Banking

The Banking page is where your firm’s money infrastructure lives: the bank accounts Outlaw tracks, the payment processor that lets clients pay you.

Integrations

At the top of the page:

• Outlaw Payments: accept credit card and eCheck payments from your clients. Only the firm owner can sign up; the application is reviewed after you submit it, and the card shows “Your application is under review” until it’s approved (you can cancel a pending application). Once connected, you can open the payments portal or disconnect from here.

Your Outlaw Payments Application Status

When you submit your Outlaw Payments application, a message tells you the result right away. After that, the Home dashboard shows an Outlaw Payments Application card to Owners, Administrators, Bookkeepers, and Office Managers whenever there is something to know. The card is not shown when your firm has no application, or once your application is approved and payments are running normally.

The card shows one of these statuses:

• Not yet submitted for review. Your application was created but has not gone to underwriting yet.
• Under review. Underwriting is reviewing your application. Most decisions arrive within one business day, and you don’t need to do anything.
• Under review, with a note to watch for a request for documents. An underwriter is reviewing your application and may ask for supporting documents. The request goes to the email address on your application. Reply quickly: if you don’t reply, the application can be closed.
• Your application is unfinished. The application was saved but never completed, so it has not gone to underwriting. Finish it to start taking payments.
• Your application was declined. The card gives the reason when one is available: the application was rejected during underwriting, it could not be verified, a request for more information went unanswered, or it was withdrawn. Contact support. We will review the reason with the card processor and tell you whether anything can be corrected.
• Approved, with a note that documents may still be requested. You can take payments now, but underwriting may still ask for supporting documents. Watch the email address on your application so your account is not restricted later.
• Payouts are paused. You can still take payments, but the funds are being held and are not deposited to your bank account. Contact support.
• Card payments are not available. Outlaw could not confirm that your payment account can take card payments, so you can’t take them right now. Contact support and we will help you get it working.
• Your application could not be processed. Something went wrong while setting up your account with the card processor. Contact support.

For Payouts are paused and Card payments are not available, the card’s title is Outlaw Payments instead of Outlaw Payments Application.

If Outlaw can’t reach the payment processor to check your status, the card says Status unavailable, which is usually temporary. If Outlaw has a status saved from an earlier check, the card shows that status with the date it was last checked.

Your Accounts

The table lists your bank accounts. There are three types, and the distinction is the heart of legal accounting:

• Operating: your firm’s money, the fees you have earned. You can have one operating account.
• Trust (IOLTA): your clients’ money, funds you hold but have not yet earned. Only one trust account is supported; its balance shown here is the total of every client’s and case’s trust funds. See Transactions for how trust money moves.
• Escrow: funds held in escrow, such as proceeds from a property sale. An escrow account must be tied to a specific case, and you can have as many as you need.

Each account has a name and free-form notes. When Outlaw Payments is connected, the table also shows each account’s last four digits and its status at the processor.

Re-Linking a Bank Account

If a bank account changes (fraud, a bank switch, an account closure), the firm owner can open the operating or trust account and choose Re-Link Bank Account. The current account is deactivated and a new one is linked through Plaid, the secure bank-connection service. This can’t be undone, so the app confirms before proceeding.