Trust Accounting

Keep a record of the client money you hold, with a ledger per matter and firm trust accounts you can reconcile against your bank statement.

Note

Trust accounting is for owners and admins only. Other roles don't see the Trust tab or the trust accounts. Flow is a record-keeping tool: it doesn't know your bar's rules, so follow your own regulator's rules on what you can hold, when you can take money for fees, how often to reconcile and how to correct mistakes.

Firm Trust Accounts#

Manage trust accounts from the Trust accounts section of the Billing Dashboard. You need at least one before you can record entries on a matter.

Click New trust account and enter:

Account name, for example "Client Trust Account"
Bank (optional)
Currency, a three-letter code such as EUR or GBP
Jurisdiction, a free-text label shown as a tag

Create one trust account per real bank account. An account holds one currency, so a firm holding client money in two currencies needs two accounts. Each account shows its book balance, which is the total of its matter balances.

Per-Matter Trust Ledger#

Each matter's client money lives under the Billing tab → Trust. The tab shows the balance held for the matter in each account (never added across accounts) and a ledger with every entry, its reference and the running balance.

Click Record entry and fill in:

Account: it starts on the account in the matter's currency
Type: see the table below
Amount, in the account's currency
Date
Reference, for example a cheque number or a transfer reference
Description

Type	Use it for
Deposit	Money received from or for the client into the trust account
Disbursement	Money paid out of the trust account for the client: court fees, a payment to a third party, or a transfer to your office account for an invoice
Transfer in / Transfer out	Moving client money between matters or accounts. Each side is recorded separately, so record both

Entries can't be edited or deleted. To correct a mistake, record a new entry that reverses it, as your rules require.

Record trust entry dialog with a GBP client funds account, the type Deposit, an amount of 2000, a reference and a description — Recording a retainer deposit.

A matter's trust ledger with a deposit, a disbursement, their references and the running balance — A matter's ledger: the balance held and each entry with its running balance.

Note

Trust entries are not linked to invoices. If you pay an invoice from client money, record the payment on the invoice and a matching Disbursement from trust.

The Overdraw Rule#

A matter's client money can never go below zero, on any date. Flow checks the ledger in date order and refuses a payment out for one of two reasons:

Not enough on that date. The message gives the amount available.
Enough then, but not later. A back-dated payment out would leave a later payment without cover. Use a later date or check the later entries.

Reconciliation#

On the Billing Dashboard, click Reconcile on an account. Enter the bank's Statement date (not in the future) and the Bank statement balance, then click Reconcile. Flow compares it with the book balance on that date (entries dated after the statement date are left out) and checks that the matter ledgers add up to the account total.

The result is Balanced, or Not balanced with the difference (statement minus book) to investigate. Both are kept, and History lists every past reconciliation with its statement date, bank and book balances and result.

Reconcile dialog showing the book balance, the bank statement balance and a Not balanced message with the difference — A reconciliation that doesn't balance shows the difference to investigate.

The Reconciled Period#

Once an account reconciles as Balanced, the period is closed: an entry dated on or before that statement date is refused. Date it after that day.

A reconciliation that doesn't balance closes nothing. Find the cause (often a deposit or payment not yet recorded), record the missing entry on its true date, then reconcile the same statement again.

Archiving#

Archive appears only when an account's balance is zero. An archived account takes no new entries and leaves the list.