Trust Accounting Template (Excel + Google Sheets, Free)

What's inside the trust accounting template

The workbook has three linked sheets: Trust Journal (every deposit and disbursement, up to 300 rows), Client Ledger (up to 60 clients, with deposits, disbursements and balance pulled automatically from the Journal by client name), and 3-Way Reconciliation (bank balance vs. Journal total vs. sum of Client Ledger balances).

Enter each transaction once on the Trust Journal - client name, type (Deposit or Disbursement), amount and description - and the Client Ledger totals pull through automatically using SUMIFS, matched by client name and transaction type. There's no second entry, no copy-pasting between sheets.

This is a single linked workbook, not three separate files you cross-check by hand - the structure that Alabama's and Florida's state bar association templates use, each requiring you to manually compare totals across three .xlsm files.

The 3-way reconciliation: bank vs. journal vs. client ledgers

Trust accounting reconciliation means confirming three numbers agree every period: the bank statement balance for the trust account, the running total in your Trust Journal, and the sum of every individual client's ledger balance. If all three match, your books are in balance; if any two differ, something needs investigating before you close the period.

This template calculates the Journal total and the sum of Client Ledger balances automatically once you've entered your transactions - you only manually enter the bank statement balance. The sheet then flags whether you're in balance or shows exactly which comparison is off, so you know where to start looking.

State bar associations that publish free trust-accounting templates (Alabama, Florida) explicitly recommend paid trust-accounting software over their own free files for anything beyond a low transaction volume - this template has no such volume-cap messaging, though very high-volume firms may still prefer dedicated software.

Client Ledger: per-client trust balances

Every client gets one row on the Client Ledger, and their deposits, disbursements and current balance calculate automatically from the Trust Journal - matched by exact client name, so consistent naming on the Journal matters.

Because the Client Ledger is formula-driven rather than a manually maintained separate spreadsheet per client, there's no risk of a client's ledger drifting out of sync with the Journal - they're always the same numbers, viewed two different ways.

Who this template is for

Solo practitioners and small law firms who need a single, state-agnostic workbook to record trust transactions, track per-client balances, and run a 3-way reconciliation - without paying for dedicated trust-accounting software or juggling three separate state-bar spreadsheet files.

This template is not legal advice and does not replace your state bar's required trust accounting procedures. Every state has its own IOLTA/trust accounting rules - check your specific state bar's requirements and consult your own counsel before relying on this as your only trust accounting record.