Client money, on a ledger that is not yours
Advances, disbursements and deposits on an accounting record kept separate from the firm's own revenue, reconciled against the bank statement, with a per-client statement you can print and hand over. Plus team workload, role-based permissions and the figures you need to decide.
Of everything a firm runs, there is one thing the partner answers for.
Not the billing, not the CRM, not how many matters are open. It is the money sitting in the firm's account that is not the firm's: the advance that came in on Tuesday, the thousand euros for a court fee not yet paid, the deposit that has to go back if the deal does not complete. That money passes through the firm's account and out of it, and one named person answers for its traceability.
Most legal software treats it as one more billing entry. The receipt lands, the matter is tagged, and the separation between the client's money and the firm's exists only in the head of whoever entered it. That works right up until somebody asks, and it stops working on exactly the day somebody asks.
Mandato keeps it on its own ledger. Every movement carries its client, its matter, its date, its nature and its author; a client's balance cannot go into the red because the system refuses to record an outflow larger than what is held; and every entry lands in the immutable audit log. It is not a report produced at the end. It is how the record is built.
An advance and a disbursement are not the same thing, and the ledger knows it
Spanish practice draws a careful line between a provisión de fondos — an advance against the firm's own fees — and a suplido, which is money paid out on the client's behalf: a court fee, the registry, the notary, the procurador. Mandato classifies every movement by its nature — advance, disbursement, deposit, retainer, refund, fees — as well as by its direction, so a client's balance can be read knowing which part belongs to whom.
That classification is a custody note the firm records, and it is worth saying plainly what it is not: Mandato derives no tax consequence from it. That a fee advance attracts VAT and a disbursement does not is a judgement for the firm and its accountants, and it should stay that way. What the tool contributes is that the distinction is captured when the entry is made, rather than reconstructed in June.
Every movement hangs off a client and, where relevant, a matter. That is the detail that turns "we hold €34,000 of client money" into whose, what for, and since when.
Three-way reconciliation, with the difference in plain sight
A client-money ledger nobody checks against the bank is a spreadsheet with better typography. Mandato reconciles at a cut-off date: it takes the ledger balance, removes the movements that have not yet cleared, works out what the statement ought to show, and compares that with what it actually shows.
The difference is presented as a number. If it is zero — within the half-cent tolerance that exists so floating-point noise is not mistaken for a discrepancy — the reconciliation balances. If it is not, it is the exact amount left to explain, which is the only useful way to show a discrepancy.
The arithmetic lives in a pure module with its own unit tests, precisely so that what is tested is the calculation that runs and not a parallel version written for the test.
The statement your client may ask for tomorrow
A client is entitled to know what they handed over, where it went and what is left. Mandato produces that statement per client from the same ledger: every movement with its date, its description, its nature and the resulting balance, ready to print or attach.
It is not a spectacular feature. It is the one that makes the awkward conversation last two minutes instead of an afternoon reconstructing transfers, and the one a bar association or an institutional client expects to find without having to ask twice.
Who is carrying what, and who can see what
Running a firm of twelve to twenty people is mostly distributing work and answering for access. Mandato shows load per person — open matters, live tasks, upcoming due dates — so the conversation about who is overloaded happens with figures rather than impressions.
Permissions are by role: management, lawyer, support staff and client, each with what belongs to them and nothing more. A matter can also be marked confidential, and then only the lawyer carrying it, management and anyone given express access can see it — a restriction applied in the database, not a filter in the interface.
And everything sensitive is logged: who opened which matter, when, and what they did. That log cannot be edited or deleted after the fact, which is the only property that makes an access log worth having.
Mandato keeps the client-money ledger, reconciles it against the statement and issues the per-client statement; it is not an accounting package and does not pretend to be one. The firm's general accounting stays wherever it already is — there is a Holded export on the Professional plan — and the advance/disbursement classification is a custody note, not a tax position: your accountants decide the VAT treatment. Nor do we hold ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification today, and there is no public API and no SSO/SAML. They are on the security page, said just as plainly.
Frequently asked questions
Does this replace my accounting?
No, and it should not. It handles client money — the thing general accounting usually handles worst, because it is not revenue — and keeps it reconciled and traceable. The firm's accounting stays where it is; the Professional plan has a Holded export so nothing is typed twice.
Can a user overdraw a client's account?
No. When an outflow is recorded, the system checks the client has sufficient balance and rejects it if not. That is a rule of the record itself, not a warning that can be dismissed, and every entry lands in the audit log with its author and date.
What reporting does a director get?
Client-money balances by client and by matter, reconciliation at a cut-off date, workload per person, and firm analytics. Basic reporting is on every plan; advanced reporting and analytics are on the Despacho plan.
What does it cost for a firm of fifteen?
Pricing is per user per month, with no lock-in. Fifteen people on Professional is €49 per user per month, or €41 billed annually — two months free, €490 per user per year — with no client limit. If the firm needs the full compliance file, the Despacho plan is €89.
How does a working firm migrate?
We import clients, matters and documents as part of onboarding, at no extra cost. Tell us what you use today and we will tell you exactly what comes across and what does not, before you move anything.
Look at your firm's client-money balance.
Fourteen days with your own data, no card. If what you need is to show a reconciliation that balances, you will see it on the first afternoon.
