Deposits and disbursements

Open the trust account ledger by clicking Trust Ledger on a trust account card. The ledger toolbar has a primary + New Transaction dropdown grouping the five transaction types under two headings (Credits: Add Deposit, Add Interest; Debits: Add Disbursement, Add Transfer, Add Bank Fee), plus a Trust Statement button and a Back link.

Recording a deposit

A deposit is money received into trust on behalf of a client (e.g. a retainer payment, settlement funds, escrow payment).

From the + New Transaction dropdown, choose Add Deposit. The deposit modal opens with the trust account already selected. Fill in:

• Client (required): Which client this deposit belongs to
• Amount (required): How much was deposited
• Reference: The bank reference, wire ID, or other audit identifier. If left blank, CaseFlow auto-generates a reference using your firm's trust prefix and number format. If your firm has Require reference on trust transactions turned on, this field becomes mandatory.
• Check Number: Cheque number, if applicable
• Description: What the deposit is for (e.g. "Retainer for Smith v. Jones"). Mandatory if your firm has Require description on trust transactions turned on.

Every entry carries a Date of the entry, which defaults to today. Change it when you are recording something that happened earlier, which is the usual case for the entry that clears a bank charge off last month's close: a close covers a month that has ended, so an entry belonging to that month has to be dated inside it or the close will not see it. A date in the future is refused, because an entry that has not happened cannot be recorded as having happened.

A deposit can also carry a Date the bank posted it, which is optional. Use it when you record the deposit after the bank posted it and the entry cannot take the bank's date: CaseFlow will not let you date a client's entry before that client's latest one, so a deposit you record after the client's next entry carries a later date than the bank's. Copy the date from your bank statement. When it falls inside the period the statement covers, the monthly close compares it with the statement as well as the date of the entry, so the deposit can pair with its bank line, and the matched item names both dates. It has to be on or before the date of the entry. It is recorded in the trust audit trail with the entry, and it cannot be changed afterwards: the entry's edit page shows it but does not offer it. If it turns out wrong, the close still compares the date of the entry; to correct it, reverse the entry and record it again. Leave it empty when the date of the entry is already the bank's date. A disbursement does not take one, because CaseFlow checks the client's balance on the date of the payment: give it the date the bank paid it. If CaseFlow refuses that date because the client already has a later entry, use the earliest date it allows, and the close may list the bank's payment and your entry apart, the payment as not in your ledger and the entry as not yet through the bank. They are the same money: do not record the payment a second time. Address each exception that raises as A timing difference, naming the entry, before you sign: that month does not count as reconciled, and the attestation you sign says the three balances do not agree.

If you are backfilling historical entries when first setting up the firm, record them in chronological order so the running balance reads correctly, or import them instead.

Click Add Deposit. The account balance increases, the client's ledger shows the new entry, and if Auto-send notification email to client on trust transactions is turned on, a deposit confirmation goes to client contacts who have Receive invoice emails ticked.

Recording a disbursement

A disbursement is money leaving trust. Common reasons: paying costs on a client's behalf, transferring earned fees to your operating account, or refunding unused funds to the client.

From the + New Transaction dropdown, choose Add Disbursement. Fill in:

• Client (required): Which client's funds you are drawing from
• Amount (required): How much to disburse
• Payee: Who the money went to (e.g. "Smith & Associates Operating Account", "County Clerk", client name for refunds)
• Reference: Audit identifier; auto-generated if blank (subject to the same Require-reference setting as deposits)
• Check Number: Cheque number, if applicable
• Apply to Invoice: Optional. The dropdown shows the selected client's outstanding invoices (Unpaid, Partially Paid, Overdue). Picking one tells CaseFlow to record this disbursement as a payment against that invoice, using the Trust/IOLTA payment mode, and update the invoice's status accordingly. Leave at None (no invoice) for any disbursement that is not a fee transfer (e.g. paying a court filing fee). The dropdown appears only for team members who can record payments, and lists only invoices they can see. CaseFlow refuses an amount larger than what the invoice still owes, an invoice in a different currency from the trust account, and a matter that belongs to a different client.
• Description: Reason for the disbursement; mandatory if Require-description is on

Click Add Disbursement. The account balance decreases, the client's ledger reflects the withdrawal, and if Auto-notify is on, the client receives a disbursement notification email.

Recording a transfer

A transfer moves funds out of trust to another account. The most common use is moving earned fees from the trust account to the firm's operating account once an invoice has been paid out of trust. You can also use transfers to send funds to a third-party account (a wire to closing counsel, a refund issued from your operating account, and so on). Use a disbursement instead if you are paying a vendor directly from trust.

