The short answer
Balanced prepares a California fiduciary accounting for you from your PDF statements and emails you an Excel workbook; Summafolio is software you use to build, reconcile and export the accounting yourself, in California or 17 other state formats. Balanced charges $699 per accounting, paid when you order, and says most workbooks arrive in under four hours. Summafolio charges $349 (Standard) or $699 (Complex) per accounting, paid when you export the finished, reconciled accounting.
If your matter is in California, you want a draft workbook back quickly without doing the categorizing yourself, and you're comfortable reviewing a prepared draft, Balanced is built for exactly that. If your matter is outside California, or it's a smaller accounting where the $349 tier fits, or you want to work through each transaction yourself and see the reconciliation before you pay, Summafolio is the better fit.
Why we compared these two
People looking for California trust, probate or conservatorship accounting software often find both products. They overlap more than most tools in this space: both start from bank and brokerage statements, both sell one accounting at a time instead of a subscription, and both produce schedules organized the way California's Probate Code arranges them. They differ in who does the work, where the data goes, how many states are covered and when you pay.
Everything below about Balanced comes from its own homepage and FAQ, its Terms of Service for One-Time Accountings (marked "Last Updated: October 10, 2026") and its article on the cost of a California court accounting, all read on October 30, 2026. Prices and terms change, so check Balanced's own pages before you decide. Where Balanced doesn't publish something, we say we couldn't verify it rather than guess.
At a glance
| Balanced | Summafolio | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A service that generates a California fiduciary accounting workbook from your PDF statements | Fiduciary accounting software you use to prepare one matter's accounting |
| Price | $699 per accounting | $349 per accounting (Standard) or $699 (Complex) |
| When you pay | In full when you place the order | When you export the final, reconciled accounting |
| Subscription or account | None; "no account to create, and no software to install" | No subscription; you create a matter online |
| Who categorizes the transactions | Balanced generates the workbook; you review the draft | You review and confirm suggested categories yourself |
| Turnaround | "Most delivered in under 4 hours," not guaranteed | As fast as you work through the matter |
| Re-runs and changes | One free re-run per accounting, then $350 per re-run | You fix anything that doesn't tie before you export, and you pay once you export |
| Jurisdictions | California only | 18 state formats (4 in Beta) plus a uniform format for other states |
| Matter types | Trust, probate estate, conservatorship and guardianship | Trust, decedent's estate, adult conservatorship, power of attorney; no minor guardianships |
| Statement input | PDF statements, read in your browser | PDF, CSV, OFX and QFX statements |
| Output | One editable Excel workbook, by email | Court-style PDF, Excel with live formulas, CSV, beneficiary letters and a review packet |
| Refunds | "All sales are final" per its terms | See our terms |
How Balanced works
Balanced's order page has four steps: add your PDF bank and brokerage statements, add optional other documents, enter the matter details and an email address, then review and pay. Balanced asks you to include the statements for the month before the period starts, and says scanned statements and incomplete sets work too, with unclear figures flagged and missing statements listed. For a subsequent accounting, you add the PDF or Excel file of the prior accounting so asset values carry forward.
The "other documents" step is where you give instructions. Balanced suggests settlement statements for property sales, prior accountings, ledgers, and a PDF memo covering things such as payees, grouping preferences, principal and income questions, business income, or a request to carry securities at cost basis. It offers a one-page memo template. In its words, it "converts and organizes your statement data exactly as the statements show it," and "everything beyond that comes from your own instructions."
The result arrives by email as one Excel workbook organized under Probate Code §§1061 through 1063. Balanced lists a Summary & Balance sheet, Schedules A through I, a Changes in Form of Assets sheet, Schedule M for transfers between accounts, a Market Value sheet, Schedule Q for proposed distributions and a per-account, per-year Tax summary, with every schedule linked to the summary. Conservatorship and guardianship accountings follow the Judicial Council's GC-400(SUM) summary of account and its subject-matter categories.
On the accounting itself, Balanced says it tracks securities at carry value under §1061(a)(1), lot by lot on a first-in, first-out basis, and calculates gains and losses from carry value rather than the brokerage's cost basis. It lists support for many accounts at many institutions, mid-month periods, principal and income allocation under California's Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act with the code section on each line, a profit-and-loss schedule for a rental or business, real property sales from the settlement statement, assets that appear on no statement, creditor claims, and the statutory fee calculation. Each data row cites the statement and page it came from.
Balanced is careful to call every workbook "a preliminary draft for your review," and recommends review by a licensed attorney or accounting firm before it's used. Its terms say the same, and add that the service is "computer software," not a law firm.
How Summafolio works
Summafolio starts from the same place: the statements. You set up the matter (a trust, a decedent's estate, an adult conservatorship or a power of attorney), choose the state format and the accounting period, and enter the assets on hand at the start with their carry values. Then you upload the bank and brokerage statements for each account as PDF, CSV, OFX or QFX files.
Summafolio reads the transactions and suggests a category for each one, along with a principal or income allocation that shows the rule it relied on. You confirm or change each suggestion. That's the main practical difference from Balanced: instead of sending a memo and waiting for a draft, you make the calls yourself, transaction by transaction, with the statement next to you.
Reconciliation runs both ways. Each account's activity has to tie to its statement balances, and the accounting as a whole has to tie from the opening carry value to the closing one. Summafolio lists anything that doesn't tie, so you fix it before you export rather than find it during review.
When the matter reconciles, you export. You get a court-style PDF in the state format you chose, an Excel workbook with live formulas, CSV files, beneficiary letters and a review packet for your attorney or CPA. Setting up a matter, uploading and reconciling cost nothing; you pay when you export. Standard ($349) covers up to 12 months, 5 accounts and 750 transactions. Complex ($699) covers up to 36 months, 15 accounts and 3,000 transactions, plus rental property and businesses. Firms can ask about volume pricing.
