Task guide
Record a disbursement
Record what was paid out on a matter from office money, client money or petty cash, and see it post to the books in the same step.
Record it
- Open the matter's Disbursements tab, or Finance, Disbursements, and choose Record disbursement.
- Choose its type, such as a filing fee or a search fee. The type sets its account and whether it is an agency payment, paid on the client's behalf and outside the VAT base, or an ordinary one within it.
- Enter the date, the amount and currency, the payee, the reference and the receipt.
- Choose where the money came from: office, client funds held on the matter, or petty cash.
- Save. The disbursement posts to the books at once.
A different treatment
The tax treatment follows the type. To treat one disbursement differently, give the reason; it is kept with the disbursement.
Many at once
Batch enters a court fee sheet or a day's payments in one go. The whole batch is recorded, or none of it is.
Correct, reverse, write off
- Details such as the description correct in place.
- A change to the money reverses the disbursement and records it again, so the books show both.
- A disbursement the client will not repay is written off to expense. Above the firm's threshold, the write off waits for somebody else to approve it.
- A disbursement on a bill refuses every change.
A fee paid in a closed month
If the payment was made in a month the books have closed, it is recognised in the open month, with its real date kept in the description.
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