From the + New Transaction dropdown, choose Add Transfer. Fill in:

• Client (required): Which client's funds are being moved
• Amount (required): How much to transfer
• Transfer to (required): The destination account or entity (for example, "Operating Account", "Smith & Associates Main Account", or an external bank account name). This field answers the bar examiner's question about where the trust funds went.
• Reference: Audit identifier; auto-generated if blank
• Check Number: Cheque number, if applicable
• Description: Plain-English reason for the transfer (for example, "Earned fees per engagement agreement, Invoice INV-0123")

Click Add Transfer. The account balance decreases by the amount transferred, the client's ledger shows the new entry, and the transfer is recorded as a separate event type in the trust audit log so it can be distinguished from a disbursement when a bar examiner reviews records.

Posting interest

Use Interest to credit interest into the trust account. The most common use is to record the periodic interest payment that an IOLTA account generates and remits to the state bar foundation; in non-IOLTA jurisdictions or for non-IOLTA accounts, this is also where you record any interest the bank credits to the account.

Firms typically attribute IOLTA interest to a designated "house" pseudo-client (often named "State Bar Foundation" or "Firm Operations") rather than to a specific real client, since IOLTA interest belongs to the bar foundation and is not attributable to any one client's funds. Set up that pseudo-client once in Clients before recording interest, then use it for every interest entry.

From the + New Transaction dropdown, choose Add Interest. Fill in:

• Client (required): The pseudo-client representing the interest recipient (your house client or bar-foundation client)
• Amount (required): The interest credit amount
• Reference: Audit identifier; auto-generated if blank
• Description: For example, "IOLTA interest, January 2026"

Click Add Interest. The account balance increases by the interest amount, the entry appears in the ledger with the Interest type, and it is recorded in the trust audit log.

Recording a bank fee

Use Fee to record a bank service charge debited from the trust account. Common examples: monthly maintenance fees, wire transfer fees, minimum-balance fees, NSF fees on a returned client deposit.

Firms attribute these to a "house" pseudo-client (the same one used for interest postings) since bank fees are firm overhead and are not chargeable to any one client's funds. Posting bank fees against a real client's ledger is a bar-discipline violation in most jurisdictions; the pseudo-client pattern keeps the trust accounting clean.

From the + New Transaction dropdown, choose Add Bank Fee. Fill in:

• Client (required): The pseudo-client representing the firm (your house client)
• Amount (required): The fee amount
• Reference: Audit identifier; auto-generated if blank
• Description: For example, "Wire transfer fee, $25", "Monthly maintenance fee, March 2026"

Click Add Bank Fee. The account balance decreases by the fee, the entry appears in the ledger with the Fee type, and it is recorded in the trust audit log. Overdraft protection applies: if a fee would overdraw the account, CaseFlow refuses it and records the attempt as an overdraft event the bar examiner can see.

Overdraft prevention

CaseFlow does not allow a disbursement that would take a client's ledger below zero. The check happens inside a transaction with a set lock against that client's balance, so concurrent disbursements cannot both succeed against the same funds. If a disbursement would cause an overdraft, the form returns an error showing the current available balance, and nothing is recorded.

This is the primary safeguard against accidentally using one client's funds for another.

Viewing the ledger

The ledger lists every deposit and disbursement for the account in chronological order, with columns for Date, Client, Type (deposit / disbursement / transfer / interest / fee), Reference, Description, Amount, Running Balance, Reconciled status, and Entry no. A monthly close names an entry by its date, amount, check number and client, and by its entry number where a list runs long.

To see only one client's transactions, use the All Clients dropdown at the top of the ledger to filter by client. The same view then shows just that client's running balance.

You can also see a client's full trust position from their client profile: open the client and switch to the Trust tab. That tab shows the client's total trust balance across all accounts and a per-account breakdown with the same transaction list.

Editing transactions

The firm administrator can correct the Reference, Description, Check Number, or Payee on an existing trust transaction. Click the pencil icon in the rightmost column of any ledger row. Every edit writes a row in the trust audit trail capturing the field that changed, the value before, the value after, who made the change, and when. The original transaction stays in place; the edit is forensic, not silent.

The financial fields, Amount, Type, Client, Matter, and Trust Account, cannot be changed once a transaction is posted. Those fields determine the running balance and the per-client ledger position; rewriting them in place would cascade-corrupt every later transaction's balance, which a bar examiner would never accept.

If the amount or type is wrong, the entry is corrected with a reversing entry: the opposite entry for the same amount (a disbursement against an erroneous deposit, or a deposit against an erroneous disbursement), with a description explaining the correction. Both entries stay in the ledger; the net balance is correct, the audit history is complete, and the chronology of what the firm recorded and when stays accurate. A deposit or a disbursement has its own button for this, described next.