Where they differ in practice
Who does the categorizing. Balanced does the first pass for you and hands back a finished draft. With Summafolio, you do that pass yourself, with suggestions. If your time is the constraint and you're comfortable reviewing someone else's draft, Balanced saves hours. If you'd rather make each judgment as you go, or the person signing the accounting wants to understand every line, Summafolio's approach suits that better.
Speed. Balanced says most workbooks arrive in under four hours, though its terms say it doesn't guarantee any processing or delivery time and that meeting deadlines is your responsibility. A Summafolio accounting takes as long as you take to review the transactions, which for a large matter can be a day or more of work.
Price. For an accounting that fits our Standard tier, Summafolio costs $349 against Balanced's $699. For a larger accounting on our Complex tier, both cost $699, so we aren't cheaper there. Balanced includes one free re-run, and later re-runs are $350 each.
When you pay, and refunds. Balanced takes payment in full when you order, and its terms (§6.3) say: "All sales are final. We do not offer refunds for one-time accountings," except where Balanced itself decides it can't deliver a workbook (§5.5). Summafolio lets you set up and reconcile a matter before paying anything, so you see whether it ties out before you buy the export.
Where your statements go. This is a real strength for Balanced. Its FAQ says your PDF files are processed in your own browser and "never uploaded, shared, or transmitted." Its terms (§8.1–8.2) explain that after payment, the text and figures extracted from the PDFs are sent to Balanced, after a local step that redacts Social Security numbers. Summafolio uploads your statements to its servers, encrypted per matter. If keeping the original documents on your own computer matters most to you, Balanced has the stronger story.
What happens to the data afterward. Balanced's terms say it doesn't sell your data or use it to train models (§8.4). They also say your submissions and output "are retained indefinitely," including in a "permanent regression test collection" (§8.5), under a perpetual license to Balanced (§8.6), and that output may be generated with "artificial intelligence tools operated on our infrastructure" (§2.3). Summafolio keeps a hash-chained audit log for each matter and purges matter data on a retention schedule, described on our security and data handling page. Read both documents and choose what fits your duties to the people in the matter.
Jurisdictions. Balanced covers California only, and says it "does one thing." Summafolio covers 18 state formats, including California's §1061 summary, New York's JA-4 and JA-7 structure, Pennsylvania's Model Accounts and Florida's §736.08135 contents, plus a uniform format for other states. Four of our formats (Nevada, Indiana, Oregon and Tennessee) are in Beta and cover trusts and decedents' estates only. You can render the same ledger in another format at no extra cost.
Output. Balanced delivers one editable Excel workbook. Summafolio delivers a court-style PDF along with Excel, CSV, beneficiary letters and a review packet. If you plan to finish the accounting in Excel anyway, Balanced's workbook may be all you need.
When to choose Balanced
- Your matter is a California trust, probate estate, conservatorship or guardianship.
- You want a prepared draft back the same day without categorizing transactions yourself.
- You'd prefer not to create an account, and you want the original PDFs to stay on your computer.
- Your matter is a guardianship of a minor, or has a minor beneficiary. Summafolio doesn't support those.
- You want Schedule Q proposed distributions, a per-year tax summary or the statutory fee calculation in the workbook. Balanced lists all three.
- You value a product built by a California trusts and estates attorney, as Balanced says it is.
When to choose Summafolio
- Your matter is outside California, or you need the same ledger in more than one state's format.
- Your accounting fits the Standard tier, and $349 suits you better than $699.
- You want to make each categorization and allocation decision yourself and see the reconciliation before you pay.
- You want a court-style PDF and a review packet, not only a spreadsheet.
- You'd rather your matter data be deleted on a retention schedule than kept indefinitely.
What Summafolio doesn't do
To keep this fair, here is what Balanced offers that we don't. Summafolio doesn't prepare the accounting for you; you review and confirm each transaction. It doesn't process PDFs only in your browser; statements are uploaded and encrypted. It doesn't support guardianships of minors or matters with a minor beneficiary. It doesn't file anything with a court, fill in official court forms, prepare tax returns or connect to other software. Summafolio is a product of MRSLM Group LLC, in business since 2022. It's software, not legal advice, and not a law or accounting firm.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Balanced cost?
$699 per accounting, paid when you order, per its homepage FAQ. Each accounting includes one free re-run; later re-runs are $350 each. There's no subscription.
How much does Summafolio cost?
$349 per accounting for Standard (up to 12 months, 5 accounts and 750 transactions) or $699 for Complex (up to 36 months, 15 accounts and 3,000 transactions, including rental property and businesses). You pay when you export the final accounting.
Does Balanced work outside California?
Not according to its site, which describes it as California fiduciary accounting software that "does one thing." Summafolio supports 18 state formats and a uniform format for other states.
Does Balanced offer refunds?
Its one-time accounting terms say all sales are final and that it doesn't offer refunds, with one exception: where Balanced decides it can't deliver a workbook, it may choose to prepare it again, ask you to resubmit or issue a refund (§§5.5 and 6.3).
Are my statements uploaded?
With Balanced, the PDFs stay on your computer and the extracted text and figures are sent after payment, per its terms. With Summafolio, the statement files are uploaded and encrypted per matter.
Can I use both?
Yes. Some people could use Balanced for a California matter and Summafolio for matters in other states. The two products aren't connected.
Will a court accept either accounting?
We can't promise that for either product. Each follows the statute or form it cites, but courts have their own requirements. Many fiduciaries have counsel review the accounting before it's filed. This page is general information, not legal advice.
How Summafolio handles it
Summafolio keeps one reconciled ledger per matter and renders it in the format you choose. See a sample accounting, read how it works, see pricing or look at the formats by state, including California.