Questions firms ask first

No. Shtim does not move, transfer, authorize, or control client funds, does not initiate wires or ACH transactions, does not issue or sign checks, and does not make deposits or withdrawals. Your firm retains exclusive control of the bank account and sole responsibility for every decision concerning client funds.

Access sufficient to view balances, posted transactions, transaction details, and related records. Shtim should not be granted authority to initiate transactions, transfer funds, or change account permissions. The portal stores the bank name and the last four digits of the account; viewing access is arranged with your firm and its bank outside the portal.

Each separately posted line in the bank’s online activity counts as one transaction, regardless of amount, type, or description. If one underlying event produces two separately posted lines, that is two transactions. Pending items are not counted until they post or clear, and are picked up in the following period.

No. Shtim does not perform historical reconstruction or cleanup. The service begins from a reconciled opening position that your firm supplies — a list of open matters and the amount held for each. If the opening information does not reconcile, the account stays in Setup Pending until your firm supplies corrected information, and the account is maintained prospectively from there.

It goes to your firm’s unassigned queue with the date, description, amount, and any check or reference number. Your firm selects a matter, enters who the funds were paid to, and chooses a payee type. That submission is held for Shtim review and does not change the official reconciliation until it is approved. Until the information is supplied, the reconciliation may be designated pending firm information.

Your firm does, and should. Shtim’s reconciliation records are intended to assist your firm in maintaining its financial records. Your firm remains responsible for appropriate attorney review and supervision of its trust accounts, and should promptly review results and report any suspected error or discrepancy.

No services are performed on Shabbat or on Jewish holidays observed by Shtim. If a scheduled Sunday falls on an observed holiday, no reconciliation begins that Sunday and it resumes on the next eligible Sunday, covering the whole accumulated period. Your included allowance aggregates for each skipped period — a 20-transaction tier receives up to 40 included transactions after one skipped Sunday. Subscription fees continue during those weeks.

Overage is $150 for each additional block of up to 10 transactions above the selected weekly capacity, calculated from the finalized transaction count for the period. Where holiday carryover applies, the included allowance is aggregated first, and overage is calculated only against that aggregated allowance.

Yes, prospectively. A tier change applies going forward and does not remove overage already incurred. Shtim may require custom pricing for accounts whose volume, complexity, or service requirements materially exceed the standard tiers.

No. Shtim provides nonlegal bookkeeping and reconciliation services. Shtim does not provide legal advice, legal representation, audit, assurance, professional-responsibility advice, or fraud detection, and does not represent that use of the service will make a firm compliant with any particular requirement. Determining and satisfying applicable legal, ethical, regulatory, and court-rule obligations remains the firm’s responsibility.

Access is role-based. A firm administrator manages firm users, payment and subscription, onboarding, and can see all firm data and submit assignments. Firm staff can view records and submit matter and payee information. A read-only role can view data without submitting. Your firm is responsible for maintaining the security of its portal users and for promptly disabling access for anyone who should no longer have it.

Yes. Matter lists, matter ledgers, transactions, reconciliation history, balances, and invoices can be exported from the portal. On termination, Shtim provides then-current reconciliation records in its ordinary format, subject to payment of amounts properly due. Either party may terminate on written notice under the engagement agreement.

As many as you need. Pricing, capacity, and reconciliation are handled separately for each enrolled trust account, so each account carries its own tier, its own setup fee, and its own reconciliation record.

Shtim’s reconciliation, counting, billing, and approval logic is deterministic rather than generated. Shtim may use third-party technology providers, which may include artificial-intelligence services, in providing, maintaining, securing, or administering the service, as described in the engagement agreement. Where a firm’s own professional rules require client consent, anonymization, or other safeguards before such services are used with client information, satisfying those obligations remains the firm’s responsibility.