Trust vs. Operating Invoices

Hi @Aburrell!

Welcome to Smokeball, I hope you’re enjoying your experience so far!

Invoices are always assumed to be paid into your operating account (though I’ll cover a caveat below). The source of the funds being paid against the invoice can be either from a deposit directly into your operating account (such as if you were paid via bank transfer, check, cash, etc.), or you can pay your invoice from Trust account funds.

If you apply Trust funds to your invoice, then it will be displayed in Smokeball as a Trust transfer from your trust account into your operating account.

Invoicing is separate to Trust deposits, though. If you’re looking to have your client pay into your Trust account, you can send them a Trust Deposit request (or if processing manually, you can use the Trust Deposit button on your Trust transactions screen.

The caveat I mentioned above, is if you include a Retainer request alongside your invoice.

So if you invoice your client for $1000 and also ask them to deposit an additional $1000 into your retainer, if you’re using credit card / echeck integration (such as Smokeball Payments, or LawPay), then the entire sum will be paid into your Trust account, and then you can transfer the funds to cover the invoice into your operating account.

Does this make sense? I’ve covered a few possibilities above, so hopefully I haven’t made it sound too complicated.

What it really boils down to is Invoices are generally assumed to be paid into Operating, and Trust Deposits are paid into Trust.

Let me know if you’d like me to clarify further!

cheers

Sam