proposal.
4. Click "Continue" and follow the prompts to test your trigger. Zapier will pull in data from a recently accepted proposal in your Ignition account so you have real data to work with in the next steps. If you don't have one, it's a good idea to create and accept a test proposal first.

Step 3: Add Your First Action - Create or Update Contact in Karbon

It’s a best practice to first create or update the client's contact record in Karbon. This ensures all contact information is correct and prevents duplicate entries if the client is already in your system.

1. Click the "+" icon to add your first Action step.
2. Choose Karbon as the app.
3. For the "Event," select "Create/Update Contact." This action will search for an existing contact by email and update them if found, or create a new contact if they don’t exist.
4. Click "Continue." Now you need to map the data from Ignition to Karbon. Click inside each field in the Karbon action step and select the corresponding data point from the Ignition trigger step.
   • Practice Name: Select your firm's Karbon instance.
   • Contact Type: Choose "Person" or "Organization" based on your needs. For this example, choose "Person."
   • Name: From the Ignition step, select "Client Contact Full Name."
   • Email: From the Ignition step, select "Client Contact Email."
   • Phone Number: Map the "Client Contact Phone" field.
5. Continue mapping any other relevant fields, such as address. After you've mapped the fields, click "Continue" and test the step. This will send a real contact to Karbon. Check your Karbon account to verify it was created correctly.

Step 4: Add Your Second Action - Create Work in Karbon

With the contact now in Karbon, the next step is to create the actual project or "Work Item."

1. Click the "+" icon below your previous action to add a new step.
2. Choose Karbon again as the app.
3. For the "Event," select "Create Work."
4. Now, map the fields using data from both the Ignition trigger and the previous Karbon step.
   • Work Title: This is a key field. You can combine static text with data from Ignition. For example: "2026 Annual Bookkeeping - [Client Name from Ignition]."
   • Contact: Instead of mapping from the Ignition step, map from the previous Karbon step. In the "Contact" field, choose the "Custom" tab and select the "Contact ID" returned by the "Create/Update Contact" step. This links the new work to the contact you just created.
   • Work Template: If you have Work templates in Karbon for different services (e.g., "Monthly Bookkeeping," "Annual Tax Return"), you can choose one here to automatically apply a checklist of tasks.
   • Start Date & Due Date: Map values like "Proposal Accepted Date" to the Start Date, and set a Due Date accordingly. You can even use Zapier's Formatter tool to add a set amount of time to the accepted date (e.g., Accepted Date + 30 days).
   • Assignee: Assign the work to a specific person or team manager in your firm.
5. Test this step. Zapier will create a work item in Karbon using your mapped data. Double-check that it’s assigned to the right person and linked to the correct contact.
6. Finally, click "Publish" to turn your Zap on.

Congratulations! Your client onboarding is now automated. Whenever a client accepts an Ignition proposal, a new contact and a fully configured work item will be created in Karbon in seconds.

Common Issues & Troubleshooting

Automations occasionally run into snags. Here are a few common issues and how to fix them:

• Authentication Errors: If your Zap stops working, the connection to Karbon or Ignition may have expired. Go back to the "My Apps" section in Zapier and try reconnecting both to refresh the authorization.
• Data Mismatches: The "Test" step is your best friend. If work is being created with missing information, edit your Zap and look at the "Mapping" fields. Make sure you’ve selected the correct data point from the dropdown for each field. For example, ensure you’re mapping "Client Email" and not "User Email."
• Zap Isn't Triggering: Check that the proposal was moved to the "Accepted" state in Ignition. Also, check your Zap History in Zapier to see if it attempted to run and encountered an error. The error logs will usually tell you exactly what went wrong.

Final Thoughts

Connecting Karbon and Ignition automates your client intake, saves countless administrative hours, and ensures data is always consistent across your most important software. Although a native integration isn’t yet available, using an automation platform like Zapier provides a powerful and surprisingly flexible bridge between your proposal and practice management systems.

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