Did the client pay the surcharge, or did we?
On one matter the client paid the application fee with their own card during the online form, and the firm paid the priority service. On another, the firm paid everything and needs to recharge it. On a third, a relative paid, and the only receipt is a screenshot in the client's email. Months later, finance is reconciling the firm card and cannot tell which fee belongs to which client.
Meanwhile a client asks for a breakdown of everything they have paid, and the caseworker has to piece it together from payment confirmations spread across three inboxes.
Disbursements do not fit neatly in either system
Case management systems are good at matters and documents. Accounts systems are good at invoices and bank lines. Disbursements sit between the two: they belong to a matter, they may or may not pass through the firm's accounts, and their evidence is usually a confirmation email or a screenshot.
Because the costs vary so much, from official fees to courier charges, each caseworker records them differently. Some keep a note on the file, some forward confirmations to accounts, some do neither and rely on memory.
The volume makes it worse. A family application with several applicants can involve a dozen separate payments, some to the government, some to translators and test centres, and each one has its own confirmation arriving at a different time.
What loose disbursement records cost
| Gap | Result |
|---|---|
| Firm card spend not linked to matters | Finance cannot reconcile or recharge |
| Costs not recharged | The firm quietly pays client costs |
| Receipts missing | No evidence if a client queries a charge |
| Client paid directly but not recorded | Unclear picture of what the client has spent |
| Breakdowns built by hand | Caseworker time answering simple questions |
At the end of a matter, all of this surfaces at once. The final bill has to include recharges, the client wants a breakdown, and the caseworker has to rebuild the history from emails.
How we build disbursement tracking per matter
- Each matter gets a disbursement list with the cost types your firm uses, such as official fees, surcharge, priority service, translation, tests and courier.
- For each item, the caseworker records the amount, who paid (client, firm or third party) and uploads or forwards the receipt, which is read automatically to fill in the date and amount for them to confirm.
- Payments on the firm card are pulled from your bank feed or accounts system and matched to disbursement items, with unmatched card lines sent to finance to allocate.
- Items paid by the firm are marked for recharge and appear on the next invoice in your accounts system, such as Xero or QuickBooks, so nothing is missed.
- A client-facing summary shows what has been paid and by whom, ready to share when a client asks.
- A firm-wide report lists disbursements not yet recharged and receipts still missing.
Amounts come from what was actually paid. We do not look up or advise on what fees apply to any application.
Clean records without extra work
Every cost on a matter is listed with its receipt. Finance reconciles the firm card against matters instead of guessing. Recharges go out on time. When a client asks what they have paid, the answer is a click away.
Caseworkers also get a small but real benefit: they stop being asked by finance which client a card payment was for, months after they made it.
Signs your disbursements need this
- Firm card statements are hard to match to clients
- Some costs paid by the firm have never been recharged
- Receipts live in caseworkers' inboxes
- You cannot quickly tell a client what they have paid in total
- Each caseworker records costs differently