Wednesday Wisdom: Trust Accounting – Using Client and Matter Ledgers

With the option to record funds to both client-level and matter-level ledgers, Rocket Matter provides the ease of use to organize and seamlessly keep track of the funds your firm receives.
In Rocket Matter, your operating account appears as the matter ledger and your trust account appears as the client ledger. We will take a look at both of these and the differences between them.

The Matter Ledger

The matter ledger is your operating account. This is what the client currently owes the firm. Clicking on the matter ledger balance from the matter dashboard will show you a breakdown of any invoices ran, payments made, or funds transferred.

You can add adjustments directly to the matter ledger. However, be aware that adjustments are not payments and will not appear as payments on reports. You may use a credit adjustment for an instance such as a discount, and a debit adjustment such as a late fee or a balance carried over from another application.

Adding payments to the matter ledger is simple by using the Add Payment button. This will allow you to either add a payment directly to the operating account or pay directly to an invoice that has been run.

The Client Ledger

The client ledger is your trust account. It is on a client-level basis, so if the client has more than one matter, all matters will pull funds from this trust account. Clicking on the trust account balance from any matter will bring you to the client ledger. Here, you will see details of any invoices that had funds transferred from trust, as well as any payments made towards the trust account.

You can also make adjustments here. However, these adjustments again are not payments, but may be used for refunds or funds transferred over from another application.

Adding payments to the trust account is simple using the same Add Payment button in the navigation panel, or from the button at the top right of the client ledger. Simply click ‘Add Payment to Trust’ and enter an amount and description for the payment that is being applied.

Keeping Track of the Firm’s Funds

With Rocket Matter, we give you the option to organize your accounts with ease, making sure that you never lose track of any payments made. Through our Reports section in Admin, you can get a breakdown of all payments made and all trust account transactions, with the ability to export all reports in a .csv format to view within Microsoft Excel.
Trust accounting is a free option you may enable through the Admin section of Rocket Matter to help you organize your firm’s payments and allow you to run your firm more efficiently.
For additional resources, please feel free to visit our FAQ page.
Want some live, interactive U.S.-based training? For all your custom invoice and document assembly questions, join our free Trust Accounting and Firm Billing webinars. You may register for these classes here.