The immutable ledger for client trust and escrow accounts.
Connect the trust account. Client funds are reconciled to the penny against the trust-accounting rules, any shortfall surfaces the moment it appears, and every movement is anchored so a compliance audit is a verification, not a reconstruction.
Why this is hard today.
A lawyer’s or a broker’s trust account is the one place a licensing regime shows zero tolerance. Client and third-party funds must stay separate from operating money, be reconciled every month, and never — even briefly — go negative for any single client. One commingled transfer is a complaint.
For attorneys, the safekeeping-of-property rule (Rule 1.15) and the state’s trust-accounting rules require client funds held in trust, complete records, and prompt accounting; eligible nominal or short-term funds are pooled through the state’s IOLTA program. For real estate brokers, HRS §467-14 makes mishandling client or escrow funds grounds for license discipline. Same principle, two regulators.
The mechanics are what break people. A three-way reconciliation — bank balance, book balance, and the sum of every client’s sub-ledger — has to tie out every month, and long-dormant balances eventually escheat to the State under Hawaii’s unclaimed-property law. Miss the reconciliation and you don’t find out until the audit, when reconstruction is hardest.
The obligations, in plain language.
The obligations below come from professional-conduct rules and licensing statutes. OpenBooks keeps the sub-ledgers, runs the reconciliation, and assembles the audit packet. You and your bank move the money. This is recordkeeping software, not legal or ethics advice.
| Requirement | Authority | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Segregate client funds | Rule 1.15 (safekeeping of property) | Client and third-party funds are held in a trust account, separate from the firm’s operating funds. |
| Participate in IOLTA | State IOLTA program | Eligible nominal or short-term client funds are held in a pooled, interest-bearing trust account; the interest funds legal-services programs. |
| Reconcile three ways every month | Trust-accounting rules | Bank balance, book balance, and the sum of individual client ledgers reconcile monthly, and no client sub-balance goes negative. |
| Broker escrow handling | HRS §467-14 | Mishandling of client or escrow funds is grounds for real estate license discipline. |
| Report unclaimed balances | HRS ch. 523A (Uniform Unclaimed Property Act) | Long-dormant client balances are reported and escheated to the State on the statutory cadence. |
Connect once. Approve. Publish.
Connect the trust account read-only. The agent keeps a sub-ledger per client, runs the monthly three-way reconciliation, and guards against any single client going negative.
Connect the trust account
Read-only connection. Every deposit and disbursement imported as it clears. We never move funds.
Per-client sub-ledgers
Each client’s balance tracked individually; the sum always ties back to the account.
Negative-balance guard
Any single client sub-balance approaching zero flags immediately — before it overdraws.
Monthly three-way reconciliation
Bank, book, and client-ledger totals reconciled and evidenced every month, automatically.
Audit packet
A reconciliation and full movement history assembled for a bar or licensing audit.
Verify page
Every movement anchored in a SHA-256 chain — an auditor verifies the record instead of reconstructing it.
Artifact produced: a monthly three-way reconciliation report plus a tamper-evident, anchored trust-movement history ready for a compliance audit.
What “verify” looks like here.
Every trust movement is chained with SHA-256 to the one before it. When the bar or a licensing auditor arrives, they verify the head hash against the record instead of reconstructing a year of transfers. It is a clean trust account you can prove.
Priced for trust accounts.
Per firm. Attorney IOLTA and broker escrow.
- ✓Connect trust account
- ✓Per-client sub-ledgers
- ✓Monthly reconciliation
- ✓Verify page
- ✓Everything in Solo
- ✓Negative-balance guard
- ✓Audit packet export
- ✓Unclaimed-balance flagging
- ✓Everything in Practice
- ✓Multiple trust accounts
- ✓Role-based approval
- ✓Onboarding + migration support
Prices are introductory and per organization. Not legal or tax advice.
Trust Accounts — questions officers ask.
Does it prevent commingling?+
It tracks client and operating funds separately and flags any transfer that would mix them. You still control the account — we keep and prove the record.
What is a three-way reconciliation?+
Bank balance, book balance, and the sum of every client sub-ledger must tie out each month. We reconcile and evidence all three.
Does it work for both IOLTA and real estate escrow?+
Yes. Attorney client-trust and broker escrow follow the same pattern: segregate, reconcile, and prove.
Will it catch a client going negative?+
Yes. A per-client negative-balance guard flags before an overdraft can happen.
Do you move money?+
No. The connection is read-only. You and your bank move funds; we keep and prove the record.
Is this legal or ethics advice?+
No. It is recordkeeping software. Your firm and bar counsel remain responsible for compliance.
What about unclaimed balances?+
We flag long-dormant client balances for your unclaimed-property reporting.
What happens when we correct a mistake?+
Corrections are appended as new entries referencing the original by hash. Nothing is overwritten.
Bring trust accounts into the open.
Draft-first, officer-approved, cryptographically verifiable. Non-partisan and non-sectarian by construction.