Why LeanLaw and QuickBooks Show Different Revenue for the Same Invoice

If you're comparing revenue figures between LeanLaw's Compensation report and QuickBooks Online and the numbers don't match for the same invoice, the most common cause is a partial payment. LeanLaw and QuickBooks use different methods to distribute partial payments across invoice line items — which produces different per-attorney and per-category allocations, even though the total payment amount is identical in both systems.

This is expected behavior, not a sync error or a bug.

How QuickBooks Online Allocates Partial Payments

QuickBooks Online distributes a partial payment proportionally across all invoice line items simultaneously. Every item on the invoice receives the same percentage of its value — regardless of what type of item it is.

Example: if an invoice is paid at 50%, every line item is credited at 50% of its value.

How LeanLaw Allocates Partial Payments

LeanLaw applies partial payments in a fixed priority order:

Taxes
Expenses
Services

Taxes and expenses are always covered in full before any services revenue is allocated to attorneys. Once taxes and expenses are fully covered, the remaining payment amount is distributed proportionally across attorneys based on their share of the services on the invoice.

A Worked Example

This example is based on a real support case. The invoice has three elements:

Invoice Line Item	Amount	% of Invoice
Services — Attorney ABC	$225.00	20.69%
Services — Attorney XYZ	$862.50	79.31%
Expenses	$19.30	1.77%
Invoice Total	$1,106.80	100%

A partial payment of $553.40 is recorded — exactly half the invoice total. Here is how each system allocates it:

Item	QuickBooks (proportional)	LeanLaw (priority order)
Expenses	$9.65 (50% of $19.30)	$19.30 (covered in full first)
Attorney SLR (services)	$112.50 (50% of $225.00)	$110.50 (20.69% of $534.10)
Attorney AMR (services)	$431.25 (50% of $862.50)	$423.60 (79.31% of $534.10)
Total allocated	$553.40	$553.40

The totals match ($553.40 in both systems), but the per-attorney and per-category breakdown differs. This is why the Compensation report in LeanLaw shows different attorney allocations than what QuickBooks Online reflects for the same invoice.

💡 How to verify the math: In LeanLaw, open the invoice in Manage Invoices (under Billing) and click Allocation Detail — this shows the exact breakdown of how each payment was allocated. You can also access this by clicking into a payment in the Distributions page.

Why LeanLaw Uses This Method

LeanLaw's priority-order allocation is designed to protect the firm: expenses represent out-of-pocket costs that need to be recovered before attorney compensation is calculated. Same concept with Taxes. Covering these first ensures that partial payments don't leave the firm with unrecovered costs while still crediting attorneys for their services revenue.

What to Check When You See a Discrepancy

Check	How
Was the invoice partially paid?	Open the invoice in Manage Invoices. If the balance due is greater than $0, the invoice was partially paid — this is the most common cause of allocation differences between LeanLaw and QuickBooks Online.
Use Allocation Detail in LeanLaw	From the invoice or from a payment in the Distributions page, click Allocation Detail to see the exact per-attorney breakdown LeanLaw calculated.
Verify the totals match	The total payment amount should be identical in both systems. If the totals themselves differ (not just the per-line breakdown), that is a sync issue — contact support.
Check for manual QuickBooks Online edits	If the invoice was edited directly in QuickBooks Online after it was sent from LeanLaw, the line items in QuickBooks Online may no longer match LeanLaw.