Reversing an entry

When a deposit or a disbursement was a mistake, for example it was entered at the wrong amount or for the wrong client, or it paid the wrong invoice, the firm administrator opens it with the pencil icon and uses Reverse entry at the bottom of the page.

• Give the reason. It is required, and it becomes the reversing entry's description, which your client sees on their trust statement and in the client portal.
• Choose the date the money came back into the trust account or went back out of it, or leave it empty for today. CaseFlow does not move money: record the reversal once the money has moved, and your bank statement will show it. When no money moved, as when an amount was typed wrongly or a cheque was voided before it cleared, the bank shows neither entry, and the monthly close cancels the two against each other and lists them under Reversed in the ledger, not as items still waiting for the bank. To correct an amount, use the date of the entry you are correcting, so the close sees both in the same month.
• CaseFlow records the opposite entry for the same client, matter and amount: a reversing deposit for a disbursement, a reversing disbursement for a deposit. The original stays in the ledger, labelled Reversed, and the new entry is labelled Reversal. Both are in the trust audit trail.
• To correct an amount, reverse the entry and record the right one. Never add a second entry for the difference. Your bank shows one deposit of the right amount, and the monthly close matches one bank transaction to one entry. A top-up leaves the bank's deposit with nothing to match and two entries waiting for the bank, so the close cannot reconcile. Reversed and recorded again, the wrong entry and its reversal cancel out, and the right one matches the bank.
• A deposit can be reversed only while the client still holds it. Its reversal is a disbursement, and a client's trust balance never goes below zero. If some of the deposit has been paid out since, CaseFlow refuses, and the attempt is recorded in the trust audit trail. To correct the amount of such a deposit, record the right deposit first and then reverse the wrong one: the client then holds enough for the reversal. Date both on or after the client's latest entry; CaseFlow names the earliest date it accepts.
• If a disbursement paid an invoice, the reversal removes that Trust/IOLTA payment, so the invoice owes the amount again and can be paid from trust once more. The removed payment is kept in full, in the trust audit trail and in the invoice's activity. Like every trust entry, it is not copied to the firm activity log. The invoice's overdue reminders are paused, so the client is not chased automatically; turn them back on from the invoice when you are ready.
• An entry can be reversed once, and a reversal is never reversed. Record any further correction as an entry of its own.
• An entry a signed monthly close matched to the bank can still be reversed, for example when a fee taken from trust turns out not to be earned and the money goes back. Date the reversal after that month, the day the money moved. The signed close is not changed: the bank did show the original that month. The reversal appears in the next close as waiting for the bank until the bank shows it. When no money moved, as when only the client was wrong, the bank never shows the reversal or the entry you record in its place. The close of the month you record them in lists both as waiting for the bank; they cancel each other, so the three balances agree and the month counts as reconciled. A later close may keep listing them and, once they are old enough, raise Outstanding for a long time for each, or it may count both as cleared and raise Listed as outstanding last month, but the opening counts it cleared for each or, after a month with no signed close, Earlier entries that cancel each other out for the pair. Either way the ledger is right: address each with a note saying that no money moved and the two entries correct the client ledgers.
• A reversal refused because the entry is itself a reversal, has already been reversed, or cannot be reversed is recorded in the trust audit trail, naming the entry and the reason. A reversal refused for its date is not: nothing is posted, and CaseFlow tells you why.
• No email goes to the client when you reverse. Tell your client about the correction yourself if they need to know.
• A month with a signed close is never changed. The reversal is dated in an open month, and a computed close for that month goes back to open.

Transfers, interest and fees are corrected with a reversing entry posted by hand, as described above. An entry posted by hand does not name the entry it corrects, so the monthly close treats it as an ordinary entry.

Trust transactions can never be hard-deleted. The bar requires the full record, including any error and its correction, to remain available for examination.

Tips

• Record deposits and disbursements on the same day they happen in the bank. Falling behind makes reconciliation harder.
• Use Reference as your bank-statement matching key. When you reconcile, the reference is how you tie a CaseFlow entry to a bank entry.
• For fee transfers (moving earned fees from trust to operating), use the Apply to Invoice dropdown. CaseFlow records both the trust disbursement and an invoice payment in one step, with the matching TRUST-{id} transaction reference on the invoice payment so an auditor can trace the two sides.

Learn more

Every transaction posted from the ledger is recorded in a separate, bar-mandatory audit log. See Trust audit trail for the full event list, retention, and how to produce records for a bar audit.