Settlement adjustment sheets and AI data leakage: what the balance to settle gives away in ChatGPT or Claude.

The settlement adjustments sheet is the spreadsheet every conveyancer builds in the final fortnight: price, deposit, council rates, water, strata levies, the vendor’s payout and the balance to settle. Because it is arithmetic, it is the document staff most readily paste into ChatGPT or Claude to check the day counts. The sheet also holds the clients’ names, the address, every dollar that moves, the vendor’s bank details and a note in a cell about a request to redirect the proceeds. This page marks each cell that bears on NSW conveyancing, AML/CTF and privacy obligations, and shows the same sheet checked on Ermos.

The settlement adjustments spreadsheet

Built in the week before settlement, from the contract, the rates, water and strata notices and the vendor’s payout figure, and used to tell the clients how much to pay and to settle on the day.

fx=C4+C5+SUM(D6:D10)
ABCDE
1ItemBasisAmount ($)Vendor credit / (purchaser credit)Note
2PurchasersMatter 26-0418
3PropertySettle Fri 20 Nov 2026, 2.00pm, PEXA
4Purchase priceContract exchanged 9 OctDeposit 10% held by agent as stakeholder
5Less depositPaid 9 Oct
6Council ratesAnnual 1,642.00; paid to 30 Nov; 10 days1,642.0010/365 of annual
7Water service chargeQuarter 213.62; paid to 31 Dec; 41/92 days213.62Usage by special read, vendor pays
8Strata admin levyQuarter 1,184.00; paid to 31 Dec; 41/92 days1,184.00
9Strata sinking fundQuarter 412.00; paid to 31 Dec; 41/92 days412.00
10Special levy (roof membrane)Raised 14 Sep, due 15 Dec, unpaid2,300.00Vendor allows, special condition 4
11Balance payable at settlementPrice less deposit, plus adjustments975,051.45
12Payable to vendor’s mortgagee412,860.15Payout figure valid to 27 Nov
13Payable to vendor562,191.30
AdjustmentsPayoutNoticesFunds

An invented settlement sheet. The BSB and account numbers are placeholders, and the amounts are invented. Hover or tap any highlighted cell for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the practice

  1. 1
    The purchasers

    Two named buyers in the first cell of the sheet. Personal information, and the key to every figure below. Privacy Act guide.

  2. 2
    The property and the settlement time

    An address and a date and time at which money moves through PEXA. Scamwatch describes payment redirection as impersonating a business to ask that an upcoming payment go to another account, and the date and amount are what make one convincing.

  3. 3
    The price and the deposit

    What the property costs and how much has been paid. Financial information about the buyers and the vendor, and the figure on which every percentage in the sheet rests.

  4. 4
    The adjustment figures

    Rates, water and strata levies adjusted to the settlement date. Small numbers that identify nothing alone, though beside the address they are the vendor’s and the buyers’ bills. A person has to check every day count and every rate before the sheet is used.

  5. 5
    The special levy credit

    A levy the vendor has agreed to allow and the condition that records it. The outcome of a negotiation, and a number the strata manager and the owners corporation would recognise.

  6. 6
    The vendor’s mortgagee and the payout

    The lender, the last digits of the loan account and the amount needed to discharge it. Shows how much equity the vendor holds in the property, which is the vendor’s own financial information. Privacy Act guide.

  7. 7
    The balance and the buyers’ funding

    The balance at settlement, the lender’s advance and the buyers’ own contribution. Tells a reader what the buyers must have in the trust account and by when. NSW Government guidance says client funds must be held in a trust account at an approved authorised deposit-taking institution, and that funds held for a person cannot be used for any other purpose.

  8. 8
    A note in a cell about redirecting the proceeds

    A comment recording that the vendor asked for the money to go to his daughter’s account, and that the practice declined. Spreadsheets often carry notes like this in cells and cell comments, and the comment names a third party. It is also the very request a payment redirection fraud would make. Privacy Act guide.

  9. 9
    The vendor’s bank account

    The account the proceeds will be paid to. The destination a fraud wants to change, held with the vendor’s name beside it. Scamwatch advises checking changed payment details using contact details already held, rather than those in the email.

What happens in Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)

  • The whole document is transmitted to the provider’s servers. On personal plans the user cannot choose where it is stored or processed, and for the major providers that has generally meant outside Australia, under that country’s legal process. Some business plans offer storage in Australia, but the provider still receives the content.
  • On consumer tiers, prompts can be retained and used to train future models.
  • The provider’s staff and systems can reach the content under the provider’s own policies.
  • Once sent, the practice no longer controls it. Retention and deletion happen on the provider’s terms.

