How to mark a disbursement as unrecoverable

Overview

Use the Unrecoverable action when a disbursement will not be recovered from the client and needs to be written off.

This flow is designed as a full remaining-balance write-off. You cannot manually key in a partial unrecoverable value in the slide-out panel.

Before You Start

Confirm the disbursement is eligible:

• It is not in Draft or Awaiting Approval status.
• It has not already been billed.
• It has a remaining amount due greater than zero.

Mark a Disbursement as Unrecoverable

1. Open Practice Manager.
2. Open the relevant Matter.
3. Go to the Disbursements tab.
4. Find the disbursement you want to write off.
5. Open the disbursement action menu and select Unrecoverable.
6. Review the slide-out panel details.
7. Confirm the update to apply the unrecoverable write-off.

What to Expect in the Slide-Out Panel

• The Amount field is read-only.
• The value is automatically based on the current amount due.
• The update is validated as a full write-off of the remaining due amount.

Paid Disbursements and Greyed-Out Amount

If the disbursement is already paid, its remaining amount due is zero.

In that state:

• The unrecoverable amount appears disabled.
• You cannot edit the amount.
• No write-off amount remains to be applied.

Validation and Guardrails

The system prevents invalid unrecoverable updates, including:

• Attempting to write off billed disbursements.
• Entering an unrecoverable amount that does not match the remaining amount due.
• Updating disbursements in ineligible statuses.

Related Reference

See Disbursements reference for feature behavior and context.