Help Center

Paying a Client Invoice Using Trust (or Client) Funds

NOTE:  In the UK, trust accounts are called client accounts. Throughout this article, any reference to a trust account also means a client account.

Using Actionstep Practice Management, you can use trust funds to make a payment against a bill or invoice you issued to a client. 

You can also make multiple invoice payments at once so you only have to create one physical transfer from the trust account to the business account. To learn more, see Bulk Paying Multiple Invoices from a Trust Account.

 

To create a single payment for a client invoice:

  1. In Practice Management, access the Pay Invoice page by completing any of the following steps:
    • Click the global Create button and choose Pay Invoice from the Trust Accounting group. (You may need to click Show all to view this option.)
    • Click Trust in the main menu and choose Invoice Payments > Pay Invoice.
    • Click Trust in the main menu and choose Invoice Payments > Invoice Payments List. Then click Pay Invoice.
    • View a matter and click the Trust Account menu icon. Then click Pay invoice on the left-side menu. (You can also hover on the Trust Account menu and choose Pay Invoice.)
  2. Enter the Matter name or ID that you want to use trust funds to pay an invoice for.
  3. Select the Trust account from where this invoice will be paid.
    Once you select a matter and trust account, a list of invoices that need to be paid is displayed. The Available balance above the list shows how much funds are available.
  4. For each invoice, enter the amount to be paid in the Amount field, or click the arrow to pay the full balance (where  funds are available) from the Available balance. You can also click Apply All to apply the Available balance to all invoices (where funds are available.)
  5. When a trust client is the same for more than one matter, select Include related Matters. Any other matters associated with the same client are displayed so you can pay those invoices as well.
  6. Review the Total amount (under Payment Information). This is the calculated total amount of the payment against one or multiple outstanding invoices.
  7. Click Reason for payment and choose the payment reason. You can click Other (below) to enter free text, or create a new template if it is a reason you will be entering multiple times.

  8. Enter the Payment date.

    NOTE:  In this particular workflow, you cannot enter a future date. If you need to future date an invoice payment, use a trust request.

  9. Choose your Payment method. Additional fields will appear for you to provide the details for that method.
  10. Choose Requested by to designate who requested the payment.
  11. Optionally, click Please select a file next to Files to upload to attach relevant documentation to the payment.
  12. Click Save to save your changes.

TIP:  Consider uploading the authority from the client to pay your fees. For example, this could be a client authority to pay costs or their engagement letter. This saves time for an auditor since this authority is saved to the transaction itself.

Updated