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Industries · law firms

Trust ledgers that tie three ways. Every month.

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Bank, trust ledger, client ledgers — reconciled to the penny, monthly, documented. We keep your IOLTA records to the standard your obligation requires; the bar-compliance responsibility stays where the rules put it — with you. We make carrying it easy.

Bookkeeping only — not legal advice, not a compliance guarantee, not CPA work. Records kept so compliance is demonstrable.

Three-way, monthly Matter costing kept clean
BANK STATEMENT $ ████.██ TRUST LEDGER $ ████.██ CLIENT LEDGERS one per client · none below zero Σ ████ BANK = BOOK = Σ CLIENTS THREE WAYS · TO THE PENNY · MONTHLY

Quick answer

Law-firm bookkeeping runs on three-way trust reconciliation every month: the trust bank statement, the firm's trust ledger, and the sum of every client ledger have to agree to the penny, and if they don't, the difference is traced before the month closes. Bar compliance stays the attorney's responsibility; the books make it demonstrable.

The highest-stakes ledger

Trust accounting, kept provable.

Client money in trust is the one place where bookkeeping errors stop being accounting problems. The disciplines are unglamorous and absolute: a ledger per client, so every dollar held is attributable; no client balance ever below zero, because one client's matter can never borrow from another's; firm money never mingled, beyond what your bank requires to keep the account open; and every movement documented at the time it happens, not reconstructed later.

The monthly proof is the three-way reconciliation: bank statement, trust ledger, and the sum of client ledgers, agreeing to the penny. When a firm hands us a trust account that hasn't been reconciled that way, the cleanup starts there — rebuilt from source, tied out month by month, and anything that doesn't tie surfaced to you immediately rather than smoothed over. Early surfacing is the entire value of the work.

Three-way, monthly, documented

Bank = book = Σ client ledgers — the reconciliation an auditor asks for first, on file every month.

Matter costing

Advanced costs by matter, hard and soft distinct, reimbursements matched — billing decisions on real numbers.

The operating side too

The firm's own books — billings vs collections, payroll support, a monthly close to the standard.

Never claimed

Legal advice, bar-compliance responsibility, tax or audit work. Your obligations stay yours; our records make them easy to meet.

FAQ · Updated October 2026

The questions managing partners ask.

Client money a firm holds — retainers not yet earned, settlement funds awaiting disbursement — lives in a trust account (in many states, an IOLTA account), legally separate from the firm's operating money. Trust accounting is the bookkeeping that keeps that separation provable: a ledger per client, no client's balance ever below zero, no firm money mingled in, and every movement documented. It's the highest-stakes bookkeeping a small firm has, because errors aren't just accounting problems.
The trust account's three views must agree every month: the bank statement balance, the firm's trust ledger total, and the sum of every individual client's ledger. Bank = book = sum of client ledgers — all three, to the penny, documented. If any pair disagrees, something is wrong and must be found, not papered over. We run this reconciliation monthly as the core discipline of law-firm bookkeeping.
The attorney, plainly. State bar rules place trust-account responsibility on the lawyer, and no bookkeeper can take that obligation over. What we do is make compliance demonstrable: accurate client ledgers, monthly three-way reconciliations, documentation that answers an auditor's questions. We keep the records to the standard your obligation requires; the obligation itself stays yours, and we'd distrust any bookkeeper who claimed otherwise.
Yes — the bookkeeping side: advanced client costs tracked by matter, hard and soft costs kept distinct, reimbursements matched when they land, and matter-level views your billing decisions can rely on. How those costs are treated on the tax return is your CPA's call; our books make it a clean one.
Yes — carefully and in order. Trust cleanup means rebuilding client ledgers from source, reconciling each month three ways, identifying any ledger that doesn't tie, and documenting everything. We'll tell you plainly what we find, including when something needs your bar's guidance or your CPA — surfacing it early is the entire point of the work.
This is the moving part that trips firms up. An advance fee or retainer belongs in the trust account until it's actually earned — it isn't the firm's money yet, and recording it as revenue when it lands is a classic violation. As work is performed and billed against the retainer, the earned portion moves from trust to the operating account, and the client's trust ledger is reduced accordingly. We keep the books so that movement is recorded correctly every time and each client's trust balance reflects only what's genuinely still theirs. When the fee is earned for bar purposes is the attorney's call; we keep the ledger that makes it provable.
The recurring failures are specific and avoidable: commingling firm and client money in one account, a client ledger that's gone negative (meaning one client's funds were spent on another's matter), trust that was never reconciled three ways, and earned fees left sitting in trust or unearned fees pulled out early. Each is a bookkeeping discipline before it's a compliance event — which is exactly why we run the trust ledgers reconciled three ways every month and documented, so a clean record exists if anyone ever asks. The bar-rule responsibility stays with the attorney; our job is that the books never give the examiner a reason to dig.

More industries: who we serve → · reporting you can read: the monthly read →

For firms holding client money

Get your trust books reviewed — free, discreet.

We look at where your trust and operating books stand and tell you plainly what ties, what doesn't, and the fixed-fee scope to make it provable. Confidential, no obligation.

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Three-way, every month Anything off, surfaced early Fixed fee, in writing