Settlement Disbursements: Paying Everyone from One Table
Once a settlement statement is generated, use the Settlement Disbursements table to pay the attorney fee, any liens, co-counsel or referring attorneys, and the client’s net proceeds — each from its own row, with no manual sequencing required.
What the Table Is
After generating the settlement statement, the Settlement tab shows a disbursement table with one row per payee: the firm’s invoice (attorney fee + expenses), each finalized lien, co-counsel or referring attorney fees if applicable, and the client’s net proceeds. Each row has its own Submit to QuickBooks action.
You don’t need to finalize an invoice and then separately pay it — LeanLaw handles that ordering behind the scenes. Push each row when you’re ready to pay it. The only sequencing requirement is the client’s net-recovery row, which stays disabled with a “Submit firm invoice first” note until the firm’s invoice row has been submitted — lien and co-counsel/referring-attorney rows aren’t gated on that and can be pushed as soon as the statement is generated.
Trust Balance Protection
LeanLaw will not let a disbursement take the matter’s trust account negative:
- A row’s Submit to QuickBooks button is disabled up front if the trust balance is less than that row’s amount, with a message showing the shortfall.
- If the trust balance changes between when the button became enabled and when you click it — for example, another disbursement went out, or someone created a check directly in QuickBooks — the push is blocked with an error, and no QuickBooks transaction is created.
Recommendation: create all trust transactions for a settlement from LeanLaw, not directly in QuickBooks. Only LeanLaw’s own disbursement flow gets this balance protection.
Editing a Row
You can edit the description on a lien in the Liens tab, and it will print on the check’s description. This does not change what QuickBooks’ check register shows as the check’s Memo — that field is fixed. If you need the Memo shown in QuickBooks to say something different, edit it directly in QuickBooks before printing the check.
Undoing a Disbursement
Each row can be undone independently, as long as its QuickBooks transaction hasn’t cleared or reconciled yet. Once a transaction has cleared or reconciled in QuickBooks, LeanLaw blocks the ability to undo it because funds have likely moved accounts and need to be reconciled rather than just deleted.
Sales Tax Sequencing
If your firm charges sales tax on legal services, finalizing the firm’s invoice row automatically regenerates the settlement statement with the correct tax amount. Wait to download the statement until after finalizing this row — a copy downloaded or sent beforehand has the wrong (or missing) tax amount and won’t update on its own. LeanLaw supports a single sales tax line; multi-line tax scenarios are not currently supported.