The same document on Ermos

Ermos Dominion

The document is drafted on a unit in your office, from your own templates and the matter file. Every marked item stays on the unit, which keeps working with the internet switched off. Nothing in it is transmitted to an AI provider, so there is no disclosure to analyse: the confidentiality work is the same as for your file server.

Ermos Edge

Your documents, the index and your access boundaries stay on your own instance in an Australian data centre. When a staff member asks for this draft, only their question and the excerpts they are permitted to see go to a named Australian provider, who is contractually barred from keeping the content or training any model on it. Nothing is processed outside Australia.

Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)Ermos EdgeErmos Dominion
Where the document is processedProvider servers, generally offshore on personal plansYour instance in an Australian data centre; answers generated in AustraliaThe unit in your office
Who can read itProvider staff and systems, under policyYour staff, within the boundaries you set. The named Australian provider processes only permitted excerpts, under contract, and keeps nothingYour staff only
Is it keptOn the provider’s termsKept on your instance; the provider is barred from retaining itStays on the unit
Can it train a modelOn consumer tiers, yesNo, by contractOnly your own unit learns from it, on your hardware

Part of AI data leakage in conveyancing practices.

Common questions

Do ChatGPT and Claude use the information in a settlement adjustments spreadsheet?
Yes, whatever is pasted from the sheet is sent to the AI company's servers and processed there to produce a reply. As at October 2026, whether a conversation on a personal plan (ChatGPT Free, Plus or Pro; Claude Free, Pro or Max) can be used to train the models depends on a setting each user controls. Business plans (ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, Claude Team and Enterprise) and the developer APIs sit under commercial terms, and OpenAI and Anthropic each say they do not train on that content by default (OpenAI, Anthropic). On either product, the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons can send a whole conversation back for training. This sheet holds the purchase price, the vendor's payout and proceeds account, and a cell note about redirecting the proceeds.
Can we use ChatGPT or Claude for a settlement adjustments spreadsheet if we remove the names?
No, because the sheet still describes one sale once the names go. Removing names rarely makes a document anonymous. Information stays personal information while the person is reasonably identifiable, and the OAIC warns that information can be at risk of re-identification even when it has been de-identified or anonymised. The address, the settlement time on 20 November, the price of $1,085,000 and the payout figure fit a single transaction, and the cell note refers to the vendor's daughter. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) recommends in its guidance on commercially available AI products that organisations do not enter personal information, and particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools, because of the significant and complex privacy risks.
Can ChatGPT or Claude be trusted with the figures in a settlement adjustments spreadsheet?
Not without a person checking, because language models can produce fluent answers with wrong figures, wrong dates or formulas that look right but are not. A qualified person should check every item against the file. Here the day counts, the special levy credit, the balance of 975,051.45 and the payout figure would do most harm if wrong, because a mis-copied row changes what the clients pay.
How can a conveyancing practice use AI for a settlement adjustments spreadsheet without sending it to ChatGPT or Claude?
Ermos is built so the document stays under your control. On the Dominion AI unit it is drafted inside your office and none of it is sent to an AI provider. On Ermos Edge your documents and index stay on your own instance in an Australian data centre, and only the question and the excerpts the user is permitted to see go to a named Australian provider that is contractually barred from keeping them or training any model on them. The sheet is prepared from the contract, the rates, water and strata notices and the practice's own settlement template. The licensed conveyancer checks every day count and total before the clients are told what to pay.
Can AI check settlement adjustments?
It can add up figures and count days quickly, but it can also miscount a period or misread a rate, so a person must still check every adjustment before anyone relies on the sheet. The sheet carries the buyers' names, the address and every dollar that moves, so where the check runs matters. On an Ermos unit the sheet stays in the office.
Why do the amount, date and account matter for fraud?
Scamwatch describes payment redirection scams as emails that impersonate a business or its employees to ask that an upcoming payment go to a different account. The amount, the date and the real account are what a convincing fake needs. Scamwatch advises checking changed payment details by phone, using contact details already held or independently sourced.
How long must the settlement sheet be kept?
NSW Government guidance says records for each transaction must be kept in a separate file and kept safely by the licensee for at least seven years, unless lawfully transferred to another licensee or a legal practitioner. AUSTRAC says records for AML/CTF purposes are usually kept for seven years. The sheet is part of that file.

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