IOLTA trust accounting · solo & small-firm attorneys

Never fear a trust account audit again.

A single overdraft notice on your IOLTA account goes straight to the state bar. IOLTA Pro makes the mistakes that get lawyers disbarred structurally impossible — then hands the auditor a finished binder when they call.

No card required · Import from spreadsheets or QuickBooks · Live in an afternoon.

Three-way reconciliation Cleared-funds control Immutable audit trail 50-state rules
Trust account — three-way as of Jun 30, 2026
Bank
$0.00
Book
$0.00
Σ Client ledgers
$0.00
Reconciled — difference $0.00. Period locked.
Alvarez v. Delmar FreightCleared$12,400.00
Okafor — Estate settlementCleared$96,750.00
Reyes construction defectOn hold$40,000.00
Chen & Partners retainerCleared$8,250.00
Why this is different from any other ledger

In trust accounting, a bookkeeping slip is a bar complaint.

These four mistakes end careers every year. General accounting software will happily let you make all of them.

FAILURE 01

Commingling

Client funds mixed with firm money, or one client's balance quietly funding another's disbursement.

FAILURE 02

Paying on uncleared funds

Cutting a check against a deposit that hasn't cleared — then the deposit bounces and the account goes negative.

FAILURE 03

Skipped reconciliation

Missing the monthly three-way reconciliation most states require — the gap an auditor finds first.

FAILURE 04

Stale & unclaimed funds

Checks that never cleared and dormant balances that blow past your state's escheat deadline.

The guardrails

We didn't add warnings. We made the mistake impossible to post.

Every rule below is enforced at the ledger itself — not a pop-up you can dismiss. Try to break one on the right.

A client's funds can't go negative

Disbursements are blocked the instant they'd exceed that matter's own cleared balance. No client ever spends another client's money.

Every dollar is tied to a matter

There's no unattributed bucket to hide in. Per-matter sub-ledgers make commingling a state the system can't represent.

Posted entries can never be altered

The ledger is append-only. A correction is a visible reversing entry — the exact behavior an auditor wants to see. immutable-by-trigger

Big checks need a second signer

Disbursements over your threshold require a second approver — and the requester can never approve their own.

Reconciled and locked every month

The three-way wizard proves bank = book = client ledgers, then locks the period. A missed month escalates on its own.

Interactive illustration · try it
Disburse from a client's trust
Alvarez v. Delmar Freight
Matter #24-0198 · WA IOLTA
Cleared available
$12,400.00
$
A look inside

The whole trust position, on one calm screen.

Real screens from IOLTA Pro — open the app and the numbers that keep you compliant are already reconciled and waiting.

app.ioltapro.com/dashboard
IOLTA Pro dashboard — three-way trust position across IOLTA accounts
Command palette for jumping to any view or action
Reach any action in two keystrokes
⌘K jumps to any client, matter, or action — record a deposit in three clicks, never menu-hunt.
A matter's sub-ledger showing cleared and pending funds
A running sub-ledger for every matter
Cleared vs. pending funds tracked to the cent — the balance that makes an overdraft impossible.
Anomaly queue flagging a stale check and a dormant balance
Every anomaly, before the auditor finds it
Stale checks, dormant balances, and missed reconciliations surface in a nightly sweep.
Three-way reconciliation showing bank, book, sub-ledgers and outstanding items
Reconciled and locked, every month
Bank, book, and the sum of client ledgers proven equal — outstanding items and all — then the period locks.

Actual screenshots of IOLTA Pro, captured from the running app.

Audit-ready by default

When the bar auditor calls, the answer is one click.

No more reconstructing a year of transactions from bank statements the night before. Everything the examiner asks for is already assembled and reconciled.

  • Bar-audit binder as a single dated PDF
  • Individual client ledger statements on demand
  • Complete who-did-what audit trail, timestamped
  • Read-only login for your CPA or examiner
Bar-Audit Binder
Kendall Law PLLC · WA IOLTA · FY2026
Three-way reconciliation, 12 mo.Balanced
Client ledgers included184
Transactions posted3,921
Negative sub-ledger events0
Unreconciled periods0
Outstanding & stale checksAged & listed
Generated 2026-06-30 14:02 UTC · SHA-256 sealed
Everything the practice needs

Purpose-built for trust — not a general ledger in a costume.

Per-matter sub-ledgers

A separate running balance for every client and matter, with cleared vs. uncleared funds and hold schedules.

Three-way reconciliation

Guided monthly wizard with CSV/OFX bank import and auto-matching. Period locks when it balances.

Checks & positive-pay

Unique check numbers, void-as-reversal, stale-check aging, and a positive-pay export for your bank.

Settlement sheets

Gross → liens → fees → net, calculated to the cent, with an invoice-tied transfer to your operating account.

Anomaly queue

A nightly sweep flags low balances, duplicates, dormant matters, and missed reconciliations before an auditor does.

Integrations

Stripe & LawPay deposits, QuickBooks journal export, and bank import — with SMTP client notices on every transfer.

Simple, per-firm pricing

Less than one hour of your billable rate.

Every plan includes the full guardrail engine, reconciliation, and audit binder. Start free for 30 days — no card.

Solo

One attorney, unlimited matters and client ledgers.

$39/ month
  • 1 trust account
  • Full reconciliation & guardrails
  • Bar-audit binder exports
  • Read-only CPA login
Start free trial
Firm

Larger practices needing more seats and onboarding help.

$189/ month
  • Unlimited seats & accounts
  • Guided data migration
  • Priority support
  • Custom retention & escheat rules
Talk to us
Before you ask

The questions every attorney has.

Will you make me redo my books to switch? +

No. Import your existing balances from a spreadsheet or QuickBooks. Opening balances are gated on a passing trial reconciliation, so you start from a proven-correct position — not a guess.

My trust rules differ by state. Does that matter? +

IOLTA Pro carries per-state rule profiles — retention periods, stale-check windows, and unclaimed-property (escheat) deadlines — so a Washington account and a Florida account each follow their own bar's requirements automatically.

How is my client data protected? +

Every firm's data is fully isolated, secrets are encrypted at rest, logins are rate-limited with optional two-factor, and every change is written to an immutable audit log. Your data is always yours — export it in full at any time.

Is it really impossible to overdraw a client? +

The block lives at the ledger itself, not in the interface. A disbursement that would push a matter's cleared balance below zero simply cannot be posted — the same check runs in the nightly sweep as a backstop.

Can my CPA or a bar examiner see the books? +

Yes — invite them with a read-only role. They can review every ledger, reconciliation, and audit trail, and export the binder, without any ability to change a thing.

Peace of mind, posted daily

Close the account tonight knowing it balances.

Set up your first trust account in an afternoon and never dread the audit letter again.