Lynda ArtesaniLegal Accountant and Data Migration Specialist at The Proper Trust

Trust Accounting Mistakes Can Cost You Thousands #legalaccounting #accounting #lawfirms #podcast

23 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, the speaker highlights how law firms often rely on attorneys' spreadsheets for trust accounting, but incorrect formulas and manual processes can cause miscalculations. When trust funds are mishandled, firms may end up reimbursing clients more than they actually received, leading to costly financial losses. The discussion underscores the danger of depending on flawed, manually‑maintained spreadsheets for tracking other people's money and points to the need for more reliable, automated accounting controls.

Chapters

How many spreadsheets have we been given that the attorneys are using? And then we find out the formulas are wrong. And then that means that the math isn't working, right? Yeah. When you're dealing with trust, you're dealing with other people's money. Do you really want to hang your hat on something that is going to be, you know, you're going to be protected by, you got $1,000, you're not going to give back $1,300 because you weren't tracking it properly. And then that comes out of your pocket because You gave the money back, you never had it to begin with, and that's kind of where we see it happen, where there— with such manual processes, things get broken because you forget to add a piece or do a step.