TrustRecon: three-way IOLTA reconciliation without a practice-management suite

2026-07-22 · legal trust accounting · open source

Most U.S. jurisdictions expect lawyers who hold client money in a pooled trust (IOLTA) account to keep three things in agreement every month: the trust journal (book balance), the sum of client subsidiary ledgers, and the adjusted bank statement (statement balance plus deposits in transit minus outstanding checks). That is the three-way reconciliation. Miss it, and you are not only messy — you may be out of compliance with your bar’s rules of professional conduct.

Full practice-management and trust-accounting products (TrustBooks, CosmoLex, LeanLaw + QuickBooks, and others) solve this well — for a monthly fee, and with your client balances living in someone else’s cloud. Spreadsheets are free until a formula breaks and one client’s money silently covers another’s check. The gap is a focused, private tool that does the three-way math without requiring a full suite.

TrustRecon is live sybilgambleyyu.github.io/TrustRecon · Source: github.com/SybilGambleyyu/TrustRecon

What you get

Client subsidiary ledgers (plus a firm-funds ledger for bank fees only)
Chronological trust journal with running book balance
Cleared / outstanding flags so deposits in transit and open checks drop out of the recon automatically
Three-way recon: book ↔ client total ↔ adjusted bank, to the cent
Guardrails against posting a disbursement that would leave a client negative
Saved month-end recons, printable / text report, journal CSV, JSON backup
Sample month that demonstrates a balanced recon with realistic PI and real-estate activity

The math (intentionally simple)

As of the statement date:

Adjusted bank = statement + outstanding deposits − outstanding checks

That figure must equal the book balance and the sum of every subsidiary ledger. TrustRecon computes all three and lists the outstanding items so you can see why a difference exists.

Honest limits

TrustRecon is not legal advice and is not affiliated with any state bar or IOLTA program. It does not connect to your bank, does not file interest reports, and does not replace integrated systems when you need billing, operating accounting, and trust in one product. Rules vary by jurisdiction — confirm monthly three-way requirements with your own bar. Data stays in this browser; export backups.

Also shipping

If you need LEDES 1998B e-billing rather than trust recon, see LedesKit. For construction progress payment applications, see DrawBook.