Task guide
Record a disbursement
Record what was paid out on a matter from office money, client money or petty cash; petty cash posts in the same step, office and client money once the payment voucher is approved and paid.
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. From petty cash, the disbursement posts to the books at once. From the office or client funds, it opens a payment voucher and posts when somebody else approves the voucher and it is paid; see Move client money.
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 Write off approval threshold, set under Settings, Disbursement settings, 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.
Was this helpful?
Read next
- Expense claims and petty cashClaim back what you paid for the firm, have a partner decide it, and keep petty cash floats with vouchers, top ups and counts.
- Move client moneyTransfer client money to office against a bill, refund it by payment voucher, pay a disbursement from it, or move it to another of the client's matters, each asked for, approved by somebody else and carried out.
- VAT and the levies at the tax pointHow VAT, NHIL and GETFund are computed per line on a common base, why agency disbursements stay outside it, and where the rates live.
- The ledger and accounting monthsThe rules the books keep that nobody can bypass, and how months are closed, locked and reopened.