Help Centre

Overview

Our new Disbursements feature helps you pass on the actual cost of AML checks to your clients. It tracks AML unit usage and surfaces a disbursement value directly inside the First AML platform and via our public API.

How Disbursements work in First AML

Checks that are run within First AML typically use “units”. The number of units used will vary based on the type of check performed.

If the Disbursements feature is enabled, within the Case Details tab for each case, you will see:

• The total number of units a case has used to date.
• The “Disbursement amount” associated with these units, calculated based on your Disbursement settings.
• The time and date when disbursement information was last updated (typically updated every hour).

Prerequisites

To set up disbursements, you will need:

• To be a First AML Compliance Admin
• To understand your First AML contract and pricing.

Understanding contracts

Before starting, you should have an understanding of your First AML Contract and what your actual costs are, so that you know how to accurately configure your disbursements.

Depending on your contract, some of the following may apply to you:
(Please note the following prices are examples and don’t reflect real world pricing).

How to set up Disbursements in First AML

Configuration

When enabling Disbursements, you will see two main options for how to disburse units:

1. Disburse actual costs

This is the default option appropriate for nearly all scenarios. How this option calculates disbursements:

2. Disburse a set rate

This option may be appropriate, depending on the legislation in your jurisdiction and industry.

Here, you can define a set rate which will be applied to all units.

How this option calculates disbursements:

How Disbursements are presented

In Platform

If Disbursements are enabled, once a case has used units, the disbursement details will be presented within the Case details tab, and will also be included in the Print Case PDF.

Public API

Disbursements are also available via our Public API, returned as part of theCaseInformationobject.

Example Query

query caseDetails($caseId: String!) {
  caseDetails(caseId: $caseId) {
    ... on CaseInformation {
      caseId
      caseStatus
      name
      disbursement {
        amount
        calculatedAt
        totalUnits
      }
      organization {
        organizationId
        name
        offices {
          key
          name
        }
      }
    }
    ... on ValidationErrors {
      errors {
        message
        fieldPath
        __typename
      }
    }
  }
}

Example Response

{
  "data": {
    "caseDetails": {
      "caseId": "13924",
      "caseStatus": "COMPLETED",
      "disbursement": {
        "amount": 24.000000,
        "calculatedAt": "2026-06-29T02:23:02.684Z",
        "totalUnits": 2.000000
      },
      "organization": {
        "organizationId": "82d1db19cd334af1aa2dda827589d927",
        "name": "Organisation Name",
        "offices": [
          {
            "key": "0a9658595d4143bea761851fde2e2b10",
            "name": "Office Name"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

{
"eventType": "CaseDisbursementUpdated",
"caseId": 12345,
"officeKey": "abc456789-3476-4ce6-8491-bdd1272cf01"
}

In this scenario, you may decide to:

1. Ignore your implementation fee.
2. Divide your included units by your platform fee to identify an approximate per unit cost of $100 per unit for the first 5,000 units.
3. Identify your overage unit rate of $90 per unit.
4. Choose to select the “Disburse actual costs” option, and apply an “included unit” disbursement rate of $90 per unit to disburse costs consistently across all your units.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who can view disbursement values on a day-to-day basis?

• Disbursement information is visible to anyone who can view the case.

Q: When do automated billing webhooks trigger?

• Webhooks only fire for completed cases. This ensures that your external practice management systems do not receive "noise" or fluctuating figures from intermediate recalculations while a case is still actively open.

Q: What happens if a completed case's cost tier changes later in the month?

• If a tiered billing adjustment shifts a completed case's profile later in the month (e.g., a case is marked non-billable, changing your volume scale), the system automatically recalculates the value. A new webhook event will fire to update your records with the corrected final amount.