Q: Why does the Payments & Adjustments by Matter report show unapplied payments when there are none on the Matter Ledger?

A: On the Payments & Adjustments by Matter report, the "unapplied payments" total includes all payments that were entered using Automatic Allocation.  They may or may not have been applied subsequently to pay a balance due.

On the Matter Ledger, the "unapplied payments" total only includes amounts that have not yet been allocated to fees and expenses.

The Payments & Adjustments by Matter report provides a record of how you entered the payments and adjustments.  That is its sole purpose.  If you applied a payment manually, the allocation to fees and expenses is shown.  However, if you used Automatic Allocation, the report shows the amount you entered and it is added to the "unapplied payments" total.  It doesn't mean that the payments haven't been used yet.  This report cannot tell you that.

A report in RTG Reports, Payment Summary by Matter, shows the allocation of the payments.  You can see the total amount that has been applied to fees, expenses, late charges, and taxes.  However, it does not show the individual transactions.

Note:
In general, RTG Bills can't say how a specific payment was used.  If you receive two payments of $100 and $200, and you are using Automatic Allocation, RTG Bills records a total of $300 in unapplied payments.  If the balance due is $300, it allocates the $300 to fees, expenses, late charges, and taxes.  You can't say that the two individual payments were allocated a certain way.  Of course, the more common situation is that the client owes $300 and pays $300, so it is clear that the "payment received" and the "payment used" go together.