Trust Accounting

Trust accounting tracks money the firm holds on behalf of clients — separate from the firm's own operating funds. Mixing them up is a serious compliance issue, which is why ProGuard Legal keeps them in entirely separate account structures.

Two kinds of accounts

Trust accounts

Under Trust. Each trust account represents client funds held in trust. For every trust account you can see:

The current balance
A full transaction history (deposits, withdrawals, transfers)
The client or matter the funds are held for

Operating accounts

Under Trust → Operating. The firm's own operating account(s) — the money the firm actually owns. Invoice payments and transfers from trust land here.

Recording transactions

For each trust account you can record:

Deposit — money paid in by the client (e.g. a retainer)
Withdrawal — money paid out on the client's behalf
Transfer to operating — moving funds from trust to the firm's operating account to settle an invoice

For operating accounts you can record deposits and withdrawals corresponding to invoice payments, firm expenses, etc.

Trust → operating transfers

This is the compliance-critical flow:

An invoice has been approved and sent to the client
The client has funds in trust
You record a transfer from the trust account against that invoice
The trust balance decreases; the operating account balance increases; the invoice is marked paid

This keeps the audit trail: every movement of client money is tied to an authorised invoice.

Reconciliation

Under Reports → Trust reconciliation you can see expected vs actual trust balances across all trust accounts. Run this monthly at minimum.

Who can use this module

Most firms restrict trust access to:

The Managing Partner / General Manager
The Firm Administrator (for operational work)
Finance staff with an appropriate role

Check Roles model for how to scope this.

Summary

Trust → Summary / the Trust summary endpoint gives a firm-wide snapshot: total in trust, total in operating, movements this month.