This small personal injury and lemon-law firm runs on a mainstream case management platform, QuickBooks, and a consumer bank — with reconciliation kept on a spreadsheet “since the inception.” Most settlements run around $30K, and multiple checks per case is the norm: “We get that on over half of our cases… sometimes we get four to five med paychecks” over the life of a matter. Then came the reversal.
What Happened
- The reversal, in the owner's words: “I got a check for 27,500… Check clears, check posts… We disperse the check, I get my money, client gets their money, everyone gets their money. Four days later, I get an email from the insurance carrier, hey, we're reversing this payment… The next day … I see minus $27,500 for my IOLTA.”
- Mailed checks were unrecoverable: “I mailed the other attorney their $2,500… You just put it in the mailbox.”
- Many clients are unbanked, so paper checks stayed the default despite the risk
- Reconciliation lived on a spreadsheet, with 4–5 checks per case to track on over half of all matters
How Disbo Replaces This Flow
- Incoming settlement funds and outgoing payments are tracked in one per-case ledger, so a reversal is visible against the matter immediately — not discovered in a bank login
- Clients and payees are paid via Quick Pay or Standard Pay wherever possible, replacing envelopes in mailboxes
- When a paper check is genuinely needed, Disbo prints and mails it through Lob with tracking — no more untraceable mail
- Every med-pay check across the life of a case is recorded and reconciled automatically, replacing the inception-to-date spreadsheet
Tracked
Every Mailed Check
Per-Case
Ledger Visibility
Electronic
Client & Payee Rails
Automatic
Multi-Check Reconciliation
This firm hasn't published a realized before/after — but its old flow had already produced a five-figure IOLTA clawback and unrecoverable mailed checks. Disbo is built so every dollar in and out of trust is tracked per matter, on rails a firm can see. The owner's reaction on the demo: “I love it.”