The Most Common Trust Accounting Mistake Small Firms Make (And How to Fix It)

Trust accounting goes sideways when the firm can't answer one question quickly: "What's available on this matter right now?"

That question should take 30 seconds. When it takes 30 minutes - or worse, when the answer is "let me dig around" - something in the workflow broke.

Here's the most common mistake I see in solo and small practices, and how to fix it without turning your office into a compliance department.

The mistake: trust money gets recorded, but it isn't tied to the matter

A retainer hits the trust bank account. The deposit is real. The balance is real.

But the deposit isn't consistently tied to the correct client and matter in the practice management system where the firm runs day-to-day work (Clio or MyCase). That's where the breakdown starts: the total looks fine, but the detail underneath it isn't dependable.

What this looks like in real life:

• A retainer deposit shows up in QuickBooks as a lump deposit, but it isn't applied correctly at the matter level in Clio/MyCase.
• A payment processor deposit hits the bank as a batch, and it gets recorded in a way that doesn't match how it should be allocated across matters.
• A trust-to-operating transfer happens, but later nobody can point to the invoice or cost it was tied to.
• Old trust balances sit for months and no one knows who owns the follow-up.

None of that requires bad intent to create a real compliance problem. It just creates uncertainty - and uncertainty is where firms get exposed.

Why small firms get stuck here

Small firms are lean. Intake moves fast. Deadlines are approaching. Trust handling becomes, "We'll figure that later."

Later turns into the next week. Then the next month. And now you're trying to reconstruct what happened when the details are fuzzy.

This is why "we'll clean it up at month-end" often fails. Month-end only works when the daily workflow is doing its job.

The fix: one operating rule + two light checkpoints

You don't need a complicated setup. You need a simple operating rule that your team can follow even when it's chaotic.

Operating rule: a trust deposit isn't done until it's tied to the matter in both places

If you're using QuickBooks Online and Clio/MyCase, you're running a two-system setup:

• QuickBooks Online: accounting totals and reporting
• Clio/MyCase: matter-level trust ledger detail
• Bank statement: the reality check

The rule is simple: A retainer deposit isn't "finished" until it's recorded in QuickBooks AND applied to the correct matter in Clio/MyCase the same day, with a note that makes sense later.

That one rule prevents most drift before it starts.

Checkpoint #1: a weekly 5–10 minute scan

Once a week, scan for:

• unassigned trust activity
• odd matter balances
• transfers missing an invoice/cost tie
• anything that would be painful to explain later

This isn't a deep review. It's a quick check so nothing compounds.

Checkpoint #2: a monthly three-way reconciliation

Every month, tie out trust three ways as of month-end:

1. Reconcile the trust bank account in QuickBooks to the bank statement
2. Pull the trust liability balance in QuickBooks
3. Pull the total of client/matter trust ledgers in Clio/MyCase
4. Compare: bank ↔ QuickBooks and QuickBooks ↔ matter ledgers

If something doesn't match, don't patch it with a random entry. Trace it and correct it where it started.

A quick case example

A small firm came to me thinking trust was "fine" because the bank balance looked healthy.

But they couldn't answer questions without digging:

• What's available for this matter right now?
• Why does a closed matter still show a balance?
• Why do transfers exist without a clean tie to a specific invoice?

We started with the most recent month we could verify cleanly, then worked forward until the mismatch showed up. The culprits were common:

• batch deposits that weren't allocated cleanly by matter
• transfers recorded in one place but not the other
• lingering balances on old matters with no owner

Once we cleaned the current state, the ongoing fix was straightforward:

• deposits tied to matters same day
• transfers tied to invoices/costs before they're marked complete
• weekly scan stays on the calendar
• three-way reconciliation completed monthly

The result wasn't just "the numbers match." The result was the firm could answer trust questions fast, without scrambling.

Final takeaway

Most trust issues are preventable. Not with more software. With a tighter daily workflow and two simple checkpoints that catch drift early.

If you're a small firm owner and you're not sure whether your trust process is holding up, start with one step: run a three-way reconciliation for the most recent closed month and trace a handful of deposits and transfers across the bank, QuickBooks, and Clio/MyCase.

You'll know very quickly whether you're solid - or relying on luck.