A court fee on the firm's card
A trainee pays a court issue fee online with the firm's card because the matter needed issuing that afternoon. An expert's invoice arrives in the accounts inbox with a reference that does not quite match any matter. A courier charge for original documents comes through at the end of the month on a single statement covering twenty deliveries.
Each of these should end up on a client's bill. Some do. Others are posted to a general overhead code by an accounts assistant who could not work out which matter they belonged to, and are never seen again.
Why disbursements get lost between payment and bill
The money leaves in one place and the bill is raised in another. Card payments show up on a statement with a merchant name and nothing else. Supplier invoices quote their own reference, not your matter number. Accounts have to play detective, and when the detective work takes too long the item goes to overheads.
Timing is the other cause. Counsel's fee notes and some third-party invoices arrive weeks after the work, sometimes after the fee earner has sent a final bill. By then the matter is closed and the disbursement is written off quietly.
| Disbursement | Where it usually goes missing |
|---|---|
| Court and filing fees paid by card | Card statement has no matter reference |
| Counsel's and experts' fees | Invoice arrives after the final bill |
| Couriers, travel, copying | Batched on one monthly invoice |
| Search and registry fees | Paid online, receipt stays in someone's inbox |
What the lost items add up to
Each item is small, which is why nobody chases it. Across a year and every fee earner, unrecovered disbursements are money the firm spent on clients and absorbed. For matters with fixed fees plus disbursements, it is money the client agreed to pay.
There is an admin cost as well. Accounts spend time emailing fee earners asking 'what is this?', and fee earners reply when they get round to it.
How we build disbursement matching
- Collect payments: card transactions and office account payments are read from your bank feed or accounting system, and supplier invoices from the accounts inbox.
- Suggest the matter: each item is matched to a likely matter using the reference, the payee, any case number on the invoice, who made the card payment and when, and the matters that person was working on at the time.
- Fee earner confirmation: the fee earner gets a short list of items to confirm or reassign, with the receipt attached. Items nobody claims go to accounts after a set period.
- Post as unbilled: confirmed items are posted to the matter as unbilled disbursements in your practice management system, with the receipt linked. Your accounts team sets how VAT is treated for each disbursement type.
- Billing check: when a bill is drafted, unbilled disbursements on that matter are listed so they are not left off.
- After the final bill: any disbursement that lands after a final bill is flagged to the fee earner and accounts with the client's details, for them to decide what to do.
What billing looks like afterwards
Accounts stop sending 'which matter is this?' emails because most items arrive with a suggestion that the fee earner confirms in a click. Bills include the disbursements that belong on them. Late invoices from counsel or experts are noticed rather than absorbed.
Partners get a view of unallocated payments by age, which tends to shrink once the matching is doing its job.
Signs this is costing you
- Card payments for court or search fees have no matter reference.
- Accounts regularly email fee earners asking what a payment was for.
- Some disbursements are posted to a general overhead code.
- Counsel's fee notes arrive after a final bill has gone out.
- Nobody knows the value of disbursements written off